A CNN investigation reveals how deceptive political fundraising has misled hundreds of elderly Americans.

Cross-posted from “How elderly dementia patients are unwittingly fueling political campaigns” by @Domiku@beehaw.org in !usnews@beehaw.org

A CNN investigation reveals how deceptive political fundraising has misled elderly Americans into giving away millions of dollars

Excerpt:

But as dementia robbed him of his reasoning abilities, he began making online political donations over and over again — eventually telling his son he believed he was part of a network of political operatives communicating with key Republican leaders. In less than two years, the man became one of the country’s largest grassroots supporters of the Republican Party, ultimately giving away nearly half a million dollars to former President Donald Trump and other candidates. Now, the savings account he spent his whole life building is practically empty.

The story of this unlikely political benefactor is one of many playing out across the country.

More than 1,000 reports filed with government agencies and consumer advocacy groups reviewed by CNN, along with an analysis of campaign finance data and interviews with dozens of contributors and their family members, show how deceptive political fundraisers have victimized hundreds of elderly Americans and misled those battling dementia or other cognitive impairments into giving away millions of dollars — far more than they ever intended. Some unintentionally joined the ranks of the top grassroots political donors in the country as they tapped into retirement savings and went into debt, contributing six-figure sums through thousands of transactions.

I really hate the “interactive” stories like this where they spoon feed you details as you scroll, but about 1/3 down is the actual article.

  • Carrolade@lemmy.worldEnglish
    42·
    21 days ago

    I dunno, I’ve seen quite a bit of investment into green energy recently, along with regulation on corporations. Just the other day the FTC made a new rule to make opting out of subscriptions easier. That is not a pro-corporate position. Now, I’ll grant they’re not communist, they do still associate with corporations. That may be a fools errand in the end, but power is power and corporations have an enormous amount.

    It’s also a bit doomerist to think we’re actually doomed still on climate, the end to that one isn’t written yet.

    • basmati@lemmus.orgEnglish
      26·
      21 days ago

      That investment into green energy was paired with the largest ever increase in domestic oil drilling permits, while flirting with announcements to tariff Chinese made solar and wind power in addition to the tariffs on cheap EVs from China to protect Tesla.

      To your second point Florida was just hit twice this year by once in a millenia hurricanes, and Floridians want to rebuild and most polling gives Republicans a win in all levels of government there. And Floridia, for once, isn’t that special. If scotus didn’t remove abortion protection Americans would vote for even more rapid climate change, instead of mostly rapid climate change.

      • Carrolade@lemmy.worldEnglish
        23·
        21 days ago

        Yeah, I’m not super happy about drilling permits.

        Tbf, it probably wouldn’t be too bright to allow China to do to our EV manufacturers (not just Tesla, all of them) what happened to our domestic steel mills. This is a case where I think some tariffs are reasonable.

        Gonna take a lot more than hurricanes to doom us. We are a horrendously robust animal, if you look at our history. QoL decline and ensuing political instability? Sure.