We Call It "The Establishment" - Part I
PART I - "Priorities USA Action"
Anyone who has spent much time bantering with those on the ideological right online has likely heard the name "George Soros" tossed around, generally in a conspiratorial fashion. As it turns out, There is some truth to many conspiracies, even this one. While I find it interesting that the Federal Election Commission claims no financial records for Soros from 2015-2016, Open Secrets, or "The Center For Responsive Politics", has the receipts, where each contribution is listed individually, not as a total given by that individual, but per transaction. That being said, when examining the receipts from "Priorities USA Action", The Democratic Party's Largest PAC/SuperPAC, The largest individual donation is George Soros at the very top. This does not indicate that Soros is the DNC's largest financier (he isn't, this is about to get interesting), but that he made the single largest individual contribution. A contribution, that is, of 6 million dollars. Over the course of the campaign, in total, Soros contributed almost 10 million dollars to this PAC. Whether he also donated to other PACs or SuperPACs remains to be seen, as this study progresses.
George Soros is considered to be one of the most successful investors in the world. In 1969, Soros founded the "Soros Fund Management", originally a hedge fund management organization. By 2010, the foundation was considered one of the most profitable firms in the hedge fund industry. To understand how this plays into his political "generosity", one might want to know what a "hedge fund" does.
George Soros is considered to be one of the most successful investors in the world. In 1969, Soros founded the "Soros Fund Management", originally a hedge fund management organization. By 2010, the foundation was considered one of the most profitable firms in the hedge fund industry. To understand how this plays into his political "generosity", one might want to know what a "hedge fund" does.
In short, a hedge fund uses loopholes with the network of regulations guiding investments, and the risks that an institution can take, coupled with tax havens, and shared profits among billionaires. That being said, George Soros is not the only hedge fund billionaire subsidizing "Priorities USA Action." They are very much interested in a candidate willing to be paid off by financial institutions to allow them to continue enriching themselves at the expense of the economy. Another hedge fund billionaire investor subsidizing this PAC is James Simons, with "Euclidean Capital", who donated 12 million dollars, just to "Priorities USA", and just in the 2016 election cycle alone. James Simons also Co-founded Renaissance Technologies, through which its president and GOP subsidizer Robert Mercer funded the Cruz campaign before switching to support Clinton in the general. When "The Observer" reported those facts, they were obviously confused about the "flip-flop" from one candidate, and even from one political party, to another. However bear in mind that whether they were subsidizing Ted Cruz, or Hillary Clinton, the economic ramifications were the same. Unchecked capitalism, and worry-free high-risk hedge fund investments. One of the largest contributors to "Priorities USA" is Donald Sussman, the founder and CEO of Paloma Partners and New China Capital Management, both hedge fund investment companies. Sussman "invested" $21,000,000 into the SuperPAC in question, no doubt expecting a promising return. His hedge fund group "Paloma Partners" brought in $1.6 Billion in 2016 alone via the same risky economic practices that caused the crash of 2008. I suppose this is the "philanthropy" Wikipedia refers to in calling this man a "Philanthropist". Other investing and money management beneficiaries of late-stage capitalism that subsidized this cesspool include S. Daniel Abraham (who contributed $5,000,000), Steve Mandel ($2,500,000) and Marilyn Simons (wife of the aforementioned James Simons, and President of their "Simons Foundation"), who gave $1.5 million.
Haim & Cheryl Saban of Saban Entertainment collectively donated $11.2 million. Most of the productions generated are owned by Disney, who also owns ABC. ABC News only gave positive coverage of the Clinton campaign, surprisingly enough. Fred Eychaner, "NewsWeb Corporation", contributed $11 million to this SuperPAC, in 2016 alone. Steven Speilburg (Dreamworks) donated $2 million. Comcast, who owns MSNBC News donated $12.7 million, and funneled over $14.3 million into lobbying the government during the same period, in case anyone was left to wonder why MSNBC covered the Clinton campaign with flowers, and defecated on her political opponents. It is also worth mentioning at this point that 30 members of Congress own stocks in Comcast (including Nancy Pelosi(D), Dick Durbin(D), Susan Collins(R), and David Perdue(R) ). 126 out of 147 Comcast lobbyists have previously held government positions. Time Warner, who owns Turner Broadcasting (and subsequently CNN) contributed $2.5 million to establishmentarian causes in the 2016 election cycle. If media organizations and their parent companies are contributing to presidential campaigns, it would be difficult to imagine fair, or even honest coverage of the campaign from those outlets.
Again, the figures associated with the names of the various donors are by no means a conclusive list, as thusfar we have dealt only with one PAC, "Priorities USA Action". Each part in this series will deal with another PAC, and we are likely to see many of these names resurface in forthcoming articles. With regard to this PAC, and until this point, it appears that support for the campaign comes primarily from hedge funds, investors, and media outlets.
Sources for figures in this article include The Center For Responsive Politics, and FEC Receipts.