Cameron, daniel a g

RAGA 3

LEO SHORTLIST SCOTUS?!

team red

~ ESG

11 23 beaten by dem (fr also gov) in deep red state; cameron is McC creATURE

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11 23 rww

pillow salesman turned Trump-supporting election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell is now making baseless insinuations that the recent reelection victory of popular Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear was somehow rigged. In an email sent Tuesday to supporters of his “Lindell Offense Fund,” Lindell wrongly claimed that “it makes no sense” that Beshear defeated the Trump-endorsed Republican candidate, state Attorney General Daniel Cameron. In another email sent Wednesday, Lindell falsely claimed, “Kentucky Governor election has an unbelievable outcome. So much so that all hands are on deck to fight the suspicious outcome.”

The truth is that Beshear led in pre-election polls, even though the race tightened at the end. His victory made plenty of sense to anyone paying attention to state politics. As documented by many journalists who wrote about the election, Beshear benefited from his family’s long presence in state politics, competent stewardship of economic development, and effective responses to natural disasters.

And, while the religious-right-aligned Lindell would not be likely to admit that Cameron’s anti-abortion extremism hurt him, Beshear took it on directly. While Cameron supported the no-exceptions-for-rape-or-incest abortion ban passed in 2022 by the state’s Republican-supermajority legislature over Beshear’s veto, Beshear’s campaign ran a devastating ad featuring a young woman who had been raped at age 12 by her stepfather. “This is to you, Daniel Cameron,” the woman says in the ad. “To tell a 12-year-old girl she must have the baby of her stepfather who raped her is unthinkable.”

Lindell has been raising money and promoting bogus election conspiracies for the past three years. He has made and refused to deliver on promises that he had acquired evidence to prove that the Chinese government hijacked the election by hacking voting machines. He promoted the widely debunked claims made by Dinesh D’Souza’s “2000 Mules” movie and book. Religious-right figure Lance Wallnau has promoted Lindell’s latest scheme—which Lindell says was given to him by God—to use drones that would supposedly expose fraud by detecting WiFi signals. Earlier this month, Lindell declared that giving him money to supposedly secure the 2024 election would be “the best bang for your buck to save your country of any time in history since 1776.”

Lindell’s recent conspiracy-mongering email about the Kentucky focused on numbers, implying that the only explanation for Cameron receiving fewer votes than he did in his election as attorney general, and for Cameron getting 150,000 fewer votes than the Republican secretary of state did in this election, was some kind of systemic fraud:

What gives? And why is the MSM ignoring this massive discrepancy?

This is one of the reasons why LOF is here – and why I continue to call out the LIES OF THE LEFT – the Rigged Machines, the Manipulation of Data, and the Early Voting and Absentee Voting – both easily rigged!

The email’s ridiculous claims are, of course, a prelude to Lindell asking for money to continue his efforts to “SAVE THIS GREAT COUNTRY” by doing away with voting machines, early voting, and mail-in ballots.

Trump’s lies about election fraud fueled the rage of his supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The kind of lies Trump and Lindell have relentlessly promoted since then have stoked anger and harassment against election officials, many of whom have left their jobs. As the Brennan Center’s Larry Norden told ABC News this month, Lindell’s relentless promotion of false claims about election fraud are dangerous: “Mike Lindell has gotten away with lying a lot about elections, but it’s not without consequences and not without harms to individuals who work in elections — and more broadly to the functioning of our democratic system.”

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an 8 23

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron hopes to unseat Democrat Andy Bashear as the Bluegrass State's next governor, but "his office is fielding serious employee complaints describing 'hostile,' 'cruel,' 'threatening,' and 'demeaning' treatment from senior officials" that contains "allegations that one unit director took 'zoomed in' photos of a detective's breast," The Daily Beast's Roger Sollenberger reports.

Despite "multiple resignations" amongst staff, "Cameron's office has taken little if any action in response to the complaints, which The Daily Beast received from a public records request," Sollenberger writes.

"The one outlier appears to have been the case of the inappropriate photos, in which an investigation found in February that the woman’s supervisor 'should be reprimanded' for public intoxication. The office investigated her claims, but appears to have taken no action on her other six allegations," Sollenberger continues. "The woman who brought that complaint—an active-duty detective employed in the office of the attorney general (OAG)—is suing Cameron and his office for employment discrimination, hostile work conditions, and workers' compensation retaliation, according to filings in Franklin County district court."

Beyond that, Sollenberger reveals a pattern of "relentless" abusive behavior occurring under Cameron's watch, including accounts that "two top Cameron officials—Deputy AG Vic Maddox and deputy solicitor general for criminal appeals Jeffrey A. Cross—are accused of routine mistreatment."

Legal briefs describe "an office out of control, streaked with fear and suspicion, where workers are routinely degraded and supervisors not only ignore the complaints but are often at the center of them," Sollenberger says. "One complaint, submitted by an attorney in Cameron's office, noted that Cross treated workers in a 'demeaning, unprofessional manner' and would 'pit employees against each other,' sowing internal mistrust. Cross' tactics, this attorney claimed, had caused 'numerous attorneys and administrative staff members' to resign or retire. A separate complaint, which the OAG's then-communications director filed against Maddox this spring, cites gender discrimination against women, conflict with another top official, 'sabotage' of official duties, and 'threatening/intimidating/humiliating behavior.'"

After the communications director alleged that Maddox "'had been threatening, demeaning, intimidating, humiliating, and highly disrespectful' to her, and displayed 'favoritism' by 'promoting men over roles assigned to women,'" Cameron "called her personally," Sollenberger explains.

Although Cameron "apologized on behalf of Vic and urged" her "not to quit," Sollenberger notes, "It's unclear if Cameron took any disciplinary action against Maddox" because "Maddox remains the deputy AG."

an no lnx

'He’d better be there': Investigation explores why there’s 'no record' of Kentucky AG going to work

Maya BoddieJuly 18, 2023

HuffPost recently asked Kentucky Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron's office (for the fourth time) why there's no trace of the gubernatorial candidate going into his Capitol building office since January 2020.

The news outlet reports there's still "no response."

Although there's currently "no record of him using his fob key to enter" the building, HuffPost reports at one point, there was.

READ MORE: Trump-backed Kentucky AG welcomed donation from community center his office is probing: report

The news outlet even received a letter from the state office's Finance and Administration Cabinet "saying nothing was left out of the records."

According to HuffPost:HuffPost:

There are several possible explanations for why there is no record of Cameron, who is currently running for governor, passing through security to go into his office.

One is that someone else has been swiping him in with their key fob every single time, like a staffer or a security officer. Another possibility is that Cameron has been entering the Capitol somewhere less secure, where his fob card isn’t needed. Still another possibility is that he’s working out of one of the five other attorney general field offices scattered around the state.

And of course, it's possible the attorney general isn't going in to work much at all.

Former AG aide, Amye Bensenhaver, told HuffPost she assumes "that Cameron is simply being swiped into the Capitol by his security detail or by a state trooper on the scene."

However, she was stumped by the "self-incriminating" answers Cameron's staffers' offered when asked why there's no record of the AG's presence in his office.

When the news outlet emailed Cameron's aides the first time, his Deputy Communications Director Atley Smedley replied, "This is not correct."

"Attorney General Cameron has regularly come to his office since he assumed the position of Attorney General in December 2019" Smedley insisted.

READ MORE: Trump-backed Kentucky AG attempts to fight judge’s ruling in favor of trans youth: report

HuffPost asked a second time, receiving a response from Cameron's Communications Director Shellie May, who ignored the question and instead claimed, "Attorney General Cameron works tirelessly advocating for the men, women, and children of all 120 Kentucky counties. The records do not accurately reflect the comings and goings of General Cameron or any elected official, nor can any conclusions be drawn from them."

The third time, "a spokesperson" replied, "What makes it clear that Daniel Cameron has been on the job working for Kentuckians, among other things, is the fact that he has sued the [President Joe] Biden Administration dozens of times to stop its misguided policies.And he has stopped the [Kentucky Gov. Andy] Beshear Administration from violating the rights of Kentuckians on multiple occasions. The key fob records do not accurately reflect the comings and goings of General Cameron or any elected official, nor can any conclusions be drawn from them."

The office was contacted once more Tuesday, July 11, and still received no reply.

Bensenhaver told HuffPost, "I'm surprised they would be so obtuse about this. All they have to do is explain to you that the attorney general, as a matter of practice, does not sign himself in. That's a better explanation than there is no record. They're really shooting themselves in the foot by obfuscating if he’s there. We have to assume he comes in and out of the Capitol."

READ MORE: Kentucky GOP gubernatorial nominee praises 'Trump culture of winning' while mocking Ron DeSantis

She emphasized, "He'd better be there."

The news outlet also contacted and received no response from "the Kentucky State Police, which provides security at the Capitol, to ask about security protocols for elected officials entering the building," as well as "the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission, which provides Capitol media credentials, with questions about security and access."

HuffPost's full report is available at this link.

READ MORE: GOP attorneys general attack Target’s LGBTQ Pride merchandise as 'potentially harmful to minors'

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Contradictory Takes on Climate Change

“Climate change is one of the most pressing global challenges,” the multinational brewing company Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) acknowledges in its 2021 ESG report for investors. “Our evolved understanding of potential climate-related risks and opportunities across our value chain continues to inform our long-term strategy.”

AB InBev has set an ambitious climate goal for 2025, aiming to reduce its carbon emissions by 25% and purchase 100% of its electricity from renewable sources by then. In joining the international RE100 initiative to switch to 100% renewables, the company intends to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.

But the beer giant is one of the largest corporate funders of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), a group of powerful state officials that has long attacked environmental regulations in the U.S. Members of RAGA—which receives substantial funding from fossil fuel companies to support the reelection campaigns of these AGs—have filed legal challenges against Obama-era air and water pollution regulations. Former Oklahoma AG Scott Pruitt is among those who have worked directly with fossil fuel lobbyists to challenge these laws.

Numerous other corporations have given large sums to RAGA for this year’s elections while publicly committing to ESG principles and, in many cases, to direct climate action.

RAGA recently scored a big win in :{West Virginia v. EPA:(style="box-sizing:inherit"):}: when the right-wing justices who now dominate the Supreme Court ruled against the agency, preventing the Biden administration from regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act without going back to Congress for explicit authorization.

Retaliating Against “Energy Discrimination”

As the Right gets more extreme in the U.S., climate-denying Republicans have added a new weapon to their arsenal: attacking financial firms that decrease their investments in fossil fuels.

GOP attorneys general and financial officers are joining state lawmakers in penalizing investment firms that divest from fossil fuel companies. Although they are members of a political party ostensibly committed to a free market, these GOP officials are meddling in corporate decision-making by trying to prevent executives from limiting the enormous financial risk posed by the effects of climate change—likely the biggest economic challenge of the century.

As with their outcry about critical race theory supposedly being taught in American schools, GOP politicians are attempting to cast climate action as a culture war issue, branding routine practices such as ESG disclosures to investors and divesting from a waning fossil fuel industry as “woke.”

In 2021, Texas enacted a law to root out alleged “energy discrimination,” seeking to prevent investment firms that decrease their stakes in oil, gas, and coal from managing the state’s pension and other funds. After the law passed, the energy task force of the ultra-conservative, corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) approved a model bill with similar language, directing state treasurers or comptrollers to maintain a list of firms that have divested from fossil fuels and to only issue government contracts to businesses with more than 10 employees that verify their allegiance to fossil fuels.

In the past year or so, similar legislation has been introduced in at least 15 states and has already passed in four. On Aug. 24, Texas released its first list of firms that allegedly “boycott energy companies,” including BlackRock, Credit Suisse, and UBS.

Dubious Claims

On Aug. 4, 19 GOP attorneys general sent a letterto BlackRock CEO Larry Finkaccusing his firm of making ESG investments that “force the phase-out of fossil fuels, increase energy prices, drive inflation, and weaken the national security of the United States.”

Claims like this are histrionic and often baseless. For example, BlackRock has invested more than $108 billion in Texas-based energy companies, and this year it plans to support proportionally fewer ESG shareholder resolutions than it did last year. And while Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and his allies from other states claim that ESG investing hurts their pension funds, academic studies like a recent one undertaken by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago refute this. In fact, since Texas passed its anti-ESG law last year, the UPenn/Fed study indicates that it has already cost the state between $303 and $532 million, as Kate Aronoff points out in The New Republic.

Other evaluations of ESG investing are mixed, but when researchers from the New York University Stern Center for Sustainable Business and Rockefeller Asset Management analyzed over 1,000 relevant research papers from 2015–20, they found that a majority of the studies indicated ESG investing leads to either neutral or improved financial performance. The meta-analysis points out that “improved financial performance due to ESG becomes more marked over longer time horizons.”

Despite these findings, Republican state AGs and other officials have accelerated their attacks on climate action—a central tenet of ESG investing—in the past few years.

In August, Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and the trustees of the State Board of Administration voted to ban its investment managersfrom using ESG considerations in managing its portfolio of roughly $245 billion, primarily from the Florida Retirement System Pension Plan. Florida’s AG Ashley Moody (R) joined the governor in supporting the move.

In May, Kentucky’s AG Daniel Cameron(R) issued an opinion barring investment managers doing government business from employing ESG principles. On Sept. 1, Indiana’s AG Todd Rokita (R) did the same.

Meanwhile, right-wing entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy is cashing in on the GOP’s anti-ESG and anti-woke craze, as CMD recently reported. His firm Strive Asset Management (DRLL) is trying to pull business away from the Big Three asset managers in red states. It recently announced that it hasraised $250 million thanks to large investments from far-right tech mogul Peter Thiel and his affiliated groups.

Not only are GOP AGs targeting asset managers that reduce fossil fuel investments, but they’re going after regulators and ratings agencies as well.

In June, Paxton spearheaded a letterfrom a group of 12 Republican AGs to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)opposing its proposed corporate disclosure requirements around sustainability. The rule would require firms to back up their claims of purportedly green or socially aware investments. Twenty-one GOP AGs sent another letter of opposition to the SEC on Aug. 16.

“The woke left is going full throttle in their mission to change every facet of American life… and erode our democratic institutions to suit their liberal agenda,” said West Virginia’s AG Patrick Morrisey (R).

In late July, Missouri’s AG Eric Schmitt (R) launched an investigation into whether Morningstar, a financial research and rating company, violated a state consumer-protection law by evaluating ESG issues. A few weeks later, 18 other AGs joined the probe. Schmitt and 16 other attorneys general are also trying to block California from setting its own vehicle emissions standards.

At the same time, the nonprofit State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF) and its members are doing all they can to prop up fossil fuel companies and punish firms that divest from oil, gas, and coal. In West Virginia, state Treasurer Riley Mooretold five financial companies—the banks Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo, as well as BlackRock—that they would no longer be eligible for state contracts because they have reduced financing for coal projects.

Corporate Code of Silence ...

https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/republican-attorneys-general-go-to-war-for-trump/

For decades, the two partisan political organizations dedicated to electing attorneys general had an agreement not to attack the other side’s incumbent candidate. During President Donald Trump’s time in office, however, theRepublican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) has _{thrown that accord out the window}_, lurching further to the right year after year and weaponizing the partisan polarization gumming up the country’s political apparatus.

“Our friends on the other side and particularly donors, much earlier than Democratic donors, started to recognize the power of the office of the attorney general,” Sean Rankin, executive director of the Democratic Attorneys General Association (DAGA), told Salon in 2018, as competition for the once-obscure elected office grew hot across the country.

“They saw this as a real opportunity todevelop the Republican bench, as well as derail those Democrats who had promising careers,” he said.

Spending escalated quickly on the Republican side. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, DAGA’s GOP counterpart, RAGA, raised $16 million in 2014 and nearly $27 million in 2016. In contrast, DAGA raised nearly $9 million in 2014 and nearly $10 million in 2016.

Attorneys general essentially have the final say in prosecutorial discretion, or which cases get taken to court, a fact understood by lobbyists. Industry groups have depended on help from AGs, includingthe National Rifle Association (NRA), which made a $700,000 donation to RAGA four weeks after the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.

After that donation, 24 out of 27 Republican AGs wrote Congress asking for a billto make concealed-carry federal law.

Now RAGA has turned its sights to Democrats, launching a new “_{Lawless Liberals}_” campaign last month, which parrots Trump’s belligerent race-baiting about the social justice protest movement sweeping the country. The campaign is an unsubtle effort to appeal to a unsubtle president, whose AG endorsements have provided critical support in previous elections.

The group’s most recent ad, however, appears to have nothing to do with attorneys general.

The — “Erasing History” — digitally wipes the faces of all four presidents off of Mount Rushmore one by one, while headlines show people calling for the removal of other monuments featuring their likenesses.

It also apparently has little to do with law enforcement. Of the video, RAGA executive director Adam Piper said: “‘Erasing History’ is a poignant reminder about the dangers of the current ‘cancel culture,’ the threat to our nation and the rule of law posed by anarchists and lawless liberals.”

_{RAGA bought airtime}_ for the ad in Rapid City, South Dakota, on July 3 and 4, for cable networks MSNBC, CNN and Fox News. This might seem like a strange use of funds, because there is no attorney general election in South Dakota this year. However, Trump will visit the area on those days to celebrate the Fourth of July at Mount Rushmore.

The president’s endorsements have _{proved critical before}_, such as with the election of Kentucky’sRepublican Attorney General Daniel Cameronlast year.

Cameron, however, has been taking heat for the handling of the investigation into the shooting death of EMT Breonna Taylor by Louisville police this March, which turned the city into one of the major hotbeds for social justice protests this June.

RAGA’s website exploits that unrest, featuring an animation of a car in flames for the banner imageand threats that Democratic AGs will dissolve police departments and destabilize law and order.

Ironically, Republican attorneys general have recently themselves run afoul of law and order.

In 2015, Texas AG Ken Paxton was indicted on _{felony securities charges}_. His trial has been pushed back numerous times since then, but while Paxton waited, _{RAGA appointed him as its chairman}_.

“The chief law enforcement officer has a primary responsibility to protect the people. I’m proud to stand with Ken and the rest of my colleagues in working to elect more Republican AGs who will protect our communities and stand for the rule of law,” RAGA vice chairman, Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill, said in the November 2018 announcement.

Hill, however, had been accused of groping four women at a bar nine months earlier, and that summer a bipartisan coalition of Indiana lawmakers _{called for his resignation}_.

Hill did not resign, and is in fact seeking re-election in November. His largest first-quarter contribution in 2020 came from the RAGA Action Fund, which _{donated $25,000 to his 2020 campaign}_.

In May, the Indiana State Supreme Court _{suspended Hill’s law license}_ in lieu of the groping allegations. RAGA gave him _{another $11,000 the next month}_.

Three days after receiving the contribution, Hill defended himself against the allegations at the Indiana Republican Convention.

“Like President Trump, I have faced accusations and investigations designed to destroy me politically,” he _{said}_. “Like President Trump, I’m a threat to Democrats and a radical liberal agenda. Both President Trump and I are wounded, some would say, and yes, we are both warriors with battle scars.”

Though Hill’s comments might come off as a stretch — Trump received a Selective Service deferment during the Vietnam War, exempting him from the draft because of alleged problems with bone spurs in his heels — they exemplify RAGA’s all-in merger with MAGA.

RAGA has inserted itself into the nominally independent judiciary, promoting what it calls _{its own “judicial farm team.”}_

It has also sought to restrict vote-by-mail — again citing Paxton — based on unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.

[twt no lnx]

It has also sought to restrict vote-by-mail — again citing Paxton — based on unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.

The group has also waded into the fight against the Affordable Care Act, attacking presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden for “politicizing” the coronavirus pandemic. (Biden had written a letter castigating Trump for his “unconscionable” pursuit of a lawsuit “designed to strip millions of Americans of their health insurance” amid a national health emergency.)

“His letter to President Trump on the legal issues surrounding the Affordable Care Act is not only in poor taste but also uninformed. A federal court has already ruled that the ACA is unconstitutional. It is critical the Supreme Court finish its review,” wroteLouisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, RAGA’s chairman.

It was not the only time Landry waded into health care to advance Trump’s interests. In March he secured for his state 400,000 doses of hydroxychloroquine, the now-discredited COVID-19 treatment hawked for months by Trump.

RAGA has spent tens of thousands of dollars on dinners for chief law enforcement officers and their top donors at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. It also filed an unprecedented letter in support of Trump during his impeachment trial in the Senate and called on a Washington, D.C., district court judge to obey the Justice Department’s request and drop all charges against Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser.

“It has become trendy in recent years for courts to weigh in on the wisdom of this administration’s policy decisions. Too often, that commentary comes in grandiose terms more appropriate for an op-ed than a judicial opinion,” the group said, urging the judge to dismiss the case “without irrelevant or personal comment.”

Sean Rankin of DAGA — RAGA’s Democratic counterpart — told Salon in a statement that “RAGA and this group of Republican AGs have quite a strategy: they’re trying to tear away affordable health care from millions of Americans, and they’re against voting by mail – both of these things in a pandemic. They’re against equal rights for women and LGBTQ people, and they don’t believe in science. They stay in lock-step with Trump’s missteps – and then are baffled by the fact that their incumbents are now vulnerable in red states …. I, for one, do not plan on interfering with my opponents while they continue to hurt themselves.”

FEC filings indicate that RAGA, for whatever reason, appears to have iced much of its direct spending in 2020, but it has dropped money into Push Digital, the company that produces the “Lawless Liberal’ videos. To see what kind of production values they’re getting, watch one here: lawless liberals vid