Previously billionaire Rupert Murdoch paid Megyn Kelly, through advances on her book deal, $10 million for her political efforts in 2015 and 2016.  Rupert Murdoch owns Harper Collins book publishing.

Book publishing, as done by politicians in both parties, is the way money is laundered to candidates and various campaign finance rules are subverted.  Nikki Haley, Kristi Noem, Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo and Tim Scott have all released books in the past two months in advance of their 2024 presidential bids.

As noted recently by The Guardian, “Lachlan Murdoch, the heir apparent and eldest son, who co-chairs News Corp and runs the parent company of Fox News, has reportedly told DeSantis that the group would back him if he ran in the next election. “Lachlan has been keen on Ron for some time. He’s viewed within the organization as a sanitized version of Donald.”

Candidates are personally financed by the book publication laundry system through advances, typically several million, and then again indirectly by supporting organizations through mass purchasing.  It is not uncommon to find hundreds-of-thousands of books in various warehouses purchased by groups as indirect contributions to boost the candidate of their choice.   The purchases determine the “best seller” rankings.

It is unknown how much billionaire Rupert Murdoch has paid Ron DeSantis for the 2024 campaign but considering the stakes for this election cycle it’s likely in the $20 million range.

(Via Fox News) – Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida will chronicle his life in public service in a new book that will publish in late February in what will be seen by political pundits as another step by the conservative champion toward a possible 2024 presidential run.

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Obviously, the RNC Club realizes they have a problem.  They are majority funded by major billionaire donors who are opposed to the MAGA populist movement within the group.  People are awake to the dynamic.

RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel is also facing scrutiny for her inept party efforts in previous elections. Specifically scrutinized for not having any action plan to combat ballot assembly and collection and being hopelessly outmatched by the organized DNC.

In a transparent effort at damage control, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has enlisted Harmeet Dhillon and Henry Barbour to lead an internal club effort under the auspices of performing a midterm autopsy. [Politico Article]  However, the larger picture of intent gains clarity when looking at the participants.

In the first of a series of Tweets earlier today, Harmeet Dhillon noted she had moved on from failed legal efforts in Arizona, to focus on Georgia:

Let’s be very clear about something here.  Henry Barbour is not just some political consultant to partner with.  Henry Barbour is the nephew of the notoriously corrupt former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, aka ‘Boss Hog‘.  Henry is also the attack dog hired by Mitch McConnell to use PACs to attack and destroy the Tea Party movement.

Henry Barbour was the architect of Mississippi attacks against Chris McDaniel on behalf of Mitch’s friend in the senate, Thad Cochran. {Citation}  Henry Barbour worked with Democrats in Mississippi and Georgia to construct racist attack ads against conservative Republican candidates {Citation}.

The entire Barbour clan, including Henry and Uncle Haley, have sketchy connections to various DC lobbying groups representing very dubious clients, including Amgen to help China {citation}, Qualcom to help China via Huwai {Citation} and BGR Government Affairs, a front group to help the Chinese Communist Party {Citation}.  As a bagman for corrupt political endeavors, Henry Barbour goes where the money is and attacks on behalf of his paid interests.

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All 12 railroad unions vote individually to ratify their contracts, unless congress intervenes and imposes a contract which forces all to abide.  The railroad unions representing a majority of the railroad workers remain in dispute with the currently proposed contract with no resolution in sight and a potential labor union strike looming on December 9th.

If one union within the collective group strikes, all of the unions — which represent more than 115,000 rail workers — would almost certainly join in solidarity, triggering an industry-wide freight rail work stoppage.

With the unions at an impasse over sick pay, Joe Biden has asked congress to intervene and impose a contract based on the terms of an earlier agreement.

(White House) –  I am calling on Congress to pass legislation immediately to adopt the Tentative Agreement between railroad workers and operators – without any modifications or delay – to avert a potentially crippling national rail shutdown.
 
This agreement was approved by labor and management negotiators in September. On the day that it was announced, labor leaders, business leaders, and elected officials all hailed it as a fair resolution of the dispute between the hard-working men and women of the rail freight unions and the companies in that industry.
 
The deal provides a historic 24% pay raise for rail workers. It provides improved health care benefits. And it provides the ability of operating craft workers to take unscheduled leave for medical needs.  Since that time, the majority of the unions in the industry have voted to approve the deal.

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CTH has not visited the various Twitter stories recently, quite frankly because we are ambivalent to them.  It just seems illogical for Elon Musk to have purchased Twitter without any idea of what was happening inside Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop, the public-private partnership that structures the operations of the social media company known as Twitter.

That said, some interesting developments recently as media rail against the platform and organized ultra-leftist groups demand advertising boycotts.  Apparently, Apple and Android are threatening to remove the Twitter App and Mr. Musk is doubling down on exposing the matrix of how the U.S. government was working with Twitter toward controlling speech that was against their interests.

This tweet about releasing internal “files” on “speech suppression” follow on the heels of Mr. Musk noting that government involvement in the blocking of speech is very troubling.

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In a series of tweets today, Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie provides an excellent example of why and how government always grows.

The Overton Window is basically a catchphrase to explain a narrow spectrum of acceptable government policies at any given moment. As the nation evolves the window of what would be considered currently “acceptable’ moves.  In the example of the government continue to grow, the Overton Window constantly shifts toward leftist totalitarian objectives, bigger government.

The movement happens slowly – over time – but is never reversed.  Regardless of who controls power, the big government Overton Window always goes one way, one nudge at a time in one direction, toward bigger government.  People often ask, why does this continue to happen even after Republicans are elected?   Today, Thomas Massie accidentally gives us a perfect example of how and why.

When Democrats are in power, they do everything to maximize their power and minimize the influence of their Republican opposition.  However, when Republicans are in power, they do everything to minimize their power and maximize the power of their Democrat opposition, now in the minority.  Democrats in control, they maximize the Overton Window shift.  When Republicans are in power, they do nothing to pull it back – they actually do everything possible to maintain the shift.  LOOK:

Saul Alinsky wrote the rulebook for radical leftists saying, “force the opposition to play by their own rules.”  A seemingly abhorrent concept when the powered wig crowd of honorable constitutional republicans take control.

Sitting atop the high horse Massie explains how it is a matter of principle that Republicans should not use power.

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In the 2024 GOPe roadmap for 2024, analytically and strategically South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem would be anticipated as the second-to-last entrant, followed by a carefully introduced Governor Ron DeSantis.

The most likely establishment framework would be for the prior entrants, Nikki Haley, Liz Cheney, Tim Scott and the two Mikes  Pence/Pompeo to do the maximum negative attack damage against President Trump prior to the dynamic duo arrival.  Flow through the ’24 primaries and Trump, DeSantis and Noem would be the last three standing before the wunderkinds team up after Nevada for the final assault.  Standing where we are today, something like that seems most likely. It tracks.

With that in mind, and reminding ourselves that Noem has already pre-seeded with the customary and proverbial book launch, it is worthwhile paying close attention to how Team Koch and Kristi Noem organize their staging.  In this interview, which reflects her very good and pragmatic position as a sponge for base voters, Mrs. Noem outlines her current views on the state of all things political, and, similar to Team DeSantis, stays high-road and reserves her jabs for Biden.

However, perhaps the most interesting aspect to the pragmatic position is Noem’s willingness to politely distance herself from the RNC mainstream by saying it’s time for new leadership at the chair.  At 06:35 of the interview segment below, Noem does a good job of strategically and diplomatically calling for Ronna McDaniel to be replaced. WATCH:

Sharp, very sharp.  Governor Noem is formidable, dare I say strategic, and Wall Street stealthy in her pragmatism.  She knows where the third rail of anti-MAGA is located and has a solid skillset around how to avoid it. When she enters, she will scoop up Haley’s fractured team – hence a later entry should be predicted.

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Eh, this one is beyond predictable.  South Carolina Trey ‘Roosterhead’ Gowdy introduces South Carolina Senator Tim Scott to deliver his 2024 leadership platform.

It’s worth watching the interview to see the role Senator Scott will play in the upcoming GOP contest.  Senator Scott will likely arrive in the first four grouping shortly after another New Yorker from South Carolina, Nikki Haley.

Scott gives the GOPe club a branding lift and has likely been honing the passive aggressive skillset.  The ¹linguistic training by Senator Scott is unmistakable.  WATCH:

¹If you close your eyes, you will hear Tony Robbins speaking.  That’s not accidental.

Senator Tim Scott is well skilled in assembling soundbite sentences. It’s a linguistic skill that can be effective; however, once you see and hear it, you can never listen to the person and not see and hear it.   Language starts to become too rehearsed. Listen to Tim Scott long enough and you see the skill of linguistic soundbites being overused. It starts to become annoying.

Roosterhead’s constant tee-setting is a little over-the-top and not subtle.

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Has anyone stopped to ask why the United States taxpayer is responsible for funding the government operations of Ukraine, to include the paychecks and pensions of Ukrainian government officials, or nah?

As Joe Biden and various Democrat and Republican leaders are gleefully willing to keep pushing U.S. taxpayer money into Ukraine, there does come a time when we have to start asking some questions about the disconnect in regard to the opinion of the American people.   Tucker Carlson noted this question last night.  WATCH:

Also, have you noticed a prominent Republican who has gone conveniently silent on this issue since he originally supported unlimited funding for Ukraine?  Yeah, Ron DeSantis, funny that.

Washington DC – […] The White House last week asked Congress for more than $37 billion in additional assistance for Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing invasion. And while some Republicans say they’re supportive of the amount, many more have been cautious to take a position just yet.

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U.S. political parties operate as a business.  Both wings of the business are private corporations.  The professionals inside the industry have a vested financial interest in retaining the business model.  The needs of the corporation are the priority, voters are annoying.

Having spent his career inside the industry, the Iowa GOP Chairman puts it this way:

‘Imperative’ Ronna made lots of money for the business.  Consultants, advisors, offices, polling groups, analysts, data, technicians, meetings, catering and more, take lots of money.  The corporations of the RNC and DNC exist to serve their own interests.  Politics is the RNC and DNC business; however, the income stream -the financial aspects to the business- is what holds influence over the corporate priority.

Ideology is part of the equation, but control of the business and generating revenue is the main function of the corporation. Unfortunately, in the reality of the business model, election outcomes are downstream from those two priorities.

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I have given a great deal of thought to this in the past several years and I am welcoming all opinions.  Just to let you know I intend to read every single comment, because ultimately this is important. AND I believe it will become a salient topic in the next two years [As did the recent conversation of Ballots -vs- Votes].

In 2010 the Supreme Court ruled on a campaign finance legal challenge known colloquially as The Citizens United decision.  The essence of the decision was a speech issue. In the court’s opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that limiting “independent political spending” from corporations and other groups violates the First Amendment right to free speech.

Prior to CU corporations were limited in financial spending on behalf of political campaigns just like individuals.  However, unions were not.  Organized Labor Unions could spend unlimited amounts in support of candidates.  Corporations were limited like individuals.

At the time of the January 2010 Supreme Court ruling Democrats and Barack Obama were furious.  Corporations could now form SuperPACs and spend unlimited amounts of money ‘independently’ supporting candidates.

Federal Election Commission (FEC) rules on coordination and communication between the political campaigns and the independent SuperPACs was/is supposed to create a firewall.  However, the obscure nature of that effort has failed miserably.

Real World Example. A SuperPAC can organize a pro-Ben rally, spend on the venue, spend on the banners, t-shirts, rally material etc., and then advertise it.  If Ben shows up to deliver a speech, he’s not breaking the rules so long as Ben and the SuperPAC didn’t coordinate the event.  Ben just shows up to share his support for the effort, thank everyone and everything is legal in the eyes of the FEC.  Yeah, it’s goofy.

More commonly as a result of the Citizens United (CU) case, massive corporate advertising (considered speech) is permitted in support of the candidate; or the corporation can organize ballot collection or get out the vote efforts, etc.  Again, as long as they do not coordinate with any “official campaign” ie. Mark Zuckerbucks, yeah, goofy.   As a result, expanded corporate spending has massive influence over U.S. elections.

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