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The Illusion of Weather Dependent Electricity THE ILLUSION OF ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: WEATHER DEPENDENT 5 14 33 ELECTRICITY The Tides Special Report: Atlantic Foundation’s What You Don’t Philanthropies ALTERNATIVES PAGE 41 Legal Money Know about Trump’s and their “Dark Laundering “Dirty Dossier” Money” Groups www.CapitalResearch.org Want to know more about the donors, foundations, nonprofits, activists, and others working to influence public policy? Visit: INFLUENCE WATCH.ORG Launched by Capital Research Center in August 2017, InfluenceWatch w i l l bring unprecedented transparency to the history, motives, and i n t e r conn ect ions o f all entities invo lve d in the advocacy m o v ement. T oday , o u r gro win g website includes 4 , 5 0 0 pages and 300 full p rof ile s , with m o r e a dded e a ch w eek. L ear n mor e a t In f l uen c e Wa t c h .o r g Want to know more about the donors, foundations, nonprofits, activists, and others working to influence public policy? Visit: ISSUE 4, 2018 CONTENTS FOUNDATION WATCH 3 5 Tides’ Legal Laundering COMMENTARY By Hayden Ludwig INFLUENCE Hey, Zuck, Cambridge Analytica WATCH.ORG Wasn’t the First LABOR WATCH of Its Kind 14 Dues Skim: How Unions Tried to By Scott Walter Capture Taxpayer Funds By F. Vincent Vernuccio Capital Research is a monthly publication of the Capital Research Center (CRC), a nonpartisan education and research organization, classified by SPECIAL REPORT the IRS as a 501(c)(3) public charity. What You Don’t Know About the CRC is an independent, tax-exempt 20 “Dirty Dossier” institution governed by an independent board of trustees. We rely on private By Dr. Steven Allen financial support from the general public—individuals, foundations, and corporations—for our income. We accept no government funds and perform no contract work. ORGANIZATION TRENDS CRC was established in 1984 to promote Dark Money Ascendant: How Atlantic a better understanding of charity and 33 philanthropy. We support the principles Philanthropies Weaponized Social of individual liberty, a free market economy, and limited constitutional Welfare Groups government—the cornerstones of By Matthew Vadum American society, which make possible wise and generous philanthropic giving. CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 1513 16th Street NW Launched by Capital Research Center in August 2017, InfluenceWatch Washington, DC 20036 GREEN WATCH w i l l bring unprecedented transparency to the history, motives, and 202.483.6900 i n t e r conn ect ions o f all entities invo lve d in the advocacy m o v ement. CapitalResearch.org Unsustainable, Unreliable, 41 and Inflexible T oday , o u r gro win g website includes 4 , 5 0 0 pages and 300 full [email protected] p rof ile s , with m o r e a dded e a ch w eek. By Kenneth Haapala Internship inquiries are welcome. Publisher, Scott Walter Editor-in-Chief, Kristen Eastlick Editor, Christine Ravold Photo Editor, Gayle Yiotis L ear n mor e a t In f l uen c e Wa t c h .o r g Cover images: Oleg Atbashian A project of CRC’s Dangerous Documentaries ADAM CAROLLA DENNIS PRAGER No S a fe Spa ces , a film starr i n g Ada m Caro lla a nd Den nis Pr a ger a n d a project of C R C’s own Dan g e rous Docume n t ari e s, wi ll expose the s a f e s p a ce c u l ture t h a t i s un d e rmining Ameri c a n un iversi ties . No S afe Spa c e s w i ll ex pose the sad s tate o f f ree s p e e c h , the u n w ill ingn ess o f stude n t s to be c h a l len g ed b y n e w i d e a s , a n d “ t h e gri e v ance cult u r e ” of “ safe spaces ” th at are un d e r m i n ing t he i n t e l lect ual fo unda tio n s of Ameri c a n hi g her education . Carol l a — a we l l - k n o w n sta nd-u p comedi an, p odcast e r, and radi o persona lit y—a nd P r a g e r—a syndi c a ted radi o talk sho w h o s t who has been o n t h e ai r f o r m ore than f o u r d e c a d es—will tra v e l to co llege c ampuses acr oss the coun try i n t e r v iewing s t u d ent s, p rof ess o r s , and co m m e n t ators from bo th sides of th e p o l iti c a l spec t r u m . No S a f e S p a c e s i s set to r e leas e in 2 018. It will be di r e cted by J u s tin Folk and p rod u ced by Mar k J o seph . S cot t Walter and J a k e Klein are executi v e pr oduc e r s . NoSafeSpaces.com COMMENTARY HEY, ZUCK, CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA WASN’T THE FIRST OF ITS KIND By Scott Walter A flailing Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, appears to hope that he can defend his embattled company with a post that reinforces the hot new media narrative that President Trump’s election is tainted because of misdeeds by Cam- bridge Analytica (CA), a UK firm with ties to Steve Bannon and the Mercer family who supported Trump’s presidential bid. The story Zuckerberg is feeding oxygen assumes that CA used Facebook to acquire data on about 50 million American users of the social network, and then helped the Trump cam- paign get inside those people’s heads and win their votes. Credit: Facebook F8 2017. License: https://goo.gl/3ywUKu. F8 2017. License: Facebook Credit: Countless people left and right are laughing at Zuckerberg’s latest comment. Even before he “spoke,” lots of observ- ers had already noted (1) that Facebook’s business model allowed many groups to exploit its users the way CA allegedly did; and (2) that one of those groups was Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign, as a senior campaign official confessed. A flailing Mark Zuckerberg appears to hope that he can defend What’s overlooked is that exploiting data to get your guy his embattled company with a post that reinforces the hot new elected was old hat for the left, even by 2012, and it didn’t media narrative that President Trump’s election is tainted start with Facebook. because of misdeeds by Cambridge Analytica (CA). Before we look at that history, let’s be clear on points (1) and (2). Regarding how many groups have hoovered up Facebook data are ignoring their own past reporting. “So far Facebook data, the only mystery is whether the number has in the presidential election of 2012,” CNN gushed at the three, four, five digits or more. Sandy Parakilas, a Facebook time, “there is only one campaign that is doing cutting-edge employee who quit in disgust over this issue and has been work with data,” namely, Obama’s. helping reporters break the story, told Britain’s Guardian he thinks “tens or maybe even hundreds of thousands” of “The Romney team used a far less sophisticated version of developers have grabbed data. the technology,” Time noted. “The depth and breadth of the Obama campaign’s 2012 digital operation,” POLITICO As for the 2012 Obama campaign, the same media who are observed, “makes the president’s much-heralded 2008 social shocked, shocked that the Trump campaign may have used media juggernaut...look like cavemen with stone tablets.” Liberal journalist Sasha Issenberg wrote a 2012 book on the “secret science” of exploiting data and articles on “how Democrats became the party of effective campaigning.” CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 3 with $1 million in seed money from George Soros. Because Soros and groups like the Tides Foundation keep Catalist well-funded, it can apparently afford to sell its political ser- vices to Democratic campaigns at below-market rates, which led to complaints being lodged with the Federal Election Commission in 2015, claiming Catalist violated campaign collusion laws. This data giant enjoys close ties to the Democracy Alliance, a network of the biggest donors in left-wing politics. In-house Credit: Book Catalog License: https://goo.gl/MJSwtF. License: Book Catalog Credit: Democracy Alliance strategy slides obtained in 2014 by the Washington Free Beacon show how the “legal firewall” sepa- rating campaigns from outside nonprofits can be bypassed by friendly “data, analytics, and research LLCs” like Catalist (and by political “investors”). How effective is this data? Today Catalist brags it has “data on over 240 million unique voting-age individuals” in every The story Zuckerberg is feeding oxygen assumes that CA used state. According to Catalist’s analysis of the 2008 election, Facebook to acquire data on about 50 million American users the firm’s data helped “progressive organizations, the Obama of the social network, and then helped the Trump campaign get campaign, and federal party committees” work to contact inside those people’s heads and win their votes.
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