Big Win, Big Decision, Big Mistake? We need your help. In a new special report, the Center for Public Integrity investigated the role the U.S. Chamber of Commerce plays in lobbying on behalf of the interests of foreign companies. Read the story and you will see that the Chamber has been taking on a more activist role in lobbying for foreign governments and business interests. Join us to let the U.S. Chamber of Commerce know that there are consequences for its pro-foreign lobbying efforts. Please join us. The Center for Public Integrity is a non-profit investigative news organization in Washington, D.C. The Bigger Picture Our Democracy is Under Attack from Big Money and Dark Money. Can it Last? What Should Our Next President and Congress Do to Counter the Corrosive Power of Dark Money and Big Money in Our Democracy? There are two stories of big money in our politics, but their implications are the same. One story is about the dark money super PACs that raise millions to influence elections. The other story is about the corporate and special interest groups whose millions of dollars buy policy and politics without anyone knowing who is providing the money. With few exceptions, our democratic system of “one person one vote” is under attack by the super PACs and shadow groups that are funding an unprecedented effort to rig our democracy for their own wealth and power. Join us to find out if America can stand up to the power of big money in politics. For this webinar, Center for Public Integrity President & CEO, Richard M. Smith, will take a deep dive into the data and trends behind one of the dark money movement’s key weapons, 501(c)(4) groups – which are legally allowed to hide their donors from public view. Register here for this discussion that you don’t want to miss. You can find it on CPILive’s ‘webcasts’ page. There is a “dark money” campaign to reverse Americans’ growing support for the government’s responsibility to protect the public against dangerous drugs. Donors are funding advocacy groups that have promoted drug overdoses as “a public health issue, not a crime problem.” The campaign’s goal: convince the public that there is no need for tougher drugs laws because government will solve the problem with the overdose antidote, Narcan. The real goal of this campaign: shifting the focus from the need to change how society uses drugs to how the government should prevent more drugs deaths through “more law enforcement and arrests.” A look behind the public relations mask that this campaign wears reveals its true intentions. In order to deceive the public about what the government should do to protect public safety, this campaign has to get the public to ignore what drugs laws could and should do to save lives. Join us for this special investigative webcast to learn how the drugs policy in your town has been turned upside down. On February 26, the National Association of Counties released its 2016 Drug Enforcement Survey, providing information about more than 12,000 counties in the United States. The survey’s key findings reveal how drugs policies in different parts of the country are changing. Among the report’s most important findings: The number of drug arrests across the country declined 21% between 2007 and 2014; Drug arrests in the largest urban counties fell 30% between 2007 and 2014. The drug war is an ugly business. It is not only tearing our communities apart with needless incarceration and mass incarceration, it is also ruining the lives of some of our best and brightest people. Young people in our communities are dying from what the government says they should be taking. Yet more than 60,000 Americans die every year from an overdose. Do we really want to turn back the clock on how we deal with this crisis? Join us to find out. Help Us Tell the Story Share your story by becoming a member of the Center for Public Integrity. You can also help your community, share your community or find a cause you can support. Help Us Tell the Story Share your story by becoming a member of the Center for Public Integrity. You can also help your community, share your community or find a cause you can support. How You Can Help How You Can Help How You Can Help How You Can Help How You Can Help How You Can Help How You Can Help How You Can Help How You Can Help How You Can Help How You Can Help How You Can Help How You Can Help “The mission of our foundation is to fight back against the growing wave of deceptions and fabrications being perpetrated on the American people by the nation’s elite and its media.” – David Rockefeller, Co-Chair, Council on Foreign Relations, 2009 (as reported by The Agenda with Steve Paikin, Canada’s CBC) “One of the tasks of the leadership of the country is not only to set the goals, but also to provide ideas for the population that it is going to lead to take them.” – Josef Stalin, dictator of the Soviet Union and first premier of the Soviet Union, 1932 “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” – President Franklin D. Roosevelt (on the radio), 1936 “The task of education is not to fill the young generation with information but to help them to see that they are being deceived every minute of their lives.” – George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair), dystopian author, 1945 “Never believe anything until it has been officially denied.” – Dr. Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defense, 1974 As long as Americans in this country are kept from knowing what our government and its intelligence agencies are really doing in their name, there will be a tendency toward authoritarianism on our part. – George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair) When you read the following quotes, ask yourself: How many of our elected leaders have had such experiences? Could you trust your nation’s leaders if they were as ignorant as President Dwight D. Eisenhower? And what, if anything, did our government do to prevent the harm that resulted from Eisenhower’s ignorant leadership? Did it even know it was happening? Or does it still? The American people do not control their government or media. This report will highlight how these two institutions operate in service to a select few – the power elite. With the support of the mass media, they are selling their propaganda for profit by keeping us divided and controlled. Our nation’s democracy is under siege by a powerful elite whose goal is to protect their power and position at any cost. And it’s not working. Many Americans are feeling more mistrust of government and the mass media than ever. If we do not reverse this decline in public trust soon, we may not even be able to elect a President who reflects our values. The following quotes are from the mass media in our country. Many of the elite who control the mass media attended the same elite schools, have the same pedigrees, and are cut from the same cloth. They are, for the most part, members of the same club. When one of these members gets elected to a powerful government post, the others are never far behind. “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” – Winston Churchill “The American people are too much informed and the information is spread around too much and people are too smart.” – John F. Kennedy (then a U.S. Senator) “The people don’t know what they’re doing.” – Lyn