This year we ramped up our blogging activity to bring you punchier hits of LittleSis research and analysis, covering topics that span energy, defense, finance, policy, and government. Be sure to subscribe to Eyes on the Ties in 2014! With no further ado, the top 10 Eyes on the Ties posts of 2013: …
Gin Armstrong
Posts by Gin Armstrong
2013 in review: the year of frackademics, defense profiteers, and twittlesis
2013 has been a great year for the Public Accountability Initiative. Our investigations on issues ranging from corrupt greenwashing efforts to on-air war profiteers garnered major media coverage and delivered real impact. We ramped up our blogging activity. We moved into a new office in our home base of Buffalo and added two awesome staff …
Banking on think tanks
Last week Jon Cowan, president of think tank Third Way, and Jim Kessler, Third Way’s senior vice president for policy, co-authored a Wall Street Journal op-ed blasting Senator Elizabeth Warren’s progressive economic agenda as irresponsible and even reckless. Third Way’s position should come as no surprise to those familiar with the think tank. Just a …
What’s in a name: Corporate spy-for-hire Palantir of “Team Themis”
This week Whitney revealed that many of the firms hired to infiltrate nonprofit organizations on behalf of corporations have their own revolving door of former government intelligence personel from CIA, NSA, DOJ, and more. These firms were identified in an exhaustive Center for Corporate Policy report, Spooky Business, which included a particular story about a …
This Town grows: The unique and all too usual story of Kurt Bardella
Monday New York Times journalist and This Town author Mark Leibovich tweeted: #ThisTown writes itself / “@politico: Kurt Bardella’s firm hires 2 Trey Radel staffers following leave from Congress: http://t.co/gK4sE5IVCc — Mark Leibovich (@MarkLeibovich) November 25, 2013 For those who have been spared the tawdry details of This Town, Kurt Bardella was California Rep Darrell …
A small watchdog research team committed itself to regular blog posts on the powers that be. You will not believe what happened next.
Since our last Eyes on the Ties roundup we’ve continued to cover a wide spectrum of news and events with original research using the LittleSis database. Topping this roundup once again is J.P. Morgan, which sealed it’s $13 billion dollar bargain settlement deal with the Department of Justice. You may recall Kevin’s post on the …
LittleSis pro-tip: Make a list, check it twice
From the 10 most important mustaches of Tumblr to 23 lies you tell yourself to feel like a grown up (guilty), listicles and ranked groupings are increasingly escaping the confines of teen magazines and buzzfeed and entering the news arena. After reading Bloomberg’s recently released “Bloomberg’s Best (and worst): Highest-Paid at Companies that Lost Money in …
Tax breaks sweeten JPMorgan’s record-setting settlement with DOJ
In a recent post, Kevin examined the revolving door between JPMorgan and the Department of Justice team charged with negotiating its record-breaking settlement. He concluded that the DOJ attorneys would likely be rewarded in the private sector for their roles in the JPMorgan deal, leaving democracy to foot the bill for their soft negotiations. That same …
Environmental Defense Fund greenwashing: Walmart edition
Today Grist released an article on the Environmental Defense Fund’s (EDF) extensive ties to Walmart and the Walton family. $66 million ties to be exact. According to the article these high-dollar contributions from the Walton Family Foundation bought Walmart some serious green cred as EDF, a prominent environmental group with a names that suggests a …
Warning: This expert will profit from this testimony
Last week the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence held a dual panel hearing on potential changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which would include efforts to increase transparency. In my rundown on the panelists last week I mentioned that Chertoff Group Senior Advisor Paul Rosenzweig was originally slated to testify, but bowed out due …
Roundup: JPMorgan, FISA, StartUp New York, and the return of frackademia
The Eyes on the Ties blog has been popping with posts lately and addressing the latest in the news cycle. Kicking off this roundup is Kevin’s research into the negotiating table at JPMorgan as it reached a tentative $13 billion settlement with the Department of Justice. Turns out that negotiating table is little more than …
Testimonies on transparency: House Intel Committee weighs FISA changes with two panels
Today the House Intelligence Committee will address “Potential Changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)” which would include efforts to increase transparency. The opening hearing with be comprised of two panels. On the first, the usual suspects (household names by now): Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper; DOJ Deputy Attorney General, James Cole; NSA Director, …