Rick Claypool

Rustbelt-raised corporate power researcher for @Public_Citizen. he/him

[Rick Claypool @RickClaypool]

NEW from @Public_Citizen:

Corporate money in the 2026 midterms has reached an unprecedented $737 million, October filings show.

That's up 60% from the 2024 presidential election (the previous record) and 40% of ALL corporate political spending since Citizens United.

[Public Citizen @Public_Citizen]

NEW LAWSUIT: We are taking legal action to freeze the development of advanced AI systems at Google, Anthropic, SpaceXSI, OpenAI & Meta.

AI companies continue to release new systems they cannot control despite serious risks.

The court must intervene before disaster strikes.

[Public Citizen @Public_Citizen]

Think 11 of y’all forgot to get to work last night.

[Aaron Regunberg @AaronRegunberg]

Elon Musk spent over $100 million in Texas fearmongering against trans folks to lose by double digits because NOBODY CARED.

Democrats, you have zero — none, nada, ZERO — justification for throwing trans folks under the bus. Attack billionaires, not trans people.

[Aaron Regunberg @AaronRegunberg]

Here is @Public_Citizen's statement on the (mostly) Republican bill to eviscerate America's most important environmental laws.

[Rohit Chopra @ChopraUSA]

While most people are focused on big changes in Washington, D.C., be sure to pay attention to the people who won elections to key state offices. State Attorneys General and Commissioners will play a big role in cracking down on high costs and corruption.

I've been connecting with many of them to learn more about their plans. State Attorneys General are looking to defend the rights of consumers when it comes to corporate pricing practices and financial abuses.

Commissioners overseeing utilities and insurance companies want to do more to scrutinize big rate increases that are subject to their approval. Many realize they have a lot of existing laws on the books and that they can change the status quo.

We already know that federal regulators and enforcers are ignoring rampant wrongdoing that makes life more expensive. We now have more opportunities for states to work together to take on big problems affecting people's pocketbooks and their daily lives.

[House Judiciary Dems @HouseJudiciary]

As America’s new Congress gets ready to launch real oversight over this lawless president and the entire executive branch and all of the corruption flowing through and around them, we offer this word of advice to the wise in both the government and private sectors: don't start shredding documents, deleting emails or engaging in any other kind of obstruction of justice or destruction of evidence.

It will make matters a lot worse for you in Congress and in the courts.

[Public Citizen @Public_Citizen]

UPDATE: A federal judge temporarily blocked construction of Trump's massive vanity arch for 14 days.

The judge agreed with us that the arch cannot be lawfully built without congressional approval.

[Rick Claypool @RickClaypool]

@davidzmorris Crypto at least could be ignored if you weren’t interested. AI they have tried to shove down everyone’s throats

[Rick Claypool @RickClaypool]

@TylerGellasch 😂

[Basel Musharbash @musharbash_b]

THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS

[Gary Marcus @GaryMarcus]

I have been warning about this for nearly two years.

no bailouts!

[Molly White @molly0xFFF]

Similarly, here’s the OpenAI- and Andreessen Horowitz-backed Leading the Future pro-AI super PAC network’s “20 of 21 races”.

[Molly White @molly0xFFF]

If you spend $200K each on ads that never mention crypto for 9 candidates who were guaranteed to win, and $64M on one competitive race which your candidate loses, you don’t get to claim your “90% win rate” proves Americans support your industry’s political goals.

[Molly White @molly0xFFF]

PSA: It’s journalistic malpractice to quote a tech super PAC claiming a voter mandate because its candidates won “29 of 32” general election races without checking how many of those races were competitive.

(Chart: Fairshake’s “victory”; 81% of money backed candidates who lost)

[Rick Claypool @RickClaypool]

@edzitron @GarrisonLovely We’ve got the receipts https://t.co/MbsGA2qiyg

[Alvaro Bedoya @BedoyaUSA]

Dear dozens of new economic populist members of Congress,

You’ll face fast pressure to deliver economic results. How to do it? Subpoena CEOs. A shocking amount of time, they'll change what they are doing long before you pass a bill or actually cut off their federal funding. So:

- Subpoena Google for cramming AI down our kids throats. Threaten to amend the FAR to prohibit contracting across the U.S. government with any company forcing kids to use AI.

- Subpoena the private equity managers enshittifying hospitals, dialysis centers, your local vet, your local primary care provider. Name individuals, not just companies. Shame them. Show the public (and public pension funds) how they make their money.

- Subpoena health insurers who use AI to auto-deny valid claims, triage mental health emergencies, or upcode diagnoses. Make them stop that.

- Subpoena the airlines for systematically denying cash refunds to travelers. (“Here’s a voucher instead!”) Show your hand – threaten the subpoena now, before Thanksgiving.

- Subpoena Brazilian meatpacker JBS for literally anything. For child labor, for getting fat and rich off of cattlemen, for making their workers work so fast their hands curl into claws, for persistent hygiene allegations.

- Subpoena corporate landlords. Show the public how they get rich off of hidden fees and not fixing their apartments.

- Subpoena any company that has been slow to issue tariff refunds to small business owners. I bet they’ll get their checks a lot quicker!

Will it work? See what happened when Instacart was exposed as secretly marking up your grocery cart... Yes, it can work.

P.S. If anyone tells you “No, you can’t do that” or “No, there’s a process for that,” ignore them. You know what time it is.

[Rick Claypool @RickClaypool]

!!!

[Saikat Chakrabarti @saikatc]

This is what all the State Legislatures are looking like.

Dems now have the power to pass the National Voter Compact to effectively abolish the Electoral College.

[Public Citizen @Public_Citizen]

We're suing the Pentagon.

Pete Hegseth's Project Meridian committee is stacked with defense contractors like Elon Musk & Palmer Luckey.

They can line their pockets by pushing for increased defense spending on AI.

This illegal committee is a major conflict of interest.

[Molly White @molly0xFFF]

Crypto and AI super PACs spent $250 million on the midterms. In competitive races, their candidates got clobbered: nine losses out of 12 called so far, including Ohio, where crypto spent $64 million and still couldn’t beat Sherrod Brown.

[Rick Claypool @RickClaypool]

@AaronRegunberg @DavidMoralesPVD hell yeah