The names on Biden's Inaugural Committee donor list should scare the shit out of everyone

What do bankers, defense companies, venture capitalists, private equity firms, telecom industries, intelligence community drones, and economic hitmen gain from donating to the Biden administration?

Under the cover of a Saturday evening, the Biden Inaugural Committee dropped a comprehensive list of contributors over $200 to the 59th Presidential Inaugural activities. While a casual scroll down the gargantuan stack of names immediately shines a light on the usual corporate donors - Comcast, Boeing, Google, Microsoft, Verizon - the individual names themselves seem relatively benign.

That is, those names start getting plugged into a search engine.

Starting from A and working my way to Z, I cross-checked every single name on the donor list to see who they are and what their background is. Some are filmmakers or musicians, others are healthcare professionals or the expected Hollywood celebrities - Barbara Streisand and Martha Stewart, to name just a few. But many of the names should set off alarm bells and raise serious concerns.

Have a look and judge for yourself what you think about some of these folks, and then take a moment to consider what the next 4-8 years might be like based on the kinds of people throwing their money at Biden and expecting a return on their investment.

Bharat Bhise - CEO and Founder of Bravia Capital, a privately held, family-owned private equity investment firm, who “spent nearly three decades as an investor and portfolio manager operating both in Hong Kong and on the mainland.”

Arthur Blank - Co-Founder of Home Depot, a company notorious for union busting

Richard Blum - Husband of Dianne Feinstein, the Senator from California who also happens to be a fan of NSA spying programs. In 2007, Feinstein was caught voting for US military appropriations worth billions to her husband's firms.

Bill Brock - Chair of the Republican National Committee from 1977 to 1980 and one of the founders of the National Endowment for Democracy, an organization described by former Rep. Ron Paul in 2003 as “nothing more than a costly program that takes US taxpayer funds to promote favored politicians and political parties abroad.”

James Cox Chambers - Billionaire with an estimated 17% stake in media conglomerate Cox Enterprises, one of the largest private telecom companies in the US.

Merle Chambers - Former oil and natural gas CEO of Axem Resources Inc

Bill Conner - Described on his LinkedIn profile as a “staunch supporter of public-private cybersecurity partnership” who “regularly shares expertise with global financial, enterprise and government leaders.”

Jean-Pierre Conteis - Chairman of Genstar Capital, a private equity firm

Daniel Crocker - Described on his LinkedIn profile as “an accomplished diplomat” responsible for promoting “America's economic security by increasing US exports, removing market barriers for US companies, and expanding European investment in America.” Crocker has performed “diplomatic assignments” in Spain, Panama, Brazil, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic and boasts of being “Top Secret/SCI eligible” - which is a type of clearance “often associated with the intelligence community”.

Ryan Ehly - Former “senior consultant” at Booz Allen Hamilton, a company that has been wrapped up in numerous scandals, including one involving the deliberate manipulation of social media networks, and also NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s former employer.

Stuart E. Eizenstat - An “ambassador” who focuses on “international trade problems and business disputes” with the US and foreign governments, and “international business transactions and regulations” on behalf of US companies.

William B. Evans - Former city of Boston Police Commissioner

Una Fox - Head of Business Data and Insight at Union Bank. According to American Banker, while working at Disney, Una Fox “led the creation of a digital and analytics system to support Walt Disney International's brand and marketing teams.” Additionally, she “managed business and technology teams at Yahoo before working for Walt Disney. She also consulted for global brands like Microsoft, Cisco, Qwest, Google and AT&T while at KPMG Consulting.”

Avis Frazier-Thomas - Intellectual property consultant at Warner Brothers

Chris D Gleason - Vice President of Goldman Sachs

Taylor Hanex - Senior Financial Advisor, Senior Vice President at Merrill Lynch

Pamela Heller - Vice President at ABC Studios

Arvi Jeffery - Senior Engineer at Boeing

John C. Kornblum - According to his profile on the Center for Strategic and International Studies - a think tank which receives contributions from weapons manufacturers - Kornlbum is “an eminent expert on U.S.-European political and economic relations, in particular in Central and Eastern Europe” who “occupied a number of high-level” diplomatic posts.

James Andrew Lewis - Senior Vice President and Director of the Strategic Technologies Program for Center for Strategic and International Studies

Alan Leventhal - founder of Beacon Capital Partners, one of the largest real estate investment trusts in the US

Jeffery Puschell - Principal Engineering Fellow at Raytheon

Arnold L. Punaro - Former Chairman of the National Defense Industrial Association, “the country’s largest defense industry association with over 1,600 corporate and nearly 70,000 individual members”. Currently, he is a consultant "for a broad array of Fortune 100 companies” and has been recognized by Defense News as “one of the 100 most influential individuals” in the defense industry.

William Webster - FBI Director, and later, CIA Director, under Reagan

These individuals didn’t donate to Biden out of the sheer goodness of their hearts; they did so because they expect something in return, therefore begging the obvious question: What do bankers, defense companies, venture capitalists, private equity firms, telecom industries, intelligence community drones, and economic hitmen gain from donating to the Biden administration?

More handouts to corporations and more coup attempts - particularly in Latin America - would be my guess, but we’ll know for sure soon enough.