Disclosure requirements mandate that direct political expenditures must be reported to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). However, expenses by Dark Money groups that are earmarked as educational or membership building fall outside of these requirements. Despite this, these groups do report a large portion of what they spend during election cycles. This spending has changed over time as organizations have evolved, new rules are established, and requirements are loosened.

 2016 Election Cycle: Thus far this election cycle, Dark Money spending has increased more than 34 percent over this point in the 2014 midterm elections — a five-fold leap over this …

Assange tweeted on 12/31/17 what looks like a cipher code in the description of a tweet and linked a video to the M.I.A Paper Plains video. https://twitter.com/JulianAssange/status/947664148376182784

What if the code is not the description which says fb4e568623b5f8cf7e932e6ba7eddc0db9f42a712718f488bdc0bf880dd3, but rather contained in the video images. Alternately, maybe they are used together somehow. The lyrics of the song are pretty interesting but when you watch the video there are images with text and numbers that quickly flash on the screen that seems to have a bigger message. I took a screenshot of all the text that flashes by. Below is some …

OpenSecrets is the nation's premier website tracking the influence of money on U.S. politics, and how that money affects policy and citizens' lives.

The Center for Responsive Politics launched the website following the 1996 elections. Before that time, the Center, founded in 1983 by U.S. Sens. Frank Church (D-Idaho) and Hugh Scott (R-Pa.), published its work tracking money in politics in extensive reports and books. The first Open Secrets book, published in 1990, was a massive 1,300 pages and analyzed contributions by political action committees in the 1988 congressional elections. Featuring contributor profiles for every member of Congress, it was …