Back in July, we posted about “Youngkin’s Big-Money Donors: Nazi Memorabilia Dude, ‘Secretive Titan’ Working ‘ruthlessly…to strip workers of protections’; etc.” Now, as the crucial Virginia elections to decide whether we turn into a right-wing hellhole approach, Youngkin’s raking it in from more far-right billionaires. For instance, just yesterday, we learned:
“Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin raised $4.4 million in the last 48 hours in the final stretch before the state’s midterm elections as several billionaires poured money into the race to win a Republican majority in the state Senate and defend the GOP majority in the House of Delegates.
CBS News has exclusively learned that Jeff Yass, the billionaire founder and managing partner of Susquehanna Investment Group, donated $2 million to Spirit of Virginia, Youngkin’s PAC.
This is Yass’ first donation to the group.
Thomas Peterffy, a GOP megadonor, gave another $1 million to the PAC. This is the third time that Peterffy has contributed to Youngkin’s PAC in this cycle, bringing his total up to $3 million.:
We already know about Peterffy – he’s “a Hungarian immigrant who hates Socialism and hangs out at Mar-a-Lago”; who believes that “American youth have no idea what they are talking about, they are completely too prone to emotional outbursts”; and in 2012 ran a bizarre ad that “suggest[ed] that we are on a slippery slope to socialism with Barack Obama.” In short, the guy’s a total right wingnut.
So who’s Jeff Yass, who just gave Youngkin $2 million, exactly? See below for some information on this guy:
- According to ProPublica, “Susquehanna founder and TikTok investor Jeff Yass has avoided $1 billion in taxes while largely escaping public scrutiny. He’s now pouring his money into campaigns to cut taxes and support election deniers.”
- Per that same ProPublic article: “Yass has not only worked assiduously to lower his own taxes but has poured millions into political efforts to eliminate them for his class. In recent years he has given $32 million to the anti-tax stalwart Club for Growth. This money paid for TV ads attacking candidates who were seen as wobbly on Friedman’s tax-cuts-anytime-anywhere philosophy.”
- But wait, there’s more: “Yass has since backed a range of pro-Trump candidates. In Pennsylvania, he has poured money into this year’s Republican effort to take the open gubernatorial seat, which many expect, if successful, will lead to an abortion ban in the state. The Club for Growth also backed a losing candidate for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat, Kathy Barnette, whose campaign centered on her hard-line opposition to abortion, even in cases of rape. Yass is the second biggest donor to the Club (which did not return ProPublica’s requests for comment). He is also the largest donor to the Rand Paul-affiliated Protect Freedom PAC, giving $2.5 million of his more than $12 million in recent donations just days after the 2020 election. The group’s website says of Democrats: ‘Of course, they stole the election.’ Yass is looking to harness discontent with public schools during the pandemic to push privatization of the system. He has given $15 million as the sole funder of a political action committee, the School Freedom Fund, that says ‘school closures, mask mandates, critical race theory, and more’ have created ‘a unique opportunity to promote School Choice as the structural solution to dramatically improve education in America.'”
- Crazy, right? But believe it or not, it gets even WORSE. Check this out: “Jeff Yass — one of the Pennsylvania-based billionaires who bankrolled the Kohelet Forum (the think-tank whose judicial overhaul plans gravely endanger the limited checks and balances in Israel’s democracy) — is spending millions to bring one-party GOP rule to Virginia.” Shudddderrrr…
- Finally, as Virginia House Democratic Leader Don Scott points out: “Youngkin’s tough-on-China act is just performative. He made serious $$ partnering with Communist China at Carlyle Group. Now he’s taking TikTok derivatives in cash from TikTok donors.” (“Jeff Yass, one of TikTok’s biggest investors and co-founder of the trading firm Susquehanna International Group, gives @TeamYoungkin a $2 million donation.”)
So yeah, that’s what we’re up against with Youngkin’s billionaire donors – the Nazi memorabilia dude; the “secretive titan” working “ruthlessly…to strip workers of protections”; and the far-right billionaire working to undermine democracy in both the U.S. and Israel. Which means that we’d better all vote as if the future of Virginia, our rights and our freedoms depend on it – because that’s exactly the situation we’re in!
P.S. Note how the WaPo and other “mainstream media” outlets don’t report on this stuff? Why is that?
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