What Skipping Dipshit Elon Musk Is Doing Has to Be Illegal, Right?
Added 2024-10-25 08:31:05 +0000 UTCOA1080 - As a weary nation watches the world's richest man try to buy a federal election in plain sight, we stop to consider the question which has so long plagued Elon Musk: There's gotta be a crime here, right? Somewhere?
There has been plenty of debate this week about the legality of Musk’s $1 million daily lottery for registered US voters in swing states, but there is something far more insidious going on in this story beyond the headlines. Matt explains how the Federal Elections Commission has recently taken the Supreme Court’s perfectly good joke way too far before we consider what the rapidly evolving rules around super PACs could mean for the future of fair elections in the United States.
Finally, we drop a seasonal footnote to discuss how some Massachusetts 8th graders recently helped to close out a 332-year-old criminal case.
“Judge Aileen Cannon, who tossed Trump's classified docs case, on list of proposed candidates for attorney general” ABC News (10/22/2024)
“Elon Musk’s Big Business and Conflicts of Interest With the U.S. Government” The New York Times (10/20/2024)
The Illusion of Independence: How Unregulated Coordination is Undermining Our Democracy, and What Can Be Done to Stop It, The Campaign Legal Center (11/30/2023)
FEC Advisory Opinion 2024-01 (3/20/2024)
FEC Vice Chair Ellen Weintraub’s dissent from Advisory Opinion 2024-07 (addressing Lindsay Graham campaign’s question re: super PAC campaign fundraising coordination)
Comments
💗 I’d recommend listening at .75 speed on episodes, as needed? I took an online immigration law class taught by Matt during the early ‘demics and he honestly speaks like an AI. 🤖 Except, you know, the information is actually accurate.
Status Quo Level Thing
2024-10-30 06:12:35 +0000 UTCSessions was evil, but as a state AG, he was qualified for the job. My point about Barr is only that he had zero experience that would qualify him to be H.W.'s AG beyond lacking the integrity to refuse to hand out pardons in the wake of Iran-Contra.
Gmork
2024-10-28 20:32:40 +0000 UTCIt’s not as if Sessions was any better. One could argue he was worse; basically killed DOJ investigations before Barr.
dddebz
2024-10-28 20:18:04 +0000 UTCI feel like the framing provided in this episode underplayed the reason strategic coordination needs to be forbidden. It is not because that is necessarily a more efficient way to campaign. It is because this is how places like Russia are run. Once control of a campaign can be dominated by a separate entity then they can choose the shape of the best funded campaign that will be run in a district and offer the job to anyone they have compromising information on. This gives nefarious actors effective control of a representative seat without exposing themselves to the scrutiny that comes with public office.
Drew Vogel
2024-10-28 14:08:53 +0000 UTCI’d also really like to see the DOJ pick back up the FEC referral from 2016, which Jeff Sessions and probably Stephen Miller killed and returned without FEC being able to pursue because they sat on it for so long. Right before Jeff’s exit, I believe. Appointing industry heads to oversee agencies with whom they had trouble has precedent for Musk’s potential coup; from ABA “not qualified” judges and putting JaKu (failed security clearance) in charge of surrendering to the Taliban, DeVos DOE, Scott’s Medicaid fraud, Tillerson from Big Oil to Sec of State, Fed Prosecutor responsible for Epstein’s FL Sweetheart Deal to Dept of Labor are the first I can think of.
dddebz
2024-10-26 17:55:00 +0000 UTCI love the idea that we will never get the toothpaste back into the tube of the before time, when there were scandals that ended careers or at least political campaigns. I think we should all thank Jerry Springer for putting the final nail in the coffin of the myth that “Americans are still Puritans at heart” Now, we can move on free from the yoke of shame. Reenfranchisement of people convicted of crimes in the past seems like a minor step to the side on the federal and all other levels as a right, at this point.
dddebz
2024-10-26 17:46:32 +0000 UTCJust so you know, I usually keep the show on 1.25 and but sometimes I do have to go down to 1, depending on
dddebz
2024-10-26 17:34:36 +0000 UTCHi Thomas, can I just ask are you speeding up Matt's dialogue? Some of it was really hard to listen to.
Tom Evans
2024-10-26 11:41:29 +0000 UTCoh wow. this is wild.
lauren
2024-10-25 14:02:27 +0000 UTCThe whole Judge Cannon thing makes people like me lose all faith in the law. I remember the old host saying that and the Ga cases were clear cut and easy to prove. Rudy getting some consequences helped me not lose all hope
KeepingThePlatesSpinning
2024-10-25 13:31:49 +0000 UTCAlways thrilled when Matt responds to my comments, but shocked that two 80s movie afficienados don't recognize the most badass character from the Neverending Story. https://youtu.be/UFePI3EQCAo?si=6sCAuh2NBoeroFTE
Gmork
2024-10-25 12:40:45 +0000 UTCHopefully the election goes well so there's reason to come back to the topic of campaign finance and Citizen's United on a positive note of what Democrats might be able to do to make improvements. Until then I might need to go see if Etsy sells voodoo dolls of FEC commissioners.
Why do podcasters say moron that later
2024-10-25 12:30:56 +0000 UTCI’m on Twitter and I have blocked Musk. I never see his tweets
Susan
2024-10-25 11:43:04 +0000 UTCIn Cannon's defense, Bill Barr was also wildly lacking in experience to be AG, but they needed someone to dole out parsons after Iran-Contra, and the media normalized it.
Gmork
2024-10-25 11:34:01 +0000 UTC
