The Dark Money Game

Luridly titled, in two parts, most likely to offer micro- and macro- views of the subject, this is on illicit, shady financing of the political machine. In the great American narrative tradition we swoop in to investigate.

In the first part we zoom in on a corner of Ohio state politics to find local legislators running a scheme; thwarting a referendum in return for huge bribes from the local energy company. This is incidentally uncovered when FBI wiretaps are set up for another reason.

The second installment is the story of far right-wingers, the Federalist Society, trying to usurp the Supreme Court, a perhaps 30 year scheme that is by now well documented and climaxed with the Merrick Garland fiasco.

This last part surveys a much broader swath, covering the alliance of religious zealots, big business, and corrupt officials, including SC justices. We're shown documents that advertise influence and proximity to judges for right-wing mega donors; a lot of it boggles the mind that it has transpired so, including the bribes paid to judge Thomas.

It boggles the mind that so much effort by a small group of extremists, an immense amount of it in slow, inglorious beginnings attended by handfuls, long before the recent triumphs of the Federalist Society, would yield the fruits it did for a whole country, to no real tangible benefit for people. Other than foisting a belief system and, of course, helping line the pockets of the already rich.

The weasely Ohio scheme makes this even more clear; these people could really use the bribes, the fancy car and renovated kitchen, and thought that maybe this time, as probably a countless times before, no one's watching. What's the harm?

But now put yourself in their shoes and, whether they get away with it or not, imagine the anxiety and sense of a persnickety life entailed with having to scheme like this. They may be well-off eventually (in this case not), but is this a happy life? Is Clarence Thomas, vacationing in a brand new camper truck that he knows was bought by influencer money for him, in anticipation of future favors, happier on it than not?

Outrage at the illicty of it all is one response, but tonight I found myself laughing at the smallness of it.

As Episode 1 of "The Dark Money Game" (2025 release; 2 episodes of 115 min each), we get "Ohio Confidential", a blistering indictment of how dark money has poisoned the wells of Ohio GOP politics, leading to the largest bribery scandal in the state's history. I am a longtime (3+ decades) resident of Ohio and was generally familiar with this, but seeing all the details as laid out clearly in this documentary only made it worse.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from writer-producer-director (and Oscar winning) Alex Gibney, possibly THE documentarian of this generation. Episode 2 is titled "Wealth of the Wicked", and the theme running through both episodes is the long-term catastrophic consequences of the Citizens United decision by the US Supreme Court in 2010. Now 15 years later, it has become the all-encompassing monster of politics, where unlimited money by unknown donors dominate politics on all levels. Just look at what has become of Ohio. For decades and decades a bell-weather state. Now, with the Ohio GOP's relentless and extreme gerrymandering of voting districts, the Ohio GOP controls everything, and blatantly and brazenly disregards Ohio Supreme Court rulings that it does not like. And get this: the Ohio Speaker of the House, found guilty on all charges (and currently serving 20 years in jail) was nevertheless re-elected in his voting district (and promptly kicked out of the House). If you are for democracy and accountability and transparency and honesty, I can almost guarantee you that this movie will get under your skin and make you very, very upset and frustrated. Kudos to Gibney and the rest of his team for the thorough examination and exposure of the facts.

"The Dark Money Game" premiered on HBO earlier this week, and is now also streaming on Max, where I caught this. If you have any interest in politics and in particular the dark powers being it all, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

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Checked out this new HBO 'documentary'. Supposedly about the influence of dark money on the political system, all it turned out to be is another piece of leftist propaganda.

Frankly I expected better from Gibney, but I'm not surprised as he bought into the Russian influence hoax, perpetuated by killary.

The decline has been gradual, but he has fallen far since his outstanding documentary about Enron: the smartest guys in the room.

He should stick with neutral material, like It Might Get Loud, which is a great film about contempary guitarists and their influence on modern rock and roll.

This is a one star, as I can't rate it zero.

Ignore dfhering (just more leftist propaganda), he clearly consumes faux news and believes anything the felonious president lies about.

Probably because the majority of corruption cases are Republicans. But money doesn't choose sides. It takes over, like the current crop of Oligarchs.

Part one: Ohio Confidential looks at former Governor of Ohio Larry Householders corruption and racketeering conviction.

And the prevalence of Dark money above and beyond the billions of "legal donations".

The US should have tightened the laws when they had the chance, now it is unlikely to ever return to democratic process, even if it was only for show.

Hopefully eye-opening for the naive, MSM consuming public.

If this documentary had been about state politics in Illinois, California, Washington State. The result would have been the same. But HBO is not interested in those states because their agenda is about exposing the right. Every crooked politician regardless of party is a scumbag so it's worth watching to educate yourself about campaign finance, redistricting etc. No issue when facts are laid out bare and of course I welcome opinion by those interviewed. But the production trickery turns what should be an educational documentary into a Michael Moore production. Case in point, episode 1 opening scene. Pro abortion protestors outside and inside the state house. The narrator explains how over 60% of Ohio voters approve of abortion but the legislation is majority Republican and pass some of the strictest abortion laws in the country. Then goes on to say that these republican lawmakers are all smiling and laughing it up at the expense of the protestors while the camera pans to these lawmakers smiling and laughing.....it's obvious this did not happen during proceedings. It was either before or after as lawmakers were chatting with their colleagues. Watch it. Judge for yourself.