Flyin’ Ted Funnels PAC and Campaign Dollars into his Pocket
In a not at all shocking development, Ted Cruz is a grifter who once again did something shady to benefit himself while showing no remorse, respect for the law, or any interest besides enriching his own pockets or getting in front of a TV camera.
I know that’s a hell of a long run-on sentence but I am just so mad that I could spit.
We have all seen this grift before. It’s an absolute cottage industry in the world of Boring Books Conservatives Didn’t Even Write by Themselves. They find a publisher to give them a big advance, and they put out a book. Next, their Super PAC, full of anonymous donations, buys about 50,000 – 100,000 copies of the book. This helps the sumbitch in several ways.
One: For conservatives to believe that their ideas are more mainstream than they actually are by getting the book on some bestseller lists. Fortunately, the New York Times now puts a dagger symbol to denote that the book is only a best seller because of bulk buys like this. Recently, Donny Jr and other conservatives have gotten many social media views with “PROOF THAT NYT IS A LIBERAL RAG THAT HATES CONSERVATIVES.”
Two: The money used to purchase 50,000 -100,000 copies of Fled Cruz’s books has now been laundered. Of course, the publisher has to withhold royalties from these book sales, or they have to at least publicly say that they do. But Ted Cruz is no idiot. A charlatan? Yes. Idiot? No.
Instead, his PAC, using donated funds, purchased “sponsorship advertising” from a company called Reagan Investments, LLC. Reagan Investments, LLC, then purchased his books with those same dollars, netting him his 15% royalties, and effectively laundering political donations into his pocket. How do I know for sure? Well, they wrote “BOOKS” under the “sponsorship advertising” part when transmitting the money. Here’s the full article: Now Ted Cruz may be buying his own books through a mystery company | Salon.com
Are you with me?
Cruz puts out book —-> Voters and Anonymous people give Cruz millions in a PAC ———-> Cruz gives the PAC money to Reagan Investments ———> Reagan Investments buys books, and since they aren’t a PAC the publisher doesn’t have to withhold royalties ——> Cruz personally pockets 15% off the top.
But yall, that isn’t even what this complaint is about. There’s more.
In a completely separate grift, this sumbitch spent campaign dollars on at least $18,000 in Facebook ads urging his supporters to go buy his book. There’s no ability to trace how much campaign money he spent on other ads because that’s not available to the public. So he takes $18,000 in campaign money, runs ads for people to buy his book, and each dupe that buys it nets another 15% back into his pocket which is a violation of FEC rules.
Of course, nothing will happen because he’ll use his campaign money to pay for a big fancy lawyer and his good ole’ boy buddies way up high will get him out of trouble because even though they hate him as much as we do, they all do the same thing and they like the system the way it is.
It’s hard to explain, of course. But do you know what happens when you piss off a broad with a nice tall glass of sweet tea, steel-toed boots and a love for graphic design? Infographics. You get infographics.
Ted may live in River Oaks, but he is in the cheap section. I’m sure Heidi has aspirations to move to Lazy Lane so he has to do something! Poor guy, he’s doing it because his kids made him I’m sure.
1Jet, I like the way you think. Especially the tags you used. Although I would replace “and they put out a book” with “and they emit a book-like object”. Real authors actually think about and work on the writing that constitutes a book.
That Salon article you linked to has this juicy bit:
HarperCollins, that book’s publisher (Cruz’s new book was published by the conservative-oriented house Regnery), said it had “investigated the sales pattern” but found “no evidence of bulk orders or sales through any retailer or organization.”
Notice how the denial artfully says nothing about sale through a wholesellar?
2FEC, wherefore art thou? And where in the high, high heavens are the publisher’s lawyers seeking to reclaim said advance after having seen the scam played on them? Like asking for a Dominion billion buck lawsuit for lost book sales and a throw away destined for the paperback rack.
3Well, hey, the Ritz-Carlton in Cancun is pretty expensive.
4And there are no criteria regarding the contents of the book.
5Professor@2
Regnery has been at this game for so long that it is pretty much assumed that any title they sell for conservative politicians is boosted through bulk buys. For that reason many of their “authors” attempt to sell there manuscripts to more reputable houses but end up with Regenry when everyone else turns them down.
6They go to a lot of trouble to get on the best-seller list of a “LIBERAL RAG THAT HATES CONSERVATIVES,” don’t they?
Didn’t Regnery pick up Josh Hawley’s “book” when Simon & Schuster walked away?
7Well put. And one sentence sums up much of the USA nowadays:
“Of course, nothing will happen because he’ll use his campaign money to pay for a big fancy lawyer and his good ole’ boy buddies way up high will get him out of trouble….”
“Send lawyers, guns and money” as the 1979 Warren Zevon song went.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2HH7J-Sx80
8One limiting factory — Outside income is limited to 15% of salary, which right now makes it a titch under $30,000 per year.
If Ted wanted to be a less limited grifter, the book would be co-written with his wife or kids. As the FEC and Senate ethics don’t seem to want to lump everyone’s income together [if they did, the Kamala Harris/Douglas Emhoff household would have been in a world of hurt since Harris’ election as a Senator), book royalties would be divvied up: Heidi gets her half, Ted gets $30,000 now (and the remainder of the half later), and the household can go to Cancun for Spring AND Fall breaks..
9