(It used to take me a while to do these threads, but now I can blow through them pretty quickly by searching what I tweeted last time Google contributed to the same people.)
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Most US corporations who have a PAC take care to balance giving across both parties, but the donations are very much targeted—Google does not give across the board, but to politicians who will advance its overriding interest of avoiding any regulation whatsoever.
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PACs are also not an unsavory but unavoidable fact of life in American business. Neither Apple nor IBM has a corporate PAC, and they seem to eke out a living.
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The money for Google's PAC comes from voluntary employee donations, but how it is spent is decided by Google's office of Public Policy, headed by a former senior official in the Bush Administration, Karan Bhatia.
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All screenshots in this thread are from Google's latest public FEC filing, which also contains a list of all donors. If you work at Google, you can reach out to coworkers on the list and make sure they know how their paycheck deduction is being spent. https://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/648/202008209261558648/202008209261558648.pdf …
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Finally, it's important to understand that the financial relationship between Google and Congress is deep, but flows almost entirely the other way. Search any of their names and you'll hit a Google ad. The contributions are best seen as a friendly rebate to ensure future business
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Previously: https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/1285424999256322051 … Previously: https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/1267216964486758400 … Previously: https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/1223492424133226497 … And so on. Just search "Google donation" for years of my tilting at this particular windmill.
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End of conversation
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