Mike Huckabee Bak

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New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com › 2026 › 10 › 08 › world › middleeast › israel-embassy-milstein-huckabee.html

How a U.S. Diplomat Suppressed and Altered Reports Critical of Israel ...

Oct 8, 2026Britain accused some settlers of "ethnic cleansing." It is unclear to what extent Mr. Huckabee is aware of his adviser's actions. Both he and Mr. Milstein declined requests for an interview.

Common Dreams

https://www.commondreams.org › news › huckabee-aide-israel-coverup

Top Huckabee Aide Covered Up Report on Killings of 9 Americans by ...

Oct 8, 2026Top Huckabee Aide Covered Up Report on Killings of 9 Americans by Israeli Settlers One American journalist, who has covered Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, called Huckabee aide David Milstein "a literal traitor." Stephen Prager Oct 08, 2026

The Times of Israel

https://www.timesofisrael.com › huckabee-aide-tried-quashing-us-embassy-reports-to-protect-israeli-government-nyt

Huckabee aide tried quashing US embassy reports to protect Israeli ...

Huckabee aide tried quashing US embassy reports to protect Israeli government — NYT Report citing over a dozen sources says David Milstein undermining diplomatic work on settlements, settler ...

The Hill

https://thehill.com › homenews › administration › 6137880-huckabee-aide-blocked-israel-memo-report

Huckabee aide allegedly quashed Israel memo: Report - The Hill

Oct 8, 2026One of Huckabee's senior advisors, David Milstein, reportedly quashed a memo that criticized Israel's decision to approve more settlemenT

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MAGA evangelicals think they've found their post-Trump savior

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Sen. Chris Van Hollen on Monday called on Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, to resign after repeatedly failing to condemn mistreatment of American citizens by the Israeli government.

In a video posted on social media, Van Hollen (D-Md.) recounted instances of US citizens being detained or abused by Israeli security forces, along with Huckabee’s lack of response.

“On his watch, we continue to see American citizens being mistreated, wrongfully detained,” Van Hollen explained, referencing the recent detentions of 20-year-old American citizen Sama Safi and 16-year-old Adam Karakrah.

Van Hollen added that he and more than two dozen fellow US senators have urged Huckabee to hold Israel accountable for “the killings of nine Americans over just the last four years” by either Israeli settlers in the West Bank or members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

“And yet, no accountability,” said Van Hollen. “No justice.”

The Maryland Democrat further called out Huckabee for failing to abide by his professed compassion for the Palestinian Christian community.

“We’ve seen an increase in violent settler attacks on Christian villages in the West Bank, and we’ve seen those attacks conducted with impunity,” he said. “And when asked about this, Ambassador Huckabee said, ‘Well, look at me. I’m a Christian and I think I’m doing OK here in the Holy Land.’”

“And that exposes the entire problem,” Van Hollen continued. “Because what Ambassador Huckabee is talking about is visitors to the Holy Land, Christian visitors, including evangelicals who come on the kind of tours that Ambassador Huckabee used to lead. Well, what about the Christians who have lived in the Holy Land for thousands and thousands of years?”

The senator then speculated that Huckabee simply “doesn’t care” because “he’s become a complete apologist for the most extreme Israeli government in history.”

“He should be defending Americans and defending American interests,” Van Hollen concluded. “He’s failed to do so. He should resign today.

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see theocRacy apoc xian nat’l

'Deeply alarming': Christian fundamentalists see Trump’s military policies as biblical war

After U.S. President Donald Trump ordered missile strikes against Iran and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — the country's far-right Shiite fundamentalist leader since 1989 — was killed, a long list of other countries were drawn into the conflict. Iran launched retaliatory strikes against U.S. installations in Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was attacked by Iranian drones.

Meanwhile, Israel and Hezbollah (a pro-Iran Shiite militia in Lebanon) fired missiles at once another. From Riyadh to Beirut to Dubai, the Middle East is on pins and needles.

Trump is claiming that going to war with Iran is necessary from a national security standpoint. But MS NOW's Zeeshan Aleem, in an opinion column published on March 4, argues that Trump's Christian nationalist allies view the conflict as a holy war for evangelical fundamentalist Christianity.

"President Donald Trump can't get his story straight on why he launched a war against Iran," Aleem argues. "But some commanders in the U.S. military are apparently telling service members that they're on a mission to fulfill biblical prophecy. The independent journalist Jonathan Larsen reported that the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has received more than 110 complaints from service members about their commanders' religious gloss on the war on Iran."

Aleem continues, "These complaints, according to Larsen's report, came from every branch of the military, across more than 40 different units, situated in at least 30 military installations…. MRFF President Michael Weinstein told Larsen that the complaints from service members shared a common feature: Commanders are describing the war as 'biblically sanctioned' and 'clearly the undeniable sign of the expeditious approach of the fundamentalist Christian End Times as vividly described in the New Testament Book of Revelation."

Weinstein told Larsen, "Many of their commanders are especially delighted with how graphic this battle will be, zeroing in on how bloody all of this must become in order to fulfill and be in 100 percent accordance with fundamentalist Christian end-of-the-world eschatology."

When military commanders "are reportedly selling American aggression on Iran as a holy war," Aleem warns, it is "deeply alarming."

"Weinstein told Larsen that the complaints violate the Constitution's separation of church and state," Aleem explains. "But regardless of its legality, telling American troops that they're fighting for a Christian god against a Muslim country is medieval madness. It isn't the role of the U.S., per the Constitution, to promote any religion over another. Furthermore, the reported remarks from these commanders is likely to prompt U.S. service members to dehumanize Iran's population, and help set the stage for viciousness in combat and human rights violations. The military is not supposed to be a crusading political-theological movement, but a professional defense force."

an 3 26

People are growing increasingly uneasy as President Donald Trump's attacks on Iran are looking more and more like they could be part of a right-wing religious fanatic's fantasy for the apocalyptic.

The Cradle Media's Jonathan Larsen wrote that American soldiers were given a pep-talk about the war in Iran. A U.S. combat-unit commander told them that the attack is part of “God’s divine plan." He said that President Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus” for the specific purpose to ignite Armageddon.

“U.S. Troops Were Told Iran War Is for 'Armageddon,' Return of Jesus Advocacy group reports commanders giving similar messages at more than 30 installations in every branch of the military," Larsen wrote.

The comments come as part of a lawsuit brought by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation; however, it is only one of "110 lawsuits brought in 48 hours from over 40 units across 30 installations," the report said. The complaints came from Christians, a Muslim and a Jewish soldier.

The Christian nationalist theory that Israel has a God-given right to much of the Middle East is one espoused by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. In a speech at a Christian Zionist church in Jerusalem in December, Huckabee conveyed his " purpose is to convert Israeli Jews to belief in Jesus in order to bring about the End Times," explained Religion Dispatches.

The concept is bad for anyone seeking peace in the Middle East, one 2024 report by Forward explained.

The sect of Christianity that Huckabee believes in holds that if they are able to remove Palestinians from the Holy Land, then Jesus Christ will return. He believes in “dispensational premillennialism,” which Forward describes as a belief that “the Rapture will come,” and deliver all evangelicals to Heaven as Israel is invaded by the armies of the world. It will cause Armageddon and prompt the return of Jesus Christ.

The language is making some fearful that the war waged wasn't really about Iran never obtaining nuclear weapons, which Trump claimed he destroyed last summer. It's a holy war, desperate to force Armageddon.

"Maybe it’s a bad idea to put people in charge of government who are eager for the rapture," lawyer and self-described nerd John Collins commented.

"Love when I'm in the military and my boss is, like, 'Time for Armageddon!'" commented author and journalist Emily St. James.

Writer and former Cato Institute policy analyst Will Wilkinson wrote, "Personally, I don’t think we should bring about Armageddon."

"One thing about the U.S., we definitely do not have insane religious zealots in charge,"said Heidi N. Moore, previously of the Wall Street Journal business side.

Writer and elections lawyer at the Cato Institute, Walter Olson, quoteda line from the 1965 song "So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III)" with lyrics by Tom Lehrer: "And this is what he said on/ His way to Armageddon.”

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Mike Huckabee - Wikipedia

...## Political career

Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas, campaign 1992

In Huckabee's first political race in 1992, he lost to incumbent Democratic senator Dale Bumpers, receiving 40 percent of the vote in the general election.^[25] In the same election, Arkansas governor Bill Clinton was elected president, making lieutenant governor Jim Guy Tucker the new governor when Clinton resigned the governorship. In 1993, Republican state chairman Asa Hutchinson urged Huckabee to run in the special election for lieutenant governor held on July 27. Realizing his loss came among key conservative Democrats, Huckabee ran a decidedly conservative campaign. In the subsequent general election, he defeated Nate Coulter, who had been Bumpers's campaign manager the previous year,^[26] 51–49 percent.^[8] Huckabee became the second Republican since Reconstruction to serve as Arkansas lieutenant governor, the first having been Maurice Britt from 1967 to 1971.

In his autobiography From Hope to Higher Ground, Huckabee recalled the chilly reception that he received from the Arkansas Democratic establishment on his election as lieutenant governor: "The doors to my office were spitefully nailed shut from the inside, office furniture and equipment were removed, and the budget spent down to almost nothing prior to our arriving. After fifty-nine days of public outcry, the doors were finally opened for me to occupy the actual office I had been elected to hold two months earlier."^[27]^

Dick Morris, who had previously worked for Bill Clinton, advised Huckabee on his races in 1993, 1994, and 1998.^[28] Huckabee commented that Morris was a "personal friend".^[28] A newspaper article reported on Huckabee's 1993 win: "Morris said the mistake Republicans always make is that they are too much of a country club set. What we wanted to do was run a progressive campaign that would appeal to all Arkansans.'"^[28]^

Morris elaborated, "So we opened the campaign with ads that characterized Mike as more of a moderate whose values were the same as those of other Arkansans."^[28] Consequently, he abandoned his earlier support for the Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC) when in April 1994 following an adverse media campaign against the CofCC, Huckabee withdrew from a speaking engagement before their national convention. He repeated the accusations made by various media and civil rights organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center recalling his past association with the CofCC saying, "I will not participate in any program that has racist overtones. I've spent a lifetime fighting [against] racism and anti-Semitism."^[29]^

In 1994, Huckabee was re-elected to a full term as lieutenant governor, beating Democratic candidate Charlie Cole Chaffin with nearly 59 percent of the vote.^[30] While lieutenant governor, Huckabee accepted $71,500 in speaking fees and traveling expenses from a nonprofit group, Action America. R. J. Reynolds was the group's largest contributor.^[21]^

In October 1995, David Pryor announced that he was retiring from the United States Senate. Huckabee then announced he was running for the open seat and moved ahead in the polls,^[8] but ultimately dropped out of the race to lead the state after incumbent governor Jim Guy Tucker resigned following his fraud and conspiracy convictions.^[31]^

During his campaign, Huckabee opposed in December then-governor Tucker's plan for a constitutional convention.^[32] The plan was defeated by voters, 80–20 percent, in a special election. In January 1996, Huckabee campaigned in televised ads paid for by the Republican National Committee and the Arkansas Republican Party against a highway referendum. Tucker supported the referendum, which included tax increases and a bond program, to improve 1,300 miles (2,100 km) of highway.^[33] On the referendum, the bond question, which included a sales tax increase and a gas tax increase, lost 87–13 percent. A second question, a five-cent increase on diesel tax, lost 86–14 percent.^[33][34] Huckabee also opposed Tucker's plan for school consolidation.^[34]^

Governor of Arkansas, 1996–2007

Main article: Governorship of Mike Huckabee

In May 1996, Tucker was convicted "on one count of arranging nearly $3 million in fraudulent loans" as part of the Whitewater controversy. The Arkansas Constitution, like nearly all state constitutions in the United States, does not allow convicted felons to hold office. Tucker thus promised to resign by July 15.^[8] Huckabee then announced he would quit the Senate race and instead fill the unexpired term of Tucker.^[31] However, Tucker, insisting he had a strong case for appeal,^[35] rescinded his resignation as Huckabee was preparing to be sworn in on July 15. Within a few hours, Tucker reinstated his resignation after Huckabee and the legislature threatened to initiate impeachment proceedings against Tucker.^[14] Huckabee was then duly sworn in as governor.

In November 1998, Huckabee was elected to a full four-year term by defeating retired colonel Gene McVay in the primary and Jonesboro attorney and Democratic candidate Bill Bristow in the general election, becoming the state's third elected Republican governor since Reconstruction. According to a CNN exit poll, Huckabee received 48% of the African American vote in his 1998 election;^[36] but some experts have questioned whether those numbers are a representative sample on how he did on the whole in the election.^[37]^

In 2001, Huckabee was named "Friend of a Taxpayer" by Americans for Tax Reform for his cut in statewide spending.^[38]^

In November 2002, Huckabee was reelected to his second four-year term by defeating State Treasurer Jimmie Lou Fisher, garnering 53 percent of the vote. His reelection came despite the defeat in the general election of fellow Republican U.S. Senator Tim Hutchinson.

Huckabee received widespread praise for his state's rapid response to Hurricane Katrina. In 2005, Time named him one of the five best governors in the U.S., writing "Huckabee has approached his state's troubles with energy and innovation" and referred to him as "a mature, consensus-building conservative who earns praise from fellow Evangelicals and, occasionally, liberal Democrats."^[39] Governing magazine likewise honored Huckabee as one of its 2005 Public Officials of the Year.^[40] Additionally, he was among those legislators given the APHA Distinguished Public Health Legislator of the Year Award by the American Public Health Association^[41] for that same year.

In 2006, he was presented with AARP's Impact Award for his health initiatives.^[42]^

In December 2008, Huckabee became an honorary member of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He said that did not have time to join a fraternity in college because he had to "cram four years into a little more than two". The fraternity's CEO said they were "very impressed with his character and the initiatives he headed" as governor.^[43]^

By the end of his term, Huckabee held the 3rd-longest tenure of any Arkansas governor. Only Democrats Orval Faubus, who served 6 consecutive 2-year terms (1955–1967), and Bill Clinton, who served 11 years, 11 months (1979–1981; 1983–1992), had longer tenures.

During his tenure as governor, Huckabee supported tax reforms including tax cuts and increases, that netted $505 million for the state.^[44] According to columnist Margaret Carlson, that money was used to improve roads, health care and schools in the state.^[45]^

Clemencies

Further information: 2009 Lakewood shooting, Wayne DuMond, and Maurice Clemmons

As governor, Huckabee commuted and accepted recommendations for pardon for twice as many sentences as his 3 predecessors combined; in total: 1,033 prisoners.^[46] Twelve had previously been convicted of murder.^[47] Though Huckabee pardoned more than his predecessors, the state prison size and number of people executed were greater as well,^[48] Huckabee denied 92% of all clemency requests during his 10.5 years as governor.^[49] Most pardons and commutations were not for prisoners but for those whose sentences had ended and who were seeking work.^[50] Huckabee's pardons and commutations became an issue during the 2008 Republican Primary, with most of the controversy focusing on Wayne Dumond.^[51]^

Huckabee's handling of clemency petitions received national attention in November 2009 with the case of Maurice Clemmons, who had committed burglary without a weapon at 16. The Prison Transfer Board unanimously requested a sentence commutation for Clemmons as did the trial judge.^[49] Clemmons's 60-year sentence was commuted by Huckabee to 47 years, making him eligible for parole if approved by the parole board. After parole in 2000, Clemmons was arrested for multiple offenses including child molestation and aggravated assault but was released after prosecutors declined to file charges. After Clemmons murdered four police officers in Lakewood, Washington, a two-day manhunt ensued, and Clemmons was shot and killed by a Seattle Police Department officer after refusing police orders to stop charging the officer.^[52] In his book about the shooting, The Other Side of Mercy, Jonathan Martin of The Seattle Times wrote that Huckabee apparently failed to review Clemmons's prison file, which was "thick with acts of violence and absent indications of rehabilitation".^[53] Huckabee defended his actions, stating that the recommendation to reduce the sentence was unanimous and supported by the trial judge, that the decision to parole him was made by the parole board, not him, and that Clemmons had been re-arrested and the decision not to file charges then had nothing to do with him.^[54][55]^

2008 presidential election campaign

Main article: Mike Huckabee 2008 presidential campaign

Huckabee announced his run for the White House on Meet the Press on January 28, 2007.^[56]^

At the August 11 Iowa Straw Poll, Huckabee took second place with 2,587 votes, roughly 18 percent, splitting the conservative Republican party votes amongst other candidates.^[57] Huckabee spent $57.98 per vote in the Straw Poll, which is the lowest among the top three finishers.^[58] Huckabee drew attention with an unconventional ad featuring Chuck Norris.^[59] In a later ad Huckabee wished voters a merry Christmas, and said that "what really matters is the celebration of the birth of Christ."^[60]^

In November 2007, Huckabee drew endorsements from a large number of religious activists, including Billy McCormack, a pastor in Shreveport, Louisiana, and a director and vice president of the Christian Coalition of America, founded in 1988 by a previous presidential candidate, Pat Robertson.^[61] He was criticized for using a bookshelf that resembled a cross in a Christmas commercial as a form of signaling to Christians, and laughed them off saying "I will confess this: If you play the spot backwards, it says, 'Paul is dead. Paul is dead.'"^[62][63] He also faced a "drumbeat" of questions about the role of faith in his gubernatorial administration and about past statements he made in 1998 about the U.S. being a "Christian nation" in which he said, "I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ." Huckabee told NBC that his comment was not politically incorrect and was "appropriate to be said to a gathering of Southern Baptists".^[64] Huckabee has credited God with some of his political success.^[65]^

On January 3, 2008, Huckabee won the Iowa Republican caucuses, receiving 34% of the electorate and 17 delegates, compared with the 25% of Mitt Romney, who finished second, receiving 12 delegates; Fred Thompson, who came in third place and received three delegates; John McCain, who came in fourth place and received three delegates; and Ron Paul, who came in fifth place and received two delegates.

with actor [Chuck Norris in Londonderry, New Hampshire (2008)

On January 8, 2008, Huckabee finished in third place in the New Hampshire primary, behind John McCain in first place, and Mitt Romney who finished second, with Huckabee receiving one more delegate for a total of 18 delegates, gained via elections, and 21 total delegates, versus 30 total (24 via elections) for Romney, and 10 for McCain (all via elections).

On January 15, 2008, Huckabee finished in third place in the 2008 Michigan Republican primary, behind John McCain in second place; Mitt Romney, who finished first; and ahead of Ron Paul, who finished in fourth place.^[66]^

[

On January 19, 2008, Huckabee finished in second place in the 2008 South Carolina Republican primary, behind John McCain, who finished first and ahead of Fred Thompson, who finished third.^[67]^

On January 29, 2008, Huckabee finished in fourth place in the Florida primary, behind Rudy Giuliani in third, Mitt Romney in second, and John McCain in first place.

On January 21, 2008, Huckabee received the endorsement of 50 African American leaders in Atlanta, Georgia. The endorsers cited Huckabee's record on abortion, education, minorities, the economy, the prison system, and immigration as Arkansas governor.^[68] However, NBC reported that the endorsement of African American leaders at the Atlanta event was 36, and "most of them connected to conservative religious organizations".^[69]^

On February 5, 2008, Huckabee won the first contest of "Super Tuesday", the West Virginia GOP state convention, but only after the McCain campaign provided their delegates, thereby giving Huckabee 52% of the electorate to Mitt Romney's 47%.^[70] Backers of rival John McCain said they threw Huckabee their support to prevent Mitt Romney from capturing the winner-take-all GOP state convention vote.^[71] Consequently, he also registered victories in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Tennessee on Super Tuesday, bringing his delegate count up to 156, compared with 689 for Republican party front-runner John McCain.^[72]^

On February 9, 2008, Huckabee won the first election following Super Tuesday, by winning 60% of the vote in the Kansas Republican Caucuses.^[73] This was also the first contest to be held without Mitt Romney, who was said to be splitting the conservative vote with Huckabee.^[74] Huckabee also won the Louisiana Republican Primary with 44% of the vote to John McCain's 43% in second. Although Huckabee won the primary he was not awarded any delegates, because of state party rules that stated a candidate must pass the 50% threshold to receive the state's pledged delegates.^[75]^

On March 4, 2008, Huckabee withdrew from seeking the candidacy as it became apparent he would lose in Texas, where he had hoped to win, and that John McCain would get the 1,191 delegates required to win the Republican nomination. Huckabee finished the race with 240 pledged delegates.^[76]^

Vice presidential candidate speculation

Even though Huckabee had signed a television contract and a book deal with a pressing deadline, he was mentioned by most to be on then-presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain's short list for his vice presidential running mate. The late pundit Tim Russert even referred to Huckabee as "Vice President Huckabee" several times when he appeared on Meet The Press on May 18, 2008.^[77] Huckabee was eventually passed over for Sarah Palin.^[78]^

Former president Bill Clinton has praised Huckabee and stated that he is a rising star in the Republican Party. Clinton and Huckabee have collaborated on initiatives such as the fight against childhood obesity.^[79] Former Tennessee Republican Party chairman and Huckabee's former campaign manager Chip Saltsman has called Governor Huckabee, "The most successful failed presidential candidate in the history of our country".^[80]^

Speculated 2012 presidential campaign

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Former_Governor_Mike_Huckabee_speaking_at_the_2011_Republican_Leadership_Conference_in_New_Orleans,_Louisiana.jpg)Former Governor Huckabee speaking at the 2011 Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana

In a November 19, 2008, article by the Associated Press, Huckabee addressed the possibility of running for president in 2012. He said, "I'm not ruling anything out for the future, but I'm not making any specific plans."^[81]^

Amid speculation about a future run for the presidency, a CNN poll in December 2008 found Huckabee at the top of the list of 2012 GOP contenders, along with former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin, fellow 2008 presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.^[82]^

On December 3, 2008, Cincinnati-based NBC affiliate WLWT asked Huckabee about the prospect of running, to which he said, "I'm pretty sure I'll be out there. Whether it's for myself or somebody else I may decide will be a better standard bearer, that remains to be seen."^[83]^

A June 2009 CNN/Opinion Research Corporation national poll showed Huckabee as the 2012 presidential co-favorite of the Republican electorate along with Palin and Romney.^[84] An October 2009 poll of Republicans by Rasmussen Reports put Huckabee in the lead with 29%, followed by Romney on 24% and Palin on 18%.^[85] In a November 2009 Gallup poll, Huckabee was shown as the leading Republican contender for 2012.^[86] In November 2010 CNN projected in a poll that Huckabee would defeat Barack Obama in a hypothetical 2012 contest.^[87] In a Rasmussen poll taken January 11–14, 2011, Huckabee was even with Obama at 43% each.^[88]^

Huckabee took stances opposed to the nature of the incumbent president, Barack Obama. In comments made March 1, 2011, on The Steve Malzberg Show, Huckabee said of Obama, "I would love to know more. What I know is troubling enough. And one thing that I do know is his having grown up in Kenya, his view of the Brits, for example, is very different than the average American."^[89] (This is a reference to the Mau Mau Uprising against the colonial rule of the United Kingdom in 1952; Obama himself has never lived in Kenya.)^[90]^

On May 14, 2011, Huckabee announced on his FNC show that he would not be a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012. Despite his high national poll numbers and being seen by many as the front runner, Huckabee declined to run, saying, "All the factors say 'go,' but my heart says 'no.'"^[91]^

2016 presidential campaign

Main article: Mike Huckabee 2016 presidential campaign

[

speaking at 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland

Political commentators speculated that Huckabee might be ready for another presidential run in 2016. He was limited by a lack of money in 2008 but with changes to federal election law allowing SuperPACs to pour large sums of money into a race he might be better positioned to stay in the race.^[92] Huckabee has in addition earned personal wealth since 2008 on the lecture circuit and his TV and radio shows. He ended his daily radio show in December 2013, which strengthened speculations about a presidential bid.^[93][94]^

Huckabee indicated in September 2014 that he would make the decision on whether to run early in 2015.^[95] In January 2015, Huckabee ended his show on FNC to prepare for his possible run in the 2016 presidential election.^[96] On March 30, 2015, Huckabee supporters launched a Super PAC to make preparations for his run for the presidential ticket in 2016.^[97]^

On May 5, 2015, in his hometown of Hope, Arkansas, Huckabee announced a campaign to seek the Republican nomination for president of the United States in the 2016 election.^[98] In his speech, Huckabee attacked trade deals that he said drive down U.S. wages, opposed raising the age for Social Security benefits, criticized President Obama for what he said was putting more pressure on Israel than Iran, and made an unusual plea for donations of $15 or $25 a month, saying: "I will ask you to give something in the name of your children and grandchildren."^[98]^

On February 1, 2016, after a disappointing showing in the Iowa caucus Huckabee decided that he was going to suspend his campaign.^[99]^

2018 Florida gubernatorial election

Reports emerged in the summer of 2016 that Huckabee, who currently lives in Florida, was considering running for governor of Florida in 2018 to succeed term limited Republican incumbent Rick Scott. However, Huckabee later announced that he was declining to run in the 2018 Florida Gubernatorial election. Had he run and won, he would have become the first person to serve as governor of two separate states since Sam Houston, who served as governor of Tennessee and later as governor of Texas.^[100] Before his announcement not to run, an August 2016 poll of Florida Republicans conducted by StPetePolls.org showed Huckabee leading a field of potential Republican gubernatorial candidates with 37%.^[101]^

First Trump administration

Following the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Huckabee met with president-elect of the United States Donald Trump, whom he had supported for the Republican nomination after ending his own campaign in February. It was reported by The Daily Mail and The Jerusalem Post that Trump offered Huckabee the position of United States Ambassador to Israel.^[102] Huckabee denied the reports.^[103] He told Fox News that a possible cabinet appointment for himself was discussed but that he turned the offer down, saying, "I'm not sure it was the right fit."^[104]^

His daughter Sarah Huckabee Sanders served as White House press secretary to President Donald Trump from July 2017 until July 2019.^[105]^

In January 2018, Huckabee praised Doha, Qatar as being "surprisingly beautiful, modern, and hospitable" after a trip there, but did not reveal that a foreign agent for Qatar had paid $50,000 to a corporation run by Huckabee as a "honorarium for visit".^[106]^

Following Trump's defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, Huckabee supported Trump's legal challenges in closely contested states, stating, "I think he owes it to all of us to make sure the election was fair. I am not saying it wasn't, I don't know. But we need to know, we have to have an answer to the questions that linger."^[107] On November 15, in a letter addressed to Joe Biden first posted on his website, Huckabee made unsubstantiated claims of election fraud in the 2020 election.^[108]^

Second Trump administration

On November 12 2024, president-elect Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate Huckabee as the next U.S. ambassador to Israel.^[109]^

Media career

On June 12, 2008, Fox News announced it was hiring Huckabee as a political commentator and regular contributor to their 2008 American presidential election coverage, in their New York election headquarters.^[110]^

Huckabee filled in for Paul Harvey in July 2008.^[111] A few months later, he signed a deal with ABC Radio Networks (now Cumulus Media Networks) to carry a daily commentary, The Huckabee Report, beginning in January 2009.^[112] After Harvey's death his show replaced Harvey's broadcasts.^[113] On April 15, 2015, Huckabee announced that The Huckabee Report would be ending May 1.^[114]^

Huckabee hosted a weekend show, Huckabee, on Fox News Channel, which premiered Saturday, September 27, 2008, at 8 PM EST.^[115] For six weeks in summer 2010, Fox test-ran The Huckabee Show for the syndicated market; Huckabee was joined by guest co-hosts in the daily spin-off, among them Bob Barker of The Price Is Right fame.^[116] Huckabee ended on January 3, 2015, so that Huckabee could consider the possibility of running for president.^[96]^

On April 2, 2012, Huckabee launched a long-form daily talk show on Cumulus Media Networks, who provide the call-in guests. The show, which is targeted at second-tier broadcast stations, features long-form interviews and discussions and airs in the noon to 3 p.m. time slot, directly opposite the market leader in talk radio, The Rush Limbaugh Show.^[2] On November 27, 2013, Huckabee announced that the show will have its final broadcast on December 12, 2013, stating that he and Cumulus Media mutually decided not to renew the contract.^[117]^

In a December 2013 interview, Huckabee stated that he would be launching a news organization in partnership with Christian Media Corp. International.^[118]^

In October 2017, the Huckabee show was relaunched, now produced by and aired on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.^[119]^

Political positions

Main article: Political positions of Mike Huckabee

Abortion

Huckabee opposes any public funding for abortion, and believes that abortion should be legal only when the life of the mother is at risk.^[120] He stated that it would "most certainly" be a good day for America if Roe v. Wade were reversed by the Supreme Court.^[121] This ultimately occurred in 2022 with the landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case.^[122]^

Health care

Huckabee opposed President Obama's health care plan, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He stated that he wants to "give citizens more control over their own health care choices".^[123]^

Free trade

In his book From Hope to Higher Ground, Huckabee expressed support for free trade, but only if it is "fair trade." He identified excess litigation, excess taxation, and excess regulation as three factors contributing to the loss of American jobs, and has proposed economic sanctions on China.^[124]^

Race relations

According to a CNN exit poll, Huckabee won 48% of African-American votes in his successful 1998 gubernatorial race in Arkansas.^[125] The 48% figure is often disputed due to the exit poll's small sample size.^[126] Huckabee says that it is important for Republicans such as himself to reach out to black voters, and in 2015, he ramped up efforts to win those votes.^[127]^

In 2015, on an episode of Meet the Press, Huckabee stated that the confederate flag issue was for South Carolinians to decide, "not an issue for a person running for president", and days later, he congratulated Governor Nikki Haley on her decision to support the removal of the flag from the state capitol.^[127] Huckabee gave a speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention that included this: "I say with sincerity that I have great respect for Senator Obama's historic achievement to become his party's nominee—not because of his color, but with indifference to it. Party or politics aside, we celebrate this milestone because it elevates our country."^[128]^

LGBT rights

Huckabee believes that marriage is between one man and one woman, and he opposes both same-sex marriage and civil unions. In 2006, he outlawed same-sex marriage in Arkansas; however, in 2007, he stated that Americans should "respect" gay couples. He says that adoptions should be child focused and opposes "gay adoptions".^[129] Huckabee, expounding upon his view on homosexuality, said the following:

This [gay marriage] is not just a political issue. It is a biblical issue. And as a biblical issue—unless I get a new version of the scriptures, it's really not my place to say, OK, I'm just going to evolve[.] ... It's like asking someone who's Jewish to start serving bacon-wrapped shrimp in their deli. We don't want to do that—I mean, we're not going to do that. Or like asking a Muslim to serve up something that is offensive to him, or to have dogs in his backyard[.] ... We're so sensitive to make sure we don't offend certain religions, but then we act like Christians can't have the convictions that they've had for 2,000 years.

In January 2015, he compared homosexuality to "drinking and swearing", insofar as it is "part of a lifestyle". Huckabee has stated he has gay friends, saying, "People can be my friends who have lifestyles that are not necessarily my lifestyle. I don't shut people out of my circle or out of my life because they have a different point of view[.]"^[130]^

Conceiving children outside marriage

In comments which he made on March 4, 2011, on the Michael Medved Show, Huckabee spoke about pregnant, unwed actress Natalie Portman, saying "it's unfortunate we glorify and glamorize the idea of out-of-wedlock children."^[131]^

In January 2014, in a luncheon speech at the Republican National Committee's winter meeting, in response to a federal mandate on contraception, Huckabee stated that "Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control, they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government."^[132]^

Role of religion in public life

Huckabee has voiced his belief in intelligent design and he has also stated that he does not believe that Darwin's theory of evolution is valid. In July 2004, he was quoted on Arkansans Ask, his regular show on the Arkansas Educational Television Network: "I think that students also should be given exposure to the theories not only of evolution but to the basis of those who believe in creationism."^[133]^

In April 2011, Huckabee said, "I almost wish that there would be a simultaneous telecast and all Americans would be forced, at gunpoint, to listen to every David Barton message," in praise of the Christian revisionist author David Barton.^[134]^

Within hours of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Huckabee made headlines in the U.S. and abroad for stating on Fox News: "We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools," and he further asked, "Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?"^[135]^

In September 2014, Huckabee said, "Fire the ones who refuse to hear not only our hearts, but God's heart" (for which he was criticized by Richard Dawkins).^[136]^

In September 2015, speaking about his support of religious freedom on behalf of Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis to radio host Michael Medved, Huckabee said, "Michael, the *Dred Scott* decision of 1857 still remains to this day the law of the land which says that black people aren't fully human. Does anybody still follow the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision?"^[137][138] (The decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford had been superseded by the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and nullified by the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.)

In June 2016, Huckabee, along with actor Pat Boone and executive producer Troy Duhon, all of whom were involved in the film God's Not Dead 2, sent a letter to California governor Jerry Brown opposing Senate Bill 1146, which "prohibits a person from being subjected to discrimination" at California colleges. Other than religious schools—those that train pastors and theology teachers—schools "might no longer be allowed to hire Christian-only staff, teach religious ideas in regular classes, require attendance at chapel services or keep bathrooms and dormitories restricted to either males or females."^[139]^

Climate change

In 2023, Huckabee published Kids Guide to the Truth About Climate Change, which minimized the influence of human emissions on global warming.^[140] Marketed as an alternative to mainstream education, the publication does not attribute authorship or cite scientific credentials.^[140] The deputy director of the National Center for Science Education called the publication "propaganda" and "very unreliable as a guide to climate change for kids", noting that it represented "present day" atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide as 280 parts per million (ppm), which was true in 391 BC but short of 2023's actual concentration of 420 ppm.^[141]^

Military

In 2007, Huckabee argued for a larger military and an increase in defense spending, writing, "Right now, we spend about 3.9 percent of our GDP on defense, compared with about six percent in 1986, under President Ronald Reagan. We need to return to that six percent level."^[142]^

Immigration

During his bid for president, Huckabee released a nine-point immigration enforcement and border security plan. His plan included building a border fence, increased border patrol personnel, and increased visas for skilled workers who enter the country legally. He has previously stated he is opposed to using military resources for border patrol.^[143] Huckabee's plan also required all 11–12 million^[144] undocumented immigrants to register with the federal government and return to their home countries within 120 days. Failure to do so would carry a ten-year ban from entering the US.^[145]^

Gun control

Huckabee has voiced his support for self-defense and the Castle Doctrine, and has generally taken an anti-gun control stance. He believes that the concealed carrying of weapons should be allowed.^[129]^

Fiscal policy

As governor of Arkansas, Huckabee received grades of B in 1998,^[146][147] C in 2000,^[148][149] C in 2002,^[150][151] D in 2004,^[152][153] and F in 2006^[154][155] from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, in their biennial Fiscal Policy Report Card on America's Governors.

Israel & Palestine

Huckabee is a strong supporter of Israel, opposing Palestinian statehood and rejecting Palestinian identity. Huckabee has also condoned West Bank settlements which are illegal under international law. In 2008, Huckabee argued that there is "no such thing as a Palestinian".^[156] In 2017, at an event in the West Bank, he stated: "There is no such thing as a West Bank - it's Judea and Samaria. There's no such thing as a settlement. They're communities. They're neighborhoods. They're cities. There's no such thing as an occupation."^{[157][158][159]}^

Public image

Main article: Public image of Mike Huckabee

Huckabee has both detractors and defenders, even among Republicans. Personality descriptions range from friendly, charming and warm, to petty and aloof.^{[160][161][162][163][164}] He has received support from African-American leaders, praise from a liberal New York Times columnist, and criticism from gay rights groups and pundits. Huckabee has made controversial public statements that have brought criticism. He apologized for at least three statements and has admitted that his love for metaphors and tendency to use hyperbole to make a point has backfired on him.^[165]^

Personal life

...

===

13 Nov 2024

US President-elect Donald Trump has announced the appointment of pro-settlement former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as the US ambassador to Israel.

The controversial political figure and TV personality who claims to have visited Israel more than 100 times will replace Jack Lew, who has held the position for a year.

UN aid chief warns of ‘gravest crimes’ committed in Israel’s war on Gaza

list 2 of 4

Houthis launch attacks against US warships off coast of Yemen

list 3 of 4

Israel’s UNRWA ban is another declaration of genocidal intent

list 4 of 4

Biden dismisses journalist’s question on reaching deal for Gaza captives

end of list

Who is Mike Huckabee, and what was he doing before this appointment?

The devout 69-year-old evangelical Christian was born in the southern US state of Arkansas.

He served as governor of his home state between 1996 and 2007 before launching unsuccessful bids to be the Republican presidential candidate during the 2008 and 2016 primary seasons.

Between these two bids, he had his own talk show, Huckabee, which ran on the Fox News Network between 2008 and 2015.

In 2017, the show was revived and broadcast on TBN, a Christian-based broadcast television network.

Since ending his campaign for presidential candidacy in 2016, Huckabee has consistently supported Trump.

Arkansas Governor

Donald Trump and Mike Huckabee shake hands after participating in a roundtable discussion hosted by Building America’s Future in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, on October 29, 2024 [File: Charly Triballeau/AFP]

What is Huckabee’s position on Israel and Palestine?

Huckabee is a staunch supporter of Israel.

After his appointment, Trump released a statement in which he said Huckabee “loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!”

His appointment demonstrates a “very hawkish, very pro-right-wing Israel” approach by the Trump administration, Yossi Mekelberg, an expert on Israel at the Chatham House think tank, told Al Jazeera.

He said Huckabee’s appointment is similar to that of David Friedman, who served as US Ambassador to Israel between 2017 and 2021 and supports Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Huckabee views Israel as an “overwhelming ally of the United States”, Paul Musgrave, an associate professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar, told Al Jazeera.

“He will certainly be a strong voice for a pro-Israel faction in the administration and the country,” he said.

Huckabee has tied his evangelical faith to support for Israeli control of the West Bank and his support for Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law.

In an interview in 2017 with the CNN news network, he said: “There is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria (the territory’s biblical name). There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities, they’re neighbourhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation.”

Huckabee has gone as far as to question Palestinian identity.

During his Republican presidential campaign, he said: “I need to be careful about saying this, because people will really get upset – there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.”

Huckabee is against a two-state solution.

Instead, in various TV interviews, he has propagated the idea that “there’s plenty of land” for Palestinians in countries such as Jordan, Egypt and Syria.

Huckabee

Mike Huckabee visits a large settler enclave, called Maale HaZeitim, in the Ras al-Amoud neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem on August 17, 2009 [File: David Furst/AFP]

He has also criticised US President Joe Biden for requesting that Israel temper some of its actions in the war on Gaza and the administration’s calls for a ceasefire.

“If a person is pro-Israel, how can you be pro-Biden because the Biden administration has made it very clear they will make concessions to Hamas,” Huckabee said in an interview in March on News Nation.

In a recent interview with a podcaster, he labelled himself an “unapologetic, unreformed Zionist”.

He also said “radical Muslims want to take us back to the seventh century” adding “I don’t want to go back there”. He said: “I like modernity.”

What has the reaction been like in Israel to his appointment?

The Israeli government, in its current form, will be very pleased with the appointment of an ambassador who supports settlements and annexation, Mekelberg said.

Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right, pro-settler security minister, took to X to celebrate Huckabee’s appointment, simply posting emojis of the US flag, the Israeli flag and a heart alongside the former Arkansas governor’s name.

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, took to X to offer congratulations to Huckabee, who he described as “my dear friend”.

“I look forward to continuing to work with you and to strengthening the eternal bond our two countries share!” Danon wrote.

Mekelberg said even though it will raise concerns about any potential peace agreement, the Israeli public, in general, will be supportive as, given the current climate, “anyone who expresses full support of Israel will be welcome.”

What can be expected from his term?

It is too early to tell how his appointment will affect Israel’s strategy for Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon, Musgrave said.

However, he noted it likely indicates that there will be little “pushback” from a Trump administration against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war plans.

It is a sentiment shared by Mekelberg, who said any fears in the Israeli administration that an incoming ambassador could have placed restraints on how Israel may conduct itself will have “eased considerably” after Huckabee’s appointment.

Source: Al Jazeera

===

ggl 11 24 palestine

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Picking Mike Huckabee for ambassador to Israel spells ...

Arkansas Times

https://arktimes.com › arkansas-blog › 2024/11/14 › pi...

45 minutes ago — But personally, I can't blame Arab-Americans in Michigan or any other voters who withheld support for Kamala Harris over the killing in Gaza.

Trump picks Huckabee as Israel envoy and Fox News host ...

The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com › us-news › nov › trump-...

2 days ago — has chosen the former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee as the next US ambassador to Israel and a Fox News host to be his new defense secretary.

Trump picks former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be ...

NBC News

https://www.nbcnews.com › politics › white-house › tru...

2 days ago — Trump later announced that he would appoint businessman and longtime friend Steve Witkoff to be his special envoy to the Middle East.

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11/14/2024

Kyle Mantyla

Mike Huckabee succinctly lays out his approach to dealing with Israel as Trump's ambassador: "I believe the scripture. Genesis 12: Those who bless Israel will be blessed, those who curse Israel will be cursed. I want to be on the blessing side, not the curse side."

===

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Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee Wants To Be On God's Side As Trump's Ambassador To Israel

11/14/2024

Mike Huckabee Wants To Be On God's Side As Trump's Ambassador To Israel Extremist video 11/14/2024 by Kyle Mantyla Mike Huckabee succinctly lays out his approach to dealing with Israel as Trump's ambassador: "I believe the scripture. Genesis 12: Those who …

RWW Round Up

A Winning Issue

09/18/2024

A Winning Issue Briefing 09/18/2024 by Kyle Mantyla Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog : New reporting makes Vance’s handling of Springfield story look even worse Angry White Men : Jeremy Carl: The Racist Lie About Haitians Eating Pets Is ‘Gonna Be A Winning …

‘Our D-Day is Coming,’ Warns My Faith Votes Spokesperson Allen West

06/11/2024

‘Our D-Day is Coming,’ Warns My Faith Votes Spokesperson Allen West 06/11/2024 by Peter Montgomery “Our D-Day is coming,” declared the ominous subject line of an email from former Rep. Allen West sent on behalf of the religious-right voter turnout …

Bonus Tracks

Right Wing Bonus Tracks: The God Of War

05/29/2024

Right Wing Bonus Tracks: The God Of War Round-up 05/29/2024 by Kyle Mantyla Tim Barton delivered a presentation for Memorial Day in which he argued that "God is not anti-war" and is actually "in favor of wars sometimes." Mike Huckabee will soon "share his …

RWW Round Up

Right Wing Round-Up: Got Talked Into It

11/09/2023

Right Wing Round-Up: Got Talked Into It Briefing 11/09/2023 by Kyle Mantyla Roger Sollenberger @ The Daily Beast : James Comer, Like Joe Biden, Also Paid His Brother $200K. James Comer is going after Joe Biden because he loaned his brother, James Biden, …

Bonus Tracks

Right Wing Bonus Tracks: Demonic Drugs

09/12/2023

Right Wing Bonus Tracks: Demonic Drugs Round-up 09/12/2023 by Kyle Mantyla Todd Starnes interviewed Mike Huckabee on Monday but apparently didn't think it was important to ask Huckabee about his recent comment threatening that if President Donald Trump …

Mike Huckabee and Other Right-Wing Leaders Escalate Threats of Electoral Violence

09/07/2023

Mike Huckabee and Other Right-Wing Leaders Escalate Threats of Electoral Violence 09/07/2023 by Peter Montgomery Analysis Former Arkansas governor and failed presidential candidate Mike Huckabee made a striking prediction on a recent episode of his …

Mike Huckabee Warns 2024 Will Be the Last Election 'Decided by Ballots Rather Than Bullets' if Trump Loses

09/06/2023

Mike Huckabee Warns 2024 Will Be the Last Election 'Decided by Ballots Rather Than Bullets' if Trump Loses 09/06/2023 by Kyle Mantyla Former Arkansas governor and failed presidential candidate Mike Huckabee opened the most recent episode of his "Huckabee" …

RWW Round Up

Right Wing Round-Up: Slitting Throats

08/03/2023

Right Wing Round-Up: Slitting Throats Briefing 08/03/2023 by Kyle Mantyla Ian Millhiser @ Vox : There is no First Amendment right to overturn an election. John Knefel and Jacina Hollins-Borges @ Media Matters : Right-wing media call for “revenge tour” in …

Republican Politicians and Anti-Choice Activists Rallying Behind Democracy-Restricting Initiative in Ohio

07/28/2023

Republican Politicians and Anti-Choice Activists Rallying Behind Democracy-Restricting Initiative in Ohio 07/28/2023 by Peter Montgomery In a desperate attempt to thwart the will of Ohio voters, who support access to legal abortion by a wide margin, …

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mma

Mike Huckabee wouldn’t rule out using the military to stop abortion. Trump is campaigning with him. 10/24/24

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https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/religious-right-activists-cheer-trump-calls-for-spiritual-civil-war-at-road-to-majority-conference/

pretty much only winning issue 2022 so big in 2034 see trump

r ww 6 23

former President Donald Trump received a rapturous hero’s welcome Saturday night as he delivered the closing keynote address to a room packed with religious-right activists in Washington, D.C. for the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual Road to Majority conference.

Trump knew his audience. “We are warriors in a righteous crusade to stop the arsonists, atheists, globalists, and the Marxists,and we will restore our republic as one nation under God with liberty and justice for all,” Trump said. As part of his typically long and rambling speech, he denounced his recent indictments, bragged about his administration’s accomplishments–including his Supreme Court justices cementing the right-wing majority to overturn Roe v. Wade—and declared that Democrats have become “monsters.”

Trump thrilled the crowd with promises about what he would do as the 47th president, saying, “When I get back in the Oval Office,I will totally obliterate the Deep State.”And he vowed to push “school choice” plans—which divert public education dollars into private and religious schools and homeschooling—and,oddly, called for public school principals to be chosen by direct election by parents.

Trump’s speech and others at the conference signaled the issues and strategies around which the MAGA movement is mobilizing to try to take power in the 2024 elections: waging war on “wokeness,” demeaning transgender people and calling for institutionalized discrimination against them, mocking corporate support for diversity, equity, and environmental protection, and, in the name of parents’ rights,purging schools and libraries of materials that do not align with MAGA activists’ political and religious worldviews.

Trump’s speech was preceded by awards given to right-wing movement fundraising godfather Richard Viguerie and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Viguerie declared that the nation is in “a spiritual civil war” that “the left has launched against Western civilization, America, our Constitution, Judeo-Christian moral values, and much else we value at home.” Viguerie encouraged activists to get more involved in any way they can, signing off with, “Good night, ladies and gentlemen. See you on the battlefield of the spiritual civil war, and don’t be late!”

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oddly high soc media rank for geezer? boost by twit? other rw celebs?

note ~ soc media bias BS mma 7 22

## ...Out of the top 10 posts with the most interactions that Media Matters analyzed, 6 were from right-leaning Facebook pages

These 6 posts were from Newsmax, Ben Shapiro, Sean Hannity, Mike Huckabee, and Fox News, which had 2 posts. Out of these 6 posts, half contained industry talking points or attacked the administrative state and federal agencies that the right has villainized for enforcing lockdowns and vaccine mandates. These reactions and the sources cited in them further demonstrated the decision as a victory for the fossil fuel industry and its conservative allies which helped orchestrate this result to line their pockets and hinder progress on climate action.

Among the top examples from right-leaning pages that contained misinformation was a post from Ben Shapiro with nearly 22,000 interactions that linked to an article from the Daily Wire. The article quoted Heritage Foundation research fellow Daren Bakst, who claimed that the court had rightfully blocked the EPA from overstepping its boundaries and that only Congress can make certain regulatory decisions under the Constitution.

The Heritage Foundation has received millions of dollars in funding from Koch-connected organizations, as well as considerable funding from the fossil fuel industry, while outwardly denying the scientific consensus on climate change. The foundation has also played a major role in moving courts to the right, and even created a secretly financed program to train law clerks to elevate its views. According to The New York Times, Heritage helped the Federalist Society compile the lists of potential Supreme Court nominees from which President Donald Trump chose to appoint Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Both justices voted to stifle the EPA. However, the Daily Wire article ignored these connections between the conservative think tank, its financial backers in the fossil fuel industry, and the court’s ruling.

The article also quoted Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who baselessly claimed that the Clean Power Plan would “lead to higher utility bills, job loss and overall increased energy prices.” While these regulations were never implemented, the plan was predicted to have cut electricity bills by 7% and deliver up to $34 billion in health benefits.

[twt ben shapiro]

Many of the top 10 posts, particularly those from right-leaning pages, framed the decision primarily as a victory against the EPA’s ability to enforce regulations – or what Mike Huckabee referred to, in a post that received more than 11,000 interactions, as “the reign of tyranny by unaccountable bureaucrats.” A post from Sean Hannity that garnered 14,000 interactions also linked to an article on his website describing the decision as a “blow to climate extremists” and calling to “unleash American energy.”[twt]

The top left-leaning post, which was from historian Heather Cox Richardson and had over 61,000 interactions, provided an overview of several recent and upcoming Supreme Court decisions and pointed out that the court set a precedent in West Virginia v. EPA using legal reasoning that was even rejected by conservative Justice Antonin Scalia in 2001. She also highlighted excerpts from Justice Elena Kagan’s dissent pointing out that Congress already delegates power to federal agencies to address issues where it does not have expertise.

Another popular left-leaning post about the case from former President Barack Obama,which had over 55,000 interactions, mentioned climate impacts on vulnerable populations and urged Congress to “pass President Biden’s climate and clean energy investments.” Though right-leaning posts received more engagement overall, Richardson and Obama’s posts each had twice as many interactions as the top right-wing misinformation posts.

the top Facebook posts about the ruling from left-leaning pages, which accounted for 3 of the top 10 posts, criticized the decision while highlighting various grievances with how the court came to its decision and what impact the ruling will have on the communities being affected by the climate crisis. [twt]

The only post about the case from an ideologically nonaligned Facebook page in the top 10 came from CNN. It received just over 12,000 interactions and linked to a fairly detailed article putting the decision in the context of urgent calls from scientists to cut emissions and transition away from fossil fuels, and citing the 2021 report from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which called the climate crisis a “code red” for humanity.

Although left-leaning and nonaligned pages were vocal about the gravity of the Supreme Court’s decision, the right was was still able to co-opt much of the conversation on Facebook, shifting attention and blame away from the small group of right-wing figures and industry executives who benefit from the ruling to hamstring environmental protections in the face of the worsening climate crisis, leaving the rest of us to grapple with an uncertain future.

none of the top 10 posts outlined how, as The New York Times puts it, the case “is the product of a coordinated, multi-year strategy by Republican attorneys general, conservative legal activists and their funders, several with ties to the oil and coal industries.” Some only mentioned the court case in passing – for example, a popular post with more than 16,000 interactions from controversial documentarian Michael Moore referenced the case once among a host of other political grievances in a “declaration.”...

===

https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/fox-news-runs-ads-mike-huckabees-climate-denial-book-targeted-children

6 23

no lnx twt vid

former Arkansas governor, frequent Fox News commentator, and Trinity Broadcast Network host Mike Huckabee — who once joked that the threat of climate change to Americans amounted to “a sunburn” — is now marketing climate denial to children through ads airing across Fox News programming and social media.

Through his EverBright Media venture, Huckabee promotes an educational series targeted at children called The Kids Guide, which includes lessons on “Fighting Socialism,” “Cancel Culture and Free Speech,” and “Media Bias and Fake News.” The series of booklets is based on the premise that American children are vulnerable to biased and agenda-driven public school textbooks and liberal media reports, leading them to oppose“faith in God,” “lower taxes,” “smaller government,” and “the right to bear arms.”

The Kids Guide series is now promoting a new title that Huckabee claims “will help your kids break free from news-induced panic” and learn “the truth” about climate change.

Video

CitationThe Kids Guide to The Truth About Climate Change Ad

Huckabee’s materials targeted at children have long been called out for their blatant misinformation; a Huffington Post article from 2013 criticized his Learn Our History video series for distributing “Christian nationalist revisionism and right-wing political propaganda.” More recently, a Kids Guide to former President Donald Trump’s accomplishments from 2022 was widely mocked by online critics, who pointed out the glaring hypocrisy of books with such a clear right-wing political agenda and “cult”-like indoctrination being marketed to children at the same time Republican leaders are calling for eradicating access to books that reference any ideas they deem “woke.”

Now, Huckabee’s latest Kids Guide pushes long-debunked narratives and misinformation to downplay, dismiss, or deny the threat of climate change at a time when communities across the globe are already experiencing catastrophic climate impacts and the scientific community is urging immediate action to address the climate crisis.

Mike Huckabee is marketing climate denial to parents who watch Fox News

Fox News has long primed its audience to distrust teachers and the mainstream media, and to believe that climate change is a manufactured crisis to achieve a progressive agenda. And Huckabee's Kids Guide ad hawking a book to teach kids “the truth about climate change” seems tailor-made for the Fox audience:

MIKE HUCKABEE: Parents, you may have heard from your kids that the Earth is soon going to be an uninhabitable hellscape. Well, that's because some of their teachers and the media have an agenda. But is it really what kids should actually be learning? It's why my team created the new Kids Guide to the Truth About Climate Change. It answers your child's toughest climate questions, and you can have it for free.

Ads for The Kids Guide to the Truth About Climate Change began running during Fox News programming in mid-May. Ads for other entries in the series, including The Kids Guide to Fighting Indoctrination and The Kids Guide to Fighting Socialism, appeared on Fox throughout May. In 2023 alone, Kids Guide ads have appeared hundreds of times across Fox programming.

Similarly, according to a Media Matters review of data from Sensor Tower, Kids Guide has spent $83,300 running ads on Facebook from January 1 to June 6, 2023, garnering over 11 million impressions. Kids Guide has also been running Google search ads that appear when users enter the phrase “climate change for kids.”

Kids Guide to climate change Facebook ad

While the ads only hint at climate denial and misinformation, the guide itself is a primer in some of the most oft-repeated and long-debunked arguments used to cast doubt about anthropogenic climate change and delay climate action.

The Kids Guide to the Truth About Climate Change is climate denial propaganda disguised as education

The Kids Guide to the Truth About Climate Change acknowledges that the climate is changing and that “human pollution has made things worse. No one disagrees with either of those concepts.” However, these acknowledgments are undermined by oft-repeated climate denial talking points and arguments that are intended to downplay the crisis and maintain the status quo.

In fact, the book goes to great lengths to suggest that even while climate change is happening, the U.S. response has been more than sufficient and “made significant progress toward Earth’s recovery.” To support this claim, itencourages readers to “recycle what we can, turn off lights, buy more pre-owned items, not waste our food, make better use of what we have, and support sensible programs to protect the planet and its life.” While these are worthy endeavors, they are nowhere near the level of action scientists urge is needed to ward off the worst climate impacts – rather, they neatly align with the fossil fuels industry’s campaign to individualize climate action and sidestep the need for systemic change.

Here is a sample of common climate denial tactics and arguments laundered through The Kids Guide to the Truth About Climate Change.

The Kids Guide to the Truth About Climate Change pushes debunked lies about settled climate science

The Kids Guide falsely argues that the causes of climate change are still being debated among experts: “Well, what you may not know is that thousands of renowned scientists and weather experts worldwide have some very different opinions on climate change.They point to the powerful effects of the natural cycles of the sun and changes that happen in earth’s magnetic field.”

In fact, there is overwhelming scientific consensus that human activity is warming our planet. For nearly a decade, it was reported that 97% of scientists endorsed anthropogenic climate change. In 2021, a new study by U.S. researchers “examined the peer-reviewed literature and found more than 99% of climate scientists now endorse the evidence for human-induced climate change.”

It claims the climate is always changing: “The climate has always changed — long before humans walked the earth — and it continues to change!”

Climate communications expert and professor John Cook counts “the climate has always changed” among the most-used arguments by bad actors to mislead the public about the climate crisis. On his website Skeptical Science, which catalogs and debunks climate denial claims, he writes:

Climate has indeed changed in the past with various impacts depending on the speed and type of that change. Such results have included everything from slow changes to ecosystems over millions of years - through to sudden mass-extinctions. Rapid climate change, of the type we're causing through our enormous carbon dioxide emissions, falls into the very dangerous camp. That's because the faster the change, the harder it is for nature to cope. We are part of nature so if it goes down, it takes us with it.

So anyone who dismissively tells you, “the climate has always changed”, either does not know what they are talking about or they are deliberately trying to mislead you.

The book asserts that climate scientists’ predictions have never come true: “As you can see from the decades of headlines above, well-known and trusted scientists and experts have long predicted ice ages, killer floods, giant storms, and planetary catastrophes. By now, they said, we should have starved, frozen to death, or drowned!”

In fact, not only have scientists accurately predicted global warming for over half a century, but the consequences of a changing climate in the form of “killer floods,” “giant storms,” and “planetary catastrophes” that climate scientists have warned about are increasingly causing devastation and death across the globe.

The Kids Guide promotes the false argument that natural phenomena, not CO2, are responsible for changes in the climate: “Looking back in time, carbon dioxide levels have always gone up and down,” even before industrial activity. “The Sun’s natural lifecycles and Earth’s ‘wobble’ have helped drive ice ages and hot periods like the time of the dinosaurs.”

Akin to the claim that “climate has always changed,” the argument that natural phenomena are causing the climate to change also seeks to dismiss the role that CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels plays in warming the planet. Looking specifically at the argument that the sun is to blame, Cook writes that those perpetuating this claim use cherry-picked data:

From the early 1970s until today, the Solar radiation reaching the top of Earth's atmosphere has in fact shown a very slight decline. Through that same period, global temperatures have continued to increase. The two data records, incoming Solar energy and global temperature, have diverged.

…

Attempts to blame the sun for the rise in global temperatures have had to involve taking the data but selecting only the time periods that support such an argument. The remaining parts of the information - showing that divergence - have had to be ditched. Proper science study requires that all the available data be considered, not just a part of it.

While the Kids Guide book uses common climate denial arguments to undermine the science of climate change, it also employs other narratives that are frequently used to attack climate action.

The Kids Guide to the Truth About Climate Change argues against the need for climate action

The book makes the argument that renewable energy is not clean: “While protecting our home planet is certainly a noble cause, quickly switching off our primary energy sources is already costing people their jobs, deeply damaging supply chains and creating painful shortages of energy and food. Also, these new technologies have their own issues and environmental costs.”

It is true that all forms of energy development have environmental impacts, but the Kids Guide’s environmental-focused attacks on electric vehicles, solar panels, and wind turbines are highly disingenuous considering that their effects pale in comparison to the collective damage fossil fuels have wrought on our environment and climate. In addition to their role in driving climate change, a new study put a price tag on one of the human costs of domestic oil and gas activity: “Air pollution from U.S. oil and natural gas production causes roughly $77 billion in health impacts nationwide every year, while also contributing to thousands of early deaths and health flare-ups,” including “7,500 excess deaths, 410,000 asthma attacks, and 2,200 new cases of childhood asthma across the U.S. in 2016.”

It pushes the argument that climate action hurts the U.S. and is useless because big polluters like China and India are not taking action to curb their emissions: “While the United States and Western Europe sacrifice our economies and quality of life to cut carbon emissions, huge industrial nations like China and India continue to emit massive amounts of carbon dioxide by comparison, as well as tons of other pollutants.”

These are long-held climate denier talking points. Climate change, not climate action, will devastate our economy because the cost of inaction far outweighs the cost of action. In 2022, the White House Office of Management and Budget provided the first accounting of how much unchecked global warming could impact the U.S. federal government alone and concluded that failure to act would cost $2 trillion annually in lost revenue. Pretending that U.S. action is futile if other big polluters don’t curb their carbon emissions is another way to give license to industry and policymakers to kick the can down the road on fighting climate change.

The Kids Guide to the Truth About Climate Change champions the dangerous idea that “things are getting better”

The Kids Guide highlights four examples to suggest that the current level of climate action is sufficiently reversing our impacts and “we are already making progress toward protecting the Earth for future generations to enjoy.” In fact, the examples used in the guide are anomalies that don’t disprove the larger warming trend:

“Throughout the winter of 2021, the British Antarctic Survey recorded the lowest Antarctic temperatures in over 60 years.” As The Washington Post wrote in October 2021, “Scientists stressed that the record cold over the South Pole in no way refutes or lessens the seriousness of global warming. Antarctica is notorious for its wild swings in weather and climate, which can run counter to global trends.” The Post cited a range of experts including Eric Steig, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington, who said, “One cold winter is interesting but doesn’t change the long term trend, which is warming.”

“According to NASA, Greenland’s largest and most important glacier, Jakobshavn, has been gaining ice for several years.” This example is also intended to suggest that warming is either not happening or not having serious consequences, but as CNN reported in March 2019, “the melting from that single glacier alone contributed to global oceans rising an average of 1 millimeter between 2000 and 2010. And even though Jakobshavn has gained ice at lowest levels where it enters the sea, it has still been contributing to sea level rise because the rate it is melting into the ocean is still greater than the rate that ice is accumulating higher up on the glacier, according to the researchers.”

“While some claim the change is temporary, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change noted that global warming has slowed.” The origin of this claim is unclear.The IPCC has repeatedly warned that we are increasing warming at an alarming rate. In an email exchange with Media Matters, climate scientist Michael E. Mann called the claim “absurd and dishonest,” adding: “The assertion that the IPCC ‘noted that global warming has slowed’ is simply a lie. The IPCC has made no such assertion. The planet continues to warm at a rate of roughly 0.2C per decade and the WMO (World Meteorological Organization) recently predicted that global surface temperatures will (briefly) cross the 1.5C warming threshold for the first time in history within the next couple years.”

“Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, predicted to be dead by now, recently recorded its most significant growth ever.” The news in 2021 that the Great Barrier Reef was in recovery was weaponized by bad actors to claim that those urging climate action were alarmists. But as ABC News reported, the recovery in 2021 was aided by a break in climate-related disturbance and experts believe the progress to be short-lived.

Kids are the obvious next front in climate deniers' misinformation campaign

Today’s climate movement is primarily youth-driven — in the last several years, young climate activists have demanded greater action from global leaders by getting out to the streets, online, and into the voting booth. In part, they are the face of the movement because they have the most to lose, and the relentless mockery and attacks by right-wing media in response to the wave of youth activism has not been a strategy aiming to recruit a new generation of climate deniers. Disinformation disguised as educational material on climate change for children is, however.

The Kids Guide’s efforts to push climate denial on children may not undermine the momentum of today’s climate activists, but it certainly appears designed to stunt the next would-be wave of young people ready to demand a livable future.

With Canadian wildfires, Fox News follows its COVID playbook

06/08/23 12:19 PM EDT

Led by Fox, “hard news” anchors on cable injected opinion into Schiavo coverage

03/22/05 6:46 PM EST

How Tucker Carlson was a terrible and effective megaphone for climate misinformation

05/03/23 12:39 PM EDT

===

an 200

#SuckItTrump: Mike Huckabee buried for bonkers claim Trump could suck coronavirus from patients’ lungs

===

trms

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/too-much-right-sees-conservative-base-marks-n1237637

the conservative group called We Build the Wall presented donors with a relatively straightforward idea: it would collect private donations and use the money to build barriers along the U.S./Mexico border. On the surface, the pitch was effective: the outfit raised $25 million for the venture, and donors were assured that every penny would go toward wall construction.

Below the surface, according to federal prosecutors, the operation was a scam. As part of a broad criminal indictment, which included charges against former White House strategist Steve Bannon, prosecutors alleged money was used to pay for "home renovations, payments towards a boat, a luxury S.U.V., a golf cart, jewelry, cosmetic surgery, personal tax payments and credit card debt."

As jarring as these accusations are, there's also a degree of familiarity to the circumstances. As the New York Times' Michelle Goldberg noted in her new column:

Bannon's arrest comes just two weeks after New York's attorney general sought to dissolve the National Rifle Association, claiming that its leadership "looted" it. On Thursday, Politico reported that Jerry Falwell Jr., recently suspended as president of Liberty University, has "repeatedly used a 164-foot yacht owned by NASCAR mogul Rick Hendrick for family vacations after the university committed to a lucrative sponsorship deal with Hendrick Motorsports."

The trifecta is neatly tied together with a common thread: the NRA, Jerry Falwell, and We Build The Wall each stand accused of, among other things, swindling unsuspecting conservatives who put their trust in powerful political voices on the right.

But if the allegations prove true, the perpetrators are hardly the first to try to fleece their own base. It was seven years ago when MSNBC's Chris Hayes wrote, "Much of movement conservatism is a con and the base are the marks."

The observation was true at the time, but it's even more important now.

As regular readers know, many prominent Republican voices -- Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, et al. -- have created lucrative mailing lists used for highly dubious purposes. Similarly, the rise of the Tea Party in the Obama era led to the creation of "**scam PAC**s" that targeted conservative donors, but existed "mostly to pad the pockets" of the consultants who ran them.

Donald Trump, not surprisingly, was similarly eager to separate those he perceived as fools from their money, running a fraudulent charitable foundation and creating a fraudulent "university," which was designed to do little more than rip off its "students."

If the latest criminal indictments are accurate, groups like the NRA and We Build The Wall also saw conservatives as suckers.

The Washington Post's Paul Waldman added yesterday, "Conservative operatives such as Bannon have always viewed the right's rank-and-file with utter contempt, as little more than a collection of fools to be taken advantage of."

Similarly, Amanda Carpenter, a conservative who's worked with GOP leaders such as Jim DeMint and Ted Cruz, delivered an important message to the right yesterday: "Conservatives should be very angry. You got used.

===

ref

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/conservative-circles-scams-abound

former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) has used his mailing list as a lucrative tool for many years, and it’s a habit he’s apparently reluctant to break. Even after the Arkansas Republican gave up his Fox News program, apparently to pursue another White House campaign, Huckabee continued to send out emails with “really questionable ads.”

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) isn’t running for anything, but as discovered last week, he’s also using his list to send out spam-like messages that appear to be scams.

It’s against this backdrop that Kenneth P. Vogel had a great piece this week on the rise of “scam PACs” that target conservative donors.

Since the tea party burst onto the political landscape in 2009, the conservative movement has been plagued by an explosion of PACs that critics say exist mostly to pad the pockets of the consultants who run them. Combining sophisticated targeting techniques with fundraising appeals that resonate deeply among grass-roots activists, they collect large piles of small checks that, taken together, add up to enough money to potentially sway a Senate race. But the PACs plow most of their cash back into payments to consulting firms for additional fundraising efforts.

A POLITICO analysis of reports filed with the Federal Election Commission covering the 2014 cycle found that 33 PACs that court small donors with tea party-oriented email and direct-mail appeals raised $43 million – 74 percent of which came from small donors. The PACs spent only $3 million on ads and contributions to boost the long-shot candidates often touted in the appeals, compared to $39.5 million on operating expenses, including $6 million to firms owned or managed by the operatives who run the PACs.

I’m reminded of a line Chris Hayes used a couple of years ago, which continues to ring true: “[M]uch of movement conservatism is a con and the base are the marks.”

Eric Hananoki added soon after, “Media Matters has previously documented how conservatives have scammed their followers. [Erick Erickson], for example, was caught sending a plagiarized email (from Ann Coulter) endorsing a newsletter which purported to reveal a ‘secret’ system to become ‘instant millionaires.’”

And just yesterday, Ben Dimiero noted, “Erick Erickson’s email list subscribers have received a bizarre array of pitches from conspiracy theorists and dubious practitioners warning of the impending death of millions of Americans and promising ‘cures’ to cancer, Alzheimer’s, and aging.”

To be sure, there are some specific differences among these dubious appeals. The Politico piece, for example, highlighted the activities of suspicious political action committees, while the Huckabee, Gingrich, and Erickson examples focus on use of regular ol’ email lists, outside of PAC control.

But the bottom line remains the same: a dynamic now exists in which many conservatives are receiving dubious messages through lists operated by Republican leaders they trust.

The basic idea isn’t entirely new – for decades, groups and political figures sent out direct-mail letters, which regularly included unsavory appeals for cash – but the old model relied on slow and expensive distribution through the mail. It’s cheaper, faster, and easier for these unsavory schemes to be put in motion electronically.

Kevin Drum, meanwhile, asked the question that was on my mind:

So here’s my question: why is this so much more common on the right than on the left? It would be nice to chalk it up to the superior intelligence of liberal audiences and call it a day, but that won’t wash…. One possibility is that a lot of this stuff is aimed at the elderly, and conservatives tend to skew older than liberals. And while that’s probably part of the answer, it’s hardly satisfying. There are plenty of elderly liberals, after all – certainly enough to make them worth targeting with the same kind of fraudulent appeals that infest the right.

Another possibility is that it’s basically a supply-side phenomenon. Maybe liberal outlets simply tend to be less ruthless, less willing to set up scam fundraising organizations than conservative outlets. In fact, that actually does seem to be the case. But again: why?

I honestly have no idea, so let’s open it up to some discussion. Why do these scams seem so much more common on the right than the left?

Explore:

The MaddowBlog, Elections, Erick Erickson, Fundraising, Mike Huckabee, Money in Politics and Newt Gingrich

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/how-a-behind-the-scenes-bare-knuckle-brawl-shaped-us-foreign-policy-under-trump/

It was a bare-knuckle brawl of the first order. It took place in Washington, D.C., and it resulted in a KO. The winners? Lobbyists and the defense industry. The losers? Us. And odds on, you didn’t even know that it happened. Few Americans did, which is why it’s worth telling the story of howSaudi, Emirati, and Qatari money flooded the nation’s capital and, in the process, American policy went down for the count.

The fight began three years ago this month. Sure, the pugilists hadn’t really liked each other that much before then, but what happened in 2017 was the foreign-policy equivalent of a sucker punch. On the morning of June 5th, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, and Bahrain announced that they were severing diplomatic ties with Qatar, the small but wealthy emirate in the Persian Gulf, and establishing a land, air, and sea blockade of their regional rival, purportedly because of its ties to terrorism.

The move stunned the Qataris, who responded in ways that would later become familiar during the Covid-19 pandemic — by emptying supermarket shelves and hoarding essentials they worried would quickly run out. Their initial fears were not unwarranted, as their neighbors,Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, were even reported to be planning to launch a military invasion of Qatar in the weeks to come (one that would be thwarted only by the strong objections of Donald Trump’s then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson).

To make sense of this now three-year-old conflict, which turned aspects of American policy in the Middle East ranging from the war in Yemen to the more than 10,000 American military personnel stationed in Qatar into political footballs, means refocusing on Washington and the extraordinary influence operations the Saudis, Emiratis, and Qataris ran there. That, in turn, means analyzing Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) documents filed by firms representing all three countries since the spat began. Do that and you’ll come across a no-punches-barred bout of lobbying in the U.S. capital that would have made Rocky envious.

The Saudis Come Out Swinging

The stage had been set for the blockade of Qatar seven months before it began when Donald Trump was elected president. Just as his victory shocked the American public, so it caught many foreign governments off guard. In response, they quickly sought out the services of anyone with ties to the incoming administration and the Republican-controlled Congress. The Saudis and Emiratis were no exception. In 2016, both countries had reported spending a little more than $10 million on FARA registered lobbying firms. By the end of 2017, UAE spending had nearly doubled to $19.5 million, while the Saudi’s had soared to $27.3 million.

In the months following Donald Trump’s November triumph, the Saudis, for instance, added several firms with ties to him or the Republicans to an already sizeable list of companies registered under FARA as representing their interests. For example, they brought on the CGCN Group whose president and chief policy officer, Michael Catanzaro, was on Trump’s transition team and then served in his administration. To court the Republican Congress, they hired the McKeon Group, run by former Republican Representative Buck McKeon, who had previously served as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

And that was just registered foreign agents. A number of actors who had not registered under FARA were actively pushing the Saudi and Emirati agendas, chief among them Elliott Broidy and George Nader. Broidy, a top fundraiser for Trump’s campaign, and Nader, his business partner, already had a wide range of interests in both Saudi Arabia and the UAE. To help secure them, the two men embarked on a campaign to turn the new president and the Republican establishment against Qatar. One result was a Broidy-inspired, UAE-funded anti-Qatar conference hosted in May 2017 by a prominent Washington think tank, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. It conveniently offered Representative Ed Royce (R-CA) a platform to discuss his plans to introduce a bill, HR 2712, that would label Qatar a state sponsor of terrorism. It was to be introduced in the House of Representatives just two days after the conference ended.

Qatar, mind you, had been a U.S. ally in the Middle East and was the home of Al Udeid Air Base, where more than 10,000 American soldiers are still stationed. So that bill represented a striking development in American-Qatari relations and was a clearly traceable result of Saudi and UAE lobbying efforts.

The unregistered influence of players like Broidy and Nader was evidently backed by other FARA-registered Saudi and UAE foreign agents actively pushing the bill. For example, Qorvis Communications, a long-time public relations mouthpiece for the Saudis, circulated a document titled “Qatar’s History of Funding Terrorism and Extremism,” claiming that country was funding Al-Nusra, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other groups. (Not surprisingly, it included a supportive quote from David Weinberg, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.)

While that anti-Qatar crusade was ramping up in Washington, the president himself was being wooed by the Saudi royals in Riyadh on his first official trip abroad. They gave him the literal royal treatment and their efforts appeared to pay off when, just a day after the blockade began, Trump tweeted, “During my recent trip to the Middle East I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology. Leaders pointed to Qatar — look!”

A week after the imposition of the blockade, the Emirati ambassador to the United States, Yousef al-Otaiba, wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed calling for Al Udeid Air Base to be moved to the UAE, a development the Qataris feared could open the door for an eventual invasion of their country.

However, this Saudi and Emirati onslaught did not go unanswered.

Qatar Strikes Back

Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, was caught flat-footed by the influence operations of the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates. The year before Donald Trump became president, the Qataris had spent just $2.7 million on lobbying and public relations firms, less than a third of what the Saudis and UAE paid out, according to FARA records. But they now moved swiftly to shore up their country’s image as a crucial American ally. They went on an instant hiring spree, scooping up lobbying and public-relations firms with close ties to Trump and congressional Republicans.Just two days after the blockade began, for instance, they inked adeal with the law firm of former Attorney General John Ashcroft, paying $2.5 million for just its first 90 days of work.

They also quickly obtained the services of Stonington Strategies. Headed by Nick Muzin, who had worked on Trump’s election campaign, the firm promptly set out to court 250 Trump “influencers,” as Julie Bykowicz of theWall Street Journal reported. Among others, Stonington’s campaign sought to woo prominent Fox News personalities Trump paid special attention to like former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. He was paid $50,000 to travel to Qatar just months later.

In September 2017, the Qataris also hired Bluefront Strategies to craft a comprehensive multimedia operation, which was to include commercials on all the major news networks, as well as digital and printed ads in an array of prominent publications, and a “Lift the Blockade” campaign on social media. Meanwhile, ads on Google and YouTube were to highlight the illegality of the blockade and the country’s contributions to fighting terrorism. Bluefront Strategies was to influence public opinion before the next session of the U.N. General Assembly that month. Qatar and its proxies then used the campaign “to target key decision-makers attending the General Assembly, including Trump” to gain support on that most global of stages.

Its agents weren’t just playing defense, either. They actively attacked the Saudi lobby. For example, Barry Bennett of Avenue Strategies, a PR firm they hired, sent a letter to the assistant attorney general for national security accusing Saudi Arabia and the Saudi American Public Relation Affairs Committee (SAPRAC) of FARA violations in their funding of an expensive media campaign meant to connect Qatar’s leaders with violent extremism and acts of terror.

Such counterpunches proved remarkably successful. SAPRAC eventually felt obliged to register with FARA. Meanwhile, Huckabee tweeted, “Just back from a few days in surprisingly beautiful, modern, and hospitable Doha, Qatar.” Finally, at that U.N. meeting, President Trump actually sat:{ down with Emir al-Thani of Qatar and }:{, “We’ve been friends a long time… I have a very strong feeling [the Qatar diplomatic crisis] will be solved quickly.” They both then emphasized the “tremendous” and “strong” relationship between their countries.}:

The Qataris next mounted a concerted defense against HR 2712. Lobbying firms they hired, particularly Avenue Strategies and Husch Blackwell, launched a multifaceted campaign to prevent that legislation from passing. Elliott Broidy even claimed in a lawsuit that the Qatari government and several of its lobbyists had hacked his email account and distributed private emails of his to members of Congress in an attempt to discredit his work for the Saudis.

In November 2017, Barry Bennett from Avenue Strategies went on the attack, using a powerful weapon in Washington politics: Israel. He distributed aletter to members of Congress written by a former high-ranking official in the Israeli national security establishment explicitly stating that Qatar had not provided military support to Hamas, as HR 2712 claimed it had.

Three months later, Husch Blackwell all but threatened Congress and the Trump administration with the cancellation of a $6.2 billion Boeing contract to sell F-15 fighters to the Qatari military (and the potential loss of thousands of associated jobs) if the bill passed and sanctions were imposed on that country. All of this was linked to a concerted effort by Qatari agents to contact “nearly two dozen House offices, including then House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy,” to prevent the bill’s passage, according to a report by the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative at the Center for International Policy where we work. Ultimately, HR 2712 died a slow death in Congress and never became law.

The Saudi Bloc’s Battle for the War in Yemen

Just as Qatar started to turn the tide in the fight for influence in Washington, the Saudis and their allies faced another problem: Congress began moving to sever support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. On February 28, 2018, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced a joint resolution to withdraw U.S. support for that war. According to FARA filings,Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP, representing the Saudi ministry of foreign affairs,contacted several members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, particularly Democrats, presumably to persuade them to vote against the measure.

That March, the firm sent out dozens of emails to members of Congress inviting them to a gala dinner with the key Saudi royal, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman himself. According to the invitation from the CGCN Group, another FARA-registered firm representing the Saudis, the “KSA [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia]-USA Partnership Gala Dinner” was to emphasize the “enduring defense and counter-terrorism cooperation” and “historic alliance” between the two countries. It would end up taking place just two days after the Senate voted to table Sanders’s bill.

Emirati lobbyists similarly reached out to Congress to maintain support for their role in that war. Hagir Elawad & Associates, for example, distributed an op-ed written by the UAE minister of state for foreign affairs justifying the war, as well as a letter written by that country’s ambassador, Yousef al-Otaiba, to 50 congressional contacts defending the Saudi-led coalition’s efforts to avoid civilian casualties and arguing that “the United States has a clear stake in the coalition’s success in Yemen.”

When that conflict began, Qatar was still a member of the coalition, but the imposition of the blockade led it to withdraw its forces from Yemen. Qatari officials then used the country’s media empire, centered on the broadcaster Al Jazeera, to highlight the disastrous aspects of the ongoing war. In doing so, they provided the Saudis and Emiratis with yet another reason to focus their own influence machines on both Qatar’s and Al Jazeera’s destruction. (That network’s closure was, in fact, one of the original 13 demands the Saudis and Emiratis had made for lifting the blockade.)

From the moment it was founded in 1996, Al Jazeerahad been an instrument of Qatari soft power, so it was hardly surprising that the UAE had long pressured members of Congress to force the network to register under FARA as a foreign agent. And Emirati lobbying efforts were not in vain. In early March 2018, 19 members of Congress signed and sent aletter to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions urging the Justice Department to demand that Al Jazeera be registered under FARA. Another such letter sent to the Justice Department in June 2019 by six senators and two representatives asked “why Al Jazeera and its employees have not been required to register.” According to FARA filings, all but one of those representatives had either received campaign contributions from or been contacted by a Saudi or Emirati lobbying firm. Al Jazeera, however, has yet to register.

The Murder of Jamal Khashoggi

Despite the efforts of Saudi and Emirati lobbyists in the early months of 2018, the emir of Qatar still managed to land an invitation to the Oval Office. At their meeting that April 10th, President Trump again described al-Thani as a “friend” and a “great gentleman” as well. The emir, in turn, thanked the president for “supporting us during this blockade.”

If Trump’s cozying up to him was a setback for the Saudis, the murder of critic and Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi nearly did in the Saudi lobbying juggernaut as well. The CIA later confirmed that the crown prince himself had ordered that Saudi citizen’s assassination at the country’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

As a result, some lobbying firmscut ties with the kingdom and its influence on Capitol Hill waned, as did positive public opinion about Saudi Arabia. In December 2018, the Senate passed the Sanders bill to end support for the war in Yemen. Both houses of Congress also passed a War Powers resolution to end involvement in that conflict, a historic congressional move in this century, even if later vetoed by President Trump (as were a series of attempts to block his treasured arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates).

Given the president’s unyielding support for the Saudis and Emiratis as especially lucrative customers for this country’s defense industry, the Qataris have clearly decided to crib the Saudi playbook. In May, that country purchased 24 Apache helicopters for $3 billion and, a few months later, agreed to pay for and manage a $1.8 billion expansion of Al Udeid Air Base to ensure the American military’s continued presence for the foreseeable future. In doing so, Qatar was visibly at work coopting two of the most powerful lobbies in Washington: the military and the weapons makers.

And the Winners Are…

Though Qatar faced a near-existential threat to its survival when the blockade began, three years later it’s not only surviving, but thriving thanks significantly to its influence operations in Washington. They have helped immeasurably to deepen economic, diplomatic, and military relations between the two countries.

Meanwhile, the emir’s rivals in Riyadh not only failed to make their blockade a success, but saw their influence wane appreciably in the U.S. as they stumbled from one public relations fiasco to the next. Even their staunchest defender, Donald Trump, recently threatened to sever U.S. military support for the Kingdom if the Saudi royals didn’t end their oil war with Russia (which they promptly did).

In truth, however, the real loser in this struggle for influence hasn’t been Saudi Arabia or the Emiratis, it’s been America. After all, the efforts of both sides to deepen their ties with the military-industrial complex (reinforcing the hyper-militarization of U.S. foreign policy) and increase their sway in Congress have ensured that the real interests of this country played second fiddle to those of Middle Eastern despots. Certainly, their acts helped ensure near historic levels of arms sales to the region, while prolonging the wars in Yemen andSyria, and so contributing to death and devastation on an almost unimaginable scale.

None of this had anything to do with the real interests of Americans, unless you mean the arms industry and K Street lobbyists who have been the only clear American winners in this never-ending PR war in Washington. In the process, those three Persian Gulf states have delivered a genuine knockout blow to the very idea that U.S. foreign policy should be driven by national — not special — interests.

Morgan Palumbo is a researcher with the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative at the :{Center for International Policy}:.

Jessica Draper is a researcher with the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative and Arms and Security Project at the :{Center for International Policy}:.

posner

...To Values Voter Summit attendees, however, this tumble of calamitous news was only evidence of a partisan attack against a divinely anointed president. Carly Eli, an attendee from Atlanta, said in an interview that God has told her that Trump is “chosen” and “anointed,” and that she believes God has placed a “hedge of protection” around Trump. Eli claims to have received visions of God placing a crown on Trump’s head twice — something she interprets as a prophecy that Trump will serve two terms.

Another attendee, Jason Farris, came from Colorado, where he is a volunteer with the Truth & Liberty Coalition, a new political advocacy group that is based on 7 Mountains theology, which holds that Christians must take control of the seven major spheres of society — religion, family, education, government, media, arts and entertainment, and business. When Farris read the July 25 call summary, he said it was “easy for me to see he [Trump] didn’t do anything wrong.” Echoing an increasingly common GOP talking point, Farris claimed that the impeachment proceedings were instigated by Democrats who are disappointed that “the Mueller report didn’t give them what they wanted. ... Even since before the inauguration, the progressive left has wanted to undermine and remove him from office,” he said.

Another attendee, Eric Swanson, a graduate of Liberty University and host of a podcast called All-In America, called the impeachment probe “disgusting” and “the biggest witch hunt in American history.” Instead, he insisted, Joe Biden should be investigated for bribery, echoing a widespread conspiracy theory that Biden “confessed” to bribery in a 2018 appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations — a claim that has been repeatedly debunked.

In this evangelical bubble, the Republican lawmakers who disrupt the impeachment investigation and confuse the public about both the process and the facts of the case are heroes. On Oct. 23, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and other Republican lawmakers stormed the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility where a closed-door deposition was about to take place. That same day, former Arkansas Gov. andonetime Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was taping his flagship weekly television program for Trinity Broadcasting Network. In a segment Huckabee calls “Facts of the Matter,”during which he tries “to make sense of some of the certified Washington, D.C., insanity,” a viewer named Carlos asked whether Gaetz had accomplished anything with his stunt.

In response, Huckabee, who is the father of former Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, proceeded to spout disinformation about what had happened. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, Huckabee claimed, “was so frightened by” the Republicans’ entry “that he shut the meeting down, got up and he walked out.” (In fact, the room had to be swept for security reasons after the Republican lawmakers broke security rules by bringing their cellphones inside.) Huckabee further misled his audience that “this was all happening behind closed doors, where only one side even got to call witnesses, one side got to hear the full testimony.” (This also was not true; Republicans could and did attend the depositions and ask questions.) To applause, Huckabee declared that such proceedings might take place “in North Korea, maybe in China, maybe in Iran, but not in America.”

Ted Suhl was serving his third year of a seven-year sentence for bribery and Medicaid fraud when Trump commuted his sentence and sprung him,at the request of Mike Huckabee; the White House released a statement explaining Trump's reasoning for the commutation, and, as Propublica documents, it is full of "half-truths and omissions" about Trump's new grifter pal. Propublica did the hard work of annotating the Trump statement to remove the bullshit and tell the true tale. Read the rest

Fox's Huckabee calls Trump/Russia investigation an "attempted coup d'etat" and demands Republicans investigate the Justice Department and FBI

also bash gillibrand on soc sec ofr immigrants

Mike Huckabee: Having blasted Florida Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich for not endorsing Trump and saying they don’t deserve a microphone, the former Arkansas governor would in some ways seem ripe to be rewarded with a cabinet slot in the new administration.

Not surprisingly, Huckabee has also advocated for the Affordable Care Act, calling for an expansion in the employer-based healthcare system instead.

OpenSecrets Blog could not obtain campaign finance information from Huckabee’s first gubernatorial election in 1998 (it was not available electronically). But for his re-election campaign in 2002, Huckabee collected about $2.5 million in contributions, including $267,380 from the health sector. Nursing care provider NHS Management LLC and the Arkansas Hospital Association were among his biggest health sector donors, giving $5,000 and $4,000 each.

The Arkansas Republican raised $16 million and $4.3 million respectively in his unsuccessful presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2016. He received the biggest support from the finance sector in both years, though the health sector also was among his big contributors.

Outside groups including Pursuing America’s Greatness raised about $6 million to support of Huckabee in this election, including $3 million from Ronald Cameron, a big political donor in Arkansas and the owner of poultry giant Mountainaire Corp.

Cameron donated a total of $6.7 million this election cycle, including direct contributions of $2,700 to Huckabee, $5,400 to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and — yes! — $8,100 to Donald Trump.

Huckabee and his wife Janet personally have given more than $61,050 to a number of candidates over the years, including $2,700 to Republican Mark Harris this cycle, who didn’t make it past the primary in North Carolina’s 9th District.

Categories: Campaign finance Congress Election Overview Health professionals Health services/HMOs Hospitals/nursing homes Outside Money Personal Finances Pharmaceutical/Health products Politicians & Elections Presidential Presidential Election

Tags: Affordable Care Act, Bobby Jindal, health, Health and Human Services, health professionals, hospitals, Mike Huckabee, pharmaceutical, Rick Scott, Tom Price, Trump cabinet

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/mike-huckabee-has-milked-almost-3-million-christian-organizations-past-two-years

5/15

Mike Huckabee, an evangelical pastor, was the most religiously radical candidate during his first presidential run in 2008, although eight years later, his views barely distinguish him from the rest of the field. He declared his candidacy today in Bill Clinton’s hometown of Hope, Arkansas, highlighting his claim that he is best equipped to fight what he calls the “Clinton machine.”

In a speech in January, Huckabee belittled the idea that climate change was a threat, saying that middle eastern radicals ISIS pose a greater threat to Americans, although they pose no threat on U.S. soil at all. He referred to President Obama’s remark in his State of the Union Address that the greatest threat the U.S. faces in climate change,” saying, “Not to diminish anything about the climate at all, but Mr. President, I believe that most of us would think that a beheading is a far greater threat to an American than a sunburn.” In other words, he diminished climate change to a triviality.

But Huckabee’s wavering positions on climate change are interesting in that they track the Republican Party’s rightward move in the last decade. At a conference in 2007,, “One thing that all of us have a responsibility to do is recognize that climate change is here, it’s real. That what we have to do is quit pointing fingers as to who’s at fault and recognize that it’s all our fault and it’s all our responsibility to fix it. I also support cap and trade of carbon emissions. And I was disappointed that the Senate rejected a carbon counting system to measure the sources of emissions, because that would have been the first and the most important step toward implementing true cap and trade.”

That wasn’t his position just a few years later. In 2010, he denied he had ever supported cap and trade, even though it’s. According to NPR, Huckabee wrote a Facebook post in 2013 claiming that climate change predictions had proved inaccurate. That post has now disappeared.

===

huffpo

Mike Huckabee, Jim Inhofe Give How-To On Denying Climate Change Without Any Concern For Facts

Posted: 08/19/2013

The Senate's most prominent climate change skeptic, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), called in to Mike Huckabee's radio show on Monday to discuss conspiracy theories on global warming and the Obama administration's plans to deal with it.

In the segment, both Inhofe and Huckabee accuse the Obama administration and Organizing for Action -- the nonprofit created out of the Obama campaign to stump for the president's agenda -- of violating federal law in their push to combat climate change. Inhofe has called for an investigation into whether the administration is coordinating with OFA on political activities in violation of the Hatch Act. He claims that because the Environmental Protection Agency is working on climate rules and OFA is working to promote climate action, there must be some manner of illegal interaction.

Last week OFA delivered "Climate Denier Awards" in the shape of unicorns to members of Congress. Inhofe was on the list.

The senator's appearance on Huckabee's show was mostly a chance for him to rehash bad science on global warming, including claims such as:

"We go through these 30-year cycles." (The planet doesn't warm on its own; something has to force it, and scientists have found that the current warming is being driven by the build-up of human-produced greenhouse gases.)

"We went into a leveling-out period about eight years ago." (Nope. Sorry.)

"You have to have CO2. It's a form of fertilizer to grow things. It's actually sought after in many cases." (There is such a thing as too much of a good thing.)

Huckabee also threw in a few of his own theories:

"When I was in college, all the literature at that time from the scientific community said that we were going to freeze to death." (No, it didn't.)

"The volcano that erupted over in Northern Europe actually poured more CO2 into the air in that single act of nature than all of humans have in something like the past 100 years." (Even when it was erupting, the European aviation industry's emissions alone dwarfed the volcano's daily emissions.)

Back when he was running in the 2007 Republican presidential primary, Huckabee was much more open to the idea that climate change was an issue that needed to be addressed. He supported a cap-and-trade plan to cut emissions before flipping his position a few years later.

Mike Huckabee is the only Fox candidate with a regularly

scheduled show, the weekend talker Huckabee. Huckabee's

show has always been closely tied to his political

machine: the show was first announced in a statement

posted on his political action committee and, according

to the New York Post (via Nexis), "not, as is customary,

from the network."

Since then, Huckabee has unsurprisingly used his program

to position himself for a potential political run. The

former Arkansas governor has used Fox News' airwaves to

grow his PAC and email lists directly (he touted the

address of an email catcher website run by his PAC) and

indirectly, through regular solicitations to give

"feedback" to MikeHuckabee.com, which conveniently links

to his PAC and an email signup page. Huckabee has also

used his program's guest list as an extension of his

PAC.

But why wouldn't Huckabee run? Again, Fox News'

influence comes into play.

In November 2009, Huckabee remarked on Fox News Sunday

that if he doesn't run for president, it's because "this

Fox gig I got right now" is "really, really wonderful."

Last month, conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg wrote

that there's "growing buzz" that Huckabee "may not run

because he's got a big new contract with Fox News in the

works" (a Huckabee aide responded that there were no Fox

talks). Financial considerations could also come into

play for Palin, who reportedly makes $1 million a year

with Fox News.

According to Politico, Fox "indicated that once any of

the candidates declares for the presidency he or she

will have to sever the deal with the network." ABC's

George Stephanopoulos noted that the Fox candidates may

actually delay their announcements to reap the benefits

of the Fox cocoon for as long as possible. Reporter

Claire Shipman replied that Fox's "very healthy

platform" allows the Fox candidates to keep visible

without spending money early.

The potential delay of their "official" announcements

means that the Fox candidates can also compile staff and

resources while still cashing a paycheck.

Huckabee, Palin and Gingrich have Fox-promoted groups

ready to convert to campaign mode if each chooses to

run. Santorum has already hired a staff member (for his

PAC) in the important primary state of New Hampshire

and, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader, is

"expected to formally" announce "in the spring." And

Bolton is reportedly "very serious about a presidential

bid and has begun to speak with potential staff."

During this non-"official" period, the Fox candidates

can also cite their Fox contract as a reason to decline

appearances on other news organizations who may offer a

tougher environment than Fox (a low bar). Indeed,

Politico reported that "C-SPAN Political Editor Steve

Scully said that when C-SPAN tried to have Palin on for

an interview, he was told he had to first get Fox's

permission -- which the network, citing her contract,

ultimately denied. Producers at NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN and

MSNBC all report similar experiences."

Fox's 2012 situation has a parallel in something that

happened in the 2010 midterms with former Fox News host

and contributor John Kasich.

After leaving Congress in 2001, Kasich openly considered

running for higher public office and joined Fox News to

keep himself in public view. A former Kasich pollster

told the Columbus Dispatch in 2002 that Kasich was

"leaving himself in a position so that if something

happens, he is as well-situated as somebody else."

On March 27, 2008, the Dispatch reported that Kasich

announced "he is paving the way now for a gubernatorial

bid" and quoted Kasich stating: "I'm going to go forward

even more aggressively, and we're going to continue to

ramp it up (for a gubernatorial run)." But Fox News

didn't take him off the air -- presumably because he

still hadn't "officially" announced his candidacy -- and

by the time he formally announced his bid on June 1,

2009, Kasich had logged more than 100 Fox News segments

as a guest host or contributor.

In a column last November, Condi vs. Hillary: The Next

Great Presidential Race author Dick Morris wrote that

the "GOP primaries of 12 will be held on Fox News. ...

we will see all the candidates on Fox News. Not just in

debates, but in frequent appearances on the opinion and

news shows on the network." For once, it seems Morris is

right.

January 07, 2011