CALLER 2
519 CALLER 2
NO MERRI
congrats feck, main has 15 tags
DENIAL 2-4 MORANO HEARTLAND
SEE INGERSOLL VIOLENCE Nazi 2 26
founder tucker?
huge # tags, not all implemented
MILLOY ~ OFFSHORE WIND
see jrnl fail escalator
see pvt jet eco-hypocrite BS. kerry dicaprio
morano BS
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BLONDE GIRL
MMA
November 5, 2026, edition of Newsmax's Carl Higbie Frontline
CARL HIGBIE (HOST): Speaking of shooting yourself in the foot and doing stuff that should be an insult. On election night — so Trump rips into Fox for its coverage, particularly using Bill de Blasio, the guy who offered free french fries for a vaccine that ultimately led to a lot of heart problems. Democrat socialist as a pundit. And he’s on there saying Fox bears responsibility for these losses by constantly putting on the Dumocrat opposite. Yeah. What the hell, man?
KAY SMYTHE (NEWSMAX CONTRIBUTOR): I mean, isn’t that just Fox News? ... They’re just trash. Like, I don’t know. It’s been, I mean, it’s been many years that I’ve been back in news media, and I’ve yet to meet anyone that likes Fox, likes working there, likes being around them. I mean, this is just, it breaks my heart that any portion of the population still watches that trash. They know that Fox News, and it’s also like, go over to Newsmax. Not only are the shows more fun, but you’re going to get like actual legitimate truth from what's going on in the world. I don't know, it's just — and maybe it's just the Daily Caller in me but every time I think about Fox News, I just want to throw up in my mouth
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NYT
A Daily Caller Opinion column called for explicit violence.Credit...Ilnur Khisamutdinov/Alamy Images
Benjamin Mullin
By Benjamin Mullin
Sept. 26, 2025
The Daily Caller, a prominent conservative online publication, published an opinion column on Friday explicitly calling for violence in response to physical assaults on conservatives in America.
The column, written by editor at large Geoffrey Ingersoll and promoted near the top of the site, argues that “patriots” should use force because law enforcement officials do not adequately protect conservatives, including Charlie Kirk, the activist assassinated this month.
“Is this a call for violence?” the third paragraph says. “Yes. Explicitly it is.”
“I want blood in the streets,” he added in the column, which ran with the headline “Enough Is Enough … I Choose VIOLENCE!”
Image
The headline on a Daily Caller Opinion column that reads “INGERSOLL: Enough Is Enough … I Choose VIOLENCE!”
The opinion column ran on Friday.
Mr. Ingersoll also lays out specific situations in which he says violence should be used. If a progressive activist takes a sign away at a public debate, “She gets instantly clotheslined,” Mr. Ingersoll wrote. “I don’t care if police are present. Do it anyway. In fact, be wildly disproportionate.”
“Measure it in blood if necessary,” he added. “Change requires pain, and you’re either taking it or inflicting it.”
Dylan Housman, the Daily Caller’s editor in chief, said the column did not represent the views of every editor at the publication. But he defended the column, saying it describes acts of “self-defense,” including a recent case in which a woman struck an anti-abortion activist.
“Geoff’s case is that said person should perhaps get punched back, because it’s pretty clear the cops aren’t going to do a damn thing about it,” Mr. Housman said. “I don’t think that’s a radical suggestion.”
He added that attempts to paint Mr. Ingersoll’s column as a call for political violence “is totally dishonest,” adding that The Daily Caller would “never publish someone calling for violence simply over political disagreement.”
Later on Friday, The Daily Caller added an editor’s note at the top of the column making similar points.
In the weeks since Mr. Kirk’s death, many conservatives, including President Trump, have argued that progressives are responsible for much of the political violence in the country and have called for vengeance. “We have radical-left lunatics out there, and we just have to beat the hell out of them,” Mr. Trump has said.
Many Democrats have responded by pointing out several prominent violent attacks aimed at progressives, including the killing of a Democratic state lawmaker in Minnesota and her husband, and an assault on the husband of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The column does not cite examples of recent violent crimes against liberals.
The Daily Caller was founded in 2010 by Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel, an adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney. The site is influential in conservative political and media circles, and some of its alumni have gone on to prominent roles in the mainstream media, like the CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins.
In a series of messages to The New York Times, Mr. Ingersoll said that the column, initially labeled an editorial on The Daily Caller site, was a response to “10 years of watching aggravated acts of violence, in public” against conservatives go unpunished.
Mr. Ingersoll, who was formerly The Daily Caller’s editor in chief, said in his messages that “police, college administrators, campus cops and the wider legal system” would not provide security for conservatives and, in some places, wouldn’t prosecute crimes caught on tape.
“So we should protect ourselves,” Mr. Ingersoll said in a message. “Viciously and disproportionately if necessary.”
Benjamin Mullin reports for The Times on the major companies behind news and entertainment. Contact him securely on Signal at +1 530-961-3223 or at benjamin.mullin@nytimes.com.
A version of this article appears in print on Sept. 28, 2025, Section A, Page 21 of the New York edition with the headline: Conservative Outlet Publishes Column That ‘Explicitly’ Calls for Violence. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
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INGERSOLL: Enough Is Enough … I Choose VIOLENCE!
Stills from viral footage of pro-life activist Savannah Craven Antao being punched during a street interview in Harlem, New York, April 2025
Geoffrey IngersollEditor at Large
September 26, 2026 SIC]59:51 AM ET
Editor’s Note: We’ve received a lot of feedback about this newsletter. At the Daily Caller, we publish a wide range of strongly-worded opinions. Robust debate matters, and the values of free expression require that we host voices with which readers may strongly disagree. That said, the Daily Caller does not condone violence in any form, especially political violence. This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not represent the position of the Daily Caller. The examples outlined in the piece refer to hypothetical instances of self-defense, not political violence or extrajudicial mob action. We’ve spoken with the author, who reiterated that is his position, and explicitly rejects any incitement to violence.
*Greetings, Dear Reader,
Today, I choose violence. Literally.
I know calls for violence are generally frowned upon. The issue is … I simply don’t care.
Part of the social compact in this country going all the way back to its founding there are simply some things you do not do. When you do those things, well, you might just end up with a few extra knots in your head.
Thus, the title of today’s newsletter …
A CALL FOR VIOLENCE
It’s all about cost, and the cost is not high enough.
In some places, the cost is nonexistent. We need to reinstitute a public debt for anti-social and subversive behavior. In my opinion, some of this cost needs to be summary and ultra-violent.
Is this a call for violence? Yes. Explicitly it is.
The law is not enough. Or, it’s non-existent. Somewhere deep down inside we’ve always known no one is coming to help us. We need to help ourselves.
It reminds me a bit of this old bar fight story from good ol’ Teddy. Sometimes bullies require immediate and overwhelming force.
Text excerpt describing Theodore Roosevelt’s barroom confrontation in Mingusville, Montana Territory, from An Autobiography (1913).
They “hustled him out and put him in the shed.” Ah yes, Teddy knew how to deal with bullies.
Thursday bothered me a bit, on two fronts. One is that Comey got indicted, and the reaction was predictably unhinged. I’m not going to unpack the case, it seems clear he lied to Congress. An Eastern District of Virginia grand jury, hardly a bastion of conservatism, returned an indictment. Just like they did over censorship and Kimmel’s firing, amnesiac liberals squealed about political perversion of the Department of Justice.
Steven Bannon went to prison for four months. It wasn’t even that long ago and he wasn’t even the only one. All he did was defy a congressional subpoena. Democracy will survive if James Comey spends time in jail for lying to Congress to cover up a subversive conspiracy to undermine Trump.
Let’s do Fauci next, how about that? He definitely lied to Congress too. Then let’s investigate Ilhan Omar, AOC, Barack Obama, and everyone in Clinton world. Let’s put Biden world through the wringer. I’m freshly out of shits.
Truth be told I don’t even care if Comey or Fauci end up in jail. As long as the arrest and adjudication process absolutely ruins them.
I also don’t care if Democrats turn around and do the same thing to Republicans. The GOP is full of morally bankrupt, lying elites too. Swamp creatures, profiteers, unpatriotic turncoats, transactional voters in the Senate. Let’s purge them.
If this is the new normal, I’ll take it. Your squeals are music to me. They are the soundtrack of nature healing.
There should be a cost. For the lies, for taking the American people for granted, for selling them out at every end. For bullying them nonstop. Let’s reinstitute the cost.
Moving past the legal “violence,” let’s get to the actual violence, shall we?
Alvin Bragg’s office dismissed a felony assault charge yesterday. That shouldn’t be a shock to anyone — nobody is more renowned for soft on violent crime prosecutions than Bragg. What is shocking though is in this particular case the act was caught on film. What’s more, the assailant then went on social media and bragged about doing it.
Pro-life advocate Savannah Craven Antao was doing a man-on-the-street video in Harlem, New York, when she was abruptly and viciously assaulted by a woman she was interviewing.
Brianna J. Rivers, a brutish, hulking woman, socked Antao in the face twice the moment she was distracted.
This is dead-to-rights felony aggravated assault. It should result in prison time and probation.
Prosecutors initially downgraded the charge to a misdemeanor, then dismissed the charges altogether.
And the message couldn’t be clearer.
The message is clear: In liberal jurisdictions, it’s open season on assaulting conservatives. https://t.co/VfSHQV1l3h
— Geoffrey Ingersoll (@GPIngersoll) September 26, 2025
How do we fix this? In corrupt legal scenarios, where the judges, prosecutors and even police are all a part of a rigged system, what do we do?
Choose violence.
We all know the government is not going to help you in your time of need. Especially a Soros-sponsored government.
Conservatives looking to peacefully assemble and publicly debate need to be realistic. Nobody is going to help you. In fact, they’re going to encourage violence. They’re going to excuse, justify and encourage it.
We saw as much with Charlie Kirk. They were practically begging someone to go after him, and when someone did, they quickly justified it.
Well, I think now that we know the extent of it, the time to go as lambs to the slaughter is OVER.
In real terms, this means: Bring security with you that’s dying to dole out drubbings. I’m sure a fair amount of ex-cons who found Jesus loved Charlie Kirk. Maybe they need work?
Whatever works. We need to reinstitute the cost.
So some activist takes the sign next to your table at a public debate, like what happened here? She gets instantly clotheslined. I don’t care if police are present. Do it anyway. In fact, be wildly disproportionate.
A fat black lady assaults your on-camera talent? Book the kind of security that has no qualms hospitalizing her and people like her.
Dudes rope up your car and start vandalizing it? Bros dismounting with cudgels will fix that real quick. Turn it into an instant brawl. Break bones.
Force corrupt police to intervene. I want blood in the streets.
Speaking of costs, such a posture is indeed costly. It’ll cost money, firstly. Security isn’t cheap. It’d likely cost about $1,000 a day for just two guys. It’ll also come at a social cost, and a legal cost. Bragg might not prosecute militant liberals, but he’ll certainly take a conservative organization to court if his street brutes are harmed.
But you know what else isn’t cheap? The social compact in America. It comes at a cost. If patriots aren’t willing to step up and bear the burden, our people will continue to be harassed, assaulted, even killed with impunity.
What’s clear to me in these two examples is that liberals believe they have a monopoly on both legal and extra-legal acts of violence. They don’t. We need to show them they don’t.
We must stop clutching our principles and shouting “stop.” They own the legal system. That will achieve nothing. We need action. Disproportionate. Violent. Action.
Pain and suffering.
We need to raise the cost of obviating the social contract. Measure it in blood if necessary. Change requires pain, and you’re either taking it or inflicting it.
I know which side I’m on, and I’m more than ready to start putting people in the shed.
WHAT I’M READING
Get them all!
If You Want To Crack Down On Left-Wing Terror, Here’s Where To Start
And these folks too.
Love Stephen A.!
Stephen A. Smith Torches Crockett, AOC And Newsom In Blistering Rant
Tags : crime political violence state of the day theodore roosevelt violence
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no lnx
Daily Caller Opinion Article Urging ‘Violence’ Sparks Backlash
Published
:{Sep 26, 2025
By Mandy Taheri
Politics and Culture Reporter
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
An opinion article titled “Enough Is Enough … I Choose VIOLENCE” on the conservative website The Daily Caller, which was co-founded by Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel 15 years ago, has sparked backlash online.
Screenshots of the piece, written by editor-at-large Geoffrey Ingersoll, have circulated widely on social media, drawing criticism for his outward commentary, such as: “We need to reinstitute a public debt for anti-social and subversive behavior. In my opinion, some of this cost needs to be summary and ultra-violent.”
Newsweek has reached out to Daily Caller Editor-in-Chief Dylan Housman for comment via email on Friday.
Why It Matters
Ingersoll’s words come as political violence has been front and center in the news, with conservative activist Charlie Kirk assassinated on September 10. He was fatally shot during a question-and-answer session at Utah Valley University during his "American Comeback Tour."
News and videos of Kirk's assassination swept quickly through the country, with people immediately mourning him and leaders and prominent figures across the political spectrum condemning the violence. Most of President Donald Trump's Cabinet attended Kirk's memorial in Arizona last weekend, with Vice President JD Vance and Trump speaking onstage.
Kirk’s death comes just months after Minnesota Democratic state Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed in their home.
In his Friday article, Ingersoll said that “in corrupt legal scenarios, where the judges, prosecutors and even police are all a part of a rigged system, what do we do? Choose violence.”
What To Know
“Somewhere deep down inside we’ve always known no one is coming to help us. We need to help ourselves,” Ingersoll wrote.
Ingersoll wrote that there should be a “cost,” a violent one, “for the lies, for taking the American people for granted, for selling them out at every end. For bullying them nonstop. Let’s reinstitute the cost.” He continued, “Moving past the legal ‘violence,’ let’s get to the actual violence, shall we?”
The column touched on what he saw as injustices, such as former FBI Director James Comey’s indictment compared to Steve Bannon’s prison sentence, or the dismissal of a felony assault charge for violence caught on tape. He called for investigations into top Democrats, such as “Ilhan Omar, AOC, Barack Obama, and everyone in Clinton world. Let’s put Biden world through the wringer. I’m freshly out of s.”
He then turned on Republicans, saying: “I also don’t care if Democrats turn around and do the same thing to Republicans. The GOP is full of morally bankrupt, lying elites too. Swamp creatures, profiteers, unpatriotic turncoats, transactional voters in the Senate. Let’s purge them.”
He discouraged conservatives from “looking to peacefully assemble and publicly debate,” telling them they “need to be realistic. Nobody is going to help you. In fact, they’re going to encourage violence.”
Ingersoll then gave an example of how people should hire security that would have “no qualms hospitalizing” people who may assault someone, adding, “I want blood in the streets.”
Housman told The New York Times: “Geoff’s case is that said person should perhaps get punched back, because it’s pretty clear the cops aren’t going to do a damn thing about it," adding, “I don’t think that’s a radical suggestion.” He also said that commentators making the column seem like a call for political violence “is totally dishonest,” adding that The Daily Caller would “never publish someone calling for violence simply over political disagreement.”
What People Are Saying
Jon Favreau, a political commentator and former speechwriter for President Barack Obama, on X on Friday: “The Daily Caller, a right-wing outlet that recently sat down in the Oval with Trump, publishes an editorial explicitly calling for violence. You’re looking into this, right @JDVance?”
Jessica Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, on X: “No big deal, just a Daily Caller editor openly calling for violence against his political opponents.”
President Donald Trump, during Charlie Kirk’s memorial last weekend: “I hate my opponents and I don’t want the best for them.”
Daniel Drezner, a political commentator and professor at Tufts University, on X: "Really looking forward to @JDVance condemning this without reservation ha ha ha just kidding he won't say a god thing."
Matthew Levitt, political scientist, on X on Friday: "Daily Caller Opinion Column ‘Explicitly’ Calls for Violence."
What Happens Next
Ingersoll ended his column by calling for action: “Disproportionate. Violent. Action. Pain and suffering.”
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DUCK 2 26
The Daily Caller
https://dailycaller.com › 2025 › 09 › 26 › ingersoll-enough-choose-violence-police-crime-crackdown
INGERSOLL: Enough Is Enough ... I Choose VIOLENCE! - The Daily Caller
Sep 26, 2025At the Daily Caller, we publish a wide range of strongly-worded opinions. Robust debate matters, and the values of free expression require that we host voices with which readers may strongly disagree. That said, the Daily Caller does not condone violence in any form, especially political violence.
New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com › 2025 › 09 › 26 › business › media › daily-caller-opinion-violence.html
Daily Caller Opinion Column 'Explicitly' Calls for Violence
Sep 26, 2025The Daily Caller, a prominent conservative online publication, published an opinion column on Friday explicitly calling for violence in response to physical assaults on conservatives in America.
Mediaite
Geoffrey Ingersoll's Daily Caller Column Calls for Violence
Sep 26, 2025The Daily Caller published an op-ed by editor at large Geoffrey Ingersoll that "literally" called for conservatives to "choose violence" against liberals.
Newsweek
https://www.newsweek.com › daily-caller-opinion-article-urging-violence-sparks-backlash-10790989
Daily Caller Opinion Article Urging 'Violence' Sparks Backlash
Sep 26, 2025An opinion article titled "Enough Is Enough … I Choose VIOLENCE" on the conservative website The Daily Caller, which was co-founded by Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel 15 years ago, has sparked ...
Raw Story
https://www.rawstory.com › daily-caller
'I want blood in the streets': Conservative site editor 'explicitly ...
Sep 27, 2025In an editor's note at the top of the op-ed, The Daily Caller emphasized that it "does not condone violence in any form, especially political violence" and that "the examples outlined in the piece ...
The Bulwark
https://www.thebulwark.com › p › daily-caller-editor-calls-for-blood
Daily Caller Editor Calls for "Blood in the Streets"
Sep 27, 2025The Daily Caller's editor-at-large published a shocking column calling for "ultra violence" and "blood in the streets" in response to political tensions.
Nieman Journalism Lab
Daily Caller opinion column by editor-at-large "explicitly" calls for ...
Sep 27, 2025That said, the Daily Caller does not condone violence in any form, especially political violence. This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not represent the position of the Daily Caller. The examples outlined in the piece refer to hypothetical instances of self-defense, not political violence or extrajudicial mob action.
Daily Beast
https://www.thedailybeast.com › maga-columnist-makes-jaw-dropping-demand-for-blood-in-streets
MAGA Columnist Makes Jaw-Dropping Demand for 'Blood in Streets'
Sep 26, 2025A columnist for a leading conservative news website explicitly called for "violence" and "blood in the streets" on Friday. Geoffrey Ingersoll, editor-at-large of the Daily Caller, made his ...
The Daily Caller
Blue City 'Violence Prevention' Activists Keep ... - The Daily Caller
Nov 8, 2025Several "violence prevention" advocates racked up violent charges in 2025 after promoting what were considered innovative, compassionate responses to crime in liberal cities. Pritzker's event celebrated McMiller and others in the governor's Peacekeepers program who try to stop violence in ...
TV News Check
'Daily Caller' Opinion Column 'Explicitly' Calls For Violence
Sep 26, 2025The column, by editor at large Geoffrey Ingersoll, calls for "blood in the streets" in response to violence against conservatives.
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POLITICO E AND E
Internal emails reveal Interior’s Empire Wind deliberations
:{By Ian M. Stevenson, Benjamin Storrow | 08/28/2025
The messages show the Trump administration included offshore wind foes in the push to cancel permitted projects.
Turbines operate off the coast of Block Island, Rhode Island. Julia Nikhinson/AP
When NOAA scrutinized a wind project off the coast of New York this spring, it turned to a new hire who had spent years criticizing offshore wind.
Annie Hawkins — who helmed a fishing industry group opposed to coastal wind projects before joining NOAA as its top lawyer — was one of several senior officials included in a planning email in the days leading up to an Interior Department order that halted construction on Empire Wind, according to emails obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News.
The emails — obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request — provide a glimpse into President Donald Trump’s sustained attack on the wind industry. They show that administration officials moved quickly in April to assemble findings that would later be cited by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum as the rationale for halting construction of the 54-turbine project.
It is unclear what role Hawkins played in deliberations over the Empire Wind stoppage, which was later reversed. The documents indicate she was included on one email and later removed. NOAA, which is part of the Commerce Department, declined to comment. Interior and its Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which oversees offshore wind, did not respond to requests for comment. Hawkins referred questions to NOAA.
But Hawkins’ presence on the email chain is likely to raise questions among offshore wind supporters.
The emails also show that senior officials at Interior received detailed recommendations from Green Oceans, a Rhode Island group opposed to offshore wind, for how to cancel leases granted to offshore wind developers. Interior issued a stop work order last week to Revolution Wind, a project off Connecticut and Rhode Island.
The administration’s deliberations around Empire Wind came shortly after the project developer, Equinor, began offshore construction and amid a public campaign from congressional Republicans and offshore wind opponents to have the project stopped.
Matthew Giacona, who was then deputy director at BOEM, thanked officials at NOAA in an email dated April 11 for their “engagement this week” and invited them to assist in Burgum’s review of offshore wind leases and permits. On the first day of his second term in January, Trump halted all new wind permits and ordered a review of existing leases.
If NOAA “has any reports or analyses that can be provided to inform the Secretary’s comprehensive assessment, these inputs would be extremely helpful as we ensure the Secretary has full information available as he continues his review,” Giacona wrote in the April 11 message.
Erik Noble, NOAA’s principal deputy assistant secretary for oceans and atmosphere, replied: “Message received. We will be in touch.”
Included on Noble’s email were officials such as Hawkins, Interior policy adviser Brittany Kelm, Interior Deputy Solicitor Damon Hagan, Interior Associate Solicitor Karen Hawbecker and BOEM chief of staff Jennafer Foreman. Hawkins was later removed from the email chain, according to the documents.
BOEM officials appear to have begun drafting the stop work order before they received the report from NOAA. Bureau officials shared a draft of an order to Equinor to shut down construction on Empire Wind on the morning of April 15.
In a separate reply 20 minutes before noon on April 15, Noble replied to Hawbecker, Hagan, Kelm and other administration officials with a “technical screening analysis” of the Empire Wind project.
Hawbecker promptly forwarded the report to BOEM’s then-acting Director Walter Cruickshank and James Anderson, BOEM’s associate director of the Office of Budget & Administration.
“FYI — here’s NOAA’s document,” Hawbecker wrote. “I’m assessing it now.”
Less than three hours later, Cruickshank sent an email with a draft of the order to two BOEM officials. “This is close hold until it’s sent. No word yet on when that will be, as the Secretary’s Order needs to come first,” he wrote.
‘Flawed science’
That NOAA report became the administration’s justification for taking the rare step to halt construction. In an email April 17, Anderson called the report “the basis of” another memo from Burgum ordering the construction halt. Burgum himself posted on social media that NOAA scientists had “revealed” the project’s approval was “built on bad & flawed science.”
But Interior has not released the contents of the report. In response to a prior records request from E&E News, the department blacked out all 27 pages of its findings.
Interior’s deliberations came as offshore wind opponents called for the Trump administration to stop Empire Wind.
Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican, sent Burgum a letter in late March calling on Interior to halt the project. The leader of a fishing group penned an opinion piece in the New York Poston April 10 warning of ecological destruction if the Trump administration allowed Empire Wind to move forward.
Steve Milloy, a conservative activist who questions climate science, followed with an opinion piece in the Daily Caller saying Interior needed to stop construction of offshore wind projects underway to satisfy the intent of Trump’s Day 1 executive order.
Trump lifted the work stoppage in May after claiming to strike a deal with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, to permit two pipelines in the state. Hochul rejected that claim, but said she was open to permitting pipelines that complied with state law.
The order nevertheless represented a massive setback for Equinor, which has estimated it cost the company more than $200 million. It also raised issues for other offshore wind developers like Ørsted, which suddenly found itself unable to sell a share of a nearby project under construction at an attractive price.
Equinor declined to comment on the emails.
Matt Walker, a regional campaign manager at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, called the administration’s stop-work orders “reckless, rushed and entirely unjustified.”
“According to email records, the administration apparently needed no more than a few hours to assess information about the Empire Wind project before putting a stop-work order in place,” he said by email.
Hawkins was one of the leading critics of offshore wind before joining NOAA, regularly criticizing the industry as the head of the Responsible Offshore Development Association.
RODA, as the group is commonly known, repeatedly criticized the Biden administration’s for moving too quickly to permit offshore wind projects. In 2020, before Biden took office, the group called for a five-year moratorium on new offshore wind leasing. It later filed an unsuccessful legal challenge to Vineyard Wind, a 62-turbine development being built off the coast of Massachusetts.
Hawkins previously worked as an attorney representing the Fisheries Survival Fund, an industry group for the scallop industry that unsuccessfully challenged Empire Wind’s lease in court.
‘We’ll talk soon’
But Hawkins has not always been critical of Empire Wind. In 2021, she hailed negotiations between Equinor and fishermen over Empire Wind’s turbine placement as a model for collaboration between the fishing and wind industries.
“Is it a solution to all the problems, and if we do this there are no impacts? Absolutely not. Is it a potentially good, effective way to minimize some of the impacts? Yes,” Hawkins told E&E News at the time. “It does highlight that there are things we can do working together to minimize the impacts.”
The records also show how one anti-wind nonprofit, Green Oceans, shared detailed recommendations with Interior for how to revoke offshore wind leases and scored a meeting with a senior Interior official in May.
In emails to Burgum and acting Assistant Secretary for Lands and Minerals Management Adam Suess, the organization shared a 68-page report called “Cancelling Offshore Wind Leases.”
The report includes detailed analyses of relevant laws and regulations, pointing out potential law violations for wind projects off the coasts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It was written by Maureen Koetz, president of Planet A* Strategies, who previously worked at the Nuclear Energy Institute and as aide to former Sen. Pete Domenici, a New Mexico Republican.
One of the potential issues the report flagged was national security.
BOEM and the Department of Defense “still do not have an adequate analysis or evaluation of the cumulative impacts to national security” of the projects in New England, the report stated.
The Green Oceans group sent the report to Suess on May 2 — two weeks after the Empire Wind stop-work order — along with a reminder about a meeting scheduled the following week.
“I appreciate it,” Suess wrote back to the group. “We’ll talk soon.”
Last week, BOEM halted work on Revolution Wind, a 65-turbine project off of Rhode Island that is 80 percent completed. BOEM said in a letter to Ørsted that the stoppage was needed to address “national security interests of the United States.”
Green Oceans, which was founded in 2023 by a group of property owners, has emerged as one of the leading offshore wind opponents in New England.
Elizabeth Knight, a co-founder of Green Oceans, could not be reached for comment.
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Bill Gates realizes this is a 'dead end,' argues editor | Fox Business Video
Fox Business
Committee to Unleash Prosperity co-founder Steve Moore and ClimateDepot.com executive editor Marc Morano weigh in on longtime climate alarmist ...
Countries Twiddle Thumbs Over Climate Goals As Globalist Confab Approaches
The Daily Caller
Author and publisher of ClimateDepot.com Marc Morano told the DCNF that this “UN COP FLOP” is a result of “the Trump Effect.” “Other, more timid ...
Audrey StrebDCNF Energy Reporter
October 27, 2025
Over 100 countries have missed the deadline to tighten their climate targets ahead of November’s United Nations conference as President Donald Trump has rolled back some U.S. climate policies.
Though the Paris Agreement requires countries to set more stringent climate targets, many have yet to submit updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) plans as COP30 inches closer. The climate talks will be held in Belém, Brazil, from Nov. 6–Nov. 21, but the Trump administration has yet to select a delegation to attend as it continues to enact major deregulatory moves in the energy space.
“Most nations realize the cost of cutting carbon dioxide is painful and unnecessary. It is no surprise that nation after nation are trying to skirt their prior greenwashing pledges,” James Taylor, president of The Heartland Institute, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. (RELATED: Corporate Media, Democrats Finally Giving Up Shoving Climate Messaging Down Americans’ Throat)
A man walks past an infrastructure project underway for COP30 in Belem, Para state, Brazil, on June 16, 2025. (Photo by CARLOS FABAL/AFP via Getty Images)
Most countries missed the Feb. 10 deadline, though the U.N. reportedly was accepting of this as long as it meant they were working on their climate goals, according to The Associated Press.
Trump called climate change policy the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” in front of the U.N. General Assembly in September and withdrew America from the Paris Agreement through a day-one executive order. Trump has moved to end federal support for green energy sources like wind and solar, which were favored under the Biden administration through billions in subsidies, loans and grants.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Administrator Lee Zeldin has moved to rollback major climate regulations including the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which allows the agency to regulate greenhouse gasses. Zeldin argued that repealing the rule would constitute “the largest deregulatory action in the history of America.”
Author and publisher of ClimateDepot.com Marc Morano told the DCNF that this “UN COP FLOP” is a result of “the Trump Effect.”
“Other, more timid nations are picking up the Trump energy and quietly walking away from this 30-year global fiasco known as the UN climate agenda. Trump came along at just the right time in history, as Europeans and others are now fully realizing they have been had by decades of false promises that green energy would be ‘cheaper’ and that they could ‘easily ‘transition’ away from fossil fuels,” Morano continued. “Trump has done the U.S. and the world a great favor by exposing this fraudulent UN climate process.”
Morano previously told the DCNF that Democrats and Europeans seem to be retreating from aggressive climate policies as the American “public is not tolerating virtue signaling about saving the planet anymore.” Several corporate media outlets and some Democrats have recently shifted away from climate policy and are instead focusing their message on rising electricity prices and reliability.
Notably, 17 attorneys general urged the Trump administration on Thursday to not participate in COP30, arguing that the administration’s participation may appear to endorse stringent climate goals that they believe are threatening the reliability of America’s power grid. Other senate Democrats and even some Republicans have reportedly expressed interest in leading a delegation to COP30, including Republican Utah Sen. John Curtis, Democratic Delaware Sen. Chris Coons and Democratic Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, though the government shutdown may hinder some Senator’s plans.
dailycallernewsfoundation.org.}:
Tags : cop 30 john curtis president donald trump sheldon whitehouse trump administration
===
10 25
Videos generated by artificial intelligence (AI) circulating on social media appear to show catastrophic damage and sharks swimming in a Jamaican hotel pool in the wake of Hurricane Melissa’s landfall on Tuesday.
The Category 5 hurricane tore through the Caribbean this week, killing at least 50 people in Jamaica, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, according to multiple reports. Viral videos generated through AI reportedly added to the hysteria, fueling panic and confusion in viewers, according to the Associated Press.
“I am in so many WhatsApp groups and I see all of these videos coming. Many of them are fake,” Jamaica’s Education Minister Dana Morris Dixon said on Monday. “And so we urge you to please listen to the official channels.” (RELATED: At Least 54 Dead After Hurricane Melissa Slams Caribbean)
A resident sits on part of the roof of his house, damaged by Hurricane Melissa, in Santiago de Cuba on October 29, 2025. (Photo by YAMIL LAGE/AFP via Getty Images)
Melissa is reportedly the largest to hit Jamaica and one of the strongest storms on record in the Atlantic, according to multiple reports. The storm destroyed structures and homes across the Caribbean, though some AI-generated videos show additional, fabricated damage, including a devastated Kingston airport in Jamaica, according to the AP.
Though some legacy media reports note the extremity and devastating losses of the storm, others highlight how climate change may have primed the region for a monster storm, amplifying extreme weather narratives. The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season has featured several major hurricanes, though it ranks slightly below average in the number of hurricanes, according to E&E News.
Some scientists, including meteorologist Chris Martz and the July Department of Energy (DOE) climate report, have noted that it is unreasonable to link climate change to a rise in extreme weather events, including hurricanes.
The DOE report states that it is “naive” to assume that extreme weather events like hurricanes or tornadoes are caused by human impacts on the climate. Additionally, it notes that “most types of extreme weather exhibit no statistically significant long-term trends over the available historical record.”
Notably, corporate media outlets panned the DOE report all while being quick to link the Texas flooding in July to climate change as well as President Donald Trump’s policies — a narrative that several meteorologists disputed.
morano gmaIl 10 25
no lnx
Audrey Streb
DCNF Energy Reporter
October 13, 2025
Republican Utah Sen. John Curtis is reportedly planning to co-lead a delegation to the annual U.N. climate change conference, which some critics told the Daily Caller News Foundation clashes with President Donald Trump’s energy agenda.
Curtis told E&E News Friday that he and Democratic Delaware Sen. Chris Coons will lead a delegation to Brazil together for this year’s COP30 and that three other unnamed Republicans are also interested in joining the troop. The U.N. climate change conference is set to host several youth-led climate forums and discuss the Paris Agreement that Trump directed the U.S. to abandon through a day-one executive order.
“RINOs like Sen. Curtis are trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of MAGA victory by going to the annual UN climate confab in Brazil,” Steve Milloy, Senior Fellow at the Energy & Environment Legal Institute told the DCNF. “There, they will conspire with China and Europe in trying to subvert President Trump’s agenda of defeating the climate hoax, terminating the Green New Scam and making America energy dominant.” (RELATED: John Curtis Has History Of Raking In Thousands From Green Energy Donors)
U.S. Senator-elect John Curtis (R-UT) arrives for the Senate Republican leadership elections at the U.S. Capitol on November 13, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images)
U.S. Senator-elect John Curtis (R-UT) arrives for the Senate Republican leadership elections at the U.S. Capitol on November 13, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images)
A spokesperson for Curtis’ office told the DCNF that “plans are not finalized yet for the Senator’s travel,” though E&E News reported Friday that Curtis said “we have an agenda that is really coming together nicely. We’re super happy with it.”
The Trump administration has not announced that it will send a delegation to the November conference and Trump recently called climate change policy the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” in front of the United Nations General Assembly in September. Trump has moved to ax federal support for green energy sources like wind and solar that the Biden administration favored while bolstering conventional resources like coal.
“Leave it to ‘Mitt Romney’ style Republicans like Sen. Curtis to try to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. … The UN climate agenda and the UN’s COP30 meetings should be disbanded, not given credibility by GOP senators,” Marc Morano, author and Climate Depot executive editor, told the DCNF. “This is a pathetic throwback to the pre-Trump Republicanism of George H. Bush, George W. Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney. … The UN climate agenda has quite literally overseen the outsourcing of the West’s once dominant industries to China, India, and the developing world. The U.S., Canada, and Europe have boasted about emission accounting tricks, while China builds two new coal plants a week and benefits from the West’s attempts at a ‘green transition.’ The U.S. does not need ‘a seat at the table’ at the UN climate summit, we need to knock the table over.”
Curtis has historically split with many Republicans over climate change policy and has notably advocated against a wholesale repeal of Biden-era green energy tax credits that Trump railed against. Earlier this year, Curtis told Secretary of State Marco Rubio that it is “really important” to have a “Republican voice at that table,” in reference to COP30.
The Senator pointed to nuclear specifically as an energy resource Republicans could elevate at COP30.
Critics like Milloy, Morano and President of the Heartland Institute James Taylor told the DCNF that COP30 should not be endorsed by Republican participation as it runs counter to Trump’s energy policies and suggests that the left-leaning climate talking points the president has fought hold legitimacy.
“Republicans who attend COP30 for any reason other than to mock it are hypocrites and grandstanders,” Taylor told the DCNF. “How much carbon dioxide are they going to spew into the atmosphere merely so they can have a ‘photo op’ at a portion of the Amazon rainforest that was destroyed in order to create a venue for this vacation conference of UN bureaucrats?”
Notably, developers razed portions of the Amazon rainforest to construct a road for COP30, and a 2024 study released right before COP29 showed that emissions rise sharply during major conferences due to private jet travel.
Coons’ office did not respond to the DCNF’s multiple requests for comment.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
Tags : brazil climate change cop 30 john curtis rinos trump administration
---
DDSB
ONLY 1 Radio station? 10 24
Climate Change Narrative Continues To Fall Apart | NewsRadio 740 KTRH
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"This is a campaign cause" said Marc Morano, publisher at Climate Depot, "It doesn't really matter what's true and what's not, it supposed to be ...---
NASA spending millions on DEI even as budget crisis emerges | NewsRadio 740 KTRH
fox the five
KTRH Local Houston and Texas News
The Climate Change Narrative Continues To Fall Apart
By
B.D. Hobbs
Oct 21, 2024
Just when the left thought it was safe to freak out about the weather, scientists are now expecting a cooler than average La Nina, and that is pouring a lot of cold water on the left's climate change narrative.
"This is a campaign cause" said Marc Morano, publisher at Climate Depot, "It doesn't really matter what's true and what's not, it supposed to be science. But this about a narrative, and it's about activists."
So, with that said, then what about the narrative the left likes to use on warming oceans?
"The claims that they're claiming for record heat in the oceans are a temperature change of 3 and half thousandths of one degree" Morano told KTRH, "They're not even measurable in real world data."
The reality is, the left's climate change narrative is melting.
NewsRadio 740 KTRH - iHeart
Marc Morano of The Climate Depot says this DEI push by NASA has caused them serious problems. "They have budget shortfalls in every main area that ...
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KTRH Local Houston and Texas News
NASA spending millions on DEI even as budget crisis emerges
Oct 24, 2024
Once upon a time, NASA was at the forefront of not just space exploration, but America in general. The space race captivated the world, and the Space Shuttle program continued carrying the imagination for years. But in the last two or three decades, NASA has fallen into oblivion, both with their budget, and in terms of relevance.
As with every federal agency in the last ten years, NASA has gone completely woke, focusing on equality hires and environmental justice. In fact, they have spent millions on DEI in the last few years, all while facing a budget shortfall everywhere else.
Marc Morano of The Climate Depot says this DEI push by NASA has caused them serious problems.
"They have budget shortfalls in every main area that is supposed to be their mission...whether that be exploration or what have you...all of them except one, and that is diversity, equity and inclusion," he says.
In total, NASA has shelled out $10 million to pay out dozens of grants and contracts aimed at DEI since 2020 alone. Meanwhile, they are multiple billions of dollars short of funding for their current missions, firing people over budgetary concerns. They are even reportedly out of money to maintain their multibillion-dollar space telescope.
One record even shows NASA approved $150,000 in funds to Columbia University to pair 'earth observations and socioeconomic data.' Seems super useful in terms of outer space.
People also just do not care about NASA anymore. Space and astronomy used to captivate Americans for years. Now, social media does. Really, you can argue NASA lost its footing during the Challenger Disaster in 1986, and never recovered. Add in the Columbia Disaster in 2003, and you have failed expectations, and imaginative minds lost.
"The space shuttles were the last thing to capture the imagination of the public...then that ended disastrously, and they are not even backing the program now," he says. "They are no longer competing in the world, they are just competing for which federal agency can 'out woke' each other."
There was also another $250,000 grant paid to Los Angeles as part of their Predictive Environmental Analytics and Community Engagement for Equity and Environmental Justice (PEACE) program. They did that so the city would provide pollution data to its residents, in a way which 'works across communities and cultural differences pollutants.' They essentially want to prove pollutants are racist or fascist, and only smog up low-income areas.
They have their toes dipped in DEI, the green agenda, and it is hurting their bottom line now. Which normally, would make a company stop. But NASA refused. They have spent another $5 million since 2022 on environmental related grants. Money that could have been spent on retaining employees.
All of this combined just shows that NASA is a shell of what it once was, and there is no coming back, especially with SpaceX taking the reins of exploration.
"Their golden age is long past...and this DEI shows that...they are failing their mission," he says.
NASA also used over $2 million to 'engrain DEI into their culture.' So, until either SpaceX goes away, or NASA stops bending the knee to the liberal agenda, they will continue sliding further into a black hole of irrelevance.
no name but link to d sig
https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/10/16/nasa-spent-millions-on-environmental-justice-and-equity-grants-despite-budget-woes/
Robert Schmad is a reporter at the Daily Caller News Foundation.
DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has shelled out millions in awards to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as “environmental justice,” despite recently laying off staff and shuttering space programs due to budgetary shortfalls.
NASA has allocated roughly $10 million to pay out dozens of grants and contracts aimed at advancing some element of environmental justice or DEI since 2020, federal spending records show. The agency is multiple billions of dollars short of the funding required to complete its current missions, has fired hundreds of people working on its Mars missions over budgetary concerns, and may not have enough funding to maintain a multibillion-dollar space telescope, according to multiple Washington Post reports.
“The environmental justice movement focuses on ensuring communities receive equitable protection from natural and human-induced environmental hazards,” NASA’s webpage on equity and environmental justice reads. “It embodies the principle that all communities should be heard and represented in decision making.”
The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now
Much of NASA’s grant spending went to universities to help them study environmental justice in urban areas as well as other places with high concentrations of racial minorities. For instance, the agency approved $150,000 in funding to Columbia University so it could pair “earth observations and socioeconomic data” and enable students to do environmental justice work in New York City, records show.
Another grant, this time worth $250,000, was paid out to Los Angeles as part of NASA’s Predictive Environmental Analytics and Community Engagement for Equity and Environmental Justice (PEACE) program, per federal records. To remedy its observation that “people of color often face higher exposure to air pollutants,” NASA’s PEACE program paid the city to provide pollution data to its residents in “a way that works across communities and cultural differences and specifically analyzes, engages and responds to needs for environmental justice.”
NASA has set aside over $5 million for environmental justice grants like these since 2022, according to federal records.
As NASA paid out millions to fund environmental justice initiatives, the agency in February fired about 530 people, plus an additional 40 contractors, or 8% of its workforce, working at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Post reported. Many of the workers let go were involved in the agency’s Mars Sample Return program, which was studying possible evidence of past life on the red planet.
While short on funds for Mars research and a major space telescope, NASA shelled out millions on embedding DEI both within its own organizational structure and in the broader scientific community, records show.
In 2023, for instance, NASA approved a contract worth roughly $2.9 million to a consulting firm to “incorporate and deeply engrain” DEI in the “culture” of its Space Mission Directorate, according to spending records. NASA allocated another $900,000 in 2020 for the National Academy of Sciences to help it increase diversity among the leaders of space missions.
NASA also gave the Southeastern Universities Research Association thousands of dollars to make the agency’s heliophysics material “more relevant and open to the Latinx and Native American communities,” records show. The agency paid tens of thousands of additional dollars to The Oceanography Society to embed DEI in ocean sciences.
The language used by NASA to describe its environmental justice programs mirrors that used by the Biden-Harris administration’s Justice40 Initiative, which dictates that 40% of the beneficiaries of federal climate and environmental programs must be from “underserved communities.” The White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council later defined “underserved communities” as those that are “majority minority.” NASA’s work is also covered by the Justice40 Initiative, according to government documents.
NASA did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
*Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation
Related posts:
- Pentagon Withholding Docs on Whether DEI Hiring Improves National Security, Veteran Says
- Do You Know Where Your Tax Dollars Go? Now You Can
===
Marc Morano
Weekly update ⋅ February 16, 2024
America is Wasting Over a Trillion Dollars on "Green" Programs | NewsRadio 740 KTRH
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According to Marc Morano from The Climate Depot, the bill was merely a disguised 'green pork barrel' falsely labeled as the 'Inflation Reduction ...
WaPo: Wear Clothes Made From Human Hair to Save the Earth
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WaPo: Wear Clothes Made From Human Hair to Save the Earth. with Marc Morano. An error occurred. Try watching this video on www.youtube.com, or ...
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... Marc Morano, a former senior staffer for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee who later founded ClimateDepot.com, told the Daily ...
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kos ref
Enviros Are Demanding Big Tech Treat ‘Climate Disinformation’ Like Hate Speech
BRONSON WINSLOWSECOND AMENDMENT & POLITICS REPORTER
October 04, 2022
A coalition of environmental advocacy groups has requested that the CEO’s of major social media platforms stop the spread of “climate disinformation” by censoring user posts, according to a Tuesday letter.
Addressed to the CEOs of Facebook, TikTok, Google, YouTube, Twitter and Pinterest, the letter claims that climate disinformation should be censored because it “undermines” the government’s ability to efficiently and effectively respond to the climate. The coalition asserted that social media companies are directly responsible for “amplifying and perpetuating” disinformation and should be completely transparent to show the “exact extent” of damage done.
Social media platforms will be forced to follow the guidelines of the coalition following the approval of the Digital Services Act (DSA), according to the letter. The coalition urges the platforms to “fulfill their obligations” and agree to its terms before the DSA takes effect.
The platforms are urged to “commit to including climate disinformation as a separately-acknowledged category in its reporting and content moderation policies in and outside of the EU,” the letter said. “More specifically, we urge platforms to commit to recognizing climate disinformation as a specific reason within the statement required under DSA Article 15(1), and include data on content moderation decisions related to climate disinformation as stated under Article 23.”
The platforms “owe it to their users and the planet” to stop amplifying climate disinformation that undermines the coalitions’ ability to combat the climate crisis, the letter said. The letter ended by informing each CEO that a written response and signature is required after conforming to the coalitions’ new standards.
Friends of The Earth did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
compare neo nazi:
[### Ninth Circuit Steps In After California Judge Drops Charges ...
The Daily Caller
https://dailycaller.com › 2024/02/22 › ninth-circuit-cali...](https://dailycaller.com/2024/02/22/ninth-circuit-california-judge-white-supremacist/)
Feb 22, 2024 —The Ninth Circuit of Appeals stepped in Thursday to block a ruling from U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney after he dropped all ...
[### As Neo-Nazi 'Active Club' Grows, Charges Against Its ...
Unicorn Riot
https://unicornriot.ninja › as-neo-nazi-active-club-grow...](https://unicornriot.ninja/2024/as-neo-nazi-active-club-grows-charges-against-its-founder-dismissed/)
5 days ago — Known hate group Active Club has seen explosive growth while the group's founder was nearly released by a federal judge last week.
omfg
https://www.thedailybeast.com/donors-to-tucker-carlsons-daily-caller-news-foundation-revealed?ref=home
ref roger s 12 22
this reporting is one of several scoops featured in this week’s edition of [Confider, the newsletter pulling back the curtain on the media. Subscribe here and send your questions, tips, and complaints here.
The non-profit that feeds the conservative Daily Caller website co-founded by Fox News host Tucker Carlson has accepted tens of thousands of dollars from entities and individuals who have received favorable coverage, including some who authored opinion pieces, a new filing shows.
The document—the Daily Caller News Foundation’s fiscal year 2021 tax statement—includes for thefirst time a list of donors to the 501(c)(3) organization, a group that is not required by law to disclose donor information. The filing also reveals that Carlson, who in 2020 announced he was leaving the Daily Caller and selling his stake in the website, is still the foundation chairman, and has not cut back on his hours.
When Carlson announced his split with the Daily Caller in 2020, he cited work constraints. “I’m just too absorbed in what I’m doing,” the host told *The Wall Street Journal* at the time, explaining, “I wasn’t helping in any way, because I’ve got an hour to do every night” on his Fox News program. The tax filing, which covers the following year, shows he continued to hold the chairman position and put in the same hours as in all previous foundation filings—five hours a week.
Many of the foundation’s donors are tied to industries and issues that the Caller covers frequently. Most notable is the Ariel Corporation,which manufactures natural gas compressors and gave $135,000 to support the news organization—which has for years been criticized for its pro-carbon energy reporting and financial ties to the Koch brothers, the right-wing industrialists.
Other donors have an even closer relationship with the site, including some who have published pieces in their own names, without a disclosure of their financial ties. That, according to top journalism ethics expert Kelly McBride raises ethics questions.
“With any news organization that solicits donations, you really have to have an editorial policy that articulates how you separate out your loyalty to your audience and to your journalistic mission from your ties to your donors,” McBride, who is senior vice president and chair of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership at the Poynter Institute, told The Daily Beast.
such a policy, she said, would ideally include an advisement to donors that they can’t influence editorial work, and a promise of transparency whenever there’s a conflict of interest.
“You’re looking for, first of all, separation between fundraising and the editorial product, and you’re also looking for clarity around what donors can expect in exchange for their donation, as well as transparency so the audience understands,” McBride said, adding that “a tagline on an op-ed would be an obvious transparency mechanism.”
The Daily Beast reached out to the Daily Caller and Carlson for comment, but did not immediately receive a reply.
The journalistic and ethical standards published on the Daily Caller website don’t mention the foundation or any policy regarding donor influence over editorial content. But some donors have contributed content themselves.
For instance, RightForge, an internet infrastructure provider that caters to conservatives, in 2021 gave the foundation $7,500. In May of that year, the Daily Caller ran an op-ed from RightForge CEO Martin Avila, criticizing what Avila called the social media “witch trial” of former President Donald Trump. Months later, RightForge announced it would host Trump’s new social media network, Truth Social.
Real estate investor Adam Milstein gave the foundation $25,000 in 2021 and published an opinion piece that same year. The piece—titled, “Strategic Active Philanthropy Can Strengthen Our American Values”—includes a brief bio for Milstein, which describes him only as “an active philanthropist, an investor, and community leader.”
While the Daily Caller has been blasted for its affinity for the fossil fuel industry, the tax filing shows the Daily Caller News Foundation received financial backing from conservative green-energy group ClearPath Action, which gave $10,000 in 2021.
ClearPath has received favorable coverage from the Daily Caller, which earlier this year cited CEO Rich Powell in an article about his group, without a disclaimer. When Powell landed a Daily Caller op-ed earlier this month, the outlet added a note to the piece and his contributor page that read, “The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.” But those notes did not mention the financial relationship.
Then there’s Daniel Oliver, a Daily Caller regular contributor who also serves as trustee of the George E. Coleman Jr. Foundation, which gave the foundation $7,500 in 2021. The Daily Caller highlights some of Oliver’s rich experience in his bio—chair of the Education and Research Institute, director of Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, and former chairmanships of the Federal Trade Commission under President Ronald Reagan and the National Review”—but doesn’t mention his role with the Coleman Foundation, or the donor relationship. (Buzzfeed News reported in 2019 that the foundation was a FDRLST Media investor, citing Oliver’s role.)
An even more influential GOP figure also appears in the filing, in the form of a $10,000 gift from CRC Advisors, a group headed up by arch-conservative megadonor and judicial activist Leonard Leo. The Daily Caller published a piece on Friday based on the results of a CRC poll, without disclosing the relationship. The two groups also show overlap in their employees, including current CRC vice president Kevin Daley, whose LinkedIn page says he left the Daily Caller in 2020 after four years as a reporter.
Power the Future, a nonprofit that advocates for the fossil fuel industry, donated $10,000 in 2021 and appears frequently enough in the Daily Caller that articles about the group have their own tag on the site. Since the donation, Power the Future Executive Director Daniel Turner has been cited in multiple Daily Caller pieces as an expert voice, without no mention of his status as a foundation donor.
Justin Olson , an elected Arizona utility regulatorand former Arizona GOP Senate candidate, gave the foundation $10,000 in 2021, listing his role at the time as an officer with right-wing youth activist group Turning Point USA.
The Daily Caller has given TPUSA favorable coverage, including after the donation. It also published an exclusive report in November 2021, the month after Olson announced his bid, revealing that a Scottsdale school board official had access to a so-called Google Drive “dossier” of personal information of vocal conservatives. (Police cleared the official of wrongdoing.) Olson tweeted the article when it came out, and expressed repeated outrage at the story on the platform, while a Twitter search shows he had not tweeted about schools previously.
The filing reveals the names of 2021 donors, but does not indicate whether they had donated before. Some of the contributors who present apparent conflicts of interest have had contributor roles in the publication previously, such as Leo and Adam Milstein, who published op-eds in 2018 and 2019. In 2018, when Power the Future announced its debut, the Daily Caller had the exclusive story.
There are, of course, numerous examples of media companies drawing funding from non-profit backers. But the Daily Caller and the DCNF have a unique relationship.
The foundation was created in 2011, a few years after Carlson founded the Daily Caller with then-partner Neil Patel, who still helms the operation. Thanks to the organization’s non-profit status, the foundation can subsidize not only publication costs, but the production of the actual content—with a built-in tax break.
Part of the foundation’s stated mission is to train young reporters, but its staff also generates content, which the Daily Caller then gets to post to its site for free. And while this content is nominally available to any publication,The Washington Postreported that it’s rarely used by anyone beyond the Daily Caller. A 2017 Center for Media and Democracy report found that the Daily Caller published “virtually everything” the nonprofit churned out.
However, other groups have taken advantage of the arrangement. The fact-checking site Snopes reported in 2019 that conservative political activists appropriated foundation content to populate a number of small-time websites styling themselves as local news outlets to smuggle political content to unsuspecting audiences.
The Daily Caller has also been called out for its financial and political ties to Trump’s campaign, which shelled out about $150,000 for access to the Daily Caller email list in the 2016 election, the Center for Media and Democracy reported.
One of the most familiar examples of a donor-funded news organization would be National Public Radio. While NPR gets some government grants, most of its money comes from private contributors—including from industries it reports on. But McBride noted that NPR puts disclaimers on stories that may present an apparent conflict.
“When you listen to public media, you hear that certain people give money for certain lines of reporting, like for climate change, et cetera. So you can fund a line of reporting, but you get no influence over how that news is presented, and public media also lets the audience know when that funding may intersects with the reporting,” McBride said.
It’s unclear whether any Daily Caller News Foundation donors tabbed their contributions for specific issues or series. But some well-known issues-driven names populate the list, including top GOP megadonor and election-denial enthusiast Dick Uihlein ($25,000), anti-climate change groups the Bradley Foundation ($50,000) and Sarah Scaife Foundation ($350,000), and conservative free-market underwriters Searle Freedom Trust ($230,000).
The source of the biggest donation, however, is still unknown. That would be the $400,000 the group received through DonorsTrust, a nonprofit known as a conservative dark money “ATM,” which allows funders to channel money anonymously to various recipients. The foundation also got a $300,000 injection from someone identified as “anonymous.”
The Daily Caller operation—which has been exposed forties to white nationalists—has been widely criticized on the left for its financial ties to energy interests, most specificallyCharles Koch, who has provided millions in funding over the years, and at one point reportedly accounted for more than 83 percent of the foundation’s annual revenue.
That bankroll swelled between 2020 and 2021. The foundation’s fiscal year 2020 filing shows $1.57 million in contributions, a number thatnearly doubled to $2.8 million the next year, according to the 2021 document. The foundation spent $1.4 million—$254,000 of it on fundraising—which, combined with previous assets, left it with a year-end balance of about $2.1 million.
1st x i saw
5 23 dl pix morano
based on anti commie manifesto bk
exploit labor evil, so also nature, ult religion of destruction ...nihilistic, who will join me in burning everything down
sci MIT degree, movie star, athelete...
carbon breath, you are poison, beef, car, factory will be massive biggest genocide...
jane goodall WEC pop? 500 yrs ago lead climate ADVO IN FRONT OF ELITE
commie anti-human; gop mealy mouth cede premise
transition = take batt out of remote; humanity runs on oil;
https://www.thefirsttv.com/watch/climate-communism-the-death-cult/
43 min
jesse Kelly believes thatcommunism is a religion of destruction. With religion there are subsets. Climate is just one branch in the rotten tree of communism and it’s actually the most dangerous. Jesse believes that this movement is not only dangerous, but genocidal. While uncomfortable to hear, there is evidence to back up this claim and Jesse is sharing it with you. Plus, appearances from Climate Depot’s Marc Morano, the great Dana Loesch andKay Smythe of the Daily Caller.
aoc has gas stove, kerry pvt jet; aoc oppose lead gas; kings qu desire to rule over ashes; that may make upi uncomf but i'm right; pix gates, energy sec; kerry davos buy carbon offset; they deserve better save mankind, give up your car peasant; iceland envir award 2019? ;"the elites" red pix; IQ ppl at bot beleive, but elite sell it for naked money and power; "tue believers" in the movement; marc i wd not have used c word 3 yrs ago; kerry will shut down agric; sm fam owned farm farm cannot adapt to gates andchina can; biggest brkthru grn revo haber; pix old red tractor w am flag;methane irrelev gas by peer rev study; net zero admin will take over agric, australia, canada, gates is #1 landownwer; got us afraid of cows cars; admin state take over; gates wants synth meat, oil imp burger veg oil processed meat; ; kerry new job as US cli envoy; conspiracy , nat'lize all;
lik invas of body sn; do not like ind revo, FF brought us low inf morality...east bloc, africa burn dung in huts;mastermind from above ex czech prez [havel?] ; after ussr fellgrn energized; redo energy and free sp = disinfo is dangerous eg covid;
kevin mcc play aLONG plant trees ccs? brk
gore maze hole oz, agi, rainforest deforest gone in decades, polut ocean atmos...you know how womwn are hairspray
open fridge
kay smytheblk dress; blonde
daily caller soc decline & apoc pix of so state
why str face predictions; glacier nat'l park? ppl make $ off manip CC rhet;
in college i learn about field of uncertainty; major corps emerg corps climates does fluctuate; not as bad as past we know from fossil data; nothing we can do to stop; goes thru patterns brit accent;
younger dryas tens hundreds of degrees;
mass manip of ppl worse in past absol no effect on civil; what now not dramatic
nefarious? not ignor for $ and pwr; look imp and feel good about self
i look at data, no way to refute; pols not smart enough to pull off lie; 100 yrs
hand over control to global elite; or get rid of a bunch of us
greedy mat'l?
we do have unsust; start grow own food, weather mismgt kardashians ; woke side of culture
butti; bible tells of disasters, not doom noah it's the SUV's, worried just like jesus was;
woman mtv conf booth; dana lasch same blk dress; st pete invokes on climate; emblematic college word; dept trans not an energy issue; smaller job south bend # buses; wants to be prez; incapable, no actual qual, prez cannot speak, polit apptee places to stow away demographic diversity hire;supply chain crisis, bridges shd be state issue; granholm change batt in remote; so missouri; "CC nutters"dependent venez, watch what happens w petro $; i'm happy watching it, beetlejuice; always sell reduced std living; destruction GND is about making US subserv to china, manop on rare earth , hunter biden cobalt congo for china; DoD rleiant on grn energy; destruction of US boost china currency; int sec deb haalanf crying CC climate of our lifetime [violin sountrack crowd?]
my wife manip me, puppy dog eyes, tears real; no op mine n US; sheer ignorance, biggest threat commie; why wreck US? nutballs have to live here too, but kerry married well; heinx pvt jet; limo insult to detoqueville classical liberal; dicaprio celeb new yr 2x; gameshow life;
gates eat bugs; self appt royal elite;
so what do? action items at end of ch; reject relig of envir agw; depgm kids stress world will not end till god]; close envir dept biz, epa now enforce arm of genocide; big oil sides w/ activists so not subsidy?!
withdraw from all treaty, BUY THE BK most imp.
--> America Disarmed: The Communist Gun Grab
http://redgreenandblue.org/2023/03/15/climate-disinformation-daily-caller/
Climate disinformation is what the Daily Caller DOES | Red, Green, and Blue
Red, Green, and Blue
Related · Daily Caller has a fact checker! (But is now run by Koch-trained career disinformer Michael Bastasch) · No, Marc Morano, nobody wants a ' ...
as internal text messages _{prove}_ what most have _{long known}_ about _{Fox News}_ (that it’s a conservative propaganda machine posing as a news outlet), it’s important to remember that these days, Fox is hardly alone. While Murdoch’s Fox and Wall Street Journal are the unquestioned Big Leagues of right-wing disinformation, there’s a whole set of bush league outlets serving as training grounds.
By Climate Denier Roundup
The Tucker Carlson-founded Daily Caller is one of the primary examples of how Fox and the Koch-funded climate change counter-movement are intertwined.
Back when they were mostly Koch-funded, _{Koch-trained Michael Bastasch}_ was regularly running climate disinformation featuring Koch-funded climate deniers. These days, their funding has diversified a bit thanks to _{Carlson’s feud with Kochs}_, though giving the Daily Caller money still appears to increase the odds of the outlet _{writing favorable content about you}_.
But _{**Bastasch** returned}_ last year as Managing Editor of the Daily Caller’s _{non-profit tax dodge foundation}_, after a stint at Fox News writing for _{election-lie-spreader Laura Ingraham}_.
Since his return, we’ve been watching closely to note any changes, and at this point can say it definitely appears that Bastasch is using his position to spread climate disinformation through multiple channels at the Caller, not just the “Big Tent” opinion vertical _{we noted last week}_.
_{In the past}_, most of the Caller’s climate disinfo would come from just one or two employees who appeared to be tasked with turning press releases from Koch cronies into “news” as their job on the “energy” beat (like Thomas Catenacci, who now works for, _{you guessed it, Fox News}_).
But these days, attacks on climate change science, policy, and experts have become a feature of coverage across the website and its various staffers.
It really stood out between 5 and 7 p.m. last Wednesday, when the Daily Caller published a triple-play of climate disinfo: defending a fossil-fuel loving white supremacist, cherry-picking climate change from a US National security assessment, and attacked environmentalists organizing on TikTok to #StopWillow.
The first was from “news and commentary writer” Brianna Lyman, who provided _{a short write-up framed as criticism}_ of Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who “accused one of the witnesses of being racist.” Who, you might ask? Well, despite the fact that ‘who/what/where/why/when’ is a basic tenet of journalism, Lyman didn’t identify the person at the center of the House committee meeting, and in fact, described Bush as “criticizing the oil industry before turning her attention toward an unidentified witness.”
Which is an absolutely astonishing thing for a supposed journalist to write, because Congressional _{hearings are very easy to look up}_. Alex Epstein, one of the “so-called ‘energy experts’” called by Republicans, is who Rep. Bush called “a philosopher who has previously espoused white supremacist views,” before Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) interjected to try and censor her by calling for the comment to be removed from the Congressional record.
But naming Epstein would require doing actual reporting, and apparently all Lyman did was watch a _{video clip of the hearing}_ (that she embedded in the story). If you’d like to see what real reporting of the hearing looks like, as opposed to someone running cover for a fellow traveler, _{Timothy Cama covered it for PoliticoPRO}_ and named _{Alex Epstein}_ right up front.
Roughly thirty-six minutes after Lyman’s article defending a racist was posted, the Daily ‘_{whoopsie we keep hiring racists}_‘ Caller published a piece on the US intelligence community’s Annual Threat Assessment. The headline of “reporter” Micaela Burrow’s coverage? “_{Intel Community Warns Fight Over Green Energy Tech Will Worsen Global Tensions.}_”
The 10-paragraph write-up quotes the assessment just twice to justify the story’s thrust that fighting climate change will somehow make the world more dangerous. That’s probably because the _{40-page assessment}_ only devotes 2 pages to climate, and then otherwise focuses on a bunch of things that the Daily Caller doesn’t spread disinfo about.
Finally, rounding out a very busy day for the Caller, “Associate Editor” Ailan Evans’ _{hit piece ran at 6:49}_, attacking the #StopWillow campaign on TikTok because one of the participating groups is funded by “a Swiss billionaire with a documented history of philanthropy and political donations, primarily to left-wing causes and candidates.” Though it’s dressed up as some sort of scandalous revelation, at no point does Evans attempt to explain how or why this is somehow bad.
But that’s the kind of training you get from the Daily Caller. Both Evans and current _{Fox Production Assistant}_ Kendall Tietz were _{2021 fellows}_ of the Daily Caller’s American Journalism Institute, where they train the next generation of political hacks to pretend to be journalists.
So next time you hear about some bizarre disinformation, rank political propaganda, or shameless defense of racism on Fox News, remember that it’s not an accident, they’retrainedto be that awful. There’s a whole farm league of conservative propaganda shops like the Daily Caller — the _{frack-backed}_ Daily Wire and _{Heritage}_‘s _{Daily Signal}_ come to mind — and while they’d all oppose a Universal Basic Income as socialism, they’re proof that as long as would-be-journalists are willing to play ball for the highest bidder, they’ll never want for work.
ref jun 2019
just the _{other day we talked about}_ how Tucker Carlson questioned who the climate culprits are on his Koch-funded Daily Caller website. So we’re reluctant to go back to that well quite so soon, but a new post on the Caller’s website cannot go without comment.
The _{story is a clip and rehash}_ of one of Carlson’s recent segments on his Fox News show, in which he attacks Koch Brothers and questions their undue influence over the Republican party. In the clip, Carlson hones in on criticisms that the Koch brothers are libertarian and that their philanthropic aims don’t reflect the wants and needs of everyday Republicans.
yes, you read that correctly. Tucker Carlson, whose Daily Caller _{website received 84%}_ of its funding from the Kochs in 2016 and _{close to a million dollars in 2017}_, railed against the Kochs’ influence. Keep in mind the website with _{over a thousand Koch stories}_, few if any of which are anything but bootlicking.
That said, in 2017 Koch money only made up 38% of the Caller’s funding. Its trajectory does seem to be moving away from Koch money as its primary means of support. Perhaps the website really is trying to break free from the Koch’s funding, or at least dilute its funder pool so it’s not quite so obvious that they exist as a propaganda tool for the Kochs’ interests. It launched a subscription program back in April, inviting readers to become a “_{Daily Caller Patriot}_” offering access to special content and removing ads. The invitation includes a clip of Carlson talking about his crusade against “big tech” for “censoring” “conservatives” over the little tinsy matter of propagating hate speech that is radicalizing white terrorists.
And that’s a big part of Carlson’s new rant against the Kochs: targeting their upcoming work with the Anti-Defamation League to combat online hate speech. Since we know full well that the _{Daily Caller has quite a history}_ of “accidentally” propagating white nationalism, perhaps that’s why Carlson is stoking division between himself and his followers and his Koch funders. If they’re anti-hate speech, odds are they’ll follow the lead of all the advertisers who have pulled their support for Carlson’s Fox program.
So maybe this new change in heart in response to the Kochs pulling away from supporting the website, and Carlson is pulling the old “you can’t fire me because I quit.” Back _{in November of 2018}_, Washington Post columnist Radley Balko wrote that Koch officials told him that “the Kochs and their foundations more generally find the Daily Caller abhorrent, and feel the same way about Tucker Carlson. One added that he was particularly troubled by the way the site objectives women as clickbait.”
And while the Koch donors Balko spoke to made it clear they saw their investment in the Caller to be aimed at training new journalists with free-market ideology, the lead investigative journalist at the Caller, per Balko, “doesn't inspire confidence.” Balko, who had previously worked with the reporter, Richard Pollack, wrote that Pollack is “a Trump toady” who “doesn't understand libertarianism” and is “a crappy journalist” who “isn't particularly smart.” But Balko conceded that Pollack’s “most marketable skill seems to be the ability to fool people into believing he has marketable skills.”
The same could be said for Tucker Carlson, and maybe the Kochs have finally realized it. Because as a _{millionaire funded by billionaires}_, it’s hard to comprehend why else Carlson would turn on his former patrons.
ref
on Tuesday, the US House of Representatives passed a “Koch-backed bill" which would hide the names of those who donate to non-profits that are tax-exempt from the IRS. Some are concerned that this would allow foreign interests to illegally influence elections and politics in the US. A more local concern is that it would allow even more unlimited spending by the Kochs and others, and remove the one way we have of tracing their donations.
Case in point: Graham Readfearn’s latest piece in DeSmog has tracked some of the millions of dollars in funding that keep the conservative media ecosystem alive. The sister “dark money ATM” organizations of Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund, for example, have given at least $6.8 million to the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. And the Kochs have obviously spread some money around, so it's clear exactly why they want to be able to hide their funding streams from the IRS (and of course, the public).
unsurprisingly, the Daily Caller News Foundation (the non-profit arm of the Daily Caller) is a main beneficiary of climate denial funding. Interestingly, it also seems to be the final destination of sorts for the conservative media pipeline. Readfearn ticks off a number of current Daily Caller employees that got their start in the Kochtopus network.
A prime example is our favorite Daily Caller churnalist, Michael Bastasch. Before joining the Daily Caller News Foundation, he was an intern at Heritage, an intern at the Charles Koch Institute, a research associate at the State Policy Network-affiliated Cascade Policy Institute, a Koch summer fellow at the Institute for Humane Studies, and a public affairs intern at ALEC. Not exactly the pedigree of an unbiased journalist.
In his defense, this revealing CV is all public on his LinkedIn page, which also tells us that his “skills” aren’t so much “journalism” or “reporting,” but “politics,” “public affairs,” “political communication,” “public relations,” etc. Which makes sense, since his BA isn’t in journalism or English or anything traditional for a reporter. No, as his skill set suggests, his degree is in political science. Which again, to be fair, isn’t particularly uncommon for reporters. But, when combined with his work history at exclusively Koch-backed operations, makes it hard to argue that he’s a real reporter and not a political operative. That he now works not for the for-profit Daily Caller, but the Koch-funded Daily Caller News Foundation makes it that much more obvious.
So it is unfortunately no surprise that Bastasch consistently get things wrong when he is “reporting" on climate and energy. But as a 2012 PR Watch piece shows, he also got facts wrong whendefending ALEC’s support for Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” legislation.
This blurring of the lines between “political communication” and actual reporting, then, is exactly the aim behind the House’s bill to prevent even the IRS, much less the public, from knowing who is funding wha
~ boebert
ref
ENERGYWIRE | House Republicans’ attempt to scold President Joe Biden for his massive releases from the federal government’s oil stockpile was quickly overshadowed by allegations of “white supremacist” commentary and lies.
The House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy and Regulatory Affairs dedicated its first hearing of the Republican majority to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, using it as an attempt to denounce Biden’s sales of more than 200 million barrels of crude as a political maneuver that threatened national security.
But the Wednesday hearing quickly went off the rails.
Missouri Rep. Cori Bush, the panel’s top Democrat, argued that Alex Epstein, one of the Republican’s pro-fossil-fuel witnesses, had “previously espoused white supremacist views,” citing his writings in theDuke Review, a conservative newspaper, during his studies at Duke University more than two decades ago.
“The African and African American studies department has 23 classes. In many of these classes, African culture is presented, not as inferior to Western culture, but on equal footing with it. The same is done with Latin American, Indian,...
vid
Witnesses and testimonies:Mr. Alex Epstein
President
Center for Industrial Progress
:{
Document}:
Dr. Ilia Bouchouev
Managing Partner
Pentathlon Investments, LLC
:{
Document}:
Demond Drummer (Minority Witness)
Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy
The New School
:{
Document}:
an 2 23
For decades White House press secretaries, military officers, and reporters have used the words “tick-tock” to denote an overview of a conversation, or a chronological telling of a series of events – and not the now-popular Chinese app “TikTok,” which some allege has major national security implications.
And yet, the far-right-wing website Daily Caller, a veteran Fox News host, and many others on the social media site Twitter attacked Karine Jean-Pierre Monday afternoon, after the White House Press Secretary told the press: “I know there was a tick-tock that went out to all of you from the National Security Council that was pretty detailed on how everything broke down for the past week.”
Inside Elections’ Jacob Rubashkinmocked The Daily Caller (which was founded by Tucker Carlson) for getting something so basic so wrong.
===
{{ DIRTY TRICKS
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/16/democratic-strategists-launch-war-room-00065498
group of top Democratic strategists are launching a multi-million-dollar hub to counter an expected investigative onslaught by the likely incoming House GOP majority — digging into President Joe Biden, his administration and his son, on top of potential Cabinet impeachments.
The newly relaunchedCongressional Integrity Project initiative, details of which were shared first with POLITICO, will include rapid response teams, investigative researchers, pollsters and eventually a paid media campaign to put congressional Republicans “squarely on the defense,” founder Kyle Herrig said in an interview.
It’s designed to serve as the party’s “leading war room” to push back on House Republican investigations, Herrig said in an interview. He added that the project would “investigate the investigators, expose their political motivations and the monied special interests supporting their work, and hold them accountable for ignoring the urgent priorities of all Americans in order to smear Joe Biden and do the political bidding of Trump and MAGA Republicans." [vid]
a team of researchers has already begun scouring public records, press clippings and other documents in a bid to immediately undercut House GOP leaders, from Minority Leader — now speakership hopeful — Kevin McCarthy to the likely committee chairs expected to manage probes of Biden and his network.
The House GOP views investigations as a key piece of its agenda for the next Congress once it takes the narrow majority that’s now expected, particularly as much of its legislative wish list is on track to stall thanks to the Senate filibuster and Democratic president. McCarthy has privately talked with committee chairs-in-waiting to coordinate plans, making the swift launch of the outside-group pushback plan a potential godsend to Democrats.
Democratic leadership on the Hill has been briefed about the project’s relaunch, according to a person familiar with its plans.
Brad Woodhouse, a longtime Democratic strategist who is part of the project’s new leadership team, called the House GOP’s looming investigations a “vendetta” after two impeachments of and investigations into former President Donald Trump while Democrats controlled Congress, including the bipartisan select committee probing the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The project “will exploit every tactic available,” Woodhouse said, adding: “It’s not enough to wait and see what they’re going to do and how far they’re going to go.”
Republicans wouldn’t formally take the House until January, but its leaders are already vowing to cut a broad investigative swath. As McCarthy put it during his conference’s recent agenda rollout: “Every committee has responsibilities for oversight.”
“They’ve virtually outlined no substantive agenda for governing,” Herrig said of House Republicans. “This is what they’re going to do ... so you really need a concentrated effort that’s doing this every day.”
In addition to Herrig and Woodhouse, the project’s leadership team will include Leslie Dach, a well-known Democratic communications specialist who has led progressive organizations for decades, served in the Obama administration and advised the Biden administration’s pandemic response.
In a sign of the important role the initiative will play over the next two years — and its proximity to the White House — other senior advisers include Jeff Peck, a former Biden aide during the president’s time in the Senate who served as treasurer and vice chair of the Biden Foundation as well as a senior adviser to the Biden-Harris transition.
The Congressional Integrity Project leadership team will include Leslie Dach, a well-known Democratic communications specialist who has led progressive organizations for decades. | Brian Stukes/Getty Images for Protect Our Care
For the final two years of Biden’s term, Republicans will be aided in their oversight push by a coalition of outside conservative research groups that have already mapped out potential targets and started digging into issues ranging from Hunter Biden’s business dealings to immigration policy.
And GOP lawmakers have left their own investigative breadcrumbs that make it clear where they intend to go. Likely Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) will lead the Hunter Biden investigation, with Republicans already preparing to elevate the probe to Joe Biden although no evidence has publicly emerged that his decisions were affected by his son’s business dealings. Comer recently told POLITICO that he and likely Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) would provide a public update this week.
Jordan, meanwhile, is preparing to use the gavel he’s poised to take for conduct a sweeping investigation into the Justice Department and FBI, two frequent targets of Trump’s ire. That probe is likely to touch on everything from the search at Mar-a-Lago for classified documents to tracking threats against local school officials, which the GOP slams as an effort to target parents despite denials from the bureau. [vid]
other GOP areas of interest include the withdrawal from Afghanistan, Ukraine aid and a coronavirus probe that is likely to sweep up longtime public health adviser Anthony Fauci.
McCarthy and his allies are under pressure from their base and some members of their own conference to pair their investigations with impeachment articles; some in the party are clearly itching for payback after then-President Trump was impeached twice. Though impeaching Biden is likely a heavy lift — and a step that McCarthy isn’t endorsing for now — Republicans see Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as a more likely target for attempted removal from office.
congressional Democrats and others close to the administration view Republicans’ vows to investigate Mayorkas’ department and the border as the latest sign that they aren’t serious about trying to pass immigration legislation. And they slam Republican investigative plans writ large as thinly veiled attempts to help Trump, pointing to Jordan’s public remarks earlier this year that characterized GOP probes as helping “frame up the 2024 race.”
The Congressional Integrity Project is also aiming to raise funds for a paid media campaign, including dedicated websites, digital ads, mobile billboards, newspaper ads and, occasionally, TV ad buys. Its public opinion research will be shared with like-minded organizations and congressional allies to contrast GOP investigations with issues the American public cares most about, project leaders said.
Their goal is to prevent a repeat of the 2016 presidential campaign when Republicans also controlled the House and created a select committee to investigate the 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans. That GOP select panel ended up zeroing in on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as she prepared to ascend to the Democratic nomination, culminating in an 11-hour grilling of Clinton.
Republicans’ two-year Benghazi investigation spent $7 million in taxpayer money and dogged Clinton on the campaign trail before finally producing an 800-page report that didn’t focus on the former secretary of state.
Then-Majority Leader McCarthy quipped in 2015 to Fox News’ Sean Hannity that the Benghazi committee had successfully driven down Clinton’s poll numbers. “He took a lot of crap for it, but in the end, it was true” that the investigation hurt Clinton politically, recalled Woodhouse.
Rather, Democrats hope the flood of investigations will lead to a repeat of the 1998 midterm elections, held amid the GOP push to impeach then-President Bill Clinton. Voter backlash against that move helped Democrats defy historical trends in House races that favor the party that doesn’t occupy the White House gaining seats.
- FILED UNDER:
- KEVIN MCCARTHY,
- JIM JORDAN,
- OPPOSITION RESEARCH,
- OPPO,
- BENGHAZI,
- ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS
ref
axios
gop Republican congressional aides huddled this month with conservative think-tank leaders on Maryland's Eastern Shore to hone tactics and messaging for Biden administration probes, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: If the GOP wins control in the midterms, leaders want to kick off high-profile investigations as soon as the new Congress is seated. Republicans plan to draw on investigative power from allies across Washington.
Details: The retreat was hosted by the Heritage Foundation, theConservative Partnership Instituteand theAmerican Accountability Foundation, a nonprofit run by Trump administration alumni that's dogged Biden nominees with independent investigative work.
- In attendance were aides to the top Republicans on the House Transportation and Infrastructure, Ways and Means and Oversight committees, as well as a senior aide to Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), who is considered a leadership contender.
- Aides toSenate Banking Committee ranking member Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Mike Braun (R-Ind.) also attended.
The big picture: With unified Democratic control in D.C., Republicans have been limited in their efforts to wield Congress' probative powers around high-profile issues such as a southern border immigration surge, the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and economic shocks that threaten a U.S. recession.
- If they win congressional majorities, Republicans plan to use that power in retrospective fashion to dig into Biden administration conduct going back to his inauguration.
- That will mean a congressional microscope on Biden administration policies and spending. It will also bring stepped-up GOP scrutiny of private sector actors such as tech companies that Republicans see as politically adversarial.
Behind the scenes: Over two days, congressional aides at the retreat got briefings from prominent conservative activists and organizations on a host of investigative tactics.
- Gene Hamilton, a former senior aide in Trump's Justice Department and a board member of the America First Legal Foundation, briefed staffers on how to use legal experts and the federal court system to conduct research and "advance conservative priorities in the courts."
- Alexa Walker, the Banks aide and the Republican Study Committee's coalitions director, and Scott Gast, a former senior aide in the Trump White House counsel's office, discussed strategies for coordinating congressional oversight with outside research and investigative groups.
- Mike Howell and Roman Jankowski of the Heritage Foundation led a training on the Freedom of Information Act.
- AAF chief Tom Jones briefed attendees on tactics for investigating presidential nominees and appointees.
- Phil Reboli of CPI trained staffers on effective communications strategies to sell oversight efforts to outside groups and the press.
What they're saying: "We are pleased we brought together senior staff and leading outside researchers to focus on enhancing oversight skills, particularly since we're expecting increased oversight opportunities in the future," Jones said in an emailed statement.
- "The American people are deeply frustrated by the failed policies and lack of leadership of the Biden Administration. They expect good government groups like ours and Congressional leaders to work together to hold this administration accountable."
Howell, who leads Heritage's Oversight Project, t0ld Axios the goal of the event was to ensure congressional staff members are equipped to kick-start investigations as soon as the new Congress is gaveled in.
- "What's going to happen next Congress is, you've got to do four years of oversight in two years. That's going to be an immense lift, and it means that they cannot wait to get these committees situated," he said in an interview.
- "There are thousands of people who served in the Trump administration, myself included, who experienced what was probably the most intense congressional oversight to date," Howell said. They "are now chomping at the bit to deploy these skills that they've learned back at the Biden administration."
Between the lines: The event provides a glimpse of where Republicans see potentially fruitful oversight avenues.
- Senate Banking has been at the center of Biden nomination fights, with committee Republicans successfully sinking two high-profile nominees.
- The Oversight Committee, whose chief counsel for oversight attended, has a broad mandate. Its ranking Republican, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), has recently signaled scrutiny of Biden's immigration policies, his son Hunter’s business dealings abroad and tech companies' ostensible political bias.
- The Transportation Committee's Republican general counsel wrote in a disclosure filing that the training would help the committee ensure "fiscal stewardship and effective oversight of the recently passed infrastructure bill and other items within T&I's jurisdiction."
- The Ways and Means Committee, which sent two Republican aides to the retreat, is a powerful panel with oversight jurisdiction over tax and financial policies at the center of a national furor over inflation.
Republican oversight won't be confined to federal agencies or the White House, Howell said.
- "Big Tech is in the crosshairs," he said. "They're going to be subject to document requests and subpoenas and depositions."
- Howell pointed to the subpoena power wielded heavily by the Jan. 6 select committee, which has sought private phone and bank records, among other documents.
- "It's really a whole new frontier that has been opened with a whole bevy of new tactics and techniques, which were once thought out of bounds. They're now going to be a tool in the hands of the other side."
ref axios lachlan markey
https://www.axios.com/2021/09/14/conservatives-aft-withdrawal-biden-nominee
david chipman nom atf scalp
even before President Biden formally withdrew his nominee to be the nation's top firearm regulator on Monday, a new conservative opposition research group was ready for a victory lap.
Why it matters: Democrats honed a research operation during the Trump era that effectively opposed some of his top nominees. Two veteran Republican operatives behind the American Accountability Foundation didn't see a comparable apparatus for the GOP, so they set out to create one.
- AAF co-founder Tom Jones was a senior staffer to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).
- Matt Buckham, the other co-founder, worked in Donald Trump's White House Office of Presidential Personnel, which oversees nominations to Senate-confirmed posts.
- "We know they put [David Chipman] up because he aligned with the Biden administration on guns. ... You know that there's gonna be issue advocacy galore out there," Buckham told Axios. "But is this individual qualified, what is his character, what is his background? Those are the questions that groups weren't digging into."
Driving the news: Chipman, who lobbied for gun safety group Everytown after leaving ATF, was the first high-profile Biden nominee to withdraw from consideration.
- His nomination immediately drew opposition from gun rights groups such as the NRA.
- In withdrawing the nomination, the president conceded Chipman was unlikely to get the 50 votes in the Senate needed for confirmation.
What's new: During an interview, Jones took credit for helping to unearth and publicize allegations from Chipman's former colleagues at ATF — where he was a special agent until 2012 — that he'd disparaged agents of color who received promotions.
- Jones said he learned of the allegations while speaking to some of those former colleagues personally. AAF compiled all they could, he said, then shared its findings with the Daily Caller.
- Within a week, another outlet, The Reload, had spoken with other former agents who corroborated the story. After it published additional details, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee demanded a new hearing on Chipman's nomination.
- AAF also helped organize a letter to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, from seven retired ATF agents and investigators opposing Chipman's nomination.
- Jones shared Chipman research memos with Judiciary Committee Republicans — while also publishing the memos publicly on the AAF's website — and suggested potentially damaging lines of questioning for Chipman's hearings.
Between the lines: AAF's research largely ignored policy. Its strategy more resembled the type of research that political campaigns compile on their opponents: public records digging and research focused on Chipman's background.
- The group remains focused on a suite of high-profile Biden nominees, and it has set up a website, BidenNoms.com, as a public repository of its research.
- AAF was formed early this year as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, meaning it can't engage in political activity — despite its founders' backgrounds in GOP politics.
- It expects to operate on a $750,000 budget this year, a spokesperson told Axios. During the interview, Jones and Buckham declined to identify any of their donors. }}:
https://dailycaller.com/2022/10/04/climate-disinformation-hate-speech/
kos ref
POLITICS
Enviros Are Demanding Big Tech Treat ‘Climate Disinformation’ Like Hate Speech
Two-thirds of conservativesfeel[ings, nothing more than...] like social media is censoring conservative voices, according to a poll.
Daily Caller News Foundation logo
BRONSON WINSLOW
CONTRIBUTOR
October 04, 2022
A coalition of environmental advocacy groups has requested that the CEO’s of major social media platforms stop the spread of “climate disinformation” by censoring user posts, according to a Tuesday letter.
Addressed to the CEOs of Facebook, TikTok, Google, YouTube, Twitter and Pinterest, the letter claims that climate disinformation should be censored because it “undermines” the government’s ability to efficiently and effectively respond to the climate. The coalition asserted that social media companies are directly responsible for “amplifying and perpetuating” disinformation and should be completely transparent to show the “exact extent” of damage done.
Social media platforms will be forced to follow the guidelines of the coalition following the approval of the Digital Services Act (DSA), according to the letter. The coalition urges the platforms to “fulfill their obligations” and agree to its terms before the DSA takes effect.
The platforms are urged to “commit to including climate disinformation as a separately-acknowledged category in its reporting and content moderation policies in and outside of the EU,” the letter said. “More specifically, we urge platforms to commit to recognizing climate disinformation as a specific reason within the statement required under DSA Article 15(1), and include data on content moderation decisions related to climate disinformation as stated under Article 23.”
The platforms “owe it to their users and the planet” to stop amplifying climate disinformation that undermines the coalitions’ ability to combat the climate crisis, the letter said. The letter ended by informing each CEO that a written response and signature is required after conforming to the coalitions’ new standards.
Friends of The Earth did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
Tags : censorship climate change social media
https://foe.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Count-The-Climate-Sign-On-Letter-1.pdf
To: The CEOs of Facebook, TikTok, Google & YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest From: Civil Society Groups Concerned with Climate Disinformation Date: October 4, 2022
RE: It’s Time for Platforms to Count the Climate
The climate crisis has become increasingly apparent as the July heat wave across Europe broke records in Spain, and we saw deadly floods in eastern Kentucky destroy local communities and wildfires burning from France to California. Unfortunately, the spread of climate disinformation undermines governments’ ability to efficiently and effectively respond. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has even named climate disinformation as a threat to the world’s ability to effectively address climate change. The UN Secretary General António Guterres recently mentioned the threat of misinformation, proliferated by social media companies, in a recent General Assembly speech and tweet. Social media companies bear responsibility for their role in amplifying and perpetuating climate disinformation but transparency, that would quantify the exact extent, has been lacking from all platforms. The Digital Services Act has passed in the EU, and its obligations for platforms will take effect very soon. We’re writing to ask platform leaders to fulfill obligations set forth in the DSA, and to commit to including climate disinformation as a separately-acknowledged category in its reporting and content moderation policies in and outside of the EU. More specifically, we urge platforms to commit to recognizing climate disinformation as a specific reason within the statement required under DSA Article 15(1), and include data on content moderation decisions related to climate disinformation as stated under Article 23. Platforms owe it to their users and the planet to stop amplifying the climate disinformation that undermines our ability to combat the climate crisis. We call on your companies to implement these actions as soon as possible and request a written response addressed to the signatories below.
Regards, ● 350.org ● Accountable Tech ● Action for the Climate Emergency ● Center for Countering Digital Hate ● Check My Ads ● ClimateVoice ● Digital Climate Coalition ● Exposure Labs ● Friends of the Earth ● Greenpeace ● Green Latinos ● Institute for Strategic Dialogue ● Stop Funding Heat ● Union of Concerned Scientist
https://dailycaller.com/2022/09/28/climate-change-maga-republicans-extremists-la-times/
POLITICS
Climate Change Is Turning MAGA Republicans Into ‘Extremists,’ Columnists Claim
pix Fairview Fire Fire burns in California REUTERS/David Swanson]
Daily Caller News Foundation logo
LAUREL DUGGAN
SOCIAL ISSUES AND CULTURE REPORTER
September 28, 2022
Climate change is turning Republicans in western states into extremists due to the discontent sparked by water scarcity, heat and related government policies, two Los Angeles Times columnists argued.
Wildfires, droughts and worsening heat, which the authors link to climate change, is contributing to extremism among supporters of former President Donald Trump in California, columnists Anita Chabria and Erika Smith argue. That trend will accelerate if political leaders impose further environmental restrictions that have a disparate impact on rural residents orforcibly relocate them over fire concerns,they claim.
“There’s no denying that the extremist turn of MAGA Republicanism is flourishing throughout the state’s pastoral parts,” the authors wrote. “As climate change worsens, water gets more scarce and the land becomes hotter, drier and harder to live upon, this discontent could very well metastasize into violence. That’s especially true if California uses financial leverage to discourage rebuilding fire-destroyed towns and encourages rural denizens to move to more defensible places.” (RELATED: ‘Full Of Anger, Violence, Hate’: Biden Goes After ‘MAGA Republicans’ Of Congress During Labor Day Speech)
The state’s environmental policies tend to have an outsized impact on rural residents, who are generally more conservative than city-dwellers, such as orders to stop using river water to irrigate fields, according to the columnists. As California struggles with water scarcity and wildfires, some worry that the state could force the relocation of its rural residents by blocking rebuilding efforts in fire-prone areas.
“Floods, fires and hurricanes cause tens of thousands of temporary evacuations every year, displacing people from homes, jobs and schools and making them more susceptible to — or victims of — extremist propaganda,” the piece read.
One source stated without evidence that anti-government sentiments in the western U.S. were deeply linked to antisemitism.
“They all believe that the U.S. government has been captured by Jews,” said Alexander Reid Ross, an extremism expert at Portland State University, referring to the west’s “extremists.” He told the outlet that the longtime relationship between the western anti-government cowboy ethos and antisemitism was “supercharged” and mainstreamed through the MAGA movement.
Chabria and Smith did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
Tags : california donald j trump los angeles times maga maga republicans
https://dailycaller.com/2022/09/28/russell-brand-censorship-hypocrisy-youtube-covid/
ENTERTAINMENT
Russell Brand Claims Hypocrisy After Being Censored On YouTube
LEENA NASIR
ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER
September 28, 2022
Russell Brand accused YouTube of hypocrisy on Tuesday after the platform censored one of his videos.
One of Brand’s videos was removed from YouTube, which cited “misinformation” as the reason. In a separate video, Brand took a moment to explain his error. He then showed a clip from a mainstream media outlet that remains active on YouTube but, Brand claimed, should have been removed if the platform’s standards were fairly enforced.
“We have been officially censored by YouTube. They took down one of our videos for misinformation, but why are big media organizations not censored for misinformation in the same way?” Brand said in a video posted to his Twitter account.
“Is it because YouTube are part of the mainstream media now?” Brand asked.
“Earlier this month we did a video about the changing narratives around COVID, the pandemic and COVID treatments, in which we cited information on official government websites, which we misinterpreted,” he said. Brand explained that his error was claiming that the National Institutes of Health were “recommending” a particular COVID treatment when in fact the NIH was merely “trialing” the treatment.
Brand appears to have been referring to ivermectin, an anti-parasitic medication that skeptics of the COVID-19 vaccines suggested as an alternative treatment for the virus despite statements from public health authorities discouraging the practice. Check Your Fact, an affiliate of the Daily Caller, concluded in September that claims that the NIH had approved ivermectin to treat the virus were “misleading.” The NIH website states that ivermectin “is being evaluated to treat COVID-19.”
Brand added that he had issued an apology video immediately upon realizing the error. YouTube removed the first video and issued an official warning to Brand’s account. Brand then removed the apology video, citing concerns that he might incur further penalties from YouTube if he happened “to reiterate the claim while apologizing for it.”
The original video is available on right-wing video hosting platform Rumble, but it contains no mention of the NIH and is 12 minutes and seven seconds long, compared to the 14 minute and 51 second version shown in a screenshot from his Twitter video, suggesting that Brand cut the offending section before uploading the video toRumble. Brand also said he plans to continue posting his material to Rumble in the future.
“That’s the reason we’re joining them: because they’re not going to censor our content,” Brand said. (RELATED: KOLB: Some Online Censorship Is Necessary To Protect Against Truly Harmful Speech)
“We made an error — in my opinion a relatively small error — and we’re being penalized. To me, that looks like censorship,” he added.
Brand then shared a clip that aired on MSNBC in March 2021 which anchor Rachel Maddow claimed people vaccinated against COVID do not get sick and do not pass the virus to others. This clip remains accessible on YouTube despite the fact that it discounts the possibility of breakthrough infections, which became widespread after the Omicron strain hit the U.S. in late 2021, according to Fox News.
“The reason I think that looks like censorship is that there’s mainstream media misinformation up all the time,” Brand said.
Tags : censorship mainstream media russell brand youtube
LEENA NASIR
https://dailycaller.com/author/Leena/
kos ref
for the longest time, the FoxNews website seemed pretty normal on climate change, all things considered. While Fox TV centered _{hatemongers like Tucker Carlson}_ and the website reflects that with ample coverage of what was on TV, the original content produced for the website was generally indistinguishable from any other lazy political "news" that quotes who said what. The site was clearly biased in every conceivable way (choice of stories to cover, who to quote, how to frame stories, etc) but wasn’t necessarily going out of the way to spread climate disinformation.
That appears to be changing.
fox News dot com has, in the last month or so, hired two conservative propagandists in journalist disguises, Thomas Catenacci, _{formerly an energy reporter}_ at the _{Koch-sponsored Daily Caller}_, _{and Haris Alic}_, formerly of _{the}_ _{cult}_-_{founded}_ and _{$1bilion+ sponsored}_ _{Washington}_ _{Times}_ where he _{turned fossil fool press releases into "news”}_. Before that, he was at _{white supremacy-laundering Breitbart}_, and before that, the _{billionaire-backed Free Beacon}_.
Back on June 21st, Thomas Catenacci _{published his first Fox piece}_attacking Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for calling on Biden to pause the federal gas tax, "just months after declining to pause her own state's gas tax." (Maybe something changed in the months between?)
Since then, he's published one Dem hit piece after another, real hard-hitting stuff like "_{Kamala Harris' office posts video of VP sinking basketball shot, leaves out her first 5 misses}_."
He also covered the _{climate activists slashing SUV tires in NYC}_ (_{twice}_), and somehow suckered a Sierra Club spokesperson into feeding him quotes for a piece about how environmentalists are "_{pushing extreme measures amid global energy crisis,}_" like investing in clean energy sources not controlled by Russia, which is apparently extreme.
This week, _{Catenacci helped propagate the lie}_ that protests in the Netherlands and the _{uprising in Sri Lanka}_ are driven by anti-climate policy sentiments, and yesterday he brought the Daily Caller's trick of "reporting" on a climate advocate's airline emissions to_{Fox with a piece about John Kerry's family's private jet}_ emissions (quoting, of course, a professional denier).
Meanwhile, on July 8th Haris Alic published his first Fox story, advancing the Koch network's organized anti-ESG disinformation with "news" that Sen. Steve Daines(R., Mont.) introduced a go-no-where bill to "_{block Biden from adding 'woke' requirements to US retirement plans.}_" Then he did a puff piece about Republican Gov. Youngkin's "_{speculation of 2024 presidential run}_," followed by a piece about how Nancy Pelosi went on "_{lavish Italian vacation as inflation back home hits 40-year high}_."
You know, Fair And Balanced.
This week, Alic is gassing up former ALEC chair Joe Manchin with an entirely credulous story headlined "_{Manchin denies he opposes Democratic spending bill, says he'll wait until August to decide}_." No surprise, when it comes to the fossil fuel loving Democrat, Fox News has no problem taking him at his word and including zero skeptical quotes pushing back on his claims!
How do you follow "reporting" that is shamelessly tongue-on-boot? With a story about conservative ads, of course, turning your compatriot's paid media spend into some free earned media about how (industry front) groups have paid for a "_{deluge of conservative ads [to] urge Manchin to stand up to Democrats}_."
Not exactly breaking news that Fox is backing fossil fuels over a livable climate, but the fact that its website just hired not one but two up-and-coming climate disinfo spreaders suggests Fox is only ramping up the lies as the midterm election season _{heats}_ up.
morano gmail alert
so they bitch about gubmint regs in 1st 1/2 but 2nd explains why legit? red herring on truck loading?
https://dailycaller.com/2022/08/10/epa-launches-civil-rights-probe-texas-state-agency/
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ENERGY
EPA Launches Civil Rights Probe Into Texas State Agency
US-POLITICS-RIGHTS-HARRIS
Daily Caller News Foundation
JACK MCEVOY
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT REPORTER
August 10, 2022
The EPA’s Office of External Civil Rights Compliance (ECRCO) is launching two civil rights investigations into the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to determine whether state regulators exploited people who do not speak English and improperly approved concrete batch plants in minority communities, according to an EPA statement.
The EPA announced on Aug 3. that it is accepting legal complaints for examination of the issue by ECRCO. The EPA will examine the TCEQ’s standards for concrete batch plant permits in Harris County, Texas, to decide if the state firm violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, discriminating on the basis of race or national origin by failing to provide information in Spanish and failing to adequately protect communities of color who live in areas with a high concentration of concrete facilities. (RELATED: ‘Outrageous’: EPA Agents Are Flying Helicopters Over Texas Oil Fields To Crack Down On Methane Emissions From Drilling)
“Cement manufacturing is now a major target of the climate agenda and the Biden administration is using identity politics to shut them down and regulate them,” Marc Morano,publisher of Climate Depot and former U.S. Senate senior staffer on the Environment & Public Works Committee,told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The Biden administration is smearing American companies as racist in order to achieve its climate goals.”
The investigation was prompted when TCEQ amended the basic permit for batch plants in 2021, where materials for making concrete are stored and funneled into concrete trucks, according to documents. The EPA is investigating to see if the changes were properly communicated to non-English speaking communities because state law mandates that TCEQ alert Texans to such changes.
Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas praised the EPA for opening the investigation, claiming that TCEQ’s permitting process was a “rubber stamp,” according to Axios.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sign is seen on the podium at EPA headquarters in Washington, U.S., July 11, 2018. REUTERS/Ting Shen
“No questions asked,” she said. “Set up right next to the elementary school.”
The agency is also investigating complaints from local residents who argue that the plants pose a significant health risk to minority communities, according to comments on TCEQ’s website. Concrete plants are subject to government permits and emissions regulations that aim to limit air pollution, according to the EPA.
“The investigations will be conducted in accordance with EPA ECRCO’s Case Resolution Manual,” the EPA said in a statement. “Acceptance of a complaint for investigation in no way amounts to a decision on the merits. Rather, it means the complaint has met the jurisdictional criteria. It does not constitute an assessment as to the veracity of the allegations or represent a conclusion as to whether any civil rights violation has occurred.”
Concrete plants produce large amounts of particulate matter which is linked to serious health conditions, including reduced lung development in children, higher rates of asthma, bronchitis, heart disease and cancer, according to Rice University.
Harris County, which contains the major city of Houston, has the largest share of concrete batch plants in the state, Axios reported. A majority of those plants are in communities where minorities make up at least 80% of the population.
The EPA is now taking a more aggressive stance on civil rights probes,E&E news reported.
A TCEQ spokesperson declined to comment on the matter. The EPA referred the DCNF to its statement.
ref
https://dailycaller.com/2022/08/08/epa-regulators-texas-helicopters-search-methane/
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Outrageous’: EPA Agents Are Flying Helicopters Over Texas Oil Fields To Crack Down On Methane Emissions From Drilling
Permian Basin In West Texas In The Spotlight As Oil Prices Soar
Daily Caller News Foundation
JACK MCEVOY
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT REPORTER
August 08, 2022
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Region 6 department is conducting helicopter flyovers over the Permian Basin to identify “super-emitters” of methane gas among oil and gas operations, according to an Aug. 1 news release.
The flyovers will use infrared cameras to inspect hundreds of oil and gas activities in the Permian Basin region of West Texas and southeast New Mexico until Aug. 15, according to the press release. The agency hopes to use aerial surveillance to identify large emitters of methane and excessive volatile organic compound (VOC), emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids which may cause adverse health effects, as well as address any noncompliance indicated by the flyovers through EPA administrative enforcement actions and referrals to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
“It’s just a way to intimidate the oil and gas industry,” Steve Milloy, member of former President Donald Trump’s EPA transition team, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The EPA’s conduct is outrageous.”
A technician on board the helicopter will record the time, GPS location and other details regarding the source of emissions after detecting hydrocarbon emissions. The federal agency will use this data to locate the source of the emissions and thenquestion facility managers about the violations.
The EPA can impose severe fines on offenders and continue to keep an eye on them to make sure they’re taking the necessary steps to address excessive emissions.
“Biden’s EPA is doing everything to make gas prices higher,” Milloy said.
The area creates large amounts of methane and VOC emissions that are contributing to climate change and poor air quality, according to the press release. VOCs can cause irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, dizziness, nausea, migraines, as well as damage to the liver, kidneys and central nervous system, according to the EPA.
“There’s no place in the United States where air quality threatens anybody’s health, even the worst air quality may technically violate EPA standards, but none of that is a health risk,” Milloy stated.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters in Washington, DC, on June 29, 2022. (Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
“The flyovers are vital to identifying which facilities are responsible for the bulk of these emissions and therefore where reductions are most urgently needed,” said Region 6 administrator Dr. Earthea Nance in a press release.
The EPA proposed new regulations on the oil and gas industry’s methane emissions in November 2021. The agency is mulling whether to declare areas of West Texas and eastern New Mexico in violation of federal limits on ozone pollution.
Helicopter Surveillance of the Permian Basin, which accounts for roughly 40% of the nation’s oil supply, began in 2019.
The EPA did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
morano gmail alert
not terrrible
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Dems’ New Spending Bill Imposes Methane Tax To Fund ‘Environmental Justice’ Programs
Daily Caller News Foundation logo
JACK MCEVOY
CONTRIBUTOR
July 28, 2022
UPDATE: This article has been updated to reflect a comment from Marc Morano, publisher of Climate Depot and former U.S. Senate senior staff on Environment & Public Works Committee.
Senate Democrats agreed Wednesday to the biggest climate spending package in U.S. history, including billions in new taxes on methane emissions that will fund “environmental justice” programs for marginalized communities.
Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer salvaged a deal on an economic bill they dubbed “The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022” that places new fees on methane emissions and devotes hundreds of billions of dollars to climate change initiatives, according to the bill’s text. The proposed legislation would place new taxes on energy firms’ methane emissions beginning in 2025, invest nearly $370 billion in “energy security and climate change” and spend billions to protect disadvantaged communities from the effects of climate change.
The package will spend $60 billion on protecting low-income areas and communities of color that are more affected by environmental pollution. The bill will also offer large sums of money to the green industry, including direct-pay options to support domestic green energy manufacturers over the next five years.(RELATED: ‘This Is An American Bill’: Joe Manchin Defends New Reconciliation Package)
“Somehow the ‘solutions’ to climate change have morphed into including $60 billion in climate reparations in the name of ‘equity,'” Marc Morano, Climate Depot publisher and former U.S. Senate senior staff on Environment & Public Works Committee, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Anyone who drinks milk or eats meat will now be paying reparations. Will the $60 billion actually help solve racism? Anyone who thinks this climate bill has anything to with the climate has not been paying attention.”
The bill will raise about $739 billion in total, with a large portion of the money coming from a 15% corporate minimum tax and increased tax enforcement operations conducted by the Internal Revenue Service, as well as potential savings from enabling Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, according to the package summary.
Climate provisions in the deal also provide tax credits for electric vehicles (EVs) that can offer up to $4,000 to subsidize the purchase of used vehicles and $7,500 for new vehicles. Individuals and married couples with incomes under $75,000 and $150,00 would be eligible for the tax breaks for used electric cars, while those with incomes up to $300,000 would be eligible for the write-offs on new vehicles.
The average EV owner has an annual household income of more than $100,000, according to a 2021 report published by The Fuels Institute. Meanwhile, the average price of a new EV is roughly $66,000, according to Kelly Blue Book.
The bill also provides consumers with tax credits for making their homes more energy-efficient and supports the development of solar and wind farms, according to the Democrats’ summary of the package.
The newly reached consensus on the package comes after Manchin struck down his party’s climate provisions in the bill in mid-July causing Democrats, climate activists, and green energy groups to pressure the party to reach an agreement prior to the August 5 recess.
Democrats are hoping to advance the bill without Republican votes through the reconciliation process, where bills tied to the budget can pass with a simple majority.
“This is the action the American people have been waiting for,” said President Joe Biden in a statement about the bill on Wednesday.
The White House and the offices of Sens. Schumer and Manchin did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
Tags : biden administration chuck schumer democratic
oppo research?!
https://dailycaller.com/2021/11/01/twitter-pre-bunk-climate-change-denial-united-nations/
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Twitter Rolls Out ‘Pre-Bunk’ Feature To Counter Climate Change Denial
BRITAIN-SCOTLAND-CLIMATE-COP26
Andy Buchanan/AFP via Getty Images
Daily Caller News Foundation logo
THOMAS CATENACCI
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT REPORTER
November 01, 2021
Twitter announced that it would introduce a feature to combat climate change denial and promote “authoritative information” on Monday.
The so-called “pre-bunk” feature will be a digital hub on Twitter’s website where users can find resources and commentary from environmental experts about climate change, the social media platform said. The announcement coincided with the start of the United Nations Climate Conference (COP26), a high-level summit where world leaders hope to set ambitious goals for cutting global emissions over the next several decades.
“We’re committed to elevating the latest, most authoritative information about (COP26),” Twitter said in a blog post. (RELATED: Russia, China Leaders Total No-Shows At UN Climate Conference)
Twitter’s pre-bunk portal will also have live conversations with experts who will discuss topics in focus at COP26, according to Axios which first reported the announcement. The company will not remove individual tweets with false information about climate change as part of the pre-bunk roll out.
A French activist demonstrates outside COP26 in Glasgow, U.K. on Monday. (Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)
Other social media websites, meanwhile, have opted for a more aggressive approach to fighting climate change misinformation. In September, Facebook said it would begin giving grants to fact checkers who correct climate denialism posts and Google announced in October that it would demonetize advertisers and YouTube content creators who counter “well-established scientific consensus” on climate change.
“This new policy not only will help us strengthen the integrity of our advertising ecosystem, but also it aligns strongly with the work we’ve done as a company over the past two decades to promote sustainability and confront climate change head-on,” Google said in an Oct. 7 press release.
Social media platforms have also instituted various rules prohibiting fake content about COVID-19 vaccines. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have instituted such rules and in some cases have suspended high-profile users promoting anti-vaccine information.
Twitter didn’t respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
incubator baby?
US
Climate Activist WhoAllegedlySet Himself On Fire Seemingly Alluded To His Death On Social Media
CHRISTINE SELLERS
CONTRIBUTOR
April 25, 2022
A climate activist who allegedlyset himself on fire outside the U.S. Supreme Court seemed to allude to his death on social media, the New York Post reported Saturday.
Wynn Bruce, a 50-year-old activist from Colorado,set himself on fire Friday around 6:30 p.m. on the plaza in front of the Supreme Court, police said, according to the New York Post. Although he was taken to the hospital following the incident, he died Saturday, the outlet reported. In addition, Bruce is believed to have made a Facebook post back in 2020 alluding to the date and manner of his death.
The post, which the outlet noted was shared by an individual named Wynn Alan Bruce, features a link to a course about climate change. The post also includes a comment with the dates “4-1-1 to 4-22-2022,” with a fire emoji in between, according to the outlet.
Dr. Kritee Kanko, a climate scientist, Zen Buddhist, and supposed friend of Bruce’s said his actions were not “a suicide,” but rather a way to bring attention to the climate crisis, according to the Daily Beast. (RELATED: Watch As ManReportedlySets Himself On Fire Over Vaccine Mandate)
Kanko shared an article mentioning Bruce to her Twitter feed Sunday, writing, “[Bruce] was my friend. He meditated with our sangha. This act is not a suicide. This is a deeply fearless act of compassion to bring attention to [the] climate crisis.”
“We are piecing together info but he had been planning it for atleast [sic] one year,” Kanko later added. “#wynnbruce I am so moved.”
The incident involving Bruce occurred the same day as a shooting in D.C. where four people were wounded before the suspect died of an alleged self-inflicted wound, according to CBS News.
https://dailycaller.com/2022/04/19/daily-caller-documentary-conservative-climate-conundrum/
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VIDEO
Daily Caller Explores The ‘Conservative Climate Conundrum’ In New Documentary
benji_backer
CHRISTINE SELLERS
CONTRIBUTOR
April 19, 2022
The Daily Caller released a new documentary that takes a deeper look at climate change as it relates to conservatism.
The documentary, entitled, “The Conservative Climate Conundrum,” features conservative environmentalist and president of the American Conservation Coalition (ACC), Benjamin Backer. In the documentary, which is available via the Daily Caller’s YouTube channel, Backer interviews both climate scientists and climate change skeptics to understand what climate science actually says and why that matters for conservatives.
WATCH:
“There’s a lot of power in controlling the narrative and what we need to find out is do these two climate skeptics and the movement they represent deserve to control the narrative?” Backer said in the documentary. Backer spoke with reported climate skeptics, Marc Morano, founder of Climate Depot and James Taylor, the president of the Heartland Institute.
“You do believe in climate change being human caused, you just, to clarify, you don’t believe that it has an existential threat on society,” Backer asked Taylor.
“Well, I believe that humans and particularly carbon dioxide are having some impact and are adding to a warming trend,” Taylor responded. “Really, if you go back to the 1700s[AS IN COALFIRED INDUSTRIAL REVO?], we’ve been in a warming trend since then,” he later added. (RELATED: Twitter Rolls Out ‘Pre-Bunk’ Feature To Counter Climate Change Denial)
Dr. Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) shared a different perspective with Backer.
“Civilization all around the world is extremely finely adapted to the remarkably stable climate that we have had in the last 7,000 years, and if you changed it much, in either direction, it doesn’t matter if you made it a lot colder or a lot warmer, it’s gonna be disruptive,” Emanuel said.
A United Nations (UN) report published in 2021 indicated that humans are “unequivocally responsible for Earth’s warming” and that temperatures would likely continue to rise until at least the mid-century, signaling a “code red for humanity.”
President Joe Biden announced a team assembled to combat climate change when he was elected in November 2020, dubbing issues surrounding climate as a “crisis.”
In addition, the Associated Press (AP) announced it had secured funding from a variety of progressive special interest groups to dedicate more coverage to climate change in February 2022.
Tags : climate change documentary environmental concerns
[[oddly this art appears [accessed 4 22; with pix of wildfire caption 6 dead but does not open? sort of banner ad had this, which a assumed wd hook to ambulNCE CHASER, BUT JUST ADVISE PPL W ra NOT TO BREATHE CRAP?] In the meantime, "given what is known to date, I would certainly advise my RA patients to avoid exposure to air pollution," Adami said. He acknowledged there is no proof that this will help patients to reduce the risk of flares, but there are already many good reasons to minimize exposure to air pollution.
Adami and Al-Herz report no potential conflicts of interest.
This article originally appeared on MDedge.com, part of the Medscape Professional Network.]]
:{
}:
https://dailycaller.com/2022/02/16/associated-press-climate-change-reporting-progressive-groups/
REF
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ENERGY
‘Mutually Beneficial’: Major News Outlet Expands Climate Change Reporting Funded By Left-Wing Activist Groups
[Death Toll Rises To 6 As Redding Area Wildfire Spreads To 90,000 Acres
Terray Sylvester/Getty Images]
Daily Caller NewsFoundation logo
THOMAS CATENACCI
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT REPORTER
February 16, 2022
The Associated Press announced Tuesday that it had secured funding from several progressive interest groups to hire two dozen climate change reporters.
“This far-reaching initiative will transform how we cover the climate story,” AP executive editor Julie Pace said.
The five organizations — the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Rockefeller Foundation, Quadrivium and the Walton Family Foundation — are well known for pushing a variety of left-wing causes and funding Democratic political campaigns.
The Associated Press announced Tuesday that it had secured funding from several progressive interest groups to hire two dozen climate change reporters.
The outlet referred to the groups’ funding as “philanthropic grants” and promised that the groups wouldn’t have any editorial control over the climate change content published, according to an announcement. But the five organizations — the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Rockefeller Foundation, Quadrivium and the Walton Family Foundation — are well known for pushing a variety of left-wing causes and funding Democratic political campaigns.
“This is a mutually beneficial arrangement,” said Brian Carovillano, the vice president of the AP’s news partnerships and grants.
The AP’s expansion of its climate change reporting will lead to about 20 new hires worldwide while other journalists will be reassigned, the outlet said. The reporters will be based in Africa, Brazil, India and the U.S., and they will reportedly write about climate change’s impact on various sectors, including the economy, agriculture and culture.
“This far-reaching initiative will transform how we cover the climate story,” AP executive editor Julie Pace said. (RELATED: Leftist Millionaire To Fund Associated Press Climate Change Reporting: REPORT)
The five groups agreed to give the AP an $8 million grant lasting three years.
“Funders have no influence over AP’s reporting on this topic or any other,” AP spokesperson Lauren Easton told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “AP has long provided accurate, factual coverage of climate and the environment. This initiative is an expansion of that fact-based journalism. AP retains all editorial control.”
An entrance to the ExxonMobil headquarters is pictured on Feb. 1 in Houston, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images) WHY?]
‘Extremely well-funded and includes paid media coverage’
The Hewlett Foundation has long supported leftist causes, including abortion provider Planned Parenthood and Defending Democracy Together, according to the Capital Research Center. The organization has also funded several climate groups and causes like the Sierra Club, Urban Environment Foundation and ClimateWorks Foundation.
Hewlett has also funded the Niskanen Center, which has argued in favor of punishing oil companies for climate change and provided legal support in a Colorado case against ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy seeking environmental damages. (RELATED:James MurdochGave $20 Million To Biden, Progressive Groups In 2020: REPORT)
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, meanwhile, gave 98% of its political contributions for federal candidates to Democrats in 2020 [AKA THE ONLY PARTY TO PROVE HEALTH CARE], according to OpenSecrets. The group has historically given the vast majority of its political donations to Democrats, including President Joe Biden, OpenSecrets data showed.
The third group, the Rockefeller Foundation is a “pillar of the liberal philanthropic establishment,” a report from InfluenceWatch, which tracks non-profit organizations, said. The group has fundedliberal think tanks, including the Urban Institute, the New America Foundation, PolicyLink and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
The foundation has also promoted anti-fossil fuel activism such as the “ExxonKnew” campaign, whichalleges that ExxonMobil has hidden data about climate change for half a century. In 2016, the Rockefeller Family Fund announced it would divest from fossil fuel companies and accused Exxon of “morally reprehensible conduct.”
James Murdoch speaks during Vanity Fair's 6th Annual New Establishment Summit on Oct. 23, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Vanity Fair)]
“ExxonKnew is acoordinated campaignperpetuated by activist groups with the aim of stigmatizing ExxonMobil,” the fossil fuel company said in a February 2021 statement. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Top Conservative Group Slams Aspen Institute’s Disinformation ‘Hypocrisy’ In Letter)
“Funders of the ‘#ExxonKnew’ campaign have placed ‘pay to play’ news stories [2 PAGE AD ADVERTORIAL FOR DECADES?], released flawed academic reports and coordinated with public officials to launch investigations and litigation, creating the false appearance that ExxonMobil has misrepresented its company research and investor disclosures on climate change to the public,” the company statement said.
The company specifically noted that Rockefeller funds were involved in promoting the campaign, which the statement said was “extremely well-funded and includes paid media coverage.”
Quadrivium was founded by James Murdoch, the son of billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and his wife Kathryn. The couple donated $20 million to Biden’s election campaign and other progressive political groups in 2020.
The foundation, which lists climate change as among its priorities, has been active during recent federal elections, often giving millions of dollars to progressive groups and candidates, OpenSecrets data showed. The Murdochs funneled $100 million into the organization in 2019, but it’s unclear how much was doled out during the 2020 election, according to tax documents obtained by CNBC.
James Murdoch previously resigned from the board of Fox News parent company News Corp in 2020, citing “disagreements over certain editorial content published” as the reason for his departure.
Finally, the Walton Family Foundation is an active donor to multiple environmental groups, including the Environmental Defense Fund, World Wildlife Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council and the Meridian Institute. The foundation also funded the New Venture Fund, which helps grow left-wing advocacy groups, according to InfluenceWatch.
Lukas Walton, who chairs the foundation’s environment program committee, has a history of donating to Democrats, and he owns a major stake in First Solar,a large solar panel manufacturer.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
Tags : exxonmobil niskanen center the associated press
putin dirty $ to green ngo gets used 3x, last in ukraine war?
june 29 2017 ltr munchkin:
ref BS chain enviro command epw rept 113tth congress 2014
18 USC 2386 req for orgs that lobby to register? 1995 lobby disclosure act
sleight of hand: suggests russian $ then asserts/assumes it; klein wakefield Quin IPOC reiman
quite nato "so-called env orgs"
staffer drew colliatie, refs WFB lachlan markay WT, WE [batasch, caller hillary's leaked speeches...]
GUK fiona harvey
an 3 22
no lnx
Far-right MAGA Republicans admire Vladimir Putin’s propaganda machine — and try to emulate it: report
Alex Henderson March 16, 2022
The list of far-right MAGA Republicans who have vigorously defended and even praised Russian President Vladimir Putin is a long one, ranging from former President Donald Trump to “War Room” host Steve Bannon, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and QAnon supporter Lauren Witzke (the Delaware Republican who ran against Sen. Chris Coons in 2020). Bannon has praised Putin for not being “woke,” and Witzke recently said, “I identify more with Putin's Christian values than I do with Joe Biden.”
To Kevin Baron, executive editor of Defense One, all of the Putin worship coming from MAGA Republicans speaks volumes about their view of the world. In an article published by Defense One on March 11, Baron warns that the way Putin runs Russia is the way the far right would like to run the United States — and he stresses that MAGA media functions a lot like government-operated pro-Putin media in Russia.
“It’s hard to watch Russia's version of journalism and not think of the American far-right’s version of it,” Baron argues. “Indeed, the connections are both direct and philosophical — and of import to national security leaders. But there’s a deeper connection as well. America’s right-wing partisans wish they had what Putin has: control of the information and messages that flow to the body politic. That’s not an accusation; it is their goal.”
[twt?]
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According to Baron, it's no coincidence that Carlson in the U.S. and government-operated media in Russia use the same talking points when discussing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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“In the past few months,” Baron explains, “we’ve seen just how closely related the two are: Putin’s propaganda and our own. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, America’s far-right denied the looming threat as a wag-the-dog conspiracy concocted by deep-state Democrats and centrist Republicans, or tried to blame President Joe Biden. Russian propaganda outlets gleefully put those clips into heavy rotation. Two weeks into the invasion, far-right leaders continue to sow doubt on war reporting, claiming or implying there is an elite conspiracy to keep Americans uninformed, and often parroting Russian propagandists’ distortions and lies.”
Baron cites specific examples of far-right media outlets that conduct themselves like state-owned Russian media.
“While politicians come and go, the lasting damage is in the lingering popularity of Soviet-style agitprop propaganda from loyalist far-right media operations deliberately masquerading as journalism,” Baron observes. “These outlets —designed to look, sound, and feel like journalism — are de facto paid actors, directors, and scriptwriters of a carefully crafted fiction that would make the Kremlin proud. They call themselves reporters and operate in pretend newsrooms like Steve Bannon’s Breitbart, Carlson’s Daily Caller, Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal, and upstarts like One America News Network and Newsmax. They are different from older conservative magazines like the National Review and Weekly Standard, whose writers did not try to impersonate straight newsrooms — and, indeed, intermittently opposed Trump’s 2016 election.”
U.S. Senate voted along party lines Thursday night to make Tracy Stone-Manning the first confirmed director of the Bureau of Land Management since the Obama administration.
The vote, 50-45, ended a contentious confirmation process for Stone-Manning, a senior adviser for conservation policy at the National Wildlife Federation who served as chief of staff to former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat.
It also represented a victory for her biggest supporter, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat for whom Stone-Manning once worked as an aide. Senate Republicans fiercely opposed her nomination, most vocally because of her ties to a 1989 plot to drive spikes into hundreds of trees.
Republicans maintained their resistance up until the last moments before the vote Thursday evening, with a parade of Western senators coming to the floor to register their opposition.
In a tense exchange, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee ranking Republican John Barrasso of Wyoming called her “completely unfit for the job.”
“Ms. Stone-Manning lied to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee about her involvement as an eco-terrorist and in the eco-terrorism,” Barrasso said, adding that Senate Democrats would be “held personally responsible” for voting to confirm her.
Tester told Barrasso he accepted that challenge.
“You’re damn right. Hold me accountable for Tracy Stone-Manning,” he said. “I’ve worked with her. I know what she does. I know she can get the job done. She can bring people together.”
Tester also seemed to lay blame for the Republican campaign against Stone-Manning on his state’s other senator,Republican Steve Daines, saying it was retribution for Stone-Manning’s support of Bullock’s unsuccessful run for Daines’ Senate seat last year.
“I’m going to point out one thing that Tracy Stone-Manning did that was wrong: She actually agreed to be Gov. Bullock’s chief of staff,” Tester said.
“If somebody wants to go in and do an investigation and find out what’s happened over the last three years, with the governor running against a sitting senator in this body and she being the governor’s chief of staff, you will find out why people stand up and make stuff up about Tracy Stone-Manning.”
In a statement after the vote, Stone-Manning said: “I am grateful for the Senate’s vote of confidence today and look forward to bringing decades of experience — working on the ground and across the aisle— to carry out the critical mission of the Bureau of Land Management. Our public lands are one of America’s finest ideas, and I am ready to get to work alongside a remarkable team to ensure future generations benefit from them like we have.”
Rebuilding the BLM
Stone-Manning will be tasked with rebuilding an agency at the center of President Joe Biden’s climate and energy agenda. The BLM oversees nearly 250 million acres of public lands, including roughly 50 million acres in Nevada, and manages the federal oil and gas leasing program.
Biden temporarily paused that program and ordered a review of federal policy when he took office. A federal judge this summer ordered the program be renewed. The Interior Department, of which the BLM is a part, has said it is working to restart leases.
Stone-Manning will oversee the agency’s move back to Washington from Grand Junction, Colo. The move reverses a controversial decision during former President Donald Trump’s administration to relocate the agency to the West, where nearly all BLM lands are.
Opponents said the decision hollowed out the agency influence in the nation’s capital and drove out experienced workers. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced this month the headquarters would be relocated back to Washington.
The agency has lacked a Senate-confirmed leader since Neil Kornze stepped down at the end of President Barack Obama’s term in January 2017. Under Trump, anti-public lands attorney William Perry Pendley ran day-to-day operations as the deputy director for policy and programs, but was never confirmed as the director.
The lack of a Senate-confirmed director led to uncertainty in the agency, including a Montana federal judge invalidating some decisions the BLM made during Pendley’s time in office.
Tree-spiking incident
Days after Stone-Manning’sconfirmation hearing earlier this year at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where Republicans were already skeptical of her political work and opposition to fossil fuel development, the conservative site Daily Callerpublished a report detailing Stone-Manning’s involvement with a 1989 tree-spiking plot while she was a graduate student at the University of Montana.
Though the episode was already public, it was not well known in Washington and the article intensified Republican opposition.
Court records and Stone-Manning’s own account show she mailed a letter in 1989 to the U.S. Forest Service threatening that loggers who attempted to cut down a portion of Clearwater National Forest could be hurt by spikes driven into them in an attempt to sabotage a sale—a federal crime.
She has said, including at her confirmation hearing for a state post in 2013, that the scheme’s organizers approached her and asked her to mail the letter. She said the ringleaders intimidated her and that she wished to warn loggers who may have been in harm’s way. She later testified against two men who were convicted for the tree-spiking.
Other accounts, including froma Forest Service investigator, said she was more involved in planning than she’d indicated. Republican senators also took issue with her response on a pre-hearing questionnaire that she had never been the target of a criminal investigation.
On the Senate floor on Thursday night,Idaho Republican Jim Risch accused Stone-Manning of perjury in a Senate floor speech and said she would have no credibility when she appears before the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee, which oversees the BLM, as director.
But it was Tester who had the last word before the vote.
“Now, we’re going to take a good woman, a good woman who the state of Montana knows well, who, in fact, was vetted in the state of Montana and they said all these accusations have no merit,” he said. “And we’re going to run her through the ringer here. Character assassination like I’ve never seen before.”
The aggressive Republican campaign against Stone-Manning belied the reputation she’d built as a consensus builder on conservation issues. She won bipartisan backing from the Republican-led Montana Senate in a 2013 vote to become the state’s director of environmental quality.
mma 1020
- A new study found that the president was the main source for misinformation in voting: A Harvard study published on October 1 found that most misinformation on voter fraud comes from social media promoting information from “political and media elites,” especially Trump.
- Russia is using American conservative news sites to spread propaganda:The Wall Street Journal published an October 7 report that found Russian news outlet RT was still getting a lot of traffic in the United States. RT is part of the Mixi.Media traffic-swapping network along with multiple major conservative outlets, including RealClearPolitics, National Review, The Daily Caller, and others. This allows members to display their content on the other network members’ home pages, giving RT the ability to put Russian narratives in front of the eyes of American conservatives.
https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/reporters-from-a-conservative-outlet-get-arrested-at-louisville-protests
neil p suggests shd not have been arrested b/c they fo pro cop storties?
https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/the-daily-caller-has-been-paid-by-gop-campaigns-while-providing-fact-checking-services-for-facebook
The Daily Caller has taken tens of thousands of dollars to help Republican campaigns raise money while performing political fact-check services for Facebook.
Federal election filings from the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee show that the two organizations rented email lists from the publication this year, paying $40,213.75 and $18,171.40, respectively.
The Caller, a right-wing publication co-founded by Fox News personality Tucker Carlson, has also since 2016 sent dozens of emails “paid for by Trump Make America Great Again Committee,” a joint fundraising vehicle shared by the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee, according to Media Matters.
Media Matters also revealed that The Daily Caller has sent sponsored emails on behalf of a number of Republican candidates this year. Media Matters posted screenshots of the emails, from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C; Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; the Senate Conservatives Fund; and the Bikers for the President PAC.
AD REMOVED FOR SUBSCRIBED USER
The Daily Caller’s fact-checking subsidiary Check Your Factsays on its own “about” page:
Our mission is a non-partisan one. We’re loyal to neither people nor parties — only the truth. And while the fact-checking industry continues to grow, there are still countless assertions that go unchecked. We exist to fill in the gaps.
We commit to being fully transparent with how we conduct our fact checks. Whenever possible, any reader should be able to retrace the steps we took in establishing the truth.
Check Your Fact partnered with Facebook’s fact-checking program last year. However, the Daily Caller itself has published right-wing disinformation, false stories and content written by white supremacists. For instance, it teased a fake nude photo of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and it failed to disclose that a 2017 report from Charlottesville’s “Unite the Right” rally was written by the rally’s chief organizer.
The Check Your Fact website itself is in need of a fact-check. As of Monday, the site’s “about” page claimed that Tucker Carlson still holds a majority stake in its parent company, The Daily Caller. However, Carlson told The New York Times in June that he had sold his stake in the publication last year.
The Republican National Committee disclosed spending about $4,500 to rent an email list from The Daily Caller in March 2016 just before Trump secured the nomination, according to FEC records. The Trump campaign also previously paid $150,000 the Daily Caller to rent its list, though it did not disclose the payment, which was shelled through a third-party vendor.
Aside from three Trump campaign payments to right-wing outlet Newsmax in 2015, no other media organizations have disclosed mailing list rentals to the Trump campaign, RNC or joint fundraising committee Trump Victory over the last two election cycles.
However, FEC records show that the Trump campaign and RNC have each paid a handful of third-party vendors several millions of dollars for email lists. Those companies do not have to disclose what lists they share — or where or how they got the email data.
The biggest single list acquisition payments have gone to Facebook, which the RNC paid about $5.4 million in three installments from Sept. 9 to Nov. 21, 2019, per FEC data. Facebook announced it would not be fact-checking political ads in September 2019.Check Your Fact did not reply to Salon’s inquiry about the error on its site.
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https://www.mediamatters.org/daily-caller/daily-caller-receiving-money-trump-and-gop-groups-while-its-subsidiary-participates
Daily Caller has been receiving money from President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign and other Republican candidates and organizations for email list rentals while its Check Your Fact division participates in Facebook’s fact-checking program.
The Daily Caller is a right-wing publication with a history of promoting false information and hiring or publishing white nationalists and other bigots. In 2019, Facebook began partnering with Check Your Fact for the social media giant’s fact-checking program. Popular Information's Jugg Legum documented in March how the Daily Caller used “its role as a Facebook fact-checker to boost Trump and discredit a mainstream media outlet, Politico.”
Check Your Fact states on its “about us” page that it is “a for-profit subsidiary wholly owned by The Daily Caller, Inc. Majority owners of The Daily Caller, Inc. are co-founder and publisher Neil Patel and co-founder Tucker Carlson. The Daily Caller’s fact-checking team is funded by The Daily Caller’s general news budget, as well as revenue generated through advertising.” (Carlson sold his stake in the Daily Caller last month.)
Will Ragland, the research director for Center for American Progress Action, tweeted today:
After that tweet, Media Matters found that The Daily Caller has sent dozens of sponsored emailssince 2016 that were “paid for by Trump Make America Great Again Committee, a joint fundraising committee authorized by and composed of Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. and the Republican National Committee.”
The Daily Caller has also received $40,213.75 so far this year from the National Republican Senatorial Committee for list rentals, according to Federal Election Commission records. It has also received $18,171.40 so far this year from the National Republican Congressional Committee for list rentals, according to FEC records.
The Daily Caller has sent numerous other sponsored emails for various Republicans this year. Those emails include Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-OH) reelection campaign; Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) reelection campaign; Bikers for the President political action committee; and the Senate Conservatives Fund.
The Washington Post and the Center for Media and Democracy wrote in 2017 about how The Daily Caller has received money from the Trump campaign for list rentals.
Here are four recent examples of The Daily Caller’s sponsored emails for the Trump Make America Great Again Committee: [screenshots]
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https://www.mediamatters.org/daily-caller/despite-health-care-shortages-and-pleas-daily-caller-sold-n95-masks-pricey-survival
3/26/20 2:12 PM EDT
Until just recently, an “outbreak” store operated by the Daily Caller was selling N95 respirator masks as part of a “survival kit” that retailed for up to $254.99. Health care professionals have faced a large shortage of the masks, which are not recommended for the public, and have pleaded with consumers to stop hoarding them.
As the Food and Drug Administration states, “N95 respirators and surgical masks (face masks) are examples of personal protective equipment that are used to protect the wearer from airborne particles and from liquid contaminating the face.” It adds that the “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not recommend that the general public wear N95 respirators to protect themselves from respiratory diseases, including coronavirus (COVID-19). The best way to prevent illness is to avoid being exposed to this virus.”
Medical professionals around the country have faced a shortage of N95 masks for various reasons, including hoarding. As a result, they have spent weeks pleading with the public to stop hoarding the masks and to donate them to medical facilities. On February 27, CDC Director Robert Redfield told a congressional subcommittee: “We need to make sure those N95 masks are available for the doctors and nurses that are going to be taking care of individuals that have this illness.”
After receiving criticism, Target recently apologized for selling N95 masks in certain stores in Washington state. 3M CEO Mike Roman, whose company is the largest manufacturer of N95 masks, said that the masks shouldn’t be sold in retail stores to the public because of the shortage.
The N95 masks were recently being sold at Outbreak Provisions, an online store which says that it wishes “to provide you and your family peace of mind by providing essential emergency supplies that can help keep your family safe in a time like this.” Fine print on the website states that it “is operated by Daily Caller Inc”anddoing business as OutbreakProvisions.com.The site appears to be relatively new: Its domain name was privately registered on February 28, 2020. The Daily Caller sent a March 25 email to its list which advertised the site.
The store had been selling “N95 Respirator Dust Masks” in various “survival kits.” Those included its “Survival Kit for Children” (two versions); “1 PersonEliteSurvival Kit” (two versions); “2 Person Survival Kit” (two versions); “4 Person Elite Survival Kit”; “5 Person Survival Kit”; and “10 Person Survival Kit.”The 10-person kit was the most expensive, selling for $254.99.
Outbreak Provisions is no longer selling the N95 masks but the site indicated it was the supplier’s decision, stating, “Due to the increased need for N95 masks at hospitals and other institutions, our supplier has decided to donate the remaining inventory to aid those most impacted by the COVID-19 virus. All orders placed prior to 03/21/20 will still receive masks in their kits however all orders going forward will no longer have this item included.”
Despite that notice, a March 25 commerce article on the Daily Caller still claimed that the Outbreak Provisions had “N95 Respirator Dust Masks.”
The Daily Caller has frequently promoted its Outbreak Provisions store in recent days in commerce articles about the coronavirus. Those articles carry headlines like: “Stronger Together: Here’s How You Can Help Protect Your Family And Close Friends”; “As Experts Warn Covid Crisis Could Drag…Stocking Up On Essentials Remains Key”; and “Worried About Covid-19? Here Are Three Things You Should Be Doing To Prepare Right Now.”
In a February 26 article, the Daily Caller discussed N95 masks by writing that “some aspiring disaster profiteers have taken to listing masks at exorbitant rates on Ebay. Prices for these upcharged masks range from $40 to $1,000 for common 3M brand masks that can usually be had for only a few dollars.”
Update (3/27/20): The article has been updated to include additional information about the “survival kits” that included the N95 masks.
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mma 220 omg
| After enabling right-wing propaganda, Facebook hires a Fox News veteran in a key news role |
Facebook has reportedly named Jennifer Williams, who was a longtime Fox & Friends senior producer, to head video strategy for the social media giant’s forthcoming Facebook News. As Facebook executives plan a shift in the way the nation consumes news that will almost certainly impact the 2020 presidential election, they are staffing up with an 18-year veteran of the right-wing cable network that effectively serves as President Donald Trump’s personal mouthpiece. While Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been holding cozy dinners with right-wing media figures and meeting with Trump in the White House, his company has stocked its powerful Washington, D.C., office with Republican political operatives, hired a former Republican senator to produce a report on Facebook’s alleged liberal bias, encouraged its fact-checking consortium to partner with Tucker Carlson’s toxic Daily Caller website, commissioned research on opponents that was steeped in anti-Semitic tropes, and altered and selectively enforced its ad policies in ways that will likely benefit Trump’s reelection campaign. Just last week, it was reported that Facebook was allowing a major Trump super PAC to run ads featuring a lie that the platform's own fact-checking partners had debunked. Facebook responded to criticism of the hire by saying that Williams worked at Fox & Friends before Trump was president. This, while true, is absurd: Fox & Friends was terrible for years. |
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Daily Caller News Foundation—$5.2 million
The Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) funds much of the content of the Daily Caller website, a site that has several ties to white nationalists and was co-founded by now-Fox News host Tucker Carlson with $3 million from right-wing donor Foster Freiss. As of 2018, Carlson was secretary of the DCNF board of directors.
Charles Koch Foundation officials may express concern over the site’s extremism, but the foundation is DCNF’s biggest donor–by a mile. The Koch Foundation and the Charles Koch Institute combined to give over $3.3 million to the Daily Caller News Foundation from 2015-18, representing 37 percent of the group’s contribution revenue during that time period. Including grants from DonorsTrust, the Sarah Scaife Foundation and others, conservative nonprofits researched by CMD provided the DCNF with 58 percent of its donation revenue.
Charles Koch alleges he is not a fan of Trump, but Daily Caller and other Koch grant recipients has often been generous to the president. In fact, Daily Caller accepted an estimated $150,000 from the 2016 Trump campaign to rent its email list. Recently, reporting revealed that Trump family friend Tom Hicks, Jr. said last year that the Daily Caller editor could be counted on to advance Trump’s personal political goals regarding Ukraine.
Middle East Media and Research Institute—$5.1 million
an
no lnx
Leaked e-mails reveal the ways white nationalists have infiltrated right-wing media: report
Written by Alex Henderson August 30, 2019
Much of the racism that comes from the right-wing media uses dog whistles rather outright slurs. But in a report for Splinter News, journalist Hannah Gais addresses the ways in which white nationalist views have successfully infiltrated some right-wing media outlets — and screenshots of leaked alt-right e-mails published with Gais’ article aren’t the least bit subtle in their racism and anti-Semitism.
“Indeed, there is a burgeoning underground network of group chats, message boards and e-mail chains serving as the breeding ground for incubating white nationalist ideas, and as a forum to strategize around how to launder those ideas through mainstream conservative publications,” Gais reports. “And, judging from a large series of messages from one of those e-mail groups obtained by Splinter, it’s working.”
Gais cites some links between right-wing media and white nationalists, noting that in September 2018, for example, The Atlantic reported that Scott Greer (former editor/columnist for the Daily Caller — which was co-founded by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson) had written for white nationalist Richard Spencer’s Radix Journal under the name Michael McGregor.
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Gais reports that Splinter has obtained a “trove of e-mails from a private white nationalist group chat” that Jonah Bennett, a formerDaily Caller employee, was a big part of. Bennett, according to Gais, “repeatedly used his perch at the site” to incorporate extremist viewpoints “into an ostensibly mainstream publication.” Those 2015-2018 e-mails, Gais reports, demonstrate that white nationalists “have steadily increased their influence within the conservative media infrastructure.”
On the surface, Gais writes, Bennett’s career seems like that of a “run-of-the-mill” conservative. But the 2015-2018 e-mails came from a private thread called Morning Hate, which according to Gais, was “steered in large part” by an extremist named John Elliott — and where participants “were free to make their racist opinions known, while laying the groundwork for leading their double lives, of sorts, in more mainstream conservative institutions.”
In the thread, Gais reports, participants used code words for racial slurs — for example, “Alaskans” for the n-word when insulting blacks, or “Hawaiians” as a substitute for “Hebes” when insulting Jews. “Our Good Friend” referred to Adolf Hitler, while “Our Good Friend’s Son” referred to Donald Trump. The code names were outlined in an e-mail dated December 17, 2015.
Splinter News published screenshots of some of those e-mails with Gais’ article, and the bigotry was overt. For example, a December 26, 2016 e-mail from Elliott contained the subject heading, “Take a shower, Jew Boy,” and Bennett was among the many recipients.
In a screenshot of a January 7, 2016 e-mail, Morning Hate is seen praising “Our Friend” — that is, Hitler — for being “way ahead of his enemies” in 1932. And in a May 12, 2017 e-mail, Morning Hate discusses friendly interactions with white nationalist Richard Spencer.
Gais describes Elliott as “the most prolific and undoubtedly the most well-connected” Morning Hate participant, noting that he had a history of “helping libertarian and conservative journalists make their way into the media world by placing them at various affiliated media organizations for internships.” But the Morning Hate e-mails, Gais observes, “show that Elliott was leading something of a shadow life.”
Gais wraps up the report by asserting that the alt-right has become an integral part of right-wing media.
“People like Bennett and Elliott have long been aware of the weaknesses of conservative institutions, and it is through this knowledge that the ‘alt-right’ has, far from disappearing, made itself an almost indispensable part of the American conservative movement,” Gais stresses. “It has, in that sense, succeeded well beyond its proponents’ vile, hate-fueled dreams.”
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https://dailycaller.com/2018/07/19/how-russia-and-ngos-collude-to-damage-american-exceptionalism/
no lnx many graf
OPINION
HENRY I. MILLER AND JON ENTINE
PROFESSOR, DIRECTOR OF THE GENETIC LITERACY PROJECT
July 19, 2018
6:19 PM ET
Modern genetic engineering techniques applied to agriculture are making stunning advances. This year, after decades in (gratuitous) regulatory limbo, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Health Canada and Food Standards Australia New Zealand gave the green light to domestic import and consumption of Golden Rice, which has been genetically modified to produce provitamin-A.
Every year, about half a million children become blind as a result of Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) and 70 percent die within a year of losing their sight. In developing countries, 200 — 300 million children of preschool age are at risk of VAD, which increases their susceptibility to infections such as measles and diarrheal diseases.
Yet this revolutionary rice, now being grown in test plots in many countries, has still not been greenlighted for public consumption in the two countries where it would do the most good: Bangladesh and the Philippines.
How could that be? No serious concerns have ever been raised about its safety, and human feeding trials in China have shown that Golden Rice can prevent this scourge. The reason is the strident, relentless opposition from anti-biotechnology non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Greenpeace in particular, that regard any genetic engineering success as a kind of Trojan Horse that could sway public opinion.
Golden Riceis one of many humanitarian breakthroughs being developed by universities and developing countries that remain stalled, including disease-resistant bananas and cassava; climate-adaptive plants; and new corn varieties that are more efficient at photosynthesis, able to fix carbon from atmospheric CO2 and convert it into sugar. The last of these advances reportedly results in a mid-single-digit or higher percentage increase in yield, which would be an extraordinary advance, especially in less-developed countries where corn is a subsistence crop.
There’s an old saying that no good deed goes unpunished, and the anti-genetic engineering machine, largely funded by the organic and natural products industries, continues to hum along, attacking not only companies that produce breakthroughs but also academics and ordinary citizens who preach the kind of science-driven public policy that will promote more advances.
That paid advocacy is particularly vile because it has taken such a personal turn—viciously assailing not only the technology but the scientists and science communicators who advocate for a level playing field that asks only that the technology be allowed to succeed or fail on its merits in the farm and food marketplace.
These activists regularly trot out a litany of false accusations about their targets, with university professors as frequent victims. The most notorious of these “hit groups” is U.S. Right to Know, or USRTK, which pretends to be part of a grassroots movement, but is actually mostly funded by the pernicious Organic Consumers Association. OCA is not a mainstream organic trade group but a rump organization of science deniers known for their rejection of medical vaccines (They cause autism!), support for homeopathy and believing that Zika virus outbreaks are a conspiracy perpetrated by the world’s chemical companies.
USRTK has filed harassing Freedom of Information requests for emails and documents of at least a hundred public university faculty and staff members, hoping to find snippets which, when cherry-picked from hundreds of thousands of emails and taken out-of-context, might imply conflicts of interest. Their efforts to undermine scientists and public policy scholars whose work threatens organic agriculture—as genetic engineering continually widens the already-large productivity gap between conventional and organic practices–follow a familiar pattern.
In the words of University of Florida plant biologist Kevin Folta, who has been excoriated repeatedly by USRTK for supposedly being a Monsanto sock puppet, the activists “develop a narrative that suggests industry collusion or undue influence, especially with any attempt to connect the faculty member to Monsanto, a company that is the bogeyman favorite of activists.” Professor Folta’s supposedly “egregious” pay-for-play violation: His university accepted $25,000, since returned, to help cover costs on an outreach project on genetic engineering.
,,,
contrast:
Exxon Tries To Bury Climate Documents By Claiming First ...
www.huffingtonpost.com/.../exxon-first-amendment_us_571662c6e4b0060ccda46d6...
Apr 19, 2016 - Exxon's invocation of the First Amendment is fairly unusual for a ... But others have tried to defend the oil company's free speech rights on this ...
First Amendment Freedoms Must Be Protected | The Daily Caller
dailycaller.com/.../texas-is-fighting-back-against-the-activist-ags-dangerous-climate-su...
Jun 2, 2016 - A view of the Exxon Mobil refinery in Baytown, Texas, in this ... Texas AG's Decision To Fight In Favor Of ExxonMobile's Constitutional Rights?
https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/04/13/problematic-white-supremacy-roots-heartland-institute-tim-benson-satire
On Wednesday, the Daily Caller published an opinion piece by Heartland Institute policy analyst Timothy Benson that we can only assume is satire. Benson argues in the piece that when it comes to addressing the existential threat of climate change, “if we can’t persuade” the current-top-emitters of China, Russia and India to cut their emissions, then the U.S. “will have to invade and occupy these countries” and force the emission reductions.
The only way to do this, per Benson, would be by “reinstitution of the draft.” This shouldn’t be a problem, he explains, because progressive “children should be filled with patriotic zeal and fervor” and be excited to “be the first kid on their block to get a confirmed kill in the name of saving the planet.” Benson concludes by admitting that “perhaps millions of American youth will die ridding the world of the climate menace, but what a noble sacrifice.”
It’s obvious that Benson simply intended his piece to mock calls for the WWII-style mobilization to fight climate change. He isn’t the first, because no one is seriously going to propose sacrificing millions of American children and, by extension, millions of Russian, Chinese and Indian citizens. After all, the whole point of fighting climate change is to prevent death and destruction, not to merely cut emissions at any cost.
But a glance at Benson’s Twitter account reveals similarly problematic, joking-not-joking comments that also deserve attention. For example, in the context of hostilities between India and Pakistan, he tweeted “a reminder that the British ruled the Subcontinent, Muslim and Hindu, relatively peacefully for over 100 years with only 25,000 men.”
Just a reminder that the British ruled the Subcontinent, Muslim and Hindu, relatively peacefully for over 100 years with only 25,000 men.
— Tim Benson (@BenceAthwart) February 27, 2019
Given that British rule included a massacre of approximately a thousand innocent civilians and a famine that killed millions more, describing Britain's rule as “relatively [peaceful]” is quite a stretch. And of course, the fact that controlling the region took “only 25,000 men” speaks pretty plainly to the brutality required to keep power.
No doubt, though, that if pressed on this and other risible tweets (“you can take Thriller out of my cold, dead hands”), Benson will fall back on the old reliable defense that “it’s just a joke!”
Comments like these are certainly jokes, but that doesn’t make them harmless. Jokes that derive humor from the slaughter of mainly non-white populations at the hands of white colonialists, be they British forces or American children drafted into service, aren’t just jokes–they’re a key tactic for spreading white nationalism and anti-Semitism. The use of “ironic” racism was an informal strategy during the first rise of Nazism, and it has since become a formal part of the neo-Nazi approach to messaging.
We know this because it is literally written in the style guide for the anti-Semitic neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, as HuffPost’s Ashley Feinberg revealed in 2017.
The guide’s section on tone notes that “the unindoctrinated should not be able to tell if we are joking or not.” The use of racial slurs, of which there is an approved list, “should come across as half-joking” so that “the reader is at first drawn in by curiosity or the naughty humor, and is slowly awakened to reality by repeatedly reading the same points.”
While we doubt anyone is going to use Benson’s naughty humor as an excuse for real-world violence in the name of climate change, the link between online jokes and real world violence is hardly obscure. On the same day Benson’s piece ran, the Daily Beast reported on how the man who burned down three black churches in Louisiana also made “white power” jokes on a neo-Nazi-adjacent Facebook page. Similarly, the manifesto for the New Zealander who murdered 50 people in two Mosques was filled with satire, memes, and irony-rich “jokes.”
So while we usually try and end these roundups with something light-hearted and funny, in honor of Benson’s “jokes,” today we’re going to instead provide some links: to how fighting climate change needs to include facing up toan imperial history, to how plastic pollution intersects with colonialism, to how Bill “Gates’s favourite infographic takes the violence of colonisation and repackages it as a happy story of progress” and, perhaps most importantly, to how climate solutions like “the Green New Deal can avoid climate colonialism.”
==
https://thinkprogress.org/facebook-misinformation-pelosi-climate-science-8bc80493ac7c/
romm
“When it comes to efforts to avert catastrophic climate change, Facebook is no ally. They are an enemy.”
Those are the sobering words of leading climatologist Michael Mann in the wake of Facebook’s astonishing admission that it isn’t concerned with whether or not the information people post on the social media site is actually true.
The latest instance of Facebook doubling down on its failure to avert the spread of misinformation came after an altered video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) went viral on the social media platform last week. Facebook was widely criticized for refusing to take down the video — even after admitting that it had been doctored to make her look like she was slurring her words or drunk.
Facebook defends its refusal to delete altered video of Nancy Pelosi (Updated)
What was particularly shocking is that in defending this move, Facebook told the Washington Post, “We don’t have a policy that stipulates that the information you post on Facebook must be true.”
Equally stunning is what Monika Bickert, the company’s head of global policy management, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Friday. “We think it’s important for people to make their own informed choice about what to believe,” Bickert said. “Our job is to make sure that we are getting them accurate information. And that’s why we work with over 50 fact-checking organizations around the world.”
But this is just double-talk, since, as the Post reported, two of the major fact-checking organizations Facebook uses, Lead Stories and PolitiFact, have determined the video was “false.”
Facebook said that it would “heavily reduce” how often the fake video is seen in people’s newsfeeds. Also, those who click on the video now see a box labeled “Additional Reporting on This” with links to those two fact-checking sites.
But this means the doctored video can still be spread by anyone who had previously seen it. “Any user could still like, comment, view and share the video as often as they liked,” the Post noted.
This new fiasco comes just weeks after Facebook hired an arm of the conservative, anti-science media site The Daily Caller, funded in part by Charles and David Koch, to serve as the company’s newest “fact checkers.” (The Kochs, who made their fortune largely on fossil fuels and petrochemicals, have long funneled money to groups who spread misinformation on climate change.)
So, ThinkProgress asked some experts what Facebook’s latest actions mean for the national conversation on climate change.
Facebook’s newest ‘fact checkers’ are Koch-funded climate deniers
The fatal flaw in Zuckerberg’s effort to deal with fake news.
“Facebook is complicit in spreading outright falsehoods and misinforming the public about matters of public concern,” environmental sociologist Robert Brulle wrote in an email. The company’s “refusal to take down this blatant distortion of Speaker Pelosi shows that they are an irresponsible actor, and contributing to the decline of public discourse.”
Brulle explained that Facebook’s actions are particularly disastrous since there are so many issues critical to public well-being that require an accurately informed public, such as vaccinations and climate change.
Mann, who is director of Penn State’s Earth System Science Center, was equally blunt. “This shows that Facebook is in fact complicit with bad actors seeking to spread disinformation throughout the internet,” he said. “We must view them now as another tool in the toolbox used by fossil fuel interests and plutocrats to confuse the public and policymakers.”
Because Facebook refuses to be a responsible actor, Brulle concluded, “Senator Elizabeth Warren is right — it is time to break up Facebook.”
==
==
https://thinkprogress.org/facebook-fact-checker-koch-climate-deniers-f5288be4c3f9/
april 2019 romm
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg keeps dashing any hope that the world’s largest social media platform might be a positive force in the fight against catastrophic climate change.
In its latest disastrous move to fight the online epidemic of fake news, Facebook’s fact-checking effort announced last week that it was teaming up with CheckYourFact.com — an arm of the conservative, anti-science media site The Daily Caller.
The Daily Caller, which has published misinformation about climate science for years, was co-founded by the science-denying Fox News host Tucker Carlson and is backed by major conservative donors, including Charles and David Koch, the billionaire fossil fuel barons who are the single biggest funders of climate science misinformation.
“It is appalling that Facebook has teamed up with a Koch-funded organization that promotes climate change denial,” leading climatologist Michael Mann told ThinkProgress. Mann, whose own work has been misrepresented by The Daily Caller, added, “Facebook must disassociate itself from this organization.
Scientist Slams Daily Caller For Distorting His Research To Suggest Climate Change Is Fake
But this effort has been undermined by a series of missteps by Facebook and Zuckerberg.
In the fall of 2017, Facebook named the climate science-denying Weekly Standard an official fact-checking partner,against the advice of an independent report.
In May 2018, Zuckerberg brought in a right-wing think tank that spreads climate disinformation to figure out whether Facebook displays a liberal bias. Facebook even hired a PR firm with Republican ties to attack the company’s critics and competitors. It went on to smear philanthropist George Soros, who had been critical of Facebook, with anti-Semitic tropes and dog whistles.
Facebook ‘bias’ study will be run by right-wing corporate lobbyist, exclude all liberals
A bias study with one side represented.
Last July, Zuckerberg made news when he explained that Facebook wouldn’t explicitly ban even something as extreme as Holocaust denial. Then, in clarifying his remarks, he said that while he won’t block fake news from appearing on his site, his fact checkers would stop it from spreading widely.
In December, the Weekly Standard ceased publication, raising the prospect that Facebook might correct its mistake in hiring climate science deniers as fact checkers.
But then Facebook announced last week that it was partnering with the fact-checking arm of The Daily Caller, which was launched in 2010 with $3 million from GOP donor and climate science denier Foster Friess. Since then, many of The Daily Caller’s stories have been written by its News Foundation, which has received funding from both the Charles Koch Institute and the Koch Family Foundations.
It is beyond outrageous that in 2019 — when the science of human-caused climate change has been overwhelmingly verified and every other nation but ours is desperately working to avert catastrophic impacts — the world’s largest social media site is still partnering with climate science deniers.
Indeed, given how many outstanding nonpartisan organizations could serve as Facebook fact checkers, environmental sociologist Robert Brulle asked, “Why they are partnering with an organization that is part of the right wing echo chamber?”
Fossil fuel industry spent nearly $2 billion to kill U.S. climate action, new study finds
Industry has out-lobbied environmentalists 10-to-1 on climate since 2000.
In an email to ThinkProgress, Brulle, who has authored numerous studies on climate communications and lobbying, added, “This is one of the sites that needs to be fact checked, not used as a reliable source. Facebook should cancel this contract.”
AN
https://www.alternet.org/2019/05/the-mask-on-the-beltway-medias-embrace-of-white-nationalism-keeps-rearing-its-ugly-head/
One of the important factors in the rise of white nationalism is the way it has been normalized within the national media — treated at best as an afterthought, a purely fringe phenomenon that we really needn’t worry our heads about, with coverage often accompanied by warm fuzzy features remarking on how normal these neo-Nazi types can seem in real life.
People both inside and outside the media business often wind up scratching their heads in wonder that this sort of thing can happen even in an age when there is ample information on the toxicity that white nationalism represents. But the more we learn about the alt-right and its tentacles, the clearer it’s become that there are people situated within the media mainstream who in reality are silently sympathetic to these causes, and they are influencing the decisions over what gets covered and how.
A recent BuzzFeed piece by Rosie Gray does an excellent job of exposing how white nationalism has managed to insinuate itself inside the Beltway media ecosystem, mainly through a coterie of ostensibly mainstream conservatives who, it seems, are extraordinarily tolerant of neo-Nazism. It recounts the saga of Katie McHugh, an alt-right provocateur who moved in the right-wing Washington circles of Breitbart, The Daily Caller, GotNews, and WorldNetDaily, and who now deeply regrets the error of her ways.
It’s not entirely clear from the piece that McHugh has come to terms with the deeper issues around the work she did in helping propagate a vicious brand of white nationalism surreptitiously, under the guise of “conservatism.” It’s certainly not clear that she has yet reckoned with the real damage she did and her obligation now to do what she can to repair it, but time will tell on that front.
On the other hand, she clearly is regretful for her past actions, which is where everyone needs to start on the road to recovery from the grip of hateful ideologies. And she deserves credit for taking that biggest of all steps.
She also has started out by performing what is probably a huge public service in exposing much of the inner workings of the Beltway media white nationalist coterie. Editors and other reporters who operate with supposedly mainstream credentials are shown to be co-players in the white nationalist propaganda they all engaged in, though they all deny doing so.
Appropriately enough, the nexus of this coterie is none other than Tucker Carlson, both his Daily Caller news operation, of which he is co-founder but no longer publisher, as well as his daily Fox News program. As McHugh describes it, the vast majority of the surreptitious white nationalist organizing occurred within the ranks of Daily Caller staffers, heavily flanked by a full complement of Breitbart writers.
Some of the more prominent white nationalist movement figures—such as Kevin DeAnna, McHugh’s former boyfriend, who has long been on the radar of the Southern Poverty Law Center for his youthful organization of campus white nationalists in the 2000s—apparently operated more on the periphery, while their close friends occupied media positions inside the Beltway.
McHugh, you may recall, was fired from Breitbart for an overtly racist tweet about Muslims (“There would be no terror attacks in the UK if Muslims didn’t live there”). Of course, it was not actually the most racist thing she had ever tweeted out, but her timing was indiscreet, and she got caught in a media crossfire and was shown the door after having been a protégé of Steve Bannon’s, all while attending truly weird neopagan events:
McHugh sometimes accompanied DeAnna on weekend trips down to the Wolves’ headquarters for what they called a “moot” — a ceremony in which the assembled Wolves would smear ash on their bodies around a fire and give what McHugh described as “dramatic speeches” about self-sufficiency and relying on the other group members. They would then sit around the fire and drink beers.
The Wolves placed a heavy emphasis on masculinity. The women would prepare food for the gatherings earlier in the day before the moot commenced, according to McHugh. The Wolves were into a “Centurion Method” of physical fitness; a video still on YouTube shows DeAnna and Paul Waggener, one of the founders of the group who used the pseudonym “Grimnir,” taking turns lifting up the trunk of a car filled with cement blocks, scrambling around on a bunch of debris, and squatting while holding logs.
What we also learn is that there is a reason the same fellows grunting around campfires to establish their masculinity are eager viewers of Tucker Carlson: his news operation has provided a home for a number of them. Indeed, Snopes.com last year explored the striking extent to which Daily Caller writers have expressed white-nationalist views. Now it’s also clear why that is.
There is a reason that white nationalists avidly watch Carlson’s nightly Fox program in hopes of gleaning talking points and ideas. There is a reason the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer’s favorite pundit is Carlson (Andrew Anglin calls him “literally our greatest ally”). There is a reason the chat boards and other white nationalist haunts positively hum with chatter over Carlson’s TV broadcasts (“Tucker is a national treasure and will be the catalyst for real social change”; “At best, he’s a gateway for us and they know it”).
Of course, Carlson is not alone in the Beltway media in promoting white nationalist talking points. His cohort at Fox Business, Lou Dobbs—one of Donald Trump’s favorite pundits—mouths an endless stream of white nationalist and authoritarian talking points as well.
However, it’s obvious that Carlson’s sphere extends well beyond just the frame of the Fox network, and into a much darker world altogether. Nor is he alone.
==
==
https://www.ecowatch.com/facebook-factchecking-science-climate-denial-2635927165.html
no lnx twits
CLIMATE DENIER
Facebook Hires Koch-Funded Climate Deniers for 'Fact-Checking'
Oil Change International Apr. 30, 2019 10:10AM EST BUSINESS
Isriya Paireepairit / Flickr
By Andy Rowell
It may not come as a surprise that leading climate denier Donald Trump has made more than 10,000 false or misleading claims since he became president, according to fact-checkers at the Washington Post.
As the Post reports, Trump's "tsunami of untruths just keeps looming larger and larger."
Much of this tsunami of untruths will get reposted on Facebook as fact. Those hoping that Facebook will accurately check Trump's statements and clean up the torrent of fake news on its platform will have to think again, especially if you are concerned about climate change.
In what can only be described as verging on the bizarre, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has given the contract to fight fake news to an organization that pushes fake news on climate change.
According to reports in Think Progress and Grist, Facebook has announced that it was teaming up with CheckYourFact.com, which is an offshoot of the anti-science media site, The Daily Caller.
The CheckYourFact website brags that: "Our mission is a non-partisan one. We're loyal to neither people nor parties — only the truth. And while the fact-checking industry continues to grow, there are still countless assertions that go unchecked. We exist to fill in the gaps."
In fact, the opposite seems to be true. As Think Progress outlines:
The Daily Caller, which has published misinformation about climate science for years, was co-founded by the science-denying Fox News host Tucker Carlson and is backed by major conservative donors, including Charles and David Koch, the billionaire fossil fuel barons who are the single biggest funders of climate science misinformation.
Think Progress includes a link back to 2015, when a peer-reviewed paper from scientists at Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute was published in the journal Nature Geoscience. The Daily Caller tried to twist the research to argue that "global warming is nothing new."
It is hardly surprising that leading climate scientists and academics are outspoken about the Facebook fact-check tie up.
One of the world's leading climatologists, professor Michael Mann, whose own work has been distorted by The Daily Caller, told Think Progress: "It is appalling that Facebook has teamed up with a Koch-funded organization that promotes climate change denial. Facebook must disassociate itself from this organization."
Mann also tweeted:
Michael E. Mann
?
@MichaelEMann
"The Koch brothers are funding @Facebook’s newest fact-checking partner" by Paola Rosa-Aquino (@prosaaquino) for @Grist:https://grist.org/article/the-koch-brothers-are-funding-facebooks-newest-fact-checking-partner/ …
88
2:55 PM - Apr 29, 2019
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The Koch brothers are funding Facebook’s newest fact-checking partner
Is Facebook trying to solve its fake news problem by partnering with … climate deniers?
grist.org
111 people are talking about this
Environmental sociologist, professor Robert Brulle, who is an authority on the climate denial network, asked, "Why they are partnering with an organization that is part of the right wing echo chamber?" He added that: "Facebook should cancel this contract."
But as both websites point out this is not the first time Facebook has joined forces with a climate denial website: In the fall of 2017, Facebook named the right-wing, partisan Weekly Standard as a fact-checking partner.
Last year, Tessa Lyons, a product manager for Facebook wrote about the company's actions on Fake News:
False news is a money maker for spammers and a weapon of state actors and agitators around the world … Misinformation is bad for our community and bad for our business. It's why we're investing significant time and resources to fight it.
Fighting fake news with more fake news is a sure recipe for disaster. Especially during a climate emergency.
EcoWatch
@EcoWatch
@Greenpeace Calls BS After Trump Cites 'Paid Lobbyist' Masquerading as Co-Founder to Peddle Climate Denial @greenpeaceusa @AOC #GreenNewDeal http://bit.ly/2Ty5bfd
11
4:24 PM - Mar 12, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy
Greenpeace Calls BS After Trump Cites 'Paid Lobbyist' Masquerading as Co-Founder to Peddle Climate...
"Patrick Moore was not a co-founder of Greenpeace. He does not represent Greenpeace," the group wrote.
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Reposted with permission from our media associate Oil Change International.
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