Adam Bonica

Study after study shows campaign ads barely move the needle. So where does money’s real power come from? I ranked the five ways money corrupts politics—from least to most corrosive. What I’ve learned from 15 years of tracking political money:

The annoying spam texts destroying the Democratic brand: $678M raised through those spam tactics $282M to one consulting firm: Mothership Strategies. $11M to actual campaigns (1.6%) The party isn’t just treating donors like marks—it’s being fleeced itself yet continues to back Mothership.

Since May: Federal district courts have ruled against Trump admin 94% of the time. Supreme Court has sided with the Trump admin 94% of the time. A judiciary at war with itself.

The Supreme Court’s “shadow docket” has cast very different shadows depending on which party holds the White House. When lower courts blocked Trump admin policies, SCOTUS intervened on an emergency basis to lift those orders in 77% of cases. For the Biden administration, that number was 0%.

“Oh my God, all of it is for sale. It’s all for sale.”

It takes a special kind of calculated cowardice to oppose regulations supported by two-thirds of voters because you rank the threat of the AI industry maybe buying some campaign ads above it maybe killing everyone.

No one is better at cutting through the noise of anti-trans politics and laying bare the trap it sets than @juliaserano.bsky.social. Essential reading.

Nice to know Kamala and Doug accept me for who I truly am.

My favorite thing about this poll is that ‘Accepting a luxury jet from Qatar while the Trump Organization pursues business opportunities in the Gulf’ came in last. Deeper bench than the ‘92 Dream Team.

Setting aside that Trump's $5K check is not real, the total cost would be about on par with Elon Musk's fortune. Whatever anyone says about a midterm bribery check being fiscally irresponsible, it's nowhere near as irresponsible as letting one man hoard the equivalent of all those checks to himself.

Fundraising spam sent on the day she passed. Have they no decency?

“Every policy that is responsible for the affordability crisis in the US can be traced back to a policy written and bought by big money. [C]orruption is not some esoteric abstract issue. Corruption is why the working class and middle class of this country is being immiserated.” @davidsirota.com

These are the types of fundraising emails spam PACs are blasting out to their lists.

Here are more captive Democratic fundraising spam donors. Again, there are thousands of cases like these. 82yo from OK: $300K across 22K donations 87yo from RI: $286K across 19.5K donations 84yo from NM: $24K across 2.5K donations 73yo from CA: $521K across 28K donations