Tea at Trianon: Swiss Billionaire’s Mega-Influence On U.S. Politics

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, June 2, 2022

Swiss Billionaire’s Mega-Influence On U.S. Politics

From Real Clear Politics:

The book, titled “Hansjörg Wyss: My Brother,” was published in 2014. That same year, the then-Swiss Ambassador Martin Dahinden called the manuscript “a rare opportunity” for “a closer look” at an extraordinary life. The ambassador told a crowd at his diplomatic residence in D.C. that the Wyss story bore “a striking resemblance with what we all know as ‘The American Dream.’” Both siblings were sitting in the audience that night according to the Swiss embassy: Wyss, the author, and Wyss, the billionaire.

As the New York Times noted in a story about Wyss a year ago, foreign nationals without permanent residency are forbidden from donating directly to federal political candidates or political action committees. They have not, however, been barred from giving to groups that seek to influence public policy. A watchdog group, meanwhile, has filed suit over that distinction.

“Americans for Public Trust is suing the FEC for failing to investigate foreign money in our elections,” Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, told the Hill in April. “Mr. Wyss, who is barred from directly or indirectly influencing our elections, has done just that by potentially funneling hundreds of millions of dollars through the Arabella Advisors network to benefit liberal and left-wing causes. Until the FEC takes action, we won’t know the full extent of his foreign interference in our electoral process.”

A spokesperson for the Wyss Foundation and Berger Action Fund, two Washington-based groups founded by Wyss, declined to speak to the question of his citizenship or the nature of his political spending other than to say that both organizations “expressly prohibit their grant recipients from using grant funds to support or oppose political candidates or parties.”

The spokesperson added that the Wyss Foundation “invests in conservation, economic opportunity, medical advancements, and the arts” while the Berger Action Fund “centers its work around advocating for policy solutions to solve some of our world’s biggest problems: the biodiversity and climate crises, income inequality, and health disparities.”

According to the New York Times, Wyss has channeled his donations through “a daisy chain of opaque organizations that mask the ultimate recipients of his money.” The two aforementioned groups, the Times reported, have provided $162 million in recent years to the New Venture Fund and the Sixteen Thirty Fund. (Read more.)