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</div><div>=</div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">mma 2 23 <b>even wsj...</b></font></p><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If you’ve been paying attention to this <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/newsmax/timeline-gop-threatens-directv-defense-newsmax" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">asinine saga</a> at all – and let’s hope for your sanity that’s not the case – you know that Newsmax, with its prior contract with DirecTV having run out, is suddenly demanding a massive pay-out from DirecTV. Newsmax is still providing the channel for free to the likes of YouTube, Roku, and more. Given that the contract had expired and a new agreement could not be reached, DirecTV pulled Newsmax from the air. It began airing The First, another right-wing cable network.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Despite all the indications that the end of the contract was a content-neutral decision by a company under siege from rising <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/01/newsmax-directv-the-first-1235241951/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">cord cutting</a> among its customer base (not to mention having <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/22/media/youtube-nfl-sunday-ticket/index.html#::text=The%20popular%20NFL%20Sunday%20Ticket,owned%20by%20Google%2C%20on%20Thursday." style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">lost the NFL Sunday Ticket)</a>, Republican politicians have <a href="https://www.newsmax.com/denniskneale/newsmax-direct-tv-att/2023/02/15/id/1108834/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">joined in</a> with right-wing pundits to call this censorship. There have been talks of congressional hearings. Presidential candidates have weighed in. </span>I<b>t’s one of the silliest big right-wing media stories since Breitbart broke the news of Obama <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/breitbart-news/its-always-conspiracy-derrick-bell-edition" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">giving a hug</a> to one of his law school professors.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy played the hits in an interview with Mike Huckabee</b>. If you don’t want to watch – and again, I do not recommend it – it starts with <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Huckabee endorsing a congressional investigation into DirecTV</span> and Ruddy in turn saying that Mike Huckabee’s daughter – current Arkansas governor and former Trump White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders – will be president in the future [vid]</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">the interview carries on with Ruddy saying that he was just asking for $1 per subscriber per year. That would be on the <a href="https://variety.com/vip/pay-tv-true-cost-free-1234810682/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">upper range of subscriber fees</a> overall (above the likes of CNBC, FX, and Nickelodeon according to 2020 data) and <b>would result in a higher bill for consumers, all of whom could right now access Newsmax content at no cost elsewhere.</b></font></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Notably, DirecTV is not standing idly by. The company pushed back in <a href="https://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/D8File/2023/02/16/directv-response-to-senate-letter-of-feb-1-2023.pdf?VersionId=iYhzZNm.Xgg_2uLg4FizlNQ4eXRmECEu" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">a letter to Republican senators</a> who have echoed Newsmax’s disingenuous “censorship” angle. The letter reads in part:</font></p></div></div><blockquote class="block-quote block-quote--collapsable" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="block-quotequote" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 1.5rem;"><p style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">• When DIRECTV’s prior agreement with Newsmax was set to expire, Newsmax advised us that it would extend our right to distribute the channel only if we agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars in new licensing fees – a cost we would have to pass along to all of our customers. We did not agree. No other major pay TV operator in the market currently pays per subscriber fees to carry the channel.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">• Newsmax seeks to change the model by which it commercializes its channel. To date, Newsmax has been an advertising-supported channel. To maximize ad sales it distributes the channel free of charge to the approximately 75 million US households that have a pay TV service as well as to the approximately 55 million US households that don’t and instead view the channel on Newsmax’s website or through services like Roku and Amazon Fire. Under its proposed new model, Newsmax plans to make its channel available exclusively in pay TV, to the detriment of the 55 million households that don’t have a pay TV service, and to start charging pay TV operators a per subscriber fee to distribute the channel.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">• Newsmax insisted on its terms – as is its right to do – and we insisted on ours. Lacking continued authorization to distribute Newsmax, DIRECTV was forced to remove the channel from our lineup.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);">• A</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">lthough not currently available on DIRECTV, Newsmax continues to be available on most other major pay TV operators and is also available free of charge (including to DIRECTV’s customers) on Newsmax’s website and on platforms like Roku and Amazon Fire</span><span style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);">.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">• Newsmax’s claims that DIRECTV is biased against conservative voices is untrue<b>. Importantly, DIRECTV recently launched The First, a conservative news and commentary channel featuring Bill O’Reilly, Jesse Kelly, Liz Wheeler, and Dana Loesch, among others.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">• DIRECTV carries five channels that most people would consider to be predominately news: Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, The First and NewsNation. By most people’s measure, two lean conservative (Fox News and The First), two lean liberal (CNN and MSNBC) and one is a new channel that is advertising that it is news focused and in the center (NewsNation). Fox News is by far the leader in terms of audience and household penetration. Newsmax, when we distributed it, was a distant fourth among news channels to Fox, MSNBC and CNN.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">• The amounts DIRECTV pays for conservative channels, in the aggregate, is roughly similar to what we pay for liberal channels, in the aggregate.</font></p></div></blockquote><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The company makes clear that its decision was made from a content-neutral perspective. (It is darkly hilarious that the only structural discrimination that right-wing figures can see is a far-right <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/newsmax/newsmax-airs-mike-lindells-cyber-symposium-ad-over-170-times-single-week" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">election-denying</a> media company run by a friend of Donald Trump not getting a massive handout from another private company, but that’s a story for another time.)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Newsmax has <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/eric-bolling/after-directv-removes-newsmax-newsmax-host-eric-bolling-lashes-out-fox-where-are-you" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">repeatedly</a> <a href="https://www.newsmax.com/bernardkerik/cnn-laptop-oan/2023/02/14/id/1108585/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">whined</a> that Fox News was being silent about the matter.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Now, even the opinion page of the Murdoch-owned WSJ is <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/newsmax-directv-conservatives-censorship-chris-ruddy-congress-democrats-republicans-ab7480e9" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">taking pot shots</a> at Republican politicians falling for the charade:</span></b></font></p></div></div><blockquote class="block-quote block-quote--collapsable" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="block-quotequote" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 1.5rem;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);">We take no side in this business dispute, and it’s bewildering why many Republicans are getting involved. Forty-two House Republicans last month wrote a letter to DirecTV executives and its joint owners, </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">AT&T and TPG, </b><span style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);">threatening to investigate the TV provider for colluding with the government to suppress conservative voices.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Sens. Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Mike Lee and Tom Cotton piled on this month</b> with a letter suggesting DirecTV may have dropped Newsmax because of “pressure from administration officials or Democrats in Congress” and “may be the latest example of big business suppressing politically disfavored speech at the behest of liberal Democrats.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Their evidence? A letter from Democratic Reps. Anna Eshoo and Jerry McNerney to AT&T CEO John Stankey last February calling for the company to combat misinformation spread by conservative news networks.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"> <b>A letter from two Democratic Congress Members, which was also sent to other TV providers, doesn’t add up to a vast leftwing conspiracy. T</b>he Fox News channel, where these pages have a news program, is also a Democratic target.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>DirecTV notes that it helped launch Newsmax in 2014 a</b>nd recently launched the new conservative channel called “The First,” which will increase diversity and competition among conservative voices. Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy doesn’t want that. Instead, he is trying to bring political and government pressure to bear on DirecTV to force the satellite operator to carry the channel on Newsmax’s terms.</font></p></div></blockquote><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">(First, a footnote about cable providers and Fox News: Fox News Channel <a href="https://unfoxmycablebox.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">has</a> <a href="https://www.nofoxfee.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">one</a> of the highest carriage fees in the business, way out of line for what cable providers pay other networks. It’s so high that<b> Fox News would remain profitable even with no advertising</b>.)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s unclear where this story will go from here<b>. There’s nothing that goes viral on the right like victimhood</b>, and they simply cannot start examining those claims too closely given how many of them are snake oil. In the meantime, there’s no evidence that either consumers or DirecTV itself are the least bit intimidated by any of this. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">After all, it’s just <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/newsmax/newsmaxs-sordid-history-scams-grifts-and-cons" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">another grift</a></span>.</font></p></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">intercept boguslaw 921</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b> DEMOCRATIC SENATOR threatening to block the party’s ambitious social policy agenda in order to preserve former President Donald Trump’s tax cuts for corporations and for the wealthy spent last summer interning at a winery owned by the private equity baron Bill Price.</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In the summer of 2020, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., interned at Three Sticks, a winery in Sonoma, California, owned by Bill Price, co-founder of the private equity leviathan TPG Capital. According to the job description, interns “assist in all facets of harvest work including cleaning and sanitizing equipment, sorting fruit, punchdowns, making basic additions and managing fermentations according to winemaker instructions, barrel work, and other winery-related tasks.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Sinema’s personal financial disclosures show that she was paid $1,117.40 in wages for her work. But an ensuing fundraiser at Three Sticks, held in August, netted her campaign coffers much more.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Sinema has told Democratic colleagues, according to the New York Times, that she will oppose any tax increases on either corporate or personal rates, essential pillars of the legislation. Her opposition to tax hikes on the rich comes amid a major spending blitz to encourage her to stand against any tax increases on private equity executives or hedge funds</b>.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The same summer that Sinema completed her internship, Three Sticks was one of three stops on a weekend fundraising tour. Tickets to the fundraiser cost $5,000 per guest, with contributions going toward both her own campaign committee and the Getting Things Done political action committee, a leadership PAC used to support fellow congressional moderates such as New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer. Sinema courted major donors that summer, including Lyft CEO Logan Green, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and of course Price himself, who contributed $5,000.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>In the past two years, Sinema has received tens of thousands of dollars in maxed out donations from private equity partners like Price and investment firm CEOs. </b>Now, many of those same senior firm executives stand to lose millions to the IRS if a bill targeting the carried interest tax loophole is included as part of the Senate’s budget reconciliation process. Those executive donors include senior directors at TPG and billionaire Blackstone CEO Jonathan Gray.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden and Sheldon Whitehouse, the Ending the Carried Interest Loophole Act would require hedge fund managers and private equity executives to pay taxes on their income at the same rates as other workers, ending favored treatment for such executives. Right now, their compensation is not considered income. It is instead classified as a tax deferrable capital gain, subject to far lower rates, despite its near-identical function.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>In June, the private equity industry lobby launched a pressure campaign targeting Sinema and fellow Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly to leave the carried interest tax loophole intact.</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates the bill would raise more than $63 billion over 10 years, serving as an important part of the pay for — the taxes used to offset new spending — in Democrats’ proposed $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation plan. Sinema has repeatedly described the plan as too expensive.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Multiple congressional aides who spoke to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity said that Sinema’s office has been silent on whether or not she will support closing the loophole, despite her concern over the price tag of her party’s budget reconciliation bill and the vast sums the carried interest tax could raise.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>BEFORE OPENING HIS winery, Price co-founded<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> TPG, one of the largest private equity firms in the world, in 1992. Despite announcing his departure from TPG in 2006, Price listed TPG as his employer on a 2020 Federal Election Commission filing with the title of “partner emeritus.</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">”</span> A spokesperson for Price told The Intercept, “Bill Price no longer has any affiliation with TPG and has not for a decade.” When shown a copy of the FEC filing, the same spokesperson did not respond for further comment. In 2019, during the college admissions pay-to-play scandal, Price’s connection to the firm resurfaced when he defended Bill McGlashan, the husband of his wife’s sister and a senior TPG partner he brought to the firm in 2004. TPG did not respond to multiple requests for comment.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Last week, Sinema announced explicit opposition to yet another critical budget reconciliation revenue mechanism: Democrats’ drug pricing plan, which various estimates say could save the government between $450 and $700 billion over 10 years. In July, Sen. Mitch McConnell called Sinema’s rejection of the budget reconciliation price tag “very courageous.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>As The Daily Poster first reported, Sinema, who has raised over $500,000 from the pharmaceutical and health products industry</b>, was featured in ads by a pharma-funded dark-money group just before she went public with her opposition to drug pricing legislation. Data from the Center for Responsive Politics shows that since entering Congress, S<b>inema has also grossed well over $6 million in donations from the finance, insurance, and real estate industry.</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Earlier this month, the Chamber of Commerce put out a report claiming that closing the carried interest tax loophole would cost almost 5 million jobs and create billions in tax shortfalls.</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“The carried interest loophole rewards one narrow class of workers, fund managers, whose compensation already is in the stratosphere compared to almost everyone else, with a deeply discounted income tax rate. It’s indefensible,” Bob Lord, tax counsel at Americans for Tax Fairness, told The Intercept.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“Carried interest also allows fund managers to defer tax on their compensation until the fund’s investments are sold. The rest of us pay tax on our labor income currently, not years later,” Lord said. “Apologists at the Chamber of Commerce justify this travesty with claims the country would lose jobs if fund managers paid tax at the same rate as the rest of us. By that logic, why wouldn’t we reduce their rate to zero? More jobs, right? Or perhaps the IRS should pay them? Even more jobs, right? How any member of Congress would take the Chamber of Commerce seriously here mystifies me.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>COMPARED TO HER Democratic colleagues and corporate donors, Sinema’s personal financial disclosures are sparse.</b> Her 2020 filing lists two retirement plans, a<b> dormant consulting business</b>, and income generated from a teaching job at Arizona State University alongside her paltry internship income. This places Sinema’s personal finances in sharp contrast to the income generated by congressional allies like Joe Manchin, who has grossed millions from his coal interests over the course of the past decade.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">When it comes to raising campaign cash though, few outmatch Sinema’s zeal for fundraisers and phone banking. According to multiple Democrats who served with Sinema in the House, she was the only member who seemed to actively love being in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee call center, claiming a couch for her sole personal use and complaining to other members when they had to leave to vote.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In 2020, she delivered a keynote speech followed by a fundraiser at SFVegas, the lavish securities conference held at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas and featured in the film “The Big Short.” Former British Prime Minister Theresa May headlined last year’s conference.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Sinema gave a keynote address at a Women in Securitization event before a fundraising reception sponsored by the Structured Finance PAC, which has donated tens of thousands of dollars to powerful members of the House Financial Services Committee such as Reps. Gregory Meeks and Carolyn Maloney. Sinema’s recent votes and public posturing suggest that the cash and advertising blitz launched by financial industry lobbyists may have achieved their intended effect.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>In August, Sinema was the only Democrat to vote against an amendment to “establish a reserve fund relating to protecting family farms, ranches, and small businesses while ensuring the wealthy pay their fair share.” A day later, she voted against “a reserve fund relating to increasing the progressivity of the tax code.”</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">Sinema’s dramatic rightward shift toward the barons of finance and pharmaceuticals at the cost of progressive tax reform stands in sharp contrast to her childhood origin story, in which she talks about having grown up in an abandoned gas station without electricity or running water, at one point living out of a car.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In response to a colleague’s expression of support after an<b> NPR story detailing her family’s struggles with financial hardship, Sinema, then a representative, speaking to colleagues in the Democratic cloakroom just off the House floor, deadpanned: “Yeah, voters love that stupid shit. They eat it up.”</b></font></font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the uber lie: darwin invis hand meritocracy</font></p><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">univ supposed to be great equalizer, but poor get screwed by pred student loans, online trump U scams</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2019/3/13/cheating_bribes_lies_doj_charges_dozens" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.democracynow.org/2019/3/13/cheating_bribes_lies_doj_charges_dozens</font></a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">O<span helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" style="letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: rgb(25, 31, 36);">peration Varsity Blues. That’s the name of a sweeping federal probe into what the Justice Department calls the biggest college admissions scam the agency has ever uncovered. On Tuesday, 50 people, including 13 college coaches, were arrested for taking part in a scheme where wealthy parents paid exorbitant bribes to secure spots for their unqualified children in elite schools, including Yale, Stanford, Georgetown,</span><span helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" style="letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: rgb(25, 31, 36);"> </span><span class="caps" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" style="letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: rgb(25, 31, 36);">UCLA</span><span helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" style="letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: rgb(25, 31, 36);">,</span><span helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" style="letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: rgb(25, 31, 36);"> </span><span class="caps" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" style="letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: rgb(25, 31, 36);">USC</span><span helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" style="letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: rgb(25, 31, 36);"> </span><span helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" style="letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: rgb(25, 31, 36);">and Wake Forest. Prosecutors have charged 33 parents, including Hollywood stars Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin; Loughlin’s husband, the fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli; and<b> Bill McGlashan, a founder of</b></span><b><span helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" style="letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: rgb(25, 31, 36);"> </span><span class="caps" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" style="letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: rgb(25, 31, 36);">TPG</span><span helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" style="letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: rgb(25, 31, 36);"> </span></b><span helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" style="letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: rgb(25, 31, 36);"><b>Capital, one of the largest private equity investment firms in the world. </b>We speak with Ivory Toldson, professor of counseling psychology at Howard University and president of Quality Education for Minorities. His new book is titled “No BS (Bad Stats): Black People Need People Who Believe in Black People Enough Not to Believe Every Bad Thing They Hear About Black People.”</span></font></font></div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" style="letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: rgb(25, 31, 36);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">....</font></span></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" style="letter-spacing: -0.2px; color: rgb(25, 31, 36);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><p style="margin: 30px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: -0.2px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">GOODMAN</span>:</strong> So, that’s the <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">FBI</span> special agent talking about this scandal. No actual schools were charged, though people within the schools, like, you know, the head of soccer at Yale, for example. You had these pictures sent in of athletes with their heads photoshopped to be a student who didn’t even play the particular game, in cases like water polo. What message does this scandal send to black and brown children, to white not wealthy children, who believe that higher education is a meritocracy? What do you say to them?</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="margin: 30px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: -0.2px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">IVORY</span> <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">TOLDSON</span>:</strong> Yeah, yeah. Well, I hope it’s a wake-up call for people who have bought into the system that people become wealthy because they have worked hard.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> It’s a <b>deception that’s pervasive in our society. Among the wealthy, their objective is passive income. You know, they talk actively about making money without working.</b>That’s what they talk about in their own social networks. But yet, when they’re talking to people who may work for them, they try to make it seem like it’s all about working hard. In reality, it should be about working hard. Everybody should work hard for what they have. But there are people in this country, unfortunately, who would<b> rather manipulate the system so that some people work hard to get enough, and other people work not at all and get more.</b></span></p><p style="margin: 30px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: -0.2px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">And I think it also does a <b>disservice to their children, because their children will grow up feeling a false sense of entitlement, believing in unearned privilege, believing in inherited wealth and all of the things that will lead to certain types of predatory behaviors, whether it be predatory lending, </b>manipulating markets, predatory landlords—you know, different aspects of society that we’ve all grown to loathe. All of this is cultivated in these types of environments.</span></p></span></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div>
<div>opensecrets</div><div>
</div><div><div>Himes, Jim (D-CT)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> $5,200</div><div>Khanna, Ro (D-CA)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> $5,200</div><div>Lowey, Nita M (D-NY)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> $5,200</div><div>Udall, Mark (D-CO)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> $5,200</div><div>Vernon, Monica (D-IA)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> $5,200</div></div><div>---</div><div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Himes, Jim<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (D-CT)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>$5,200</div><div>House<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Khanna, Ro<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (D-CA)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>$5,200</div><div>House<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Lowey, Nita M<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (D-NY)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>$5,200</div><div>Senate<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Udall, Mark<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (D-CO)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>$5,200</div><div>House<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Vernon, Monica<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (D-IA)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>$5,200</div><div>House<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Ryan, Paul<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (R-WI)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>$5,100</div><div>House<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Cantor, Eric<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (R-VA)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>$5,000</div><div>Senate<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Warner, Mark<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (D-VA)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>$4,000</div><div>Senate<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Begich, Mark<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (D-AK)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>$2,600</div><div>House<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Cotton, Tom<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (R-AR)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>$2,600</div><div>House<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Denham, Jeff<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (R-CA)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>$2,600</div><div>Senate<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Hagan, Kay R<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (D-NC)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>$2,600</div><div>House<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Hayworth, Nan<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (R-NY)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>$2,600</div><div>Senate<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Portman, Rob<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (R-OH)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>$2,600</div><div>Senate<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Udall, Tom<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (D-NM)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>$2,600</div><div>House<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Joyce, David P<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (R-OH)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>$2,500</div><div>President<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Romney, Mitt<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (R)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>$2,500</div><div>Senate<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Gomez, Gabriel<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (R-MA)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>$1,000</div><div>House<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Hensarling, Jeb<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (R-TX)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>$1,000</div><div>House<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Marchant, Kenny<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (R-TX)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>$1,000</div></div><div>
<div>...</div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: Arimo, arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Feinstein-Blum’s real estate and private jet holdings are just the beginning. Blum’s empire began with his ownership of Blum Capital Partners, a firm he founded in 1975. In its 2005 edition, one standard industry source, Pratt’s Guide to Private Equity Sources, lists Blum Capital Partners as having $1.5 billion under management. Two other more recent sources list the assets of Blum Capital at the higher levels of $2.8 billion and $4.5 billion. Blum’s firm’s clients reportedly include some of <st1:country-region w:st="on" xmlns:st1="st1" xmlns:w="w"><st1:place w:st="on" xmlns:st1="st1" xmlns:w="w">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s wealthiest people and largest corporations, like oil heir Gordon Getty and Bank of America. Blum Capital Partners also has a joint venture with a much larger firm, the Texas Pacific Group (TPG), which had a total of $53.4 billion under management as of 2010. Blum Capital established Newbridge Capital to conduct this joint venture, which has had as much as $3.2 billion under management. Blum has been a co-chair of both Newbridge and TPG.<o:p xmlns:o="o" /></font></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: Arimo, arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p xmlns:o="o"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> </font></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: Arimo, arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Some of Blum’s notable investments have included the real estate firm of CB Richard Ellis, Career Educational Corporation, ITT Educational Services, Lenovo, Fair Isaac, Northwest Airlines, URS, Perini and DHL Airways. Blum has been the chair of the Board of CB Richard Ellis since 2001. He reportedly owns a 15 percent controlling interest of this giant firm, widely considered to be the largest real estate firm in the world with about 28,000 employees working in over 300 offices in 50 nations and annual revenues in the billions. A <i>Los Angeles Times</i> article (November 1, 2006), stated that CB Richard Ellis was worth $6.7 billion, making Blum’s 15 percent worth about $1 billion at that time. Varied sources report that Blum’s investment in CB Richard Ellis amounts to less than one-third of his total portfolio, making his likely wealth level over $3 billion. Another investment is in China-based Lenovo, which was reportedly the fourth largest vendor of personal computers in the world in 2009 with assets of almost $9 billion and revenue of $16.6 billion. It has operations in <st1:state w:st="on" xmlns:st1="st1" xmlns:w="w">North Carolina</st1:state> (a largely non-union state), as well as in <st1:country-region w:st="on" xmlns:st1="st1" xmlns:w="w">China</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on" xmlns:st1="st1" xmlns:w="w">Japan</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on" xmlns:st1="st1" xmlns:w="w"><st1:place w:st="on" xmlns:st1="st1" xmlns:w="w">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Blum sold his holdings in URS and Perini after negative publicity having to do with his wife’s votes in the U.S. Senate, a topic discussed below.....</font></font></span></p></div><div>
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