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Showing posts with label JOEL GREENBERG. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JOEL GREENBERG. Show all posts

Thursday, January 27, 2022

RSN: Bess Levin | RFK Jr. Suggests Anne Frank Led a Charmed Life Compared to What Anti-Vaxxers Are Forced to Go Through

 

 

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27 January 22

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Anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., apologized Tuesday for suggesting things are worse for people today than they were for Anne Frank. (photo: Getty)
Bess Levin | RFK Jr. Suggests Anne Frank Led a Charmed Life Compared to What Anti-Vaxxers Are Forced to Go Through
Bess Levin, Vanity Fair
Levin writes: "A general rule that reasonable people are aware of in the year 2022 is that when complaining about something that is not actual genocide, you should avoid equating it with the Holocaust."

He conveniently failed to mention Frank famously died in a concentration camp at the age of 15.

A general rule that reasonable people are aware of in the year 2022 is that when complaining about something that is not actual genocide, you should avoid equating it with the Holocaust. Is the thing that you want to suggest is just like the Holocaust the systematic murder of millions of people from a specific religious or ethnic group? Is it a policy of mass extermination through concentration camps, mass shootings, and gas chambers? Great news, you can compare it to the Holocaust. But what if it’s really not like any of that? Let’s say it’s merely a conversation about taxing the rich. Or a whiny complaint about people allegedly being mean to the 1 percent. Or any minor inconvenience that the majority of the population handles without throwing a massive hissy fit. If that’s the case, we’re sorry to report that you’re going to have to come up with a Holocaust-free analogy.

Unfortunately, the people who are somehow unaware of this rule, or know about it and don’t care, appear to be the loudest. Take Robert F. Kennedy Jr., also known as the living embodiment of the lesser-known phrase “The apple fell extremely far from the tree.” Junior spoke at a rally against vaccine mandates over the weekend, and boy, did he take the whole “this is just like the Holocaust” line and run with it. Whereas other idiotic commentators have been content to claim that vaccine mandates are on par with Nazi-era identification policies, Junior took things several revolting steps further, and suggested Anne Frank had it better off than people being asked to get a life-saving inoculation.

“Even in Hitler Germany [sic], you [could] cross the Alps into Switzerland. You could hide in an attic, like Anne Frank did,” he told the crowd assembled at the Lincoln Memorial. “I visited, in 1962, East Germany with my father and met people who had climbed the wall and escaped, so it was possible. Many died, true, but it was possible.”

There is truly so much to unpack here, the least of all being that Frank and her family hid in the Netherlands, not Germany. Beyond that though, Junior’s assertion that Jewish people living in Europe circa the Holocaust had it better than anti-vaxxers residing in the U.S. is one of the most insane things we’ve heard in some time. “Even in Hitler Germany”? Does he hear the words coming out of this mouth? No one should ever say “Even in Hitler Germany” unless the next thing they say is “actually, wait, almost nothing is as bad as Hitler Germany. How embarrassing that I was about to suggest otherwise.” We also love that Junior is willing to concede that people lost their lives during the Holocaust (“many died, true”), but wants to stress that at least some people made it (“it was possible”). In his mind, such odds are apparently better than living under a regime that is not actually doing anything other than trying to get more people vaccinated for their own safety and for the good of society. Finally, we’re pretty sure that if an anti-vaxxer wants to hide in an attic somewhere, no one is going to go looking for them, let alone drag them out and send them to a concentration camp. In fact, many people refusing to get vaccinated are living perfectly happy lives at the moment and are not in fear of anything, let alone being murdered. Speaking of which, does Junior know what happened to Anne Frank at the end of her time in the attic? Because he strangely glossed over that.

In response to RFK’s comments, the Auschwitz Memorial tweeted, “Exploiting of the tragedy of people who suffered, were humiliated, tortured … murdered by the totalitarian regime of Nazi Germany - including children like Anne Frank - in a debate about vaccines … limitations during global pandemic is a sad symptom of moral … intellectual decay.”

Unfortunately, Junior seemingly had an extremely receptive audience for his historically inaccurate bullshit, since, according to CNN, he wasn‘t the only one at the rally likening the vaccine push to genocide:

Sunday’s event, billed as a protest against vaccine mandates, featured speakers repeatedly spreading misinformation about vaccines and showcased several bigoted comparisons to the Holocaust. At least one man was seen displaying a yellow Star of David, which Jews were required by law to wear as an identifier in Nazi Germany.

While language referencing totalitarianism was common throughout the speeches, references to the Holocaust were found largely on signs, one of which read, “Make the Nuremberg Code great again!” and another read, “Bring back the Nuremberg Trials.” The Nuremberg Code delineated “permissible medical experiments” on human subjects and stated that such experiments must be for the good of society and satisfy moral, ethical and legal concepts. The code was established during the prosecution of German doctors who subjected Jews to torturous medical experiments.

Another sign with clear anti-Semitic sentiments read, “Corrupt, N.I.H., Big Pharma Mafia, Big C.D.C. Cartel; Big Fraud Media: Your circumcision is dividing America! You all have foreskin-blood stained money in your thug hands!!”

Also over the weekend, conservative commentator Bari Weiss went on Bill Maher’s show to declare that she’s simply “done with COVID,” a statement that may have been less inflammatory than RFK’s comments but was equally absurd given that COVID is not actually done with us. Calling it “ridiculous” that the vaccines haven’t caused a return to completely normal, pre-pandemic life, Weiss claimed that ongoing public health restrictions, like vaccine mandates and mask policies, will be “remembered by the younger generation as a catastrophic moral crime.” A moral crime! She then claimed that many of her “liberal and progressive” friends agree with her but are too afraid to say so out of worry they will be “smeared” as anti-vaxxers, Trump supporters, or science-deniers.

In response to Weiss’s temper tantrum, CNN medical analyst Jonathan Reiner tweeted: “I’m glad she’s done with it but 3600 Americans died yesterday and over 860k have died in the last 2 years. Yes you were told that vaccines would bring us out of this but 25% of this country refuse to vax. Grow up.” Later, in an interview with CNN’s Jim Acosta, Reiner put Weiss’s selfishness into perspective, noting, “my colleagues in hospitals all around the country went in to care for people dying from this virus. And continue to do that every single day…and for the first year of this pandemic, they did that without any protection of a vaccine. That’s the sacrifice they made.”

Then, in an actually apt pandemic analogy, he likened the U.S. to a sinking boat, and the measures to protect people as an effort to bail out the water. “And now we have people like Bari Weiss basically saying, ‘I’m done. I’m not bailing the water out anymore.’ And when somebody who is relatively young and relatively healthy says that, what they’re saying is: ‘I’ll be okay if I get this virus. Screw you. Doesn’t matter to me what happens to you.’ That’s the message I get from her.”


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Witness Can Confirm Matt Gaetz Was Told He Had Sex With a Minor'One of the key interactions Joel Greenberg claims to have had with Matt Gaetz is a phone call informing Gaetz that they'd been sleeping with a minor.' (photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty)


Witness Can Confirm Matt Gaetz Was Told He Had Sex With a Minor
Roger Sollenberger and Jose Pagliery, The Daily Beast
Excerpt: "One of the key interactions Joel Greenberg claims to have had with Matt Gaetz is a phone call informing Gaetz that they'd been sleeping with a minor. Someone witnessed the call."

One of the key interactions Joel Greenberg claims to have had with Matt Gaetz is a phone call informing Gaetz that they’d been sleeping with a minor. Someone witnessed the call.

On Sept. 4, 2017, according to his confession letter, Joel Greenberg called his friend Rep. Matt Gaetz with some bad news.

A teenager both men had paid to have sex with was underage, Greenberg claimed. Now, two sources tell The Daily Beast, a cooperating witness can confirm details of that call for one damning reason: He was in Greenberg’s office when the call took place.

The witness, “Big Joe” Ellicott—Greenberg’s longtime best friend and an employee at the Seminole County tax office—recently pleaded guilty to fraud and drug charges as part of a cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors.

Although Ellicott has so far avoided any charges regarding sex trafficking of a minor, which Greenberg pleaded guilty to last May, he was present for the call that Greenberg made to Gaetz on Sept. 4, according to two people briefed on the matter. The call, they said, was short—and Gaetz was the one who ended it.

While the sources did not know whether Ellicott had discussed the call with investigators, his account would likely be of critical interest, since it would match a key claim Greenberg made separately in a confession letter. That letter is now in the hands of federal agents, The Daily Beast previously revealed.

In the letter, which Greenberg wrote after his indictment in late 2020 as part of an effort to land a presidential pardon, the Orlando-area tax official claimed that he, Gaetz, and others had sex with a minor they believed to be 19 at the time. Greenberg first learned she was underage after receiving an “anonymous tip” on Sept. 4, 2017, he wrote. He then confirmed her age by improperly querying the teen’s personal information in the Florida state drivers’ license database, which he had access to as a local tax collector.

“Immediately I called the congressman and warned him to stay clear of this person and informed him she was underage,” Greenberg wrote in a handwritten draft of the letter, adding that Gaetz was “equally shocked and disturbed by this revelation.”

“There was no further contact with this individual until after her 18th birthday,” he added.

A month after The Daily Beast’s report, the same date appeared in another crucial document: Greenberg’s sworn plea agreement with the federal government. The agreement also provided what could prove to be a damning additional detail; it included not just the date, but a timestamp down to the minute of when Greenberg accessed the DMV database to look up the girl’s age—1:29 pm.

Ellicott would be able to tie the two pieces of information together.

If investigators have Greenberg’s phone records—or Gaetz’s—the metadata could confirm whether Greenberg made the alleged call “immediately” after accessing the database. But those records wouldn’t reveal what was said. Ellicott could provide that information, and confirm that Greenberg had indeed warned Gaetz, who had been first elected to Congress less than a year prior. (Federal agents seized the panhandle Republican’s phone sometime around December 2020.)

Reached on Wednesday, Ellicott’s attorneys declined to comment. Gaetz’s office did not answer questions about the congressman’s recollection of the phone call, instead repeating a statement it has issued before: “After nearly a year of false rumors, not a shred of evidence has implicated Congressman Gaetz in wrongdoing. We remain focused on our work representing Floridians.”

Ellicott had hung out in Greenberg’s friend group for years. Unlike Greenberg, however, the former sports radio shock jock turned pawn shop proprietor was never close with Gaetz, though they attended some of the same parties around the time period in question, according to numerous people familiar with them.

But Ellicott’s corroboration, if true, would contradict Gaetz’s repeated assertions that he never had sex with an underage girl as an adult. As he told The Daily Beast last March, ‘“The last time I had a sexual relationship with a seventeen year old, I was seventeen.” Instead, it would suggest that Gaetz has been aware of this fact for nearly the entirety of his time in the House of Representatives.

The claim would also cast doubt on Gaetz’s protestations that he was blindsided when The New York Times first reported the accusations in March 2021, which he initially chalked up to merely an attempt to extort him and his wealthy father. He has since confirmed the investigation.

While Greenberg claims he warned Gaetz to “steer clear” of the teen, The Daily Beast reported that eight months after the alleged warning, the congressman Venmo’d Greenberg $900 in two back-to-back payments, writing in one memo field “Hit up ___,” using a nickname for the girl.

By that time, the girl was five months past her 18th birthday. Gaetz had turned 36 earlier that week—twice her age.


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Spotify Removes Neil Young's Music After He Objects to Joe Rogan's PodcastSpotify has removed Neil Young's recordings from its streaming platform. (photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty)

Spotify Removes Neil Young's Music After He Objects to Joe Rogan's Podcast
Anastasia Tsioulcas, NPR
Tsioulcas writes: "Spotify has removed famed singer-songwriter Neil Young's recordings from its streaming platform."

Spotify has removed famed singer-songwriter Neil Young's recordings from its streaming platform.

On Monday, Young had briefly posted an open letter on his own website, asking his management and record label to remove his music from the streaming giant, as a protest against the platform's distribution of podcaster Joe Rogan. Rogan has been widely criticized for spreading misinformation about coronavirus vaccines on his podcast, which is now distributed exclusively on Spotify.

Late Wednesday, the musician posted two lengthy statements on his website, one addressing the catalyst of his request and the other thanking his industry partners.

In the first, he wrote in part: "I first learned of this problem by reading that 200-plus doctors had joined forces, taking on the dangerous life-threatening COVID falsehoods found in Spotify programming. Most of the listeners hearing the unfactual, misleading and false COVID information of Spotify are 24 years old, impressionable and easy to swing to the wrong side of the truth. These young people believe Spotify would never present grossly unfactual information. They unfortunately are wrong. I knew I had to try to point that out."

As of last week, more than 1,000 doctors, scientists and health professionals had signed that open letter to Spotify.

According to Rolling Stone, Young's original request on Monday, which was addressed to his manager and an executive at Warner Music Group, read in part: "I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines – potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them ... They can have Rogan or Young. Not both." The letter was quickly removed from Young's website.

Spotify's scrubbing of Young from its service was first reported on Wednesday afternoon by The Wall Street Journal. His removal from the streaming platform makes him one of the most popular musical artists not to appear on Spotify, where his songs have garnered hundreds of millions of streams.

In a statement sent to NPR Wednesday afternoon, a Spotify spokesperson wrote: "We want all the world's music and audio content to be available to Spotify users. With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators. We have detailed content policies in place and we've removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID since the start of the pandemic. We regret Neil's decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon."

Earlier this month, Young sold 50% of his songwriting copyrights to the U.K. investment company Hipgnosis Songs, which was founded by music industry veteran Merck Mercuriadis. Most of the recordings in Young's discography are distributed by Warner Music Group, though a handful are distributed by Universal Music Group.

In his second open letter posted late Wednesday, Young thanked those partners and acknowledged the financial hit they are taking, and said that 60% of the streaming income on his material came via Spotify. "Losing 60% of worldwide streaming income by leaving Spotify is a very big deal," Young wrote, "a costly move, but worth it for our integrity and our beliefs. Misinformation about COVID is over the line."

He continued: "I sincerely hope that other artists can make a move, but I can't really expect that to happen. I did this because I had no choice in my heart. It is who I am. I am not censoring anyone. I am speaking my own truth."

Covers of Neil Young songs by other artists remain available on Spotify.

As of Wednesday evening, no other prominent musicians had followed in Young's footsteps. Many musical artists are unhappy with Spotify for a variety of reasons — not least of which is that Spotify pays what many musicians believe is an infamously stingy royalty rate.

Still, it is the most popular audio streaming service in the world. According to the company, it has 381 million users in more than 184 countries and markets. Musicians want to meet their fans where they are, and not every artist or creator is willing to go to the lengths that Young has, in terms of putting their money where there mouths are.

Moreover, Joe Rogan's podcast is extremely valuable to Spotify: it has been the most popular one globally offered on the service for the last two years, and the exclusive distribution deal he signed with Spotify in 2020 is worth a reported $100 million.

Spotify's CEO, Daniel Ek, has said that his company isn't dictating what creators can say on its platform. In an interview with Axios last year, he said that Spotify doesn't bear editorial responsibility for Joe Rogan. In fact, Ek compared Rogan to "really well-paid rappers" on Spotify, adding: "We don't dictate what they're putting in their songs, either."


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San Jose Set to Become First US City to Make Gun Owners Get InsuranceNRA members and leaders gather in Indianapolis, Indiana, for the annual NRA Meeting. (photo: LightRocket/Getty)

San Jose Set to Become First US City to Make Gun Owners Get Insurance
Chantal Da Silva, NBC News
Da Silva writes: "San Jose, California, is set to become the first US city to enforce an ordinance requiring most gun owners to pay a fee and carry liability insurance."

Mayor Sam Liccardo said a new fee for gun owners would support “evidence-based initiatives to reduce gun violence and gun harm.”

San Jose, California, is set to become the first U.S. city to enforce an ordinance requiring most gun owners to pay a fee and carry liability insurance.

In a statement Tuesday night, Mayor Sam Liccardo said the City Council had voted in favor of both measures, which are aimed at reducing the risk of gun harm and relieving taxpayers of the financial cost of gun violence.

The council overwhelmingly approved the measures despite opposition from gun owners, who promised to sue, saying the measures would violate their Second Amendment rights. The ordinance still needs approval at a final reading next month before it can take effect in the Silicon Valley city in August.

The funds generated from the fees will be funneled into "evidence-based initiatives to reduce gun violence and gun harm," Liccardo said. The fee is expected to be around $25, Bay City News reported.

Meanwhile, having liability insurance is meant to encourage gun owners in San Jose to take safety measures, including having gun safes, installing trigger locks and taking gun safety classes.

Gun owners who do not acquire insurance, however, will not lose their guns or face criminal charges under the new rules.

"Thank you to my council colleagues who continue to show their commitment to reducing gun violence and its devastation in our community," Liccardo said.

The new measures, he said, will help build a "constitutionally compliant path to mitigate the unnecessary suffering from gun harm in our community."

He said he hoped other cities would “replicate these initiatives across the nation.”

Liccardo initially proposed the measures in June, nearly two weeks after a gunman fatally shot nine co-workers at a light rail yard in San Jose before he killed himself in an incident that made national headlines.

As Liccardo celebrated Tuesday's vote, not all were happy with the outcome.

Sam Paredes, the executive director of Gun Owners of California, said before the vote that the group would sue if the proposal went into effect. He condemned it as “totally unconstitutional in any configuration," The Associated Press reported.

Liccardo said lawyers had already volunteered to defend the city pro bono if legal action is taken.


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Arizona Latino Group Kicks Off a Campaign to Hold Kyrsten Sinema Accountable for Blocking Voting RightsSen. Kyrsten Sinema may face a primary challenge in 2024. (photo: Getty)

Arizona Latino Group Kicks Off a Campaign to Hold Kyrsten Sinema Accountable for Blocking Voting Rights
Elvia Díaz, Arizona Republic
Díaz writes: "Voto Latino has had enough of Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and is pledging to spend 'six figures' to get rid of her when she's up for re-election in 2024."

Opinion: Voto Latino is pledging to spend six figures to oust Sen. Kyrsten Sinema when she's up for re-election in 2024. Here's why the effort might work.

Voto Latino has had enough of Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and is pledging to spend “six figures” to get rid of her when she’s up for re-election in 2024.

The national grassroots political group is just the latest to pile up against Sinema, who has been formally censured by the Arizona Democratic Party’s executive committee over her support of the filibuster.

“The people of Arizona deserve a Senator willing to fight for democracy and protect the sanctity of every Americans’ vote,’’ Voto Latino’s Maria Teresa Kumar said, who announced the ¡Adios Sinema! campaign this week.

Sinema needs Democratic support to win

Voto Latino, just like the influential EMILY’s List and others who recently came out against Sinema, isn’t bluffing.

It has set up the adiossinema.org website to raise money and remind Arizonans that the first-term senator has blocked everything from voting rights to increasing the minimum hourly wage to $15 to pandemic relief for undocumented immigrants.

Sinema, who’s basking in Republican approval after she opposed changing the U.S. Senate filibuster rule, has clearly bet her future on her formidable ability to attract big donors in Arizona and elsewhere.

But she’ll need Democratic voters to get out of the primary – if she wants to stay in the U.S. Senate where its current 50-50 split gives her outsized power to shape or kill President Biden’s agenda.

She didn’t have a serious competitive primary in 2018 and went on to defeat Republican Martha McSally by 55,900 votes in the general election. That was possible thanks to a broad coalition of Arizonans, including independents, moderate Republicans and Latinos, who sweated out knocking on doors on her behalf.

She is no 'maverick' like John McCain

That won’t be the case anymore. Plus, according to Kumar, there will be another 160,000 Latinos of voting age by 2024 – adding to the already 1.1 million eligible to vote.

Others constantly remind me of Sinema’s bottomless war chest. They argue that her latest stunt actually makes her an unbeatable “maverick” just like the late Republican Sen. John McCain who was also censured by his party.

But Sinema is no John McCain and she won’t be a torchbearer of the McCain legacy – as much as she and her remaining supporters may want you to believe.

For starters, Arizona’s political landscape is dramatically different than when McCain was censured.

McCain, a Vietnam veteran prisoner of war and one-time presidential nominee, was no stranger to stiff opposition from conservatives who viewed him as too liberal. But in 2010, for example, he defeated conservative primary opponent J.D. Hayworth.

In 2014, the state’s GOP censured McCain for his “liberal record,” which hurt him but not enough to keep him from later winning the primary against Kelli Ward and the general election.

Ward, head of the Arizona Republican Party, is one of the leaders of the “Big Lie” of a stolen presidential election.

Politics have changed. Latinos could oust her

Those Republicans – the Trump loyalists and conspiracy theorists – are now the mainstream populists that hold the key to any and all statewide primaries. Neither McCain nor any other candidate would survive a GOP primary under today’s political reality without going all-in on Trump.

By contrast, the Arizona Democratic Party that censured Sinema over the weekend also reflects the broad sentiment among primary voters.

Yes, Sinema has the money to spread her message should she choose to seek re-election. But a 55,900-vote advantage isn’t unsurmountable.

That means Latino voters alone can stop her in her tracks.

Yes, there are more than two years until anyone can cast a vote against her, and that is an eternity in politics. But no money or time can stop a movement when so many have been so deeply hurt and feel betrayed.


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Hondurans Concerned Legislative Crisis Threatens New Government Led by Left-Wing Leader Xiomara CastroXiomara Castro's proposal to foster ties with Beijing has prompted concern in Washington. (photo: Jose Cabezal/Reuters)

Hondurans Concerned Legislative Crisis Threatens New Government Led by Left-Wing Leader Xiomara Castro
Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "On the eve of Xiomara Castro's inauguration as Honduras' new president, concern was on the rise among her supporters that a worsening legislative crisis could derail her campaign promises and their hope for a better future."

Xiomara Castro, a left-wing leader, is due to be sworn in on Thursday to become the country’s first female president.


On the eve of Xiomara Castro’s inauguration as Honduras’ new president, concern was on the rise among her supporters that a worsening legislative crisis could derail her campaign promises and their hope for a better future.

President-elect Castro, the country’s first female leader, is scheduled to be sworn in at midday on Thursday, ending a dozen years of governments that oversaw worsening poverty and increasing outward migration, while being accused of corruption and ties to drug traffickers.

Pressure has been growing to find a way out of a political impasse that resulted in two rival congressional leadership teams.

Seventy-two-year-old Jose Ricardo Garay travelled to the capital from his home in northwestern Honduras to witness his first inauguration, saying he was eager to see the exit of President Juan Orlando Hernandez.

“That man bothers me,” he said as he ate a tortilla filled with beans in front of the Congress on Wednesday. Garay was also unsettled by the divided Congress — the two leadership teams held simultaneous but separate sessions Tuesday — and echoed Castro that the split “was a betrayal”.

The rising concerns come after several newly elected lawmakers from Castro’s left-wing Libre party defected on Friday and elected their own congressional leader, Jorge Calix. They rejected Castro’s choice, Luis Redondo, a selection rooted in the political alliance that helped her win the election in November.

Castro called the move a “betrayal”, and said that her party had expelled the 18 lawmakers who defected. The dispute triggered chaotic scenes in Congress, prompting the United States embassy in Honduras to call for calm and dialogue.

The Latin America Working Group (LAWG), a US-based, non-profit group, said Castro is likely to face “forces of corruption” and organised crime that have infiltrated government structures as well as parts of the private sector.

“The U.S. government should work with the incoming President to fulfill her promises to end corruption and to improve the lives of Honduran citizens,” Lisa Haugaard, LAWG’s co-director, said in a statement on Tuesday.

“The Biden Administration must work closely with diverse sectors of civil society in Honduras to address the root causes of forced migration, improve the lives of the most vulnerable, and to expand the space available to Honduran citizens to exercise their rights,” she said.

US Vice President Kamala Harris is set to attend Castro’s inauguration, in a show of US support, and as an effort to find a partner in her task of finding the “root causes” of migration to the US.

Helen Euceda, a 39-year-old doctor on her way to work, said it is critical that the new government focus its attention immediately on “the health and education of the people”.

“With (Castro) in government, it is an opportunity for women, who are capable of taking on problems,” Euceda said. “It won’t be short-term, but there is an opportunity to show the ability and gender inclusion.”

Meanwhile, critics say that neither of the leadership teams was chosen or installed legally and Tiziano Breda, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, said that a quick political solution was urgently needed.

“Politically, you run the risk of provoking a legislative paralysis, where the initiatives approved by Calix are vetoed by the president or not even considered, while Redondo’s team doesn’t have the necessary votes in Congress or lacks legality,” he said.

Breda feared the crisis could extend to a third branch of the Honduran government if the dispute lands before the Supreme Court, which is viewed as friendly to the outgoing National Party of Hernandez and therefore distrusted by Hondurans who backed Castro.

The risk is that the continued uncertainty could deter badly needed international investments in Honduras, Breda said.

“At a social level, the resentment and exhaustion that drove the majority of Hondurans to vote for a change in November would be fed if they see the political class continues to be tangling up power struggles and individual interests instead of taking on the country’s urgent issues,” Breda said. “This could translate to more social turbulence and growing migration.”

That international support will be critical to Castro’s ability to begin reforming a country suffering from soaring unemployment and high rates of violence, two of the many factors that have driven Hondurans to flee the country in recent years.

According to data collected by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), more than 319,000 Hondurans were apprehended along the US-Mexico border during the fiscal year 2021 — more than any other nationality.


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US Ramps Up Its Longstanding War on Wild HorsesA livestock helicopter pilot rounds up wild horses from the Fox & Lake Herd Management Area on July 13, 2008, in Washoe County, Nev., near the town on Empire, Nevada. (photo: Brad Horn/AP)


US Ramps Up It's Longstanding War on Wild Horses
Scott Sonner, Associated Press
Sonner writes: "The U.S. government plans to capture more wild horses on federal lands this year than ever before, drawing sharp criticism from mustang advocates who hoped the Biden administration would curtail widespread gathers of thousands of horses annually across the American West."

The U.S. government plans to capture more wild horses on federal lands this year than ever before, drawing sharp criticism from mustang advocates who hoped the Biden administration would curtail widespread gathers of thousands of horses annually across the American West.

Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning, known as an ally of conservationists on several public land fronts when she was appointed in the fall, says the agency plans to permanently remove at least 19,000 horses and burros this year.

That's 70% more than the previous high a year ago.

Critics say it’s a continuation of a decades-old policy that kowtows to ranchers who don’t want horses competing with their cattle and sheep for limited forage on agency rangeland in 10 states.

“It didn’t take long for Tracy Stone-Manning to sell out America’s wild horses,” Friends of Animals President Priscilla Feral said.

In Nevada, home to about half the 86,000 horses roaming federal lands, three groups have filed a lawsuit challenging what they say is the illegal, inhumane roundup of more than 2,000 horses that's already underway near the Utah line.

Of the hundreds gathered so far, 11 have died, according to the agency's website.

At least one death was a colt that continued to be pursued by a low-flying helicopter driving the herd toward a holding pen even though it had a “clearly broken” leg, according to the lawsuit. It says the colt suffered for at least 29 minutes before it was euthanized.

“It is more than disappointing that BLM will continue the charade that they care about wild horses,” said Laura Leigh, president of the Reno-based Wild Horse Education, one of the plaintiffs.

Bureau spokesman Jason Lutterman declined to comment in an email to The Associated Press.

Stone-Manning said in announcing the 2022 roundup plans earlier this month the animals' population has declined since 2020 but is still triple what the government claims the land can sustain ecologically — something horse advocates dispute. The agency permanently removed 13,666 animals from the range in 2021.

The lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Reno says the agency is exaggerating drought conditions and exploiting legal loopholes with 10-year plans that combine multiple horse management areas without the necessary site-specific assessments.

Meanwhile, it says taxpayers continue to finance subsidies for the livestock industry through below-market grazing fees for millions of cattle and sheep causing more ecological harm than horses.

“Using drought as a fig leaf for its illegal actions, the bureau ... is depopulating the West of its wild horses and burros herd by herd and burning through taxpayer dollars with their endless roundups and holding facilities,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action, lead co-plaintiff with the New York-based CANA Foundation.

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association says the horse activists are threatening the future of rangeland ecosystems and the well-being of the horses themselves.

“Groups who file lawsuits like this continue to prove that they’d rather draft emotional press releases than contribute to meaningful solutions," said Kaitlynn Glover, the association's director of natural resources.

Roundups are an important part of the process of bringing the horse herds into balance with the range, she said.

The agency’s 2022 strategy includes treating at least 2,300 animals with fertility control and releasing them back to public lands — an approach supported by some but not all horse advocates — to stem the growth of herds that otherwise double about every five years. That's nearly double the previous high of 1,160 in 2021, the bureau said.

The agency acknowledges that, due partly to a sharp decline in demand for captured horses offered for public adoption over the past 10 years, it has been left in “the unsustainable position of gathering excess horses while its holding costs spiral upward.”

The lawsuit says the environmental assessment the bureau approved in May for the Nevada roundup described plans for a series of “phased gathers to remove excess animals” over a 10-year period, not “at once.”


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Tuesday, January 18, 2022

RSN: The Supreme Court Takes Up a Case, Brought by Ted Cruz, That Could Legalize Bribery

 

 

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Sen. Ted Cruz shakes hands and poses for photographs with Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh in Cruz's office in the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on July 17, 2018. (photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty)
The Supreme Court Takes Up a Case, Brought by Ted Cruz, That Could Legalize Bribery
Ian Millhiser, Vox
Millhiser writes: "The details of Federal Election Commission v. Ted Cruz for Senate, a case that the Supreme Court will hear next Wednesday, read more like a paranoid fantasy dreamed up by leftists than like an actual lawsuit."

Ted Cruz wants the Court to kill an important anti-corruption law.

The details of Federal Election Commission v. Ted Cruz for Senate, a case that the Supreme Court will hear next Wednesday, read more like a paranoid fantasy dreamed up by leftists than like an actual lawsuit.

The case concerns federal campaign finance laws, and, specifically, candidates’ ability to loan money to their campaigns. Candidates can do so — but in 2001, Congress enacted a provision that helps prevent such loans from becoming a vehicle to bribe candidates who go on to be elected officials. Under this provision, a campaign that receives such a loan may not repay more than $250,000 worth of the loan using funds raised after the election.

When a campaign receives a pre-election donation, that donation is typically subject to strict rules preventing it from being spent to enrich the candidate. After the election has occurred, however, donors who give money to help pay off a loan from the candidate effectively funnel that money straight to the candidate — who by that point could be a powerful elected official.

A lawmaker with sufficiently clever accountants, moreover, could effectively structure such a loan to allow lobbyists and other donors to help the lawmaker directly profit from it. According to the Los Angeles Times, for example, in 1998, Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-CA) made a $150,000 loan to her campaign at 18 percent interest (though she later reduced that interest rate to 10 percent). As of 2009, Napolitano reportedly raised $221,780 to repay that loan — $158,000 of which was classified as “interest.”

So in 11 years, the loan reportedly earned Napolitano nearly $72,000 in profits.

And that brings us back to the Ted Cruz for Senate lawsuit. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) wants the Supreme Court to strike down the limit on loan repayments to federal candidates. That decision could potentially enable any lawmaker to make a high-dollar, high-interest loan to their campaign, and then use that loan as a vehicle to funnel donations directly into their pocket. (Pre-2001 FEC rulings permitted candidates to make loans to their campaign at “a ‘commercially reasonable rate’ of interest,” but that apparently did not stop Napolitano from making a loan at a double-digit interest rate.)

And even if lawmakers do not enrich themselves by making high-interest loans to their campaign, the fact remains that every dollar a campaign donor gives to help a campaign pay back a loan from the candidate goes straight into that candidate’s pocket. As the Justice Department argues in its brief defending against Cruz’s lawsuit, “a contribution that adds to a candidate’s personal assets (and that can accordingly be used for personal purposes) poses a far greater threat of corruption than a payment that merely adds to a campaign’s treasury (and that can accordingly be used only for campaign purposes).”

Cruz claims that permitting such contributions is necessary to protect “the rights of candidates and their campaign committees to make constitutionally protected decisions about when and how much to speak during an election.”

While a decision in Cruz’s favor could effectively make it legal for wealthy donors to bribe lawmakers, Cruz has a very good chance of prevailing in a Supreme Court where Republicans control six of the Court’s nine seats.

Although current precedents nominally permit Congress to enact campaign finance laws to prevent “corruption and the appearance of corruption,” the Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC (2010) defined the word “corruption” so narrowly that it is basically meaningless. And the current Court is significantly more conservative than the one that handed down Citizens United a dozen years ago.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, for example, suggested in a 2002 email that he wrote while he was a White House official that there are “some constitutional problems” with laws placing a cap on how much an individual donor can give to a candidate — something that even decisions like Citizens United permit.

Similarly, just last July, the Supreme Court voted along party lines to block a California rule requiring certain political donors to be disclosed, and it did so despite the fact that Citizens United explicitly held that disclosure laws stand on strong constitutional footing.

There is a very real chance, in other words, that a Supreme Court hostile to campaign finance regulation will join Cruz’s crusade. And if the Court does so, that could effectively make it legal to bribe many members of Congress.

Ted Cruz manufactured a fake dispute in order to bring this lawsuit

Cruz admits that he engineered this lawsuit specifically so he can challenge the restriction on loan repayments.

According to the Justice Department, on the day before the 2018 election, Cruz lent his campaign $260,000, or $10,000 more than the amount that can legally be repaid from post-election funds. Moreover, while a federal regulation permits Cruz’s campaign to pay back all of that money using funds raised before the election, so long as it did so no later than 20 days after the election, the campaign waited until after this deadline had passed to pay back $250,000 of the $260,000 loan.

And, just in case there’s any doubt why Cruz and his campaign entered into this unusual arrangement, Cruz and his campaign do not contest that “the sole and exclusive motivation behind Senator Cruz’ actions in making the 2018 loan and the committee’s actions in waiting to repay them was to establish the factual basis for this challenge.” Cruz was essentially willing to risk $10,000 of his own money for an opportunity to knock down a federal anti-corruption law.

The Justice Department, for what it’s worth, argues that these machinations should doom his suit, citing Supreme Court cases establishing that plaintiffs may not use federal courts to remedy “self-inflicted injuries” — though, as Cruz’s lawyers note in their brief, it is common for civil rights plaintiffs to use similar tactics to engineer lawsuits challenging race discrimination, and the Court has permitted such tactics in the past. So it is far from clear that Cruz is not allowed to bring this suit.

And even if the Court were to dismiss Cruz’s suit, it is likely that some other candidate would make a legitimate loan to their campaign, and then bring a similar lawsuit.

So, in other words, even if the Court decided to avoid the issues presented by this case and to dismiss Cruz’s suit, that decision would only likely delay the inevitable.

The Supreme Court enables corruption by defining the word “corruption” narrowly

The Supreme Court established in Buckley v. Valeo (1976) that lawmakers may enact campaign finance regulations that mitigate “the danger of corruption and the appearance of corruption.” Yet, while Citizens United purported to leave this aspect of Buckley in place, it severely curtailed the government’s ability to fight “corruption” by defining that word very narrowly.

Specifically, Citizens United held that federal and state campaign finance laws may only target “quid pro quo” arrangements, where money is offered in return for “political favors.” After Citizens United, Congress may still ban donors from explicitly promising to write a lawmaker a check if that lawmaker changes their vote on a pending bill. But other forms of corruption are protected by the Supreme Court’s understanding of the Constitution.

Indeed, Justice Kennedy’s opinion in Citizens United framed influence-buying by donors as an affirmative good:

Favoritism and influence are not . . . avoidable in representative politics. It is in the nature of an elected representative to favor certain policies, and, by necessary corollary, to favor the voters and contributors who support those policies. It is well understood that a substantial and legitimate reason, if not the only reason, to cast a vote for, or to make a contribution to, one candidate over another is that the candidate will respond by producing those political outcomes the supporter favors. Democracy is premised on responsiveness.

If you accept the legitimacy of this reasoning, then Cruz has a strong case. Sure, striking down the restrictions on repaying loans from candidates would allow lobbyists and wealthy donors to put money directly into the pockets of lawmakers. But, under the definition of “corruption” advanced by Citizens United, it’s not entirely clear why lawmakers may not charge lobbyists $1,000 an hour for their time — so long as the lawmakers and the lobbyist do not reach an explicit quid pro quo agreement regarding some policy matter before Congress.

If the Court does want to establish that elected officials may not rely on Citizens United to personally enrich themselves, Ted Cruz for Senate gives the Court a perfect opportunity to do so. The Justice Department argues that the Court should uphold the loan repayment provision challenged by Cruz because it enables personal donations to lawmakers that are different in kind from the ones imagined by the Court’s earlier campaign finance cases.

“When a campaign uses a contribution to fund routine campaign activities, the contribution helps the candidate by marginally improving his chance of victory, but it does not add to the candidate’s personal wealth,” the Justice Department argues in its brief. “But when a campaign uses a contribution to repay the candidate’s loan, every dollar given by the contributor ultimately goes into the candidate’s pocket.”

The Justice Department also cites a list of existing ethical rules, including a congressional rule forbidding members of the House and Senate from accepting gifts of more than $50, which prevents federal officials from using their office to enrich themselves. And it notes that the Constitution itself recognizes the danger of federal officials accepting personal gifts, forbidding them from accepting “any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.” (Though, in fairness, the courts didn’t exactly enforce this provision with any kind of rigor when Donald Trump was president.)

Thus far, however, the Roberts Court has shown little inclination to rein in the power of wealthy donors to shape elections — or to spend money in order to maximize their influence over lawmakers. Perhaps the Court will decide in Ted Cruz for Senate that putting money directly into a Congress member’s pocket goes too far.

But, given the Court’s record, I wouldn’t bet on it.



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Rep. Matt Gaetz's Ex-Girlfriend Testifies to Grand Jury in Sex Trafficking Probe, Reports SayInvestigators began seeking evidence and testimony in late 2020 from a former girlfriend of Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida. (photo: Stefani Reynolds/The New York Times)

Rep. Matt Gaetz's Ex-Girlfriend Testifies to Grand Jury in Sex Trafficking Probe, Reports Say
Jim Little, Pensacola News Journal
Little writes: "National news outlets reported that Rep. Matt Gaetz's ex-girlfriend testified Wednesday before a federal grand jury in Orlando that is investigating allegations that Gaetz sex-trafficked a 17-year-old in 2017."

National news outlets reported that Rep. Matt Gaetz's ex-girlfriend testified Wednesday before a federal grand jury in Orlando that is investigating allegations that Gaetz sex-trafficked a 17-year-old in 2017.

Reports from NBC News and CNN reported seeing the woman enter the federal courthouse in Orlando on Wednesday with her attorney.

The sighting could be a troubling development for the Northwest Florida Republican congressman that federal prosecutors are moving closer to indicting him.

NBC News reported that the ex-girlfriend, whose name was withheld to respect her privacy, has been in talks with prosecutors for an immunity deal in exchange for testifying about whether Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old female for money in 2017.

Gaetz has not been charged with a crime and has repeatedly denied all accusations and called the federal investigation into him a "witch hunt."

"We have seen no credible basis for a charge against Congressman Gaetz," said Isabelle Kirshner, a New York-based attorney representing Gaetz, in a statement to the News Journal on Wednesday. "We remain steadfast in our commitment to challenge any allegations with the facts and law."

Citing legal sources familiar with the case, NBC News said the investigation into Gaetz is now focused on three crimes: sex trafficking the 17-year-old; violating the Mann Act, which prohibits taking women across state lines for prostitution and obstructing justice.

NBC News reported that the investigation into Gaetz stalled last year as prosecutors sought the cooperation of Gaetz's ex-girlfriend, whose testimony is crucial to the case, citing sources familiar with the investigation.

Gaetz's ex-girlfriend was in an open relationship with him in 2017 and 2018 and allegedly discussed other women he was involved with, NBC News reported.

Allegations that Gaetz paid for sex with a 17-year-old in 2017 became public last spring as Gaetz's former friend and Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg was indicted for sex trafficking.

Greenberg has since pleaded guilty to six of 33 charges against him including sex trafficking in a plea deal with prosecutors to testify against Gaetz in exchange for a lighter sentence.

Greenberg's sentencing has been delayed pending his cooperation in the case against Gaetz.

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Families Await News of Thousands Held by Police in Kazakhstan After ProtestsTroops are seen Thursday at the main square of Almaty, where hundreds of people have been protesting against the government. (photo: Mariya Gordeyeva/Reuters)

Families Await News of Thousands Held by Police in Kazakhstan After Protests
Associated Press
Excerpt: "With about 12,000 people arrested after anti-government protests in Kazakhstan last week, friends and relatives of those held by police waited outside a jail Wednesday, hoping to learn their fate."

ALSO SEE: Russian Troops Move to Put Down "Violent"
Uprising in Kazakhstan


About 12,000 people arrested in wake of recent protests

With about 12,000 people arrested after anti-government protests in Kazakhstan last week, friends and relatives of those held by police waited outside a jail Wednesday, hoping to learn their fate.

Some even went to morgues to see if a loved one was among the scores killed in the unprecedented violence in the Central Asian nation.

Authorities have refused to allow relatives or lawyers to see those in custody, giving little information about them, according to human rights activists.

The demonstrations began Jan. 2 in the western part of Kazakhstan over a sharp rise in fuel prices and spread throughout the country, apparently reflecting wider discontent with the government, which declared a state of emergency for the whole country and asked a Russia-led military alliance to send in troops to help restore order.

Another 1,678 people were arrested in the past 24 hours in Almaty, the largest city that was hit hardest by the turmoil, and more than 300 criminal investigations have been opened.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev blamed the unrest on foreign-backed "terrorists," but did not provide any evidence, and had given shoot-to-kill orders to security forces to quell the unrest.

Outside a branch of the Internal Affairs department that housed a large detention centre, a man who gave his name only as Renat said he has been waiting nearly a week to see or get any information about a close friend, Zhandos Nakipovich. He said Nakipovich, whom he described as being like "a brother" to him, was taken into custody on Jan. 4 during a peaceful protest.

"He was at first held at a precinct, then they told us he was in the Internal Affairs department," Renat told The Associated Press. "Since Jan. 6, we've been here and we don't know whether he's alive or not."

Military checkpoints prevented anyone from getting close to the building.

"Neither lawyers nor relatives — no one is allowed inside. Lawyers should be present during interrogation, but as you see, no one can pass," said Galym Ageleuov, head of the Liberty human rights group, who was waiting at the barricade.

"The checkpoint blocks the access for lawyers and relatives to see what's going on there. We don't even have the list of detainees," Ageleuov said.

More than a dozen men and women in dark winter clothes gathered outside one of Almaty's morgues, with some of them waiting to collect the bodies of relatives killed in the unrest. Huddled together in small groups, they stood at the gate of the facility, chatting quietly with each other but refused to talk to a reporter.

Although the official death toll was announced as 164, Tokayev has said hundreds of civilians and security forces were killed and injured.

Life in Almaty has started returning to normal after days of unrest that saw cars and buses torched, government buildings stormed and set ablaze, the airport seized and the sound of gunfire ringing out. The unrest had largely ended by last weekend.

Authorities in the energy-rich country of 19 million sought to mollify the anger at the government by capping fuel prices for 180 days. The Cabinet resigned, and longtime former leader Nursultan Nazarbayev was ousted from his influential post of head of the National Security Council. Nazarbayev had stepped down as president in 2019 after nearly three decades in power, but retained influence in the security forces.

The military alliance Tokayev asked for help, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, sent over 2,000 troops to Kazakhstan. Tokayev said they will start withdrawing Thursday.


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Revealed: The Billionaires Funding the Trump Coup Brain TrustThe Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation donated $240,000 to Claremont Institute, which has been a driving force behind the effort to use bogus fraud claims to change election laws. (photo: Alex Wong)

Revealed: The Billionaires Funding the Trump Coup Brain Trust
Andy Kroll, Rolling Stone
Kroll writes: "The Claremont Institute, once a little-known think tank often confused with the liberal-arts college of the same name, has emerged as a driving force in the conservative movement's crusade to use bogus fraud claims about the 2020 election to rewrite voting laws and remake the election system in time for the 2022 midterms and 2024 presidential election."

Conservative mega-donors including the DeVoses and Bradleys are pumping big money into the Claremont Institute think tank that fueled Trump’s election-fraud fantasies

The Claremont Institute, once a little-known think tank often confused with the liberal-arts college of the same name, has emerged as a driving force in the conservative movement’s crusade to use bogus fraud claims about the 2020 election to rewrite voting laws and remake the election system in time for the 2022 midterms and 2024 presidential election. Most infamously, one of the group’s legal scholars crafted memos outlining a plan for how then-Vice President Mike Pence could potentially overturn the last election.

Conservative mega-donors like what they see.

The biggest right-wing megadonors in America made major contributions to Claremont in 2020 and 2021, according to foundation financial records obtained by Rolling Stone. The high-profile donors include several of the most influential families who fund conservative politics and policy: the DeVoses of West Michigan, the Bradleys of Milwaukee, and the Scaifes of Pittsburgh.

The Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation donated $240,000 to Claremont in 2020 and approved another $400,000 to be paid out in the future, tax records show. The Bradley Foundation donated $100,000 to Claremont in 2020 and another $100,000 in 2021, according to tax records and a spokeswoman for the group. The Sarah Scaife Foundation, one of several charities tied to the late right-wing billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, supplied another $450,000 to Claremont in 2020, according to its latest tax filings.

Claremont’s own tax filings show that its revenue rose from 2019 to 2020 by a half-million dollars to $6.2 million, one of the highest sums since the organization was founded in 1979, according to the most recent available data. A Claremont spokesman said the group wouldn’t comment about its donors beyond publicly available data but estimated that Claremont’s revenue for the 2021 fiscal year had increased to $7.5 million.

The DeVoses, Bradleys, and Scaifes are among the most prominent donor families in conservative politics. For Bradley and Scaife, the giving to Claremont tracks with a long history of funding right-wing causes and advocacy groups, from the American Enterprise Institute think tank and the “bill mill” American Legislative Exchange Council, to anti-immigration zealot David Horowitz’s Freedom Center and the climate-denying Heartland Institute.

Bradley in particular has given heavily to groups that traffic in misleading or baseless claims about “election integrity” or widespread “voter fraud.” Thanks to a $6.5 million infusion from the Bradley Impact Fund, a related nonprofit, the undercover-sting group Project Veritas nearly doubled its revenue in 2020 to $22 million, according to the group’s tax filing. Bradley is also a long-time funder of the Heritage Foundation, which helped architect the wave of voter suppression bills introduced in state legislatures this year, and True the Vote, a conservative group that trains poll watchers and stokes fears of rampant voter fraud in the past.

But while the Bradley donations are to be expected, the contributions from the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation to Claremont are perhaps more surprising. Betsy DeVos, in one of her final acts as Trump’s education secretary, condemned the “angry mob” on January 6 and said “the law must be upheld and the work of the people must go on.”

A spokesman for the DeVoses, Nick Wasmiller, said Betsy DeVos’s letter “speaks for itself.” He added: “Claremont does work in many areas. It would be baseless to assert the Foundation’s support has any connection to the one item you cite.” While the foundation’s 2020 tax filing said its grants to Claremont were unrestricted, Wasmiller said the filing was wrong and the money had been earmarked. However, he declined to say what it was earmarked for.

The donations flowing into Claremont illustrate that although the group’s full-throated support for Trump and fixation on election crimes may be extreme, they’re not fringe views when they have the backing of influential conservative funders. “Were it not for the patronage of billionaire conservatives and their family foundations, the Claremont Institute would likely be relegated to screaming about its anti-government agenda on the street corner,” says Kyle Herrig, president of government watchdog group Accountable.US.

The Claremont spokesman responded to Herrig’s comment by saying “We think the dark money behind Accountable.US, under left-wing umbrella groups like Arabella Advisors, are threats to democracy and Western civilization. We defer to Herrig’s expertise on street corners.”

The Claremont Institute’s mission, as its president, Ryan Williams, recently put it, is to “save Western civilization.” Since the 2016 presidential race, Claremont tried to give an intellectual veneer to the frothy mix of nativism and isolationism represented by candidate Donald Trump. The think tank was perhaps best known for its magazine, the Claremont Review of Books, and on the eve of the ’16 election, the Review published an essay called “The Flight 93 Election,” comparing the choice facing Republican voters to that of the passengers who ultimately chose to bring down the fourth plane on September 11th. If conservatives didn’t rush the proverbial cockpit, the author, identified by the pen name Publius Decius Mus, “death is certain. To compound the metaphor: a Hillary Clinton presidency is Russian Roulette with a semi-auto. With Trump, at least you can spin the cylinder and take your chances.”

The essay’s author, later revealed to be a conservative writer named Michael Anton, went to work in the Trump White House, which made sense given his description in “Flight 93 Election” of “the ceaseless importation of Third World foreigners with no tradition of, taste for, or experience in liberty means that the electorate grows more left, more Democratic, less Republican, less republican, and less traditionally American with every cycle.”

Former Claremont scholars said they were aghast by the think tank’s full-on embrace of Trump in 2016. “The Claremont Institute spent 36 years as a resolutely anti-populist institution, [and] preached rightly that norms and institutions were hard to build and easy to destroy, so to watch them suddenly embrace Trump in May 2016 was like if PETA suddenly published a barbecue cookbook,” one former fellow told Vice News.

In recent years, the think tank courted controversy when it awarded paid fellowships to Jack Posobiec, a right-wing influencer who was an early promoter of the Seth Rich and Pizzagate conspiracy theories, and Charlie Kirk, head of the pro-Trump activist group Turning Point USA who has pushed baseless election-fraud theories and vowed to defend young people who wouldn’t refused vaccination from what he called “medical apartheid.”

But Claremont wouldn’t fully land in the spotlight until the end of Trump’s presidency. On Jan. 6, John Eastman, a law professor and Claremont scholar, spoke at the “Save America” rally on Jan. 6, 2021, that preceded the Capitol insurrection. Eastman repeated several election-related conspiracy theories, alleging that “machines contributed to that fraud” by “unloading the ballots from the secret folder,” a version of the rampant conspiracy theories spread by Trump campaign lawyers about the company Dominion Voting Systems.

As would later be revealed, Eastman also wrote two memos outlining a plan for how then-Vice President Mike Pence could overturn the 2020 result on January 6. “The main thing here is that Pence should do this without asking for permission — either from a vote of the joint session or from the Court,” Eastman wrote. “Let the other side challenge his actions in court…” (Worth noting: The Claremont Review would later publish its own critique of Eastman’s memos by a professor of government and ethics at Claremont McKenna college. After walking through a key piece of Eastman’s argument, the professor, Joseph Bessette, wrote: “One doesn’t have to be a scholar of the American Founding, a professor of constitutional law, or an expert in election law to know that this simply cannot be right.”)

Claremont continues to push the stolen-election myth and has apparently helped state lawmakers draft legislation to make election laws more favorable to the Republican Party. In October, Claremont President Ryan Williams told an undercover liberal activist that Eastman was “still very involved with a lot of the state legislators and advising them on election integrity stuff.”

Williams went on to tell the undercover activist, Lauren Windsor, that Eastman’s position was this: “Look, unless we get right what happened in 2020, there’s no moving on. They’re just going to steal every subsequent election.”


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50 Thousand Kids in Joe Manchin's Home State Could Sink Into Deep Poverty Without Child Tax CreditsMost West Virginia families used their child tax credit payments for basic necessities like food, utilities and education costs. (photo: The DA)

50 Thousand Kids in Joe Manchin's Home State Could Sink Into Deep Poverty Without Child Tax Credits
Shirin Ali, The Hill
Ali writes: "Thousands of children in the state of West Virginia are facing the risk of falling into poverty, as the federal government remains in a gridlock over continuing a child tax credit program - one that West Virginia's own senator opposes."

Most West Virginia families used their child tax credit payments for basic necessities like food, utilities and education costs.


Thousands of children in the state of West Virginia are facing the risk of falling into poverty, as the federal government remains in a gridlock over continuing a child tax credit program — one that West Virginia’s own senator opposes.

Since July 2021, millions of families across the country began receiving special payments from the federal government under the advanced child tax credit program as part of President Biden’s American Rescue Plan. In West Virginia, more than 300,000 children received those payments, but Sen. Joe Manchin (D), who represents West Virginia, hasn’t been a fan of the program.

Manchin previously said he wants additional stipulations attached to the child tax credit program, like requiring parents to work and to limit payments to families making $60,000 or less annually.

"Don't you think, if we're going to help the children, that the people should make some effort?," argued Manchin while appearing on CNN's "State of the Union" in September.

However, advocates in Machin’s home state of West Virginia are pointing out just how significant the child tax credit program has been. The West Virginia Center on Budget … Policy (WVCBP) estimates 93 percent of children in West Virginia received those payments, with most households getting between $250 to $300 per child every month.

Even at the national level, the child tax credit payments made a significant impact. The Center on Poverty … Social Policy estimated 3.8 million children avoided poverty in November 2021, with the child tax credit program contributing to a 5.1 percent reduction in child poverty compared to what it would have been without the payments.

Despite the positive gains, Congress wasn’t able to extend the program and the final child tax credit payment was distributed to families last month. Due in part to Manchin’s opposition, the future of the child tax credit program remains uncertain.

In West Virginia, that means 50,000 children are now at risk of slipping into poverty, according to data by WVCBP.

Most West Virginia families used their child tax credit payments for basic necessities, with 77 percent of recipient households using the money for food, 57 percent spending it on utilities, and nearly 40 percent spending it on education costs.

“Making these changes permanent is a key provision of the Build Back Better agenda, and should be a top priority for West Virginia’s congressional leaders. The expanded credit is already leading to an historic reduction in poverty in the state,” said Sean O’Leary, a senior policy analyst at WVCBP, in a blogpost.

Growing up in poverty causes lasting harm, with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) noting that poverty can bring unstable housing, frequent moves, inadequate nutrition and high family stress. All of that can often take a heavy toll on children, leading to lower levels of educational attainment, lower earnings, higher likelihood of getting arrested and poor health in adulthood.

Now that the additional income from the child tax credit payment program is gone, families in West Virginia are feeling the pinch.

“That money gave us breathing room, so we were not so stressed about bills and rent constantly. In the future it will help us save money and one day be able to purchase a house,” said Erin, a West Virginia parent responding to WVCB’s call to families on the impact of not having the child tax credit payment program payments.

About 17 percent of all children living in the U.S. are living in poverty, which equates to nearly 12 million kids, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation. In West Virginia, about 20 percent of children were living in poverty in 2019.

Experts worry the gains families were able to make last year because of the child tax credit could be lost for good and are imploring Manchin to help bring it back to life in Biden’s Build Back Better act.

“The expansion of the child tax credit (CTC) brought historic child poverty reductions in West Virginia and around the country—progress that will be lost if Senator Manchin does not support continuing the program,” said Kelly Allen, executive director of WVCBP, to Changing America in an emailed statement.

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Why More American Children Are Dying by GunfireA memorial along Westbury Road in Riverdale, Ga., near the place Elyjah Munson, 11, was shot and killed while walking home from school. (photo: Alyssa Noel Pointer/The New York Times)

Why More American Children Are Dying by Gunfire
Jack Healy, The New York Times
Healy writes: "Toddlers are discovering guns under piles of clothes and between couch cushions. Teenagers are obtaining untraceable ghost guns made from kits. Middle school students are carrying handguns for protection."

Toddlers are discovering guns under piles of clothes and between couch cushions. Teenagers are obtaining untraceable ghost guns made from kits. Middle school students are carrying handguns for protection.


Kendall Munson was so worried about the gun violence in her neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side that she sent her sons to live with their grandparents outside Atlanta. But death found them anyway.

On Dec. 9, her goofy, football-loving 11-year-old son, Elyjah, and some friends were walking to a gas station for after-school snacks when one of Elyjah’s best friends, a 12-year-old, pulled a gun from a backpack and shot Elyjah in the head.

It was the second time last year that the family had been jolted by gun violence. Two weeks before Elyjah was killed, his 5-year-old cousin, Khalis Eberhart, was fatally shot after a 3-year-old cousin found a gun under a sofa cushion.

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Hottest Ocean Temperatures in History Recorded Last YearOcean heating driven by human-caused climate crisis, scientists say, in sixth consecutive year record has been broken. (photo: iStock)

Hottest Ocean Temperatures in History Recorded Last Year
Oliver Milman, Guardian UK
Milman writes: "The world's oceans have been set to simmer, and the heat is being cranked up. Last year saw the hottest ocean temperatures in recorded history, the sixth consecutive year that this record has been broken, according to new research."

Ocean heating driven by human-caused climate crisis, scientists say, in sixth consecutive year record has been broken

The world’s oceans have been set to simmer, and the heat is being cranked up. Last year saw the hottest ocean temperatures in recorded history, the sixth consecutive year that this record has been broken, according to new research.

The heating up of our oceans is being primarily driven by the human-caused climate crisis, scientists say, and represents a starkly simple indicator of global heating. While the atmosphere’s temperature is also trending sharply upwards, individual years are less likely to be record-breakers compared with the warming of the oceans.

Last year saw a heat record for the top 2,000 meters of all oceans around the world, despite an ongoing La Niña event, a periodic climatic feature that cools waters in the Pacific. The 2021 record tops a stretch of modern record-keeping that goes back to 1955. The second hottest year for oceans was 2020, while the third hottest was 2019.

“The ocean heat content is relentlessly increasing, globally, and this is a primary indicator of human-induced climate change,” said Kevin Trenberth, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado and co-author of the research, published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

Warmer ocean waters are helping supercharge storms, hurricanes and extreme rainfall, the paper states, which is escalating the risks of severe flooding. Heated ocean water expands and eats away at the vast Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, which are collectively shedding around 1tn tons of ice a year, with both of these processes fueling sea level rise.

Oceans take up about a third of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activity, causing them to acidify. This degrades coral reefs, home to a quarter of the world’s marine life and the provider of food for more than 500m people, and can prove harmful to individual species of fish.

As the world warms from the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and other activities, the oceans have taken the brunt of the extra heat. More than 90% of the heat generated over the past 50 years has been absorbed by the oceans, temporarily helping spare humanity, and other land-based species, from temperatures that would already be catastrophic.

The amount of heat soaked up by the oceans is enormous. Last year, the upper 2,000 meters of the ocean, where most of the warming occurs, absorbed 14 more zettajoules (a unit of electrical energy equal to one sextillion joules) than it did in 2020. This amount of extra energy is 145 times greater than the world’s entire electricity generation which, by comparison, is about half of a zettajoule.

Long-term ocean warming is strongest in the Atlantic and Southern oceans, the new research states, although the north Pacific has had a “dramatic” increase in heat since 1990 and the Mediterranean Sea posted a clear high temperature record last year.

The heating trend is so pronounced it’s clear to ascertain the fingerprint of human influence in just four years of records, according to John Abraham, another of the study’s co-authors. “Ocean heat content is one of the best indicators of climate change,” added Abraham, an expert in thermal sciences at University of St Thomas.

“Until we reach net zero emissions, that heating will continue, and we’ll continue to break ocean heat content records, as we did this year,” said Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Penn State University and another of the 23 researchers who worked on the paper. “Better awareness and understanding of the oceans are a basis for the actions to combat climate change.”


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