Money, Money, Money
Soooooo … I’m fixin’ to tell you a story that the Republican political contributions conduit, WinRed, screwed over an old woman living on a fixed income and when the family complained, the Federal Elections Commission says, “Hey that’s okay, Buddy, because if God didn’t want ’em sheared, he shouldn’t have made them sheep.”
We are Kimberly Schilling and Peggy Karstens, daughters of Kathryn K. McMartin our almost 80 year old mother. She has been the victim of predatory and criminal including Elder abuse swindle of in total $5,492.99. We demand immediate Full refund/reimbursement off all charges and for any further charges to cease and desist.
Grandma made one small contribution to some Republican and WinRed, which is the Republican version of the Democrat’s ActBlue, decided to keep charging her credit card with other contributions she did not make.
When she made the discovery, she got in touch with WinRed, which appears to be no small feat, and they refunded $1,200. Nope. She wanted all the money back that they stole. The nerve of her. She took her case to the Federal Election Commission. WinRed responded with this suggested finding:
Based on its experience and expertise, the Commission has established an Enforcement Priority System using formal, pre-determined scoring criteria to allocate agency resources and assess whether particular matters warrant further administrative enforcement proceedings. These criteria include (1) the gravity of the alleged violation, taking into account both the type of activit and the amount in violation; (2) the apparent impact the alleged violation may have had on the electoral process; (3) the complexity of the legal issues raised in the matter; and (4) recent trends in potential violations and other developments in the law. This matter is rated as low priority for Commission action after application of these pre-established criteria. Given that low rating, and the low dollar amount involved, we recommend that the Commission dismiss the Complaint consistent with the Commission’s prosecutorial discretion …
And the Federal Election Commission agreed 5 – 0, with one commissioner abstaining. It’s not worth the FEC’s time to investigate because there was too little money involved and Granny just isn’t important enough.
Oh Baby, it’s gonna break your heart to hear that it’s okay for politicians to steal from people just so long it’s unimportant people and it’s money they needed to pay the electric bill. This is not the first time WinRed pulled this trick. WinRed sheared this guy
Now, look, I know it’s hard to feel sorry for people who give money to Republicans. But, let’s be fair about this. They are already the most vulnerable people on God’s green earth and when they freely announce they are easily scammed, it just seems mean to take their dignity along with their money.
But that’s just me talking.
“rated as low priority”
We will however provide a high level of salt to rub into Granny’s wounds.
1Of course I know about ActBlue–I’ve certainly given enough money through them over the years–but I’ve never heard of WinRed. Considering how many emails I’ve received from various Rethugs–such a waste of pixels–you’d think I know about them. Maybe because I haven’t given a plug nickel to any Rethug . . .
Am I surprised about this? Not one little bit. To be fair (a word unknown to any Rethug), I contributed $5 a month to Move On for their campaign targeting Secretaries of State in the last election and they are still collecting that money after the election was over. No, I haven’t even tried to cancel the contribution.
2I’ve never really thought the FEC did anything, and it sounds like their priority is to get out of doing anything. Granny probably can’t afford an attorney but this sounds like fraudulent activity on the part of WinRed. Soliciting money under false pretenses. Not surprising either.
3Small amount?!? Say wot FEC? While the amount varies by state $5,492.99 is in the grand larceny zone in most if not all 50 states. Please. Haul WinRed’s larcenous butts to Nevaduh. We also prosecute with a vengeance on victim over 65 charges.
iirc We also smack down perps who prey on children under age 16. C’mon GOP. How much lower can you go than stealing from Granny and/or taking candy from a baby?
4I’d try a complaint to the local DA. Pity that elder abuse is considered a virtue by so many.
5AGREE with every negative word.
6I suppose the only possible upside to these scams is that there are now two more people who won’t make the mistake of donating their money to/through WinRed again and maybe not donating at all. At least I would assume so. You never know.
7GOPerverts – word salad will always win .
8I recommend the state Attorney General. Virginia has one that delights in kicking butt where old people are concerned. Can only conclude that he was raised by a grandmother or an elderly aunt.
9Agree with all the above. Our NC A.G. would be all over this like honey on a comb. Looks like they contacted the Iowa A.G. – I would love to know who that is and whether he/she/they will do anything about it.
10I’ll bet they are still emailing her.
11The love of money is the root of all evil” 1 Timothy 6:10
12This makes absolutely NO sense to me. According to FEC.GOV “Commissioners are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. By law, no more than three Commissioners can represent the same political party, and at least four votes are required for any official Commission action. This structure was created to encourage nonpartisan decisions.”. Following that info….the 5-0 (with one abstention) vote of the Commission would mean that both Red and Blue would have at least 2 votes for the motion to approve the Commission’s action. Kinda takes the partisan nature out of the action, though I think the abstention should get a large “Fraidy Cat” tatooed across his/her forehead. I’m not a lawyer, but i used to park next to one, but this sounds to me like “theft” and quite likely “wire fraud” at the very least. I’d go to the “regular police” in your community and then to DA, but I would also speak with my congresscritter or senator to see if you can get them to say that $5k+ isn’t enough money to mess with (I’d ask for it in writing). This is indeed an evil act, but I wonder how it came about and how anyone could set a standard for “how much is worth messing with”. There’s plenty of people in detention for stealing much less. Finally,does the lady’s state not have at least one TV News program with a public service “Fox 5 wants to know” reporter. Seems like stuff gets a different solution when those bright tv lights are shining.
13The use of “opt-out”, rather than “opt-in” financial schemes have been a feature of the more sketchy online
unscrupulous vendors for a long time; in this case apparently automatically signing this ‘poor granny’ up for continuing donations when she probably intended to make only one or two. [such as the button for ‘monthly donation’ is already pre-selected]
These schemes really should be restricted and regulated, but the kind of politicians she was supporting would never go for that.
Yeah, some sort of legal action should be pursued just to possibly prevent other such ripoffs from proliferating [but perhaps with an exception made for ones defrauding gullible Rethugs…].
As much as I might feel sympathy for most people scammed by skeezy grifters [like those GQPers who ripped off this granny], I just can not work up an iota of it for this particular person, 80y/o Ms. McMartin.
People who support Rethuglikans –should be– ripped off to the point of impoverishment, if this scam had drained her bank account to the point of her having to forgo food or medicine, great stuff!
14People that stupid [and inevitably malicious underneath], who are endangering all of us by supporting to any degree politicians of the ‘R’ ilk, need to be weeded out of our nation by whatever means might work, ASAP.
Nahh, no effing sympathy whatsoever for her.
No grifting goes too low for repugnanticans:
15https://www.propublica.org/article/ukraine-freedom-hospital-true-the-vote-phillips-engelbrecht