wa examiner bak

NOTE WE TAG

NO MERRI

SEE SOROS ARABELLA BS

go to for denial BS API HERITAGE MILLOY MORANO

Ownership and Leadership of the Washington Examiner

Owner

Philip Anschutz: The Washington Examiner is owned by billionaire businessman Philip Anschutz through his company, Clarity Media Group.

CEO

Lou Ann Sabatier: She serves as the chief executive officer of Clarity Media Group, which oversees the Washington Examiner among other publications.

Editor-in-Chief

Hugo Gurdon: He is the current editor-in-chief of the Washington Examiner, guiding its editorial direction and content.

Publication Transition

The Washington Examiner transitioned from a daily newspaper to a weekly magazine format, focusing on conservative political commentary and analysis. This change reflects a strategic shift to cater to a national audience interested in political thought leadership.

Wikipedia DCist

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explained

The Washington Examiner is an American conservative news magazine based in Washington, D.C., consisting of a website and a weekly printed magazine. It is owned by billionaire businessman Philip Anschutz through MediaDC, a subsidiary of Clarity Media Group.^[3]

From 2005 to 2013, the Examiner was published as a daily tabloid-sized newspaper, distributed throughout the Washington, D.C. metro area. The newspaper focused primarily on local news and political commentary. The local newspaper ceased publication in June 2013, whereupon its content began to focus almost exclusively on national politics from a conservative point of view. The Examiner switched its print edition from a daily newspaper to an expanded print weekly magazine format.^[4] ^[5] ^[6]

History

The publication now known as the Washington Examiner began its life as a handful of suburban news outlets known as the Journal Newspapers, distributed not in Washington D.C. itself, but only in its suburbs: Montgomery Journal, Prince George's Journal, Fairfax Journal, and Arlington Journal (later consolidated as the Northern Virginia Journal).^[7] Philip Anschutz purchased the parent company, Journal Newspapers Inc., in 2004.^[8] ^[9] On February 1, 2005, the paper's name changed to the Washington Examiner, and it adopted a logo and format similar to those of another newspaper Anschutz then owned, San Francisco Examiner.

The Washington Examiner became increasingly influential in conservative political circles, hiring much of the talent from The Washington Times.^[10] The website DCist wrote in March 2013: "Despite the right-wing tilt of [the ''Examiner''<nowiki/>'s] editorial pages and sensationalist front-page headlines, it also built a reputation as one of the best local sections in D.C."^[11] The newspaper's local coverage also gained attention, including a write-up by The New York Times,^[12] for contributing to the arrest of more than fifty fugitives through a feature that each week spotlighted a different person wanted by law enforcement agencies.

In March 2013, the company announced that it would stop printing a daily edition in June and refocus on national politics. The print edition was converted to a weekly magazine, while the website was continually updated.^[13] The new format was compared to that of The Hill. In December 2018, Clarity Media announced that the magazine would become a publicly available, expanded print magazine.^[14]

On January 27, 2020, Roy Moore filed a $40 million defamation lawsuit against the Washington Examiner. A former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and candidate in the 2017 United States Senate special election in Alabama for the seat left open when Jeff Sessions joined the Trump administration, Moore claimed that the magazine repeatedly wrote "fake news" attacks stemming from allegations that he made unwanted sexual and romantic advances to girls as young as 15 when he was in his late 30s.^[15]

In January 2020, breaking news editor Jon Nicosia was fired after showing a sexually explicit video to colleagues. Nicosia denied any wrongdoing, saying he had only shared the video "because he thought it might go viral ... and become a news story". Nicosia accused managing editor Toby Harnden of abusive workplace behavior. An employee's complaint seen by CNN said that Harnden had created a "toxic work environment" and a climate of "workplace terror and bullying". Editor-in-chief Hugo Gurdon then announced Harnden had departed and that he was "enlisting a third-party to conduct a thorough investigation" into the Examiner. But CNN reported that "current and former Examiner employees" said that "Gurdon was aware of Harnden's brutish managing style" long before it became a public issue and did nothing about it.^[16]

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RANDOM 8 26

News

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2026 Election

America at 250

IN FOCUS

Commentary

Restoring America

Watch

Magazine

Trump enacted the policies that made lower grocery prices possible

Kip E. Tom·July 28, 2026

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The National Academy of Sciences endorses the impossible

National Academy of Sciences endorses the impossible

By Benjamin Zycher

Published July 29, 2026

In a new report, the National Academy of Sciences endorses “extreme event attribution (EEA), a field of climate science that analyzes whether and to what extent human-caused climate change influenced an individual extreme weather or climate event.” This endorsement is based upon purported “expanded observational datasets, large-ensemble simulations, and methodological advancements over the past decade…”

This is balderdash, as the NAS itself concluded (p. 29) in 2016: “Event attribution questions are often posed in terms of a specific actual event, but definitive attribution of a specific event in a deterministic manner is generally not possible.” Have matters changed much in terms of climate predictions over the last decade? No, they have not: The climate models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were no better in 2021 than in 2014: They continue to overpredict atmospheric temperature trends by a factor of about 2.5.....

-=--=

How Mamdani's dangerous rhetoric is reshaping New York City

We take a look at Abdul el Sayed’s stance on climate and energy policy as he heads into Michigan’s general election as the Democratic Senate nominee.

INSIDE EL SAYED’S CLIMATE AGENDA:

As Abdul el Sayed heads into the general election as Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee, here’s a closer look at where he stands on climate and energy issues.

Plus, speaking of climate change, today’s edition of Daily on Energy features some new polling on how voters view lawsuits filed by state and local governments against Big Oil over their contributions to climate change. Many fear taxpayers will foot the bill for the suits. Keep reading to find out why.

Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner energy and environment writers Callie Patteson (@CalliePatteson) and Maydeen Merino (@MaydeenMerino). Email cpatteson@washingtonexaminer dot com or mmerino@washingtonexaminer dot com

Daily on Energy: Quote of the week, Wright’s message to Big Tech,...

Daily on Energy: Oil price relief, demand destruction, and a new GOP...

Daily on Energy, presented by Americans for Fusion: Endangerment Finding watch, voter...

Daily on Energy: Permitting legislation update, climate report group disbanded, and public...

Investigations

Hudson Crozier

Hudson Crozier is an investigative reporter at the Washington Examiner primarily covering crime, terrorism, and extreme politics. He previously reported for the Daily Caller News Foundation, helped start the Upward News newsletter, and was a commentary intern with the Washington Examiner in 2023. Hudson is a Texas native and graduated from the University of North Texas's journalism school in 2024.

Crime

All black people in jail are ‘political prisoners,’ taxpayer-funded bailout group says

Hudson Crozier

August 6, 2026 12:49 pm

Children’s hospital agrees to confess fraudulent sex-change procedures in landmark whistleblower settlementHealthcare

Children’s hospital agrees to confess fraudulent sex-change procedures in landmark whistleblower settlement

Hudson Crozier

August 6, 2026 10:55 am

Gunman arrested at Trump’s golf course was out on bail for prior case: DOJCrime

Gunman arrested at Trump’s golf course was out on bail for prior case: DOJ

Hudson Crozier

August 5, 2026 11:00 am

How the charity behind Madison, Wisconsin’s ‘autonomous zone’ raked in taxpayer moneyInvestigations

How the charity behind Madison, Wisconsin’s ‘autonomous zone’ raked in taxpayer money

Hudson Crozier

August 5, 2026 5:00 am

Who’s behind Wisconsin’s anti-police ‘autonomous zone’ taking over city streets?Investigations

Who’s behind Wisconsin’s anti-police ‘autonomous zone’ taking over city streets?

Hudson Crozier

August 4, 2026 5:00 am

DSA founding member recalls working for Soviet-linked communist partyCongressional

DSA founding member recalls working for Soviet-linked communist party

Hudson Crozier

August 3, 2026 6:02 pm

FBI still searching for 2020 rioter who helped demolish ICE facilityCrime

FBI still searching for 2020 rioter who helped demolish ICE facility

Hudson Crozier

July 31, 2026 1:50 pm

Fauci’s diary details blooming outrage toward ‘far right’ and softness toward Biden and ChinaInvestigations

Fauci’s diary details blooming outrage toward ‘far right’ and softness toward Biden and China

Hudson Crozier

July 31, 2026 11:13 am

Elite US schools cozy with Cuban university linked to ‘intelligence network’Investigations

Elite US schools cozy with Cuban university linked to ‘intelligence network’

Hudson Crozier

July 31, 2026 5:00 am

DOJ convicts three Portland anti-ICE rioters in a weekCrime

DOJ convicts three Portland anti-ICE rioters in a week

Hudson Crozier

Three anti-deportation rioters in Portland, Oregon, pleaded guilty to federal crimes in one week after attacking or interfering with federal officers.

Oriana Korol was convicted on July 23, followed by Ginovanni Brumbelow on Monday and Katherine Vogel on Tuesday, according to DOJ statements. U.S. Attorney Scott Bradford’s office is handling Portland’s protest-related cases after President Donald Trump’s former attorney general, Pam Bondi, appointed him in July 2025.

All three incidents took place at Portland’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, which has seen near-constant protests since Trump returned to office in January 2025 and ramped up deportations, according to multiple reports. The Portland Police Bureau has counted nearly 100 arrests “related to ICE protest activity” since June 2025, while federal arrest numbers are unclear....?

Instagram

sen.khanhpham

22w

What a joy to welcome my constituent Oriana Korol and Portland’s own Unpresidented Brass Band (@unpresidentedbrassband503) to the Capitol in Salem this session and celebrate our right to protest with music, creativity, and courage in the face of devastating assaults on our immigrant communities and Constitutional rights to assemble and express ourselves freely. #iceout #orleg #orpol #pdx

3 yo kid, tackled by ice

off bs doj

PORTLAND, Ore.—A Portland, Oregon, woman pleaded guilty on July 23, 2026, for assaulting a federal officer near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in South Portland.

Oriana Korol, 39, pleaded guilty to a one-count information charging assault of a federal officer.

According to court documents, on October 12, 2025, federal officers were clearing the driveway of an ICE facility in South Portland to allow employees to exit. While law enforcement was arresting another person a short distance away from the property, Korol interfered with the arrest of that person and, after being moved away from the arrest, kicked a federal officer.

Korol faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine. She will be sentenced on August 24, 2026, before a U.S. magistrate court judge.

U.S. Attorney Scott E. Bradford for the District of Oregon made the announcement.

The Federal Protective Service is investigating the case. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon is prosecuting the case.

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PORTLAND, Ore.— Today Katherine Vogel, 39, pleaded guilty to Interfering with Federal Law Enforcement.

According to court documents, on or about September 30, 2025, Vogel was on the federal property grounds of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Building applying red paint to the ICE facility. Federal law enforcement agents then attempted to arrest Vogel. She failed to comply and forcibly interfered with the lawful direction of the federal officers during the arrest.

On June 22, 2026, Vogel was charged by superseding information with interfering with federal law enforcement and failing to obey a lawful order.

Vogel faces a maximum sentence of 1 year in prison, a $100,000 fine, and 1 year of probation.

She will be sentenced on October 21, 2026, before a U.S. district court judge.

The FBI and Federal Protective Service are investigating the case. The U. S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon is prosecuting the case.

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off bs very blurry fotos; no injury? helmet? protest sign?

PORTLAND, Ore.— A Gresham, Oregon, man pleaded guilty today after he was charged with assaulting a federal law enforcement officer during a declared riot near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in South Portland.

Ginovanni Joseph Brumbelow, 22, pleaded guilty to assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.

According to court documents, on June 14, 2025, Brumbelow struck a federal officer in the back of the head with a wooden stake while the officer was arresting another individual during a riot at the ICE facility in South Portland.

On July 15, 2025, a federal grand jury in Portland returned a three-count indictment charging Brumbelow with assault on a federal officer, assault of a federal officer with a dangerous weapon and civil disorder.

Brumbelow faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release. He will be sentenced on October 19, 2026, before a U.S. district court judge.

As part of the plea agreement, Brumbelow has agreed to pay restitution in full to the victim.

U.S. Attorney Scott E. Bradford for the District of Oregon made the announcement.

The FBI and Federal Protective Service are investigating the case. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon is prosecuting the case.

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July 30, 2026 1:28 pm

DC agency confirms police rigged crime stats the Left used to debunk TrumpCrime

DC agency confirms police rigged crime stats the Left used to debunk Trump

Hudson Crozier

July 29, 2026 11:36 am

DOJ pledges $7 million for security at houses of worship amid heightened threatsCrime

DOJ pledges $7 million for security at houses of worship amid heightened threats

Hudson Crozier

July 28, 2026 6:00 pm

How the charity behind Madison, Wisconsin’s ‘autonomous zone’ raked in taxpayer money

Hudson Crozier

August 5, 2026 5:00 am

Transgender prisoners file to keep identities concealed after female inmates detail abuse from male prisoners

Transgender prisoners file to keep identities concealed after female inmates detail abuse from male prisoners

ICE confirms death at New Jersey’s Delaney Hall detention center

ICE confirms death at New Jersey’s Delaney Hall detention center

Who’s behind Wisconsin’s anti-police ‘autonomous zone’ taking over city streets?

Who’s behind Wisconsin’s anti-police ‘autonomous zone’ taking over city streets?

Fauci told Congress higher COVID-19 fatality rate than he calculated in diary: ‘More like 0.2-0.3%’

Fauci told Congress higher COVID-19 fatality rate than he calculated in diary: ‘More like 0.2-0.3%’

Fauci’s diary details blooming outrage toward ‘far right’ and softness toward Biden and China

Hudson Crozier

July 31, 2026 11:13 am

John Fetterman took nothing from AIPAC. His possible 2028 Democratic challengers can’t say the same

Sophia Mandt, James A. Downs

July 31, 2026 7:00 am

Troy Jackson swapped out Senate campaign official also behind the super PAC backing Abdul el Sayed

Troy Jackson swapped out Senate campaign official also behind the super PAC backing Abdul el Sayed

Mia Cathell

July 31, 2026 6:00 am

Elite US schools cozy with Cuban university linked to ‘intelligence network’

Elite US schools cozy with Cuban university linked to ‘intelligence network’

Hudson Crozier

July 31, 2026 5:00 am

DC agency confirms police rigged crime stats the Left used to debunk Trump

Hudson Crozier

July 29, 2026 11:36 am

Scientists who nominated Fauci for prize money received millions in NIAID funding

Scientists who nominated Fauci for prize money received millions in NIAID funding

Mia Cathell

July 29, 2026 6:00 am

Ilhan Omar’s office housed inside Somali-focused community center that received redirected Feeding Our Future donations

Ilhan Omar’s office housed inside Somali-focused community center that received redirected Feeding Our Future donations

Mia Cathell

July 24, 2026 2:54 pm

State Department demands US-funded UN agency ‘fully investigate’ Hamas involvement in aid programs

State Department demands US-funded UN agency ‘fully investigate’ Hamas involvement in aid programs

Hudson Crozier

July 24, 2026 11:26 am

Senior Navy official placed on leave after vowing to undo Trump’s policies in undercover video

Emily Hallas

July 23, 2026 3:33 pm

Another US-funded UN agency worked with Hamas, documents show

Another US-funded UN agency worked with Hamas, documents show

Hudson Crozier

July 23, 2026 2:08 pm

DSA candidate interned at Hamas ‘greenhouse’ school infamous for terrorist recruitment

DSA candidate interned at Hamas ‘greenhouse’ school infamous for terrorist recruitment

Hudson Crozier

July 22, 2026 7:00 am

State Department links Cuba’s push for ‘guerilla warfare’ to American leftist movement

State Department links Cuba’s push for ‘guerilla warfare’ to American leftist movement

Hudson Crozier

July 21, 2026 3:31 pm

Colleges trying to ‘increase the number of Native American nurses’ face civil rights complaint

Hudson Crozier

July 21, 2026 9:00 am

Leftist vandals bent on destroying Flock cameras that pose ‘danger for radicals’

Leftist vandals bent on destroying Flock cameras that pose ‘danger for radicals’

Hudson Crozier

July 21, 2026 5:00 am

Somali gangs are terrorizing the Minneapolis area, sheriff says

Somali gangs are terrorizing the Minneapolis area, sheriff says

Mia Cathell

July 17, 2026 3:30 pm

Trump resurrects ‘slow-walked’ FBI 2020 election fraud investigation in Michigan: What we know

Trump resurrects ‘slow-walked’ FBI 2020 election fraud investigation in Michigan: What we know

Hudson Crozier

July 17, 2026 12:02 pm

-=-=-=

SMARTMATIC BS

Fox News granted additional discovery in Smartmatic case

11/26/2025

When six Democratic senators with military and intelligence community experience posted a video last week calling on people now serving to refuse to carry out illegal orders, President Trump and many of his supporters lost it – even though the video was simply reminding servicemembers of their obligation under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

The White House has walked back Trump’s initial outbursts calling for execution of the senators, but he said Sunday he still wants to see “the traitors that told the military to disobey my orders” in jail. He reposted a Truth social post calling the senators “traitorous sons of bitches” and “pompous traitorous communists” who “should be impeached and prosecuted.”

The senators have reported receiving death threats, and Trump allies are fanning MAGA outrage with false characterizations of the senators’ video.

Many MAGA attacks ignored the essential point of the senators’ video, which was to urge servicemembers not to obey illegal orders.

Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who has overseen official brutality against immigrants and their defenders, falsely claimed, “Democrat lawmakers are now openly calling for insurrection” and told Fox News viewers that it was “a general call for rebellion.”

Last week Libs of TikTok posteda claim that “Elected Democrats just released a video encouraging members of the military to commit treason and DEFY orders from Trump and Hegseth.”

On Sunday, the Republican National Committee sent an email claiming “Democrats want to stage a military coup” and falsely claiming that the video “called for an all-out coup against President Trump and Pete Hegseth” by “directly asking troops to disobey their orders.”

The RNC called the senators “disgusting socialists” and claimed they were “urging INSUBORDINATION.”

On Monday, the Washington Examiner’s Elizabeth Stauffer wrote that “Democrats are openly calling for a military mutiny.” She said the senators’ video had “all the hallmarks of a psychological operation lifted straight from the CIA’s playbook.”

Political dirty trickster Roger Stone claimed Monday that the video “is a call to arms for a revolt” and complained that “congressional seditionists” were emboldened by the fact that the Justice Department has not moved quickly enough to prosecute former “Deep State” officials.

Gary Bauer—yes, he’s still at it—used his daily newsletter to attack the senators for “stoking division and fueling mistrust in our government, which is the goal of our enemies”—and, let’s be honest, is the hallmark of Trump and the MAGA movement.

The Pentagon announced that Sen. Mark Kelly, a retired Navy Captain, would be investigated and could be recalled to active duty to face a court martial over what Hegseth claimed was a “seditious” video.

Kelly and the other senators made it clear that they were not cowed by Trump’s bluster, and many of their congressional colleagues came to their defense. Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado called it “a decisive moment.” Crow wrote on X, “Trump is trying to incite violence, intimidate, and punish those who speak up to hold him accountable. But the only thing we fear is not rising to this moment and defending the country we love.”

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger said in a videothat military officers are told on “day one” of their training that they are obligated to not follow unlawful or illegal orders. Kinzinger called the Defense Department’s threat “chilling” and said it was designed to strike the fear of God into former officers who are publicly critical of Trump.

A rare critical voice from a sitting Republican came from Rep. Don Bacon who wrote that he thought the senators’ video was a bad idea, but that talk of sedition and threats of court martial were “crazy.”

REF EXMR

There is a very thin line between irresponsible rhetoric and mutiny, and six sitting members of Congress came perilously close to crossing it earlier this week. A mutiny doesn’t need to resemble the dramatic Mutiny on the Bounty; it can just as easily take the form of a video urging U.S. military personnel to defy “illegal orders” from their commander in chief.

On Tuesday, six congressional Democrats, each touting their prior military or intelligence service, released a remarkable video calling on troops to refuse what they implied to be President Donald Trump’s unlawful commands. The production had all the hallmarks of a psychological operation lifted straight from the CIA’s playbook. Its purpose was clear: to sow doubt within the ranks and to make service members question the legitimacy of orders delivered through the chain of command. In other words, if your aim is to erode confidence in the current administration, this is exactly how you would do it.

‘Astroturfed operation’

The giving from Hoffman, Sixteen Thirty Fund, and Retire Career Politicians made up roughly 71% of all donations to Nebraska Railroaders for Public Safety between November 2023 and June of this year, according to a Washington Examiner analysis of federal records. The PAC launched last fall, statement of organization documents show.

“This is just another Democratic astroturfed operation,” said Dan Backer, a campaign finance expert and attorney in Washington, D.C. “They’ll complain about the ‘Swamp’ while relying on dark money and literally the guy who started LinkedIn.”

Speaking to the Washington Examiner, Nebraska Railroaders for Public Safety treasurer and co-founder Michael Helmink said it’s difficult to interface with his out-of-state donors from his home in western Nebraska. More recent donations to Nebraska Railroaders for Public Safety will become public in October.

“We do Zoom calls and things like that, you know?” Helmink, who noted that he co-founded the super PAC with the California-based political consultant Adriel Hampton, said in an interview.

IFrame Content

Helmink, a longtime railroad worker and labor leader, said his donor contacts came from when he had his own exploratory committee last year to consider running for the Nebraska Senate seat.

“We reached out to pretty much anybody,” he told the Washington Examiner. “Anybody interested in rail safety, anybody interested in flipping the seat to an independent. Reaching out the Republican side has been tough. So what we ended up with was, you know, progressive Democrats — people trying to make changes in different areas.”

“That’s the kind of people that gravitated towards us,” Helmink said.

According to recent federal data, Texas led the way in the U.S. in 2023 with the most highway-rail grade collision crossings. Nebraska falls within the top 25 states for the most collisions at 21, just after Missouri and Iowa.

Nebraska Railroaders for Public Safety supports “requiring two-person crews to protect against derailments” and “increasing fines for violating federal rail safety laws so these giant corporations take safety regulations seriously,” according to the group’s website.

‘We spend it like it’s our own’

To Republican political strategist Brad Todd, the group’s funding illustrates how national Democrats often keep the lights on for entities that present themselves as grassroots. It’s not necessarily an uncommon maneuver: In July, the Washington Examiner reported on how left-wing billionaires share ties to an astroturfed operation in states attacking House Republicans. The GOP also faces scrutiny for apparent astroturfed campaigns.

“If you follow the money here, it goes right back to the most hardcore, bare-knuckled liberal donors in the country,” Todd said.

National Republican Senatorial Campaign spokesman Philip Letsou said it’s “no surprise” Osborn is “being propped up by far-left dark money groups and Epstein-tied billionaires like Reid Hoffman.”

“Osborn is Chuck Schumer’s sock-puppet who wants to eliminate the filibuster and pass the Democrats’ radical agenda,” Letsou said. The Osborn campaign did not return a request for comment.

Nebraska Railroaders for Public Safety has paid roughly $100,000 to the firm of its co-founder, Hampton, on ads boosting Osborn, the Nebraska candidate.

“He’s very good at digital media and video editing, things like that,” Helmink said of Hampton. “That’s what I rely on him for.”

IFrame Content

The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan elections tracker, rates the Nebraska Senate seat as “Solid Republican” in 2024. Still, public polling has found Fischer and Osborn neck and neck, with the Republican leading by just 2 percentage points in an August survey by YouGov among registered voters.

Another poll in August by SurveyUSA among registered voters found Fischer ahead by 1 point.

Hoffman did not return a request for comment through his venture capital firm, Greylock Partners.

Sixteen Thirty Fund did not reply to a request for comment.

“We started this thing on a shoestring budget,” Helmink told the Washington Examiner. “Slowly, as support has come in, we’ve added staff, we’ve added research, and we’ve kind of upped our presence as the money allows. The big thing is we spend the money very wisely.”

“We spend it like it’s our own,” Helmink added.

Campaigns

PAC targeting Republican for ‘Swamp’ ties leans on DC dark money and billionaire Democrat

Gabe Kaminsky - September 24, 2024 3:22 pm

Ex-Biden climate adviser spins through revolving door to lobbying firm

Energy

Ex-Biden climate adviser spins through revolving door to lobbying firm

Gabe Kaminsky - September 23, 2024 5:43 pm

A former senior climate adviser to President Joe Biden’s Department of Energy has spun through the revolving door to join a lobbying firm focused on green energy issues.

Karen Skelton, an ex-senior DOE policy adviser who has aided Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and senior climate diplomat John Podesta since 2021, is joining Boundary Stone Partners as a senior adviser, E&E News reported. Boundary Stone Partners was hired by 45 clients in 2024 and heavily lobbies on issues related to energy and nuclear power, as well as the manufacturing sector, according to OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan lobbying tracker.

“I look forward to building on Boundary Stone Partners’ quality work on climate policy and the energy transition,” Skelton said. “Their work is instrumental to advancing climate solutions in the United States, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.”

The job move illustrates how federal staffers often cash in on their government service to accept roles at deep-pocketed companies, including those lobbying on issues that staffers helped shape on the dime of taxpayers.

:{:{Jennifer Granholm testifies before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee during a hearing to examine her nomination.}:

to be Secretary of Energy on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Jim Watson/Pool via AP)}:

Skelton “organized and administered private and public sector engagement in key U.S. states to support passage of the Inflation Reduction Act,” a massive climate spending law under Biden, according to Skelton’s LinkedIn account. Boundary Stone Partners, for instance, lobbied on behalf of clients in connection to the Inflation Reduction Act, federal records show.

During the Biden-Harris administration, Boundary Stone Partners has deployed more lobbyists to the Energy Department each year than any other agency, according to lobbying disclosures. Over 30% of its lobbyists in 2024 have been through the revolving door, OpenSecrets found.

A former longtime political consultant, Skelton will advise clients of Boundary Stone Partners on navigating public-private partnerships, according to E&E News.

“Karen’s expertise in policy development and implementation in partnership with the private sector will be a tremendous asset to our team as we continue to drive the critical work needed to support the transition to a clean energy economy,” Sydney Bopp, managing partner at the firm, said in a statement.

---

Biden White House hosted leader of Hamas-linked group

Investigations

EXCLUSIVE — President Joe Biden’s White House National Security Council recently hosted the leader of a group with a track record of collaborating in Gaza with Hamas officials, the Washington Examiner confirmed.

The NSC held a meeting in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11 with Syrian-American community leaders, including Shadi Zaza, CEO of the Michigan-based organization Rahma Worldwide, according to the NSC and Rahma. Unearthed social media posts and Arabic news sources show Zaza and his group have a history of meeting and partnering with Hamas officials on aid initiatives — including just days before the Palestinian terrorist faction’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel in 2023.

“We have spoken at length about our condemnation of Hamas and the horrible atrocities they committed on Oct. 7,” an NSC spokesperson said.

Speaking to the Washington Examiner, the spokesperson insisted the NSC was not aware of Zaza’s ties to Hamas and that the meeting focused on countering Syria’s Assad regime rather than on Gaza matters.

Still, news of the meeting will likely further incense Republicans in Congress, who have faulted the Biden-Harris administration for, at times, platforming anti-Israel activists who have appeared to sympathize with Hamas and make derogatory comments about Jews. A Syrian-American community leader crafted the September guest list, which was approved by the Secret Service, a source familiar said.

The Secret Service did not return a request for comment.

But the NSC staffers who allowed someone “openly supporting a foreign terrorist organization like Hamas to enter the Eisenhower Executive Office Building are either grossly incompetent or fully support Hamas,” according to a senior GOP Senate aide who works on national security matters.

In August 2024, Rahma Vice President Adib Choiki signed a joint cooperation agreement with Majed Abu Ramadan of Hamas’s Gaza Health Ministry for a blood drive in Gaza, according to Palestinian media. It was hardly the first collaboration with Hamas officials.

Just days before Hamas’s deadly Oct. 7 terrorist attack, Zaza and other Rahma staffers were pictured in Gaza for another aid initiative for low-income families with officials from the Hamas-run Ministry of Social Development, according to images and Palestinian reports. The meetings came around the same time that the Biden-Harris administration’s Department of Health and Human Services granted almost $175,000 to Rahma for a vaccine program, federal spending records show.

Kuwait’s Islamic Heritage Revival Society, a terrorist group sanctioned by the U.S. government for funding al Qaeda, helped back the October 2023 Rahma-tied initiative, social media posts show. Attending one event in Gaza last October for the programming alongside Zaza was Hamas official Sami Barhoum.

The ties between Rahma and Hamas run deeper, according to Sam Westrop, director of the Middle East Forum think tank’s Islamist Watch project. Rahma “appears to be a key component of a Hamas-aligned network in the United States,” according to Westrop.

Rahma insisted in a statement to the Washington Examiner that it has “no affiliation with any political groups or militant factions.”

“Our involvement in Gaza focuses exclusively on humanitarian support while we abide by international standards of aid work, working through recognized channels to ensure the delivery of essential services,” a Rahma official said. “We refute any suggestion of our support for terror-related activities. Our mission is solely to aid the vulnerable and displaced.”

“Dr. Zaza’s visit to the [White House] is confidential,” continued the official for Rahma, a nonprofit group registered with the IRS.

Back in 2021, after signing an aid agreement with Hamas’s Health Ministry, Rahma’s CEO also met with senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad at the Palestinian Ministry of Social Development, according to a Facebook post unearthed by Westrop.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

After the Oct. 7 attack, the Hamas official pledged more terrorist attacks “time and again until Israel is annihilated.”

“Everything we do is justified,” the Hamas official said in October of last year.

In a 2023 speech, Zaza disclosed Rahma’s work with Hamas’s “Ministry of Social Development, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, the Ministry of Education, and the General Administration of Zakat” on university funding and other Gaza-based initiatives.

The event where Zaza made those remarks, a luxury hotel in Gaza City, was reported in 2011 to be located “next door” to a Hamas military training camp.

Rahma has also coordinated Palestinian aid efforts with Aid 48, a Turkish Hamas front group, according to Jewish News Syndicate.

“That Rahma officials are meeting and partnering with senior Hamas figures in the same week they receive government funding is appalling,” Westrop said. “The federal government is subsidizing terror.”

A source familiar said the September NSC meeting featured “working level staffers,” not White House leadership.

The HHS did not return a request for comment.

To Marc Greendorfer, an attorney at the Zachor Legal Institute, Rahma could still open itself up to legal problems even if its collaboration with Hamas officials has been for non-terrorism-related activity.

“As such, they not only would be liable in criminal and civil litigation for providing material support to terror and aiding and abetting a foreign terror organization, they would be in violation of IRS 501(c)(3) rules and should have their tax-exempt status revoked,” Greendorfer said.

Biden White House hosted leader of Hamas-linked group

Gabe Kaminsky - September 20, 2024 6:00 am

George Soros pours $250,000 into the Global Disinformation Index

News

George Soros pours $250,000 into the Global Disinformation Index

Gabe Kaminsky - September 18, 2024 12:43 pm

Jim Banks investigates State Department for apparent effort to link him to Russia falsely

House

Jim Banks investigates State Department for apparent effort to link him to Russia falsely

Gabe Kaminsky - September 17, 2024 12:44 pm

FEC finally rules ‘phantom’ left-wing group filed false financial disclosures in 2020

News

FEC finally rules ‘phantom’ left-wing group filed false financial disclosures in 2020

Gabe Kaminsky - September 16, 2024 4:43 pm

Alex Soros’s White House access under Biden hits two dozen visits

White House

Alex Soros’s White House access under Biden hits two dozen visits

Gabe Kaminsky - September 16, 2024 3:19 pm

---

[### Gabe Kaminsky

Washington Examiner

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com › author › gabe-...](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/author/gabe-kaminsky/)

Gabe Kaminsky is an investigative reporter for the Washington Examiner. You can follow him on X: @gekaminsky.

[### Gabe Kaminsky (@gekaminsky) / ...

X · gekaminsky

18K+ followers](https://twitter.com/gekaminsky)

SCOOP: As Minnesota's governor, Tim Walz — on at least 5 occasions — hosted a Muslim cleric who celebrated Hamas' Oct. 7 attack and promoted a pro-Hitler ...

[### State Department's response amid questions over ...

Washington Examiner

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com › politics › biden](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/biden/3159088/state-department-response-censorship-funding-ironic-gabe-kaminsky/)

Sep 18, 2024 — Washington Examiner investigative reporter Gabe Kaminsky discussed efforts to bring to light examples of the State Department's GEC being ...

Missing: kaminski ‎| Show results with: kaminski

[### Gabe Kaminsky and Ben Shapiro detail report on Tim ...

Washington Examiner

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com › presidential › g...](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/presidential/3118820/gabe-kaminsky-ben-shapiro-report-tim-walz-ties-hitler-promoting-cleric/)

Aug 12, 2024 — The cleric in question, Asad Zaman, is from the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, whom Tim Walz has hosted on at least five occasions, ...

Missing: kaminski ‎| Show results with: kaminski

[### Washington Examiner investigative reporter Gabe ...

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com › reel › CosXjuTASv0](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CosXjuTASv0/)

656 likes, 29 comments - washingtonexaminer on February 15, 2023: "Washington Examiner investigative reporter Gabe Kaminsky was commended on The Ingraham ...

Missing: kaminski ‎| Show results with: kaminski

[### Reporter's Notebook: State Department targets journalists ...

Washington Examiner

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com › state-departme...](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/reporters-notebook/3161452/state-department-targets-journalists-disinformation-reporting/)

8 days ago — Investigative Reporter Gabe Kaminsky joins Magazine Executive Editor Jim Antle to discuss the State Department's targeting of journalists ...

Missing: kaminski ‎| Show results with: kaminski

[### Washington Examiner investigative reporter Gabe Kaminsky ...

Facebook · Washington Examiner

20+ reactions · 2 weeks ago](https://m.facebook.com/WashingtonExaminer/videos/washington-examiner-investigative-reporter-gabe-kaminsky-finds-tim-walz-promoted/511787178255170/)

[

0:46](https://m.facebook.com/WashingtonExaminer/videos/washington-examiner-investigative-reporter-gabe-kaminsky-finds-tim-walz-promoted/511787178255170/)

Washington Examiner investigative reporter Gabe Kaminsky finds Tim Walz promoted research facility that partners with China's Wuhan lab ...

Missing: kaminski ‎| Show results with: kaminski

[### The Debrief: Gabe Kaminsky on conservative news blacklists

Washington Examiner

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com › Videos](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/videos/789174/the-debrief-gabe-kaminsky-on-conservative-news-blacklists/)

Feb 19, 2023 — Washington Examiner Investigative Reporter Gabe Kaminsky joins Sarah Westwood to discuss his series Disinformation Inc., which is exploring ...

[### Gabe Kaminsky (@gekaminsky) / ...

https://x.com › gekaminsky](https://x.com/gekaminsky?lang=en)

Investigative Reporter @dcexaminer gkaminsky@washingtonexaminer.com.

[### Gabe Kaminsky discusses $1 billion left-wing dark money ...

Washington Examiner

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com › News](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/2804931/news-washington-examiners-gabe-kaminsky-explains-investigating-dark-money/)

Jan 18, 2024 — Gabe Kaminsky stated Thursday that the dark money network Arabella Advisors is distributing over $1 billion to different groups throughout ...

Missing: kaminski ‎| Show results with: kaminski

===

mma 9 24

MAGA media are attacking ProPublica’s comprehensive account of the role Georgia’s six-week abortion ban played in a woman's death

Special ProgramsAbortion Rights & Reproductive Health

Written by Chloe Simon

Published 09/19/24

Right-wing media are attacking a ProPublica piece scrutinizing the death of Amber Nicole Thurman, who died after she could not get an abortion in her state and then got delayed abortion care in a local hospital.

The piece elaborates on Thurman’s “preventable” death and Georgia’s strict abortion ban and vague language on “life of the mother” exceptions. Thurman had to travel to North Carolina for a dilation and curettage because she was past the six-week limit in Georgia, but traffic made her miss her appointment, so she received medication abortion instead. She suffered a rare complication, and doctors at a Georgia hospital failed to perform the needed D&C until it was too late.

Right-wing and anti-abortion media have denounced ProPublica’s report as “lies” and claimed that Georgia’s abortion law is not the reason for Thurman’s death.

## ProPublica’s report on Thurman’s death shows how Georgia’s abortion ban puts patients and doctors in harm’s way

- On September 16, ProPublica published an investigative report detailing the death of Amber Nicole Thurman, who suffered rare complications after receiving abortion medication and then waited 20 hours to get a needed D&C.Thurman had scheduled a dilation and curettage in North Carolina because she was nine weeks pregnant and her home state of Georgia bans abortions after six weeks, but she missed her appointment due to heavy traffic. The clinic, which was four hours away from Thurman’s home, gave her a “two-pill abortion regimen” for her pregnancy, which was “well within the standard of care for that treatment.” After suffering complications from the medication, which are exceedingly rare, Thurman went to a Georgia hospital, where doctors waited 20 hours to perform a D&C. Thurman, who ProPublica described as being “otherwise healthy,” died at 28 years old. ProPublica, [9/16/24]

- Abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol are incredibly safe and effective forms of medication. A CNN data analysis showed that abortion medication is “safer than penicillin and Viagra,” as both medications have higher death rates than mifepristone and misoprostol. Salon also noted that medication abortion “has a mortality rate of .0003%, which is 1 in every 377,000 cases. (Out of 377,000 women who give birth, in contrast, 83 will die.)” CNN, [6/13/24; Salon, 9/19/24]

- In 2019, Georgia passed the LIFE Act, which bans abortion after six weeks and forced Thurman to travel to North Carolina for abortion care. Thurman was forced to make the long trip to North Carolina to obtain the D&C because Georgia had banned the procedure with “few exceptions.” ProPublica explained that Georgia law specifically “prohibits doctors from using any instrument ‘with the purpose of terminating a pregnancy.’” Thurman also did not meet the requirements for Georgia’s “lifesaving exceptions” for an abortion. ProPublica noted that “while removing fetal tissue is not terminating a pregnancy, medically speaking, the law only specifies it’s not considered an abortion to remove ‘a dead unborn child’ that resulted from a ‘spontaneous abortion’ defined as ‘naturally occurring’ from a miscarriage or a stillbirth.” Thurman had told her doctors that she was not experiencing a spontaneous abortion, as she had already taken abortion medication to end a pregnancy. Reuters, [10/25/23; ProPublica, 9/16/24]

- The Guttmacher Institute has described bills like Georgia’s LIFE Act as “designed to be unworkable, containing vague and contradictory language and imposing cumbersome requirements.”In 2019, abortion activists had warned that the bill’s language was vague and could lead to harsh legal penalties for those who obtain abortions and those who perform them. Krystal Redman, the executive director of Spark Reproductive Justice Now, said that “eliminating a health care option” would be a “disservice” as Georgians are already “dying because of the maternal health here in Georgia.” In Thurman’s case, Salon also argued that “doctors still had every reason to be afraid” to perform a D&C because if “Thurman had received timely medical care and survived, a right-wing prosecutor could argue she wasn't that sick to begin with.” Guttmacher, [7/29/24; Vox, 6/28/19; Salon, 9/19/24]

## Right-wing and anti-abortion media are accusing ProPublica of “telling lies” and of incorrectly blaming Georgia’s abortion law for Thurman’s death

- Anti-abortion activist Lila Rose attacked the piece, claiming that it’s “a complete lie.”She accused ProPublica of using “tragic medical malpractice cases that have nothing to do with making abortion illegal to justify legalizing the killing of babies on demand.” Twitter/X, [9/17/24]

- Right-wing social media personality Amuse suggested that the ProPublica piece was “misinformation” and that the Georgia abortion law “was NOT a factor in the death of Amber Thurman.”The post also stated, “Mrs. Thurman sought and received a medication abortion and tragically died from an infection caused by the abortion. Doctors were unable to save her by the time she made it to the ER and was diagnosed.” Twitter/X, [9/17/24]

- Anti-abortion group Live Action claimed that Thurman’s death was “preventable” and that “abortion and medical neglect killed her.”The group further claimed that “if abortion pills were illegal, Amber Thurman would be alive today. Her twins would be alive today.” Twitter/X, [9/18/24, 9/18/24]

- Grabien founder Tom Elliott wrote, “The pro-abortion crowd would have you believe that Amber Thurman would still be alive were abortion readily available in Georgia. But that’s not what the details reveal.”He continued, “ProPublica cited no evidence that the delayed procedure related to Georgia’s abortion ban and not the kind of routine delays so often plaguing understaffed hospitals.” Twitter/X, [9/17/24]

Breitbart published a piece titled “Left-Wing ProPublica Ties Georgia Abortion Law to Woman’s Death Without Clear Evidence.”The article goes on to claim that “Thurman’s story, in addition to other tragic stories, is already being used by Democrats to promote their agenda of undoing all abortion restrictions by passing a federal law that allows abortion-on-demand.” Breitbart, [9/18/24]|}:

- Anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life claimed, “Georgia’s pro-life law is not the reason for her death. Dangerous abortion drugs, and fearmongering about pro-life laws, are.”The group added, “shame on @ProPublica for their distortions.” Twitter/X, [9/17/24]

* Washington Examiner’s David Harsanyi wrote that the “ProPublica piece on Amber Thurman's death is a masterclass in hackery and conjecture.” He went on to say that there’s “literally nothing in the piece backing the claim that Thurman died because of GA's abortion law.” Twitter/X, [9/17/24]

- The Federalist wrote, “Media, Democrats Blame Pro-Lifers After The Abortion Pill They Promote Killed A Woman And Her Babies.”The piece claimed that “all evidence suggests Thurman’s death was due to medical negligence egged on by leftist fearmongering about lifesaving laws that provably protect women and babies from harm.” The Federalist, [9/18/24]

- Anti-abortion organization Secular Pro-Life claimed that “Amber Nicole Thurman died after legally obtaining abortion pills in North Carolina. Pro-abortion activists are falsely blaming Georgia law for her death.”Twitter/X, [9/17/24]

- Right-wing social media figures Keith and Kevin Hodge called ProPublica’s headline a “total lie,” saying that “she didn’t die because she couldn’t get an abortion. She took the abortion pills but the hospital waited too long to do surgery.” They also added that “the hospital is at fault.” Twitter/X, [9/16/24]

- The Family Research Council praised the work of Susan B. Anthony Pro Life and Live Action for “separating fact from fiction in the ProPublica story.”Twitter/X, [9/17/24]

### Broadcast news, Fox News failed to cover deaths stemming from Georgia's six-week abortion ban

09/19/24

### Project 2025 partner president makes misleading claims about IVF and hospital treatment of women dealing with miscarriages

09/13/24

### Anti-abortion groups have launched aggressive lobbying campaigns against ballot abortion access amendments across the country

09/05/24

---

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/14/2163923/-Biden-s-Clean-Car-Rule-Leaves-Deniers-Grinding-Gears-And-Accidentally-Justify-Policy-Support

4 23 kos

on Tuesday, we talked about how the "major questions doctrine" is being used to justify opposition to climate policies like the Biden administration’s fuel efficiency standards that will speed up the transition to the cleaner vehicles that the climate needs.

Biden is simply telling car manufacturers to make their products more efficient so their customers will save money on gas, but it was only a matter of time until disinformers began shouting that “}:{.” :{However, for the first few days since the news broke, the disinfosphere was decidedly distracted, and the response has been slow to roll out.}:

the Daily Caller, for example, buried its coverage half-way down its front page, putting its story on Biden's "strictest-ever car emissions regulations" (that was cobbled together from other outlets) next to "news" about a YouTuber's boxing match and below "allegations of an alien sighting at Donald Trump hearing."

Breitbart didn't seem to notice the news and instead dedicated space to fearmongering about immigrants, the FBI, gun control, the E Street Band's Van Zandt, and trans people drinking beer and swimming. You know, real, important news stuff—just like what Fox was covering.

Unlike The Daily Caller, Fox's story did have some originally reported content, though unfortunately, it was from deniers, so that extra effort actually decreased the net information readers would come away with.Thomas Catenacci, Fox's dedicated climate disinfo producer, performed as expected, and his story published at 5:54am on Wednesday included quotes criticizing Biden’s regulations.

One quote complaining about "government coercion" was from Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which has received funding from tobacco giant Philip Morris, oil company Texaco, three Koch Foundations, Arch Coal, ExxonMobil, and bankrupted Murray Energy, to name just a few of the companies who benefit from claims that government regulations on dangerous products are bad. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) called this rule "anti-American," though like Ebell, is backed by government-regulation-adverse interests. His top contributors are Boeing, the beef industry, and Altria, the rebranded Philip Morris. A tweet from Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) about defunding the EPAis also par for the course, since the oil and gas industry has given Roy $514,445 in funding, with top contributors including pipeline company Nustar Energy, petroleum company Valero Energy, and of course, Koch Industries. Catenacci couldn't find anyone independent of the fossil fuel industry to give a quote about this regulation that would impact the fossil fuel industry, but don't worry, he didn't tell Fox's readers that!

On Fox Business, Rick Perry called the regulations "ill-thought-out,” which is saying something, considering the Dancing With The Stars alum knows a thing or two about ill-thought-out decisions, like his "regret" for calling to abolish the Department of Energy after Trump appointed him to lead it.

And after being on Dan Bongino's Fox show, Marc Morano sent out an email promoting his appearance, including this choice quote illustrating how transphobia is being adopted more and more frequently by climate deniers searching for audiences: "It is easier to transition your gender than it is your energy, particularly on the energy timescales they're talking about. So if you think it's impossible for a man to have a baby, well, then it's equally impossible to have solar and wind power our entire economy."

Ironically, since it's not at all impossible for a man to have a baby, Morano's quote has the opposite meaning from what he intended!

But the outlet that put the most visible effort into producing anti-EV disinformation this week was the Washington Examiner, where "Energy and Environment" reporters Jeremy Beaman and Breanne Deppisch got fancy graphic illustrations for three of the five stories they did as part of a "Stalled out" spate of EV stories. On the 10th, they published a piece about the "big obstacles" facing an EV charging buildout, and their April 11 story discussed problems that EV drivers are encountering as a result of insufficient public policy support for EVs, which this new policy addresses.

On Wednesday, the Washington Examiner published a straight news piece on the policy announcement, as well as another piece with a headline reading, "EV push threatens to strain power grids and threaten reliability." The new 'news' in that story is a study published last month that's described as being about the dangers of EV adoption, but is actually about how those challenges can be overcome, and concludes the more EVs the greater the benefits to enjoy.

Then on Wednesday afternoon came coverage of a Gallup poll, which informed readers that only 12% of American drivers are "seriously considering" buying an EV. But again, those who click through to the source will get a different understanding, as the Examiner piece fails to mention the category of people who "might consider" buying an EV in the future, which was actually the biggest share of responses at 43%.

In other words, the Examiner went to great lengths to highlight all the problems with EVs to try to condemn Biden's move, but it just ended up listing reasons why even more public investment is needed in EV infrastructure!

// liz C RR libr after J6 #5 beast

https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/right-wing-news-site-delivers-blistering-op-ed-on-trump-admitting-he-doesn-t-need-to-be-anywhere-near-the-white-house-again/

no lnx (dunno about orig]

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jul/21/mark-perry**-nonsensical-fractivist-pipeline-hysteri/**

By Mark J. Perry - - Tuesday, July 21, 2015

OPINION:

The anti-fracking movement has moved beyond the realm of the petty and unseemly into the ridiculous. Led by Yoko Ono, the avant-garde artist and widow of musician John Lennon, fracktivists are trying to stop construction of pipelines that would carry natural gas from the Marcellus Shale region in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and the Utica Shale region in Ohio to markets in New York and New England. Designed to alleviate current bottlenecks in natural gas distribution, the new pipelines could help reduce the cost of natural gas and electricity for hundreds of thousands of households and businesses throughout the Northeast.

If there was ever any doubt, it’s now clear that the myopic anti-fracking obsession of those on the environmental fringe has far eclipsed their interest in lowering global warming emissions or ensuring the availability of reliable and affordable energy.

Despite the results of a landmark study by the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) — and a plethora of other studies — that show hydraulic fracturing is being done in an environmentally safe way, anti-fracking activists claim otherwise, insisting that shale production threatens groundwater supplies and air quality. Isolated incidents are turned into epidemics, even though they’ve been effectively addressed by state regulation and improved industry operations.[no evidence]

[TOP STORIES 5 22

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And when manipulating the scientific data doesn’t work, fracktivists simply ignore the science altogether. Fear is their favorite tool. For example, fractivists have rebranded natural gas produced from America’s prolific shale formations as “fracked methane.” And to slow the shale gas boom, they’re now focusing on blocking construction of proposed natural gas pipelines.

Buoyed by the Obama administration’s inept handling of the Keystone XL pipeline decision, the anti-fracking activists believe they can create a groundswell of opposition to a number of proposed pipeline projects. Their extreme frackophobia — recently displayed in a full-page ad in The New York Times, paid for by Yoko Ono — rests on three faulty presumptions: Hydraulic fracking causes environmental damage, greater use of shale gas will exacerbate climate change, and the natural gas carried by the pipelines is not intended for American consumers but rather will go to export markets. Each of these three claims is completely baseless.

Not only has the EPA determined that hydraulic fracking poses a minimal threat to groundwater supplies but we know that shale gas has been a game-changer for cost-effectively reducing carbon-dioxide emissions. Setting aside the debate about the need for greenhouse-gas emissions reductions, greater use of natural gas in place of coal for electricity generation has been the key to driving U.S. carbon-dioxide emissions in recent years to the lowest levels since the mid-1990s, and to the lowest level on a per-capita basis since the mid-1960s.

Surging shale gas production has provided a cheap and cleaner alternative for power generation. When burned in place of coal to generate electricity, natural gas produces just half the carbon emissions. The environmental gains from natural gas — which just overtook coal in April as the leading energy source of electricity generation in the United States for the first time ever — are undeniable.

However, reaping the full benefits of the shale revolution has been hampered by infrastructure constraints. While natural gas production has jumped by 25 percent during the last five years and demand has also risen, expansion of the country’s pipeline capacity to get the natural gas to consumers has not kept pace. The result has been distribution problems in the Northeast that have caused massive spikes in natural gas prices during the coldest weeks of the winter. Indeed, natural gas prices in the past two New England winters have climbed to some of the highest levels in the world despite the region’s proximity to the prolific Marcellus shale,which is our country’s lowest-priced natural gas hub.

Newly proposed pipelines that will bring abundant gas supplies from the Marcellus Formation and the Utica Shale gas fields to the Northeast aren’t a luxury, they’re an economic necessity. The pipelines are needed both to keep energy costs affordable for residential and commercial users, and to allow the Northeast to meet its energy requirements now and in the future. And the claims by frackivists that the proposed new pipelines will serve export facilities are baseless. There are no natural gas export terminals in the Northeast nor are any being planned.

As we consider the critical need to add natural gas pipeline capacity in the Northeast, let’s hope common sense prevails, even if Yoko Ono and the fracktivists have none.

• Mark J. Perry is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Instituteand a professor of economics at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan.

[[

Josh Siegel is an energy and environment reporter at the Washington Examiner and helps author the Daily on Energy newsletter. Prior to coming on staff, he covered foreign policy, immigration, and criminal justice.

He graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University, where he studied business and journalism and wassports editorof Eagle News.]]

no lnx

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/us-oil-lobby-endorses-carbon-pricing-to-counter-command-climate-policies

uS oil lobby endorses carbon pricing to counter 'command and control' climate policies

by Josh Siegel, Energy and Environment Reporter | :{:(style="box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;text-rendering:auto;-webkit-font-smoothing:antialiased"):}:

|March 25, 2021

American Petroleum Institute endorsed carbon pricing on Thursday, putting the weight of the largest U.S. oil and gas lobbying group behind what many economists consider to be the most efficient policy to combat climate change.

API’s support for the policy after years of resistance shows how pricing carbon, either through a tax or cap-and-trade program, has become the most palatable option for business groups despite its political unpopularity.

MITT ROMNEY LEANS IN ON CARBON TAX TO SPUR CLEAN ENERGY TECHNOLOGY BREAKTHROUGHS] INNOVATION BS]

The oil and gas industry is looking to demonstrate commitment to fighting climate change whilefending off mandates and regulations that have become the preferred approaches of the Biden administration and most Democrats.

“The administration is talking about command and control approaches,” API CEO Mike Sommerstold the Washington Examiner. “We want to enter into this debate on one of biggest issues of the day to pursue a more market-based approach.”

API’s new position is a clear shift from its previous stance and follows similar positioning by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which recently endorsed a “market-based approach” to accelerate emissions reductions across the economy, a term that generally means a carbon tax or cap-and-trade policy.Economists have long contended that a carbon tax is the simplest and most efficient way to address greenhouse gas emissions, since it would reorient the market to support clean energy without mandating it.

A carbon tax would apply a per-ton fee for large emitters such as power plants and refineries that would encourage energy producers to switch to cleaner alternatives if doing so would cost less than paying the tax. A carbon price, at least initially, could benefit natural gas by pricing coal out of the market.

“There is a recognition [PASSIVE] that a price signal through a market-based mechanism is the best way to incentivize investments in technology to continue to lower emissions and to address climate change,” Sommers said.

API has acknowledged in recent years that climate change is a problem that needs to be addressed. It has backed policies such as funding federal research and tax breaks forcarbon capture technologies that can enable fossil fuel operators to continue to operate as long as they prevent their emissions from reaching the atmosphere.

But Sommers said that API and its members are facing pressure from shareholders and investors, and its own workers, to do more, and he made clear the group now supports a comprehensive federal policy to address climate change across the economy, not just a series of one-offs.

“When I came into API two years ago, we did not have a climate policy,” said Sommers, who was the chief of staff to former GOP House Speaker John Boehner. “This change was really driven by the membership.”

Along with its support for carbon pricing, API released a broader "climate action framework"Thursday.

The group said it will continue to advocate for funding to support clean energy technologies, includingcarbon capture and hydrogen, which is increasingly being viewed as a critical technology to curb emissions in the power and industrial sectors. Natural gas groups see an opportunity to use their pipeline infrastructure to transport hydrogen and generate electricity with it.

API also reiterated its shift announced in January to support the direct federal regulation of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from new and existing oil and gas operations.

And it vowed to expand its guidance [EXPAMD FROM WHAT? WHAT EXPERTISE?] to member oil and gas companies on how to disclose their risks from climate change. The Biden administration’s Securities and Exchange Commission took a first step last week toward requiring public companies to disclose the risks they face from climate change and emissions reduction policies, so the oil and gas industry is looking to show that it is acting voluntarily.

But API’s shift on carbon pricing is the biggest development, although it remains to be seen whether the nod from the oil industry will persuade lawmakers to back the policy.

API is not endorsing a specific carbon pricing policy, leaving unanswered critical questions about how high a tax on companies should be and how to handle the revenue raised by it.

That’s intentional, Sommers said, because API wants to “provide flexibility to lawmakers as they develop these policies.”

Sommers said API won’t be lobbying for a carbon tax to be included as part of the Biden administration’s forthcoming infrastructure package, which is expected to feature major spending on clean energy.

“We would not support adding a price on carbon to abig infrastructure bill as a pay-for,” Sommers said. “We are not designing this to be some new flywheel for government spending. It is meant to address climate change.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Critics say the support of business groups for carbon pricing won’t spur a legislative breakthrough unless they pour lobbying money behind the policy.

“Time will tell if industry support is any more than the political theater of the moment,” said Ben Ratner, the senior director with the Environmental Defense Fund+Business. “It’s one thing to support a concept and quite another to support a bill.”

TAGS: News Energy and Environment Fossil Fuels Carbon Tax Climate Change American Petroleum Institute Chamber of CommercE

word salad

https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/trump-2656686160/

badash ncrm an

In an “exclusive” Fox News interview Donald Trump, the failed, disgraced, one-term twice impeachedformer president, suggests he’s read the legal filing from John Durham,a special counsel secretly installed in 2020 by then-Attorney General Bill Barr, who revealed the attorney’s status weeks before resigning from office, just before the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Trump referred to him as “Robert Durham”in a statement when the news of the filing broke, and now is suggesting that he has both read the legal filing and predicted its contents “a long time ago.”

The problem is Fox News and many other far-right-wing media outlets, have gotten it wrong, mostly wrong, or all wrong.

“Fox News inaccurately declared that Mr. Durham had said he had evidence that Hillary Clinton’s campaign had paid a technology company to ‘infiltrate’ a White House server,” The New York Times reported Monday. “The Washington Examiner claimed that this all meant there had been spying on Mr. Trump’s White House office.”

On Tuesday Trump told Fox News: “It looks like this is just the beginning, because, if you read the filing and have any understanding of what took place, and I called this a long time ago, you’re going to see a lot of other things happening,having to do with what, really, just is a continuation of the crime of the century.”

“This is such a big event, nobody’s seen anything like this.”

Because it didn’t happen, at least, not as Trump and his right-wing smokescreen allies claim.

“Who would think a thing like this is even possible?” Trump also told Fox News. “Durham is also coming up withthings far bigger than anybody thought possible—Nobody ever thought a thinglike this would be even discussed, let alone an act like this committed.”

“You have experts that do this, but they used experts to do it, and to think they could even think about doing that is not believable and, think—if they do it, foreign countries can do it,” Trump said.

“It is no different than Watergate, except a much more important location,” Trump said. “It is the same theft—just modern day.”

And the “best” lines from his interview: “This is treason at the highest level,” and, “It is not even believable.”

https://www.mediamatters.org/fake-news/right-wing-disinformation-about-electoral-fraud-wisconsin-got-its-start-site-disguised

parker m

The march of election-related disinformation continues unabated. On Wednesday, an article published at a website called Milwaukee City Wire falsely claimed that a number of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, wards were reporting more votes than registered voters. Though untrue, the article spread widely across social media among supporters of President Donald Trump in search of evidence to back up baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.

Nothing about the numbers in the article added up. For example, the article claimed that voting ward 274 in Milwaukee was home to 640 registered voters, but received 1,290 votes, a turnout of an impossible 202%. The actual numbers, according to the Milwaukee County Clerk’s office, showed 611 out of 702 registered voters cast ballots.

On Thursday, Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe addressed this claim during a public briefing:

Every ballot cast in the state of Wisconsin has a paper audit trail. Every voter registration and absentee request is maintained and available during that public process. And to address some of the questions head-on, Wisconsin does not have more votes cast than registered voters. There were no absentee ballots found in the middle of the night. There were lawyers and observers from both parties on site and involved the entire time.

Wisconsin ABC affiliate WISN investigated the claims made in the City Wire article. When reporter Hillary Mintz reached City Wire publisher Brian Timpone,he tried to play it off as an honest mistake. When confronted with the fact that his numbers appeared to be completely invented, he defended the post and said, “The change in the records doesn't change the story's point materially at all.”

Milwaukee City Wire is part of a growing trend in which right-wing propaganda is packaged to look like it’s coming from a legitimate local news source.

The site is one of dozens of locally branded conservative content farm sites run by Timpone’s Metric Media. In October 2019, The New York Times reported on the sudden emergence of a number of Metric Media sites in Michigan in June of that year. Metric Media’s outlets often have anodyne-sounding names like The Kalamazoo Times, Waterford Today, and The Grand Rapids Reporter. If you didn’t know better, you would assume that these were the names of local newspapers -- this is by design.

The Columbia Journalism Review published its own profile of Metric Media and similar companies that December. CJR called these “pink slime” outlets, a reference to the meat byproduct often found in fast food-quality ground beef. The article criticized these entities as “partisan outlets masquerading as local news organizations” and a source of electoral disinformation.

Though the Milwaukee City Wire article was updated with more accurate information after WISN’s investigation, it had already served its purpose as a catalyst for right-wing conspiracy-mongering.

Josh Hammer, the editor of Newsweek’s increasingly right-wing opinion section and co-author of a note defending the once-respectable news outlet’s racist “birther” smear aimed at Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, was one of the fairly prominent Twitter users to share the article. Hammer has previously praised Trump’s attacks on institutions like legitimate news organizations, and shared articles making unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.

Washington Examiner reporter Mike Brest shared the story on his Twitter account. Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel shared the story on Twitter, though she would later delete it, explaining that there were “discrepancies” between the fake story she shared and actual data. Unfortunately, other right-wing opportunists regurgitated the fictitious report in their own work, spreading it even further.

Pro-Trump former CNN commentator Jeffrey Lord posted a blog to his personal websitecentered around the story, incorrectly calling the false City Wire numbers “a data graph from the Milwaukee County Clerk,” which it assuredly was not. Fox News host Sean Hannity tweeted multiple links to Lord’s blog.

Another story that cited the City Wire story, written by Michael Anton at American Greatness, was tweeted out by Republican Party national spokesperson Elizabeth Harrington. Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List, tweeted out another version of Anton’s blog post published by the conservative **Claremont Institute** as well as the original City Wire story.

Predictably, dumbest man on the internet Jim Hoft cited the invented data in a post at his Gateway Pundit blog.

This surely won’t be the last time a “pink slime” news outlet is used to launder a narrative into the conservative media ecosystem, but it serves as a case study about how freely disinformation spreads online, leaving readers and reputable journalists to fight it.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/conservative-journalist-caught-on-tape-pretending-to-board-up-a-business-for-instagram

an 620

As protests continue nationwide, some volunteers are coming together to clean up and rebuild areas affected by looting, arson, and vandalism. Worldwide, social media is being used to share images, resources, and views on the issues of racial injustice and the Black Lives Matter movement. Unfortunately, some people are using this time to gain social media popularity and pose as contributing to efforts to rebuild and care for the community.

A video of a woman in California pretending to help board up a store window went viral Monday after it was shared on Twitter. “This lady stopped someone boarding up a store in Santa Monica so she could hold the drill for a picture, then drove away. Please don’t do this,” the post read. Commenters including a staff member from The New York Times identified the woman as Fiona Moriarty-McLaughlin, a writer for the conservative Washington Examiner.

In the video, Moriarty-Mclaughlin can be seen taking a drill from a volunteer, posing with it to have her photo taken, then proceeding to run into her Mercedes-Benz. The video prompted extreme backlash, resulting in her deleting her social media account. Viewers are calling it an example of “performative activism,” a form of activism in which individuals post or pretend to support a cause in order to gain a following or make themselves look better to others. It’s a form of hypocrisy, because these people don’t actually care about the cause.

“The problem here is that she’s 1) using this terrible situation to promote herself instead of the man who’s actually helping and 2) completely insensitive to racial / class tensions,” a Twitter user wrote in a follow-up thread. “Influencers: use your platform for ACTUAL good, not the PERCEPTION of good."

celebrities and social media influencers worldwide are being called out for posting images saying “Black Lives Matter” or blank black squares on their platforms while perpetuating racism or not actually being down for the cause. Those who actually support the issues in question are being asked to do more with their platforms. People are calling for them to share resources and vital information because of their level of reach.

Various celebrities have hopped on the performative activism bandwagon in an attempt to not be ostracized by posting a single image saying “Black Lives Matter” or, more recently, a black square to avoid being questioned about where they stand. But a black square is not enough. While the gesture is great for solidarity and spreads awareness to a point, more can be done. Instead of sharing a black square just to please followers, celebrities could share information like resources for those protesters, or actions for those who cannot physically attend a protest. In no way am I dismissing the posting of a black square during #BlackOutTuesday for those who wish to use it show sincere solidarity—but if you can do more, you should. This is the time to do more than flood social feeds with a black image.

While not the same as posting a black square on social media, Moriarty-McLaughlin’s action is a form of performative activism that’s far too common in this digital world. In order to gain likes, people have been attending protests solely to take photos, or posting quotes relevant to trending topics without knowledge of their history. In addition, many influencers have been accused of volunteering ordonating online only to promote the image of being charitable. The viral video sheds light on the reality of how many people would rather post about a good cause on social media to create the illusion of involvement than actually participate.

Since its posting, the original video has received over 70,000 likes and has been reposted thousands of times by the public, celebrities, and activist organizations alike, with many questioning the intent behind the photo. “And notice that she’s pretending to be part of the clean up crew. Not the protest,” a user wrote on Twitter. “I wonder what her caption will be.”...

wow w exmr breaks ranks

https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/conservative-publication-slams-trump-for-promoting-vile-and-illogical-conspiracy-theory/

alex h

Trump has never been shy about promoting absurd far-right conspiracy theories, including birtherism (the racist claim that President Barack Obama wasn’t really born in the United States). And recently, Trump has been floating the conspiracy theory that Never Trump conservative Joe Scarborough — who hosts “Morning Joe” on MSNBC with liberal Mika Brzezinski, his wife — murdered a former employee. And the editorial board of the right-wing Washington Examiner slams Trump for it in a scathing editorial published on May 27.

The former employee that conspiracy theorists have accused of killing was Lori Klausutis, who suffered from a heart condition and was only 28 when, on July 19, 2001, she fell and fatally hit her head. At the time, Scarborough was a Florida Republican serving in the U.S. House of Representatives. Scarborough, who is now one of Trump’s most vehement critics on the right, has since left the GOP because of his disdain for Trumpism.

An autopsy was performed on Klausutis after he death, and that autopsy showed no signs of foul play. Moreover, Klausutis’ widower, Timothy Klausutis, has been imploring Trump to quit claiming otherwise and let his wife rest in peace. He has also asked Twitter to remove tweets in which Trump has promoted the anti-Scarborough conspiracy theory.

The Washington Examiner’s editorial board explains that according to the anti-Scarborough conspiracy theory, the ex-congressman “must have been having an affair with the staffer in question, and he must have murdered her in order to cover it up. According to this tall tale, the controversy surrounding her death even forced Scarborough to leave Congress."

the editorial goes on to lay out some reasons why the conspiracy theory defies logic.

“This story is not just false, but verifiably so,” the Washington Examiner asserts. “It is also illogical and bizarre. For one thing, Scarborough wasn’t even in Florida when this incident occurred. He took six votes on the House floor the day Klausutis died — the first at 10:25 a.m. and the last at 7:09 p.m. The following morning, he participated in another vote at 10:10 a.m.”

The Examiner adds, “Second, Scarborough had already announced his retirement from Congress long before Klausutis died; so, there’s nothing to that part of the story, either. And even after his departure from Congress, Scarborough hardly shrunk into the background as if to avoid the spotlight. The first episode of his new evening MSNBC show, ‘Scarborough Country,’ broadcast three months after he left the House. It gave him a much higher profile than he’d ever had as an obscure congressman from North Florida.”

But even though “there was also never any indication that Scarborough had any sort of improper relationship with Klausutis,” the Examiner’s editorial board explains, Trump hasn’t hesitated to promote the conspiracy theory on Twitter.

“The latest person to trumpet and repeat this vile slander is the president supposedly leading this nation through a time of crisis,” the Examiner asserts. “Whatever his issues with Scarborough, President Trump’s crazed Twitter rant on this subject was vile and unworthy of his office. Some will undoubtedly shrug it off as Trump being Trump, but one could hardly be blamed for reading it and doubting his fitness to lead. To say Trump owes Scarborough an apology is to put it mildly.”

https://www.desmogblog.com/covideniers-anti-science-covid-19-denial-overlaps-climate-denial

The climate science denial machine created by the fossil fuel industry is now a major source of COVID-19 disinformation. Deniers have deployed many of the same tactics they have used to attack climate scientists and delay action to downplay the severity of the coronavirus outbreak and sow distrust in the response efforts of governments, scientists and the medical community — with deadly consequences that are now unfolding before our eyes.

Others have used the threat of COVID-19 to argue against action to address climate change, which would leave us all more vulnerable to the wide array of future catastrophes that scientists say will result from additional degrees of warming.

In the following series, DeSmog presents the #COVIDenial evidence our team has gathered revealing the overlapping cast of characters who have long attacked climate science and are now spreading COVID misinformation, touting false cures, ginning up conspiracy theories and fomenting attacks on public health experts. We began tracking this overlap in March 2020, when Sharon Kelly wrote Meet the Climate Science Deniers Who Downplayed COVID-19 Risks.

Many of these groups, including Koch network-funded entities such as Americans for Prosperity and State Policy Networkmembers have also attacked stay-at-home orders and orchestrated ‘Liberate’ movement protests nationwide, as Steve Horn wrote in COVID-19 'Liberate' Groups Are the Same Ones Pushing Climate Denial. And as DeSmog UK’s Zak Derler reported in Climate Science Deniers Use Coronavirus to Downplay Environmental Threats, notorious climate deniers around the world are even claiming that the novel coronavirus pandemic is a hoax, or that it’s an evil plot by “globalist elites” like Bill Gates and George Soros to alternately force vaccines or a “world population cull.”

These are dangerous operatives at work spreading all manner of doubt and delusion to confuse the public, and their actions and words will forever cement them on the wrong side of history.

Explore the report materials below, and please contact DeSmog with any other examples of COVID denial you come across

COVIDenial Executive Summary:

"Government should be doing little or next to nothing,” Richard Ebeling wrote in a postabout COVID-19 republished on March 24 by the Heartland Institute. “The problem is a social and medical one, and not a political one.”

“I just think we're going to be fine. I think everything is going to be fine,” Heartland editorial director and research fellow Justin Haskins said about COVID-19 during a March 1 of the podcast In the Tank. “I really don't think this is going to be a problem even two to three months from now.”

On Dec. 31, 2019, “a pneumonia of unknown cause” was first reported to the World Health Organization’s China Country Office — and in the months following that report, the disease now known as COVID-19 spread to infect millions of people worldwide and seems well on its way to killing hundreds of thousands — while experts warn that the presumed death toll may be significantly higher than we yet know.

As the virus spread, so too did misinformation: baseless predictions that the disease would not cause significant harm, claims of miracle cures, and conspiracy theories about the virus’s origins. That misinformation was often circulated by white-collar professionals — including many who have a history of casting doubt on climate science or seeking to debate issues that were already laid to rest within the scientific community. The overlap was so striking that it caught the attention of both former PresidentBarack Obama and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel in March.

Some of that misinformation on COVID-19 came straight from President Trump. But a river of faulty information on the coronavirus also flowed from think tanks, experts (some self-proclaimed), academics, and professional right-wing activists who also have spurned climate science and sought to slow or stop action to respond to the climate crisis.

Some compared COVID-19 to the flu or other threats, suggesting that the flu was a larger threat and that action to slow the spread of the novel virus was an overreaction. As the toll from COVID-19 grew, others argued that the virus was the most important threat and that action to slow climate change was superfluous. Some circulated false or unproven cures and remedies while others touted the benefits of single-use plastics during the pandemic (without regard for the health of those living in places where plastics and petrochemicals are produced — like Saint John the Baptist parish, Louisiana, which on April 16, had the highest per-person COVID-19 death rate in the U.S.)

Some attacked renewable energy, some the Green New Deal, and others the World Health Organization (WHO). Some framed efforts to “flatten the curve” of infections as infringements on liberty or simply unnecessary while others persisted in using terms that the WHO has warned can lead to dangerous stigma and discrimination. And some climate science deniers have circulated conspiracy theories, like claims that the virus was a foreign “bioweapon,” that it’s linked to “electrosmog” and 5G networks, or alleged that “the World Health Organization has carried out the greatest fraud perhaps in modern history.”

The decades that fossil fuel companies spent funding organizations that sought to undermine the conclusions of credible climate scientists and building up doubt about science itself ultimately created a network of professional science deniers who are now deploying some of the same skills they honed on climate against the public health crisis at the center of our attention today.

Many of the operatives spreading COVID disinformation have influence because of the fossil fuel industry.

People like Steve Milloy and Patrick Michaels and organizations like the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), The Heartland and Manhattan Institutes gained influence in the early heyday of climate science denial when the fossil fuel industry made a broad and concerted effort to mislead the public about global warming.
We’re now seeing many of the same people and organizations utilize the tactics they honed in the 1990s to foment doubt about the deadly coronavirus pandemic.
Many of the organizations now spreading misinformation received funding from fossil fuel companies and/or trade groups for years or even decades, as DeSmog and others have previously documented (e.g. Reason Foundation, Independent Institute, Texas Public Policy Foundation, etc.)

COVID denial reveals the deadly threat that climate denial poses to all aspects of public health and science.

The :{American Petroleum Institute:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:’s 1998 “Victory Memo” outlined a broad roadmap to erode public confidence in climate change that went well beyond just the science. Their strategy included plans to “identify, recruit and train” messengers who could “participate in media outreach” on “the climate change debate.” It called for the use of both individuals and third-party organizations to assist in the industry’s efforts to stir doubt about climate science.
To delay climate change-related regulation and policy-making, the oil and gas industry sought to mislead the public and Congress and create distrust of the media.
Decades ago, an industry report drafted by a Mobil executive concluded that theories that had been advanced by climate “contrarians” didn’t hold water, but the industry nonetheless funded their work on climate change, and now some of those same professionals are speaking out about COVID-19. In 1995, Lenny Bernstein, a Mobil executive, examined the work of climate “contrarians” in a draft report for the Global Climate Coalition (later published omitting that assessment). Bernstein’s draft concluded that “The contrarian theories raise interesting questions about our total understanding of climate processes, but they do not offer convincing arguments against the conventional model of greenhouse gas emission-induced climate change.” One of the arguments that the report draft specifically labeled “not convincing” was credited to Prof. Patrick Michaels, then based at the University of Virginia. In 2010, Michaels — at that point based at the Cato Institute — estimated in a CNN interview that perhaps 40% of his funding came from oil and gas companies.
In a March 9, 2020 article in the Washington Examiner,Michaels — now a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) — predicted that a proposed European Union law (one intended to slow climate change) would be far more damaging to the economy and to “environmental resilience” than COVID-19. “Make no mistake,” Michaels wrote. “The proposed EU climate law will reverse a lot more progress and a lot more economic and environmental resilience than any probable climate change or, for that matter, coronavirus.” (Another of the scientists whose work was discredited in the draft Global Climate Coalition report, Richard Lindzen, signed onto a March 23, 2020, open letter calling climate change a “non-problem” compared to COVID-19. “As a very first step, designated Green New Deal money must be redirected and invested in a significantly better global health system,” the letter argues. “The past 150 years also show that more CO2 is beneficial for nature, greening the Earth and increasing the yields of crops. Why do world leaders ignore these hard facts? Why do world leaders do the opposite with their Green New Deal and lower the quality of life by forcing high-cost, dubious low-carbon energy technologies upon their citizens?”)

an 320

major conservative paper slams Trump in brutal editorial blasting his coronavirus response

Tom Boggioni / Raw StoryMarch 8, 2020

In an absolutely scathing editorial in the conservative Washington Examiner, Executive Editor Philip Klein eviscerated Donald Trump for his handling of the growing coronavirus epidemic — saying the actions taken by his administration...

The Washington Examiner is a free daily newspaper published in Alexandria, Virginia, and distributed around Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Maryland, and their suburbs. owned by ANSCHUTZ

they have copyrighted the name in a bunch of cities, so clearly plan to colonize/franchise

it has radio, ads for weekly std, also a mag?

spawns diet ads

and of course blogs as platform for ideol entre eg rogan

https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/roy-moore-sues-right-wing-publication-for-reporting-sexual-misconduct-allegations/

no lnx

Roy Moore sues right-wing publication for reporting sexual misconduct allegations

Written by Alex Henderson January 29, 2020

One of the most stunning political events of 2017 occurred when Republican Roy Moore — who was inundated with sexual misconduct allegations involving teenage girls — lost to Democrat Doug Jones in Alabama’s U.S. Senate race. Although Alabama is a deeply Republican state that President Donald Trump is almost certain to carry in November, Moore was a badly flawed candidate; regardless, Moore is hoping to run against Jones again this year. And his response to negative publicity from the Washington Examiner is filing a $40 million lawsuit against the right-wing publication.

The Washington Examiner, although clearly conservative, has published a series of articles discussing the sexual misconduct allegations against Moore. In the lawsuit, a 2019 article by journalist Tiana Lowe for the Examiner is described as “libelous” and lacking a “factual basis.”

Legal reporter Jerry Lambe, in a January 28 article for Law & Crime, describes Moore’s lawsuit against the Examiner as full of holes.

“Moore’s complaint appeared to falsely convey the publicly available facts and drastically misconstrue the legal threshold required to prove defamation against a public person in claiming that the story exhibited a ‘reckless disregard for the truth,’” Lambe explains, adding that Lowe’s reporting “was based on more than a dozen allegations and witness statements covered by every major news outlet in the nation.”

On May 28, 2019, the Examiner published a blistering op-ed by Lowe headlined “If Alabamans Vote for Roy Moore, They Deserve Doug Jones.”

Lowe, in her op-ed, stressed, “If Alabamans willfully choose Moore this time, kneecaping their odds of winning the election, they will deserve every insult lobbed their way — and they will deserve every left-wing progressive Democratic vote cast in the Senate on their behalf by Doug Jones.”

Lowe’s description of Jones as a “left-wing progressive” is way off base; the Alabama senator is quite centrist, and philosophically, he has much more in common with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia than he does with staunch progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders or Sen. Elizabeth Warren. But Lowe speaks for many on the right when she says that nominating Moore to run against Jones a second time would be political suicide for the Republican Party, which may or may not lose control of the U.S. Senate in November.

Republican Bradley Byrne, who served in the Alabama State Senate in the 2000s, announced in February 2019 that he would be seeking the GOP nomination to run against Jones. Republican strategists have asserted that he would have an easier time defeating Jones than Moore.

Scott Wong

@scottwongDC

"I welcome [Judge Moore] to the race,” @BradleyByrne says, adding that Moore can't win the GOP nomination.

“I think people are very concerned that we Republicans lost a U.S. Senate seat because he was our nominee in 2017, and we don’t need to do that again." https://twitter.com/scottwongDC/status/1133431343734501377 …

Scott Wong

@scottwongDC

JUDGE ROY MOORE to announce Senate bid soon? GOP rival @BradleyByrne says Moore camp is telling him to expect a JUNE launch #ALSEN https://thehill.com/homenews/house/445781-gop-candidate-expects-roy-moore-to-announce-senate-bid-in-june#.XO11CeRwf1g.twitter …

defended ukraine platform change

https://www.mediamatters.org/trump-impeachment-inquiry/impeachment-inquiry-brings-out-byron-yorks-brand-dated-partisan-punditry

the Washington Examiner and Fox News fixture bends but doesn't break rank with his conservative colleagues

WRITTEN BY PARKER MOLLOY

PUBLISHED 11/25/19 9:32 AM EST

In the world of pundits, there are the bomb throwers, there are the professionally nonpartisan, and then there are the toadies, like Byron York. For the better part of two decades, York’s been a mainstay in American political media. Serious-faced and bespectacled, York -- and to some extent, people like The Washington Post's Hugh Hewitt -- are treated as more respectable conservative voices, an aesthetically welcome contrast to conspiracy-minded kings of bluster like Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. Even so, the work serves a nearly identical purpose: to protect and promote Republican ideals.

Throughout the Trump administration, much of York’s writings and media appearances could be best characterized as an attempt to run interference for the president. As the House impeachment inquiry began, his work took on even more of a singular focus.

York is determined that the real impeachment story is about the origin of the whistleblower complaint, not the largely corroborated substance of it. He suggested that the administration’s willingness to provide Ukraine with lethal weaponry was somehow exculpatory evidence against Trump's apparent attempt to push Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden under the threat of withholding aid. In another column, he employed the “Sideshow Bob defense,” saying it is “a fundamental problem with the Democratic case” that “they are accusing Trump of attempted crimes that never actually came to fruition.”

After acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney admitted that the administration engaged in a quid pro quo with the Ukrainian government (which he later retracted), York appeared on Fox News to defend Mulvaney by focusing on the portions of his statement unrelated to a quid pro quo. While congressional committees held closed-door depositions for the impeachment inquiry, York argued that the hearings should be held in public, repeatedly accusing Democrats of engaging in “secrecy.” The day the House was to finally vote on an impeachment resolution to begin public hearings, York dubbed it “The Adam Schiff Empowerment Act.” And he attacked the reputation of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council who testified before Congress during the impeachment hearings, and brushed him off as “a witness whose testimony was filled with opinion, with impressions, who had little new to offer.”

Prior to the Ukraine scandal, York was on hand to defend the repeated stays of Air Force members at Trump’s Turnberry resort in Scotland. He scoffed at The New York Times’ 1619 Project marking the 400th anniversary of American slavery and argued that it was done in part to smear Trump ahead of an election. In York’s view, yes, Trump is the victim of “presidential harassment” by the Democrats and he was the victim of “spying” by the Obama administration. York also agreed with the president that special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential elections “exonerated” him.

After a gunman massacred 22 people inside a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, York devoted a column to arguing that the shooter’s manifesto proves that he wasn’t motivated by Trump. During an appearance on Fox News, he remarked that the shooter “was actually very prescient” for his belief that media outlets would tie his anti-immigrant attack to Trump rhetoric. In June, he wrote an article linking “anti-Trump fever” to the assault of a right-wing activist.

York uses a couple simple tricks to appear less partisan than he actually is.

York seems far more willing than many other pro-Trump columnists to make small admissions critical of Trump that give the appearance of some sort of objectivity. For instance, in an article about E. Jean Carroll and her report that Trump sexually assaulted her, York conceded that Trump has a history of getting caught in lies, noting, “Trump has denied things in the past, such as the payoff to Stormy Daniels, that were, in fact, true.” In an October 20 piece, he rejected Trump’s “Crowdstrike” conspiracy theory as having “no basis in fact,” though he would later flirt with a watered-down version of the conspiracy that Ukraine conspired to harm Trump’s chances in the 2016 election. This strategy gives York a veneer of respectability, allowing him to criticize the president without actually publishing anything that might be read as negative.

Another tactic York uses is hardly unique to his own writing, but it’s worth remarking on, anyway. He has a tendency to fudge the truth just enough to make it fit with the point he’s trying to make. In a June column clearly intended to justify Trump’s February declaration of a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, York argued that Democrats concerned about the well-being of detainees should admit they were wrong for opposing Trump’s proclamation. York highlighted quotes from Democratic leadership that called Trump’s declaration a “fake crisis.” The article was written with a clear goal of getting readers to conflate Trump’s belief that the number of border-crossings had become a crisis with Democrats’ concerns that the people being detained were being subjected to inhumane living conditions. The crisis York pointed to, about detainee living conditions, was wholly different from the one Trump used as a premise for his emergency declaration. Trump created that crisis.

The same goes for one of his most recent claims, that Democrats don’t want people looking into how the investigations into Ukraine or Russia started and are thus protecting the whistleblower’s identity. This is untrue, and it distorts the fact that Democrats are making their arguments on the substance of the whistleblower’s claims -- rather then focusing on the whistleblower him- or herself -- because they’re trying to hide some presumably shady and partisan origin story. But as Marcy Wheeler noted at Emptywheel, “It cannot be true that we need to learn about the whistleblower to understand how all this started and also be true that the whistleblower’s view is meaningless because he was operating exclusively from hearsay. The claim itself underscores that multiple people on the call itself objected when they heard the president extort a foreign leader.”

There’s not a lot of consistency in York’s arguments, and he’s shown himself more than willing to drop a talking point the moment it no longer works in his favor.

Nowhere has this been as clear as in York’s ever-shifting defense of Trump throughout the Russia investigation. For instance, in May 2017, he claimed that a “confederation of Democrats, pundits, Obama holdovers, and NeverTrumpers” were trying to take Trump down for something he and his campaign didn’t do.

Throughout the Trump-Russia investigation, the core question -- the question that mattered above all others -- was whether President Trump or his associates colluded with Russia to try to influence the 2016 election. If there were proof of that, the effect on Trump's presidency would have been devastating, and possibly fatal.

The problem, for the confederation of Democrats, pundits, Obama holdovers, and NeverTrumpers who hoped to see that result, has been that so far, after a lot of investigating, no evidence has emerged that collusion actually occurred. Although they allowed that previously unknown proof could always emerge, last week some of the lawmakers most deeply involved in the investigation, and most closely in touch with the intelligence community and law enforcement working on the probe, conceded that there appeared to be no there there.

Just two months later, a New York Times report uncovered details of the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting in which Donald Trump Jr., presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Trump’s then-campaign chair Paul Manafort met with Russians with the goal of getting damaging information on Trump’s political opponent Hillary Clinton. York’s tune changed in the blink of an eye. Gone was “there appeared to be no there there,” replaced with the rhetorical question, “What campaign wouldn't seek motherlode of Clinton emails?”

As the Mueller report would later note, Trump Jr. wasn’t charged with a crime on the basis that he may not have known that he was breaking the law. From page 187:

On the facts here, the government would unlikely be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the June 9 meeting participants had general knowledge that their conduct was unlawful. The investigation has not developed evidence that the participants in the meeting were familiar with the foreign-contribution ban or the application of federal law to the relevant factual context.

York’s columns feel less like a part of some grand narrative and more like episodic works without consistent factual themes. At best, York’s political insights can be viewed as a misguided attempt at playing devil’s advocate for conservative voters, fueled by motivated reasoning. At worst, he’s just another layer of right-wing obfuscation in a time when truth and clarity is in demand.

https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/right-wing-media-outlets-are-booming-in-the-trump-era-report/

no lnx

Right-wing media outlets are booming in the Trump era: report

Written by Alex Henderson August 26, 2019

Right-wing media outlets have traditionally experienced their biggest growth when a Democrat was in the White House. Many far-right outlets knew how to turn fear-mongering over President Bill Clinton in the 1990s or President Barack Obama in the late 2000s/early 2010s into major advertising revenue. But in a report for Axios, Sara Fischer explains that some right-wing outlets have been enjoying substantial growth under a Republican president: Donald Trump.

Citing a Columbia Journalism Review analysis of right-wing websites using Comscore data, Fischer reports that RedState, the Washington Times and the Washington Examiner are among the outlets that have been thriving during the Trump era. Those sites, Fischer notes, “are experiencing major growth by widening their coverage. Their goal is to cover whatever is capturing the world’s attention that day, from human interest stories to trending entertainmentdevelopments.”

Fischer notes that although the right-wing Weekly Standard folded in late 2018, other websites on the right continue to “rank high” in terms of “engagement on Facebook” — and Fox News, according to Fischer, remains “the #1 news site on Facebook” in 2019 “in terms of reader engagement,” according to the analytics company Newswhip.

Podcasts that have been thriving in the Trump era, Fischer reports, include “The Joe Rogan Experience” and “The Ben Shapiro Show.” Shapiro, she points out, has “built a megabrand aimed at targeting younger conservatives.”

Fischer stresses, however, that although “conservative media remains strong across most major media platforms,” some “left-leaning outlets” — including HuffPost— “rank highly” in the Trump era. But Trump’s presidency and the 2020 election, she writes, continue to benefit right-wing media.

“Typically, the opposition party has a media explosion in response to whichever political group is in power,” Fischer reports. “But the economic stress of the media industry, combined with the Trump-driven conservative strategy of broad messaging, has upended that dynamic.”

omg carrying water for dhs eco-terror

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/warnings-of-eco-terrorism-mass-casualties-at-new-okla-tenn-oil-pipeline

OPINION: WASHINGTON SECRETS

Warnings of eco-terrorism, 'mass casualties' at new Okla-Tenn oil pipeline

by Paul Bedard

| April 18, 2017 02:13 PM

[odd pix, scary? Dakota Access pipeline opponents burn structures in their main protest camp in southern North Dakota near Cannon Ball, N.D., on Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2017, as authorities prepare to shut down the camp in advance of spring flooding season. (AP Photo/James MacPherson)

Just months removed from the violence and attacks on police by environmental extremists fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline, state and federal officials are warning of similar, potentially catastrophic, attacks against another new pipeline between Oklahoma and Tennessee that enters service in the fall.

A report from the Department of Homeland Security, and Arkansas, Tennessee, and Oklahoma, warns of attacks from eco-terrorists to anti-government militia on the Diamond Pipeline project.

"Law enforcement are assessing what environmental extremists did to disrupt Dakota Access Pipeline – Molotov cocktails, rocks, arson, roadblocks, chaining themselves to equipment, improvised explosive devices, etc – and seeing many of the same activities potentially happening around Diamond pipeline," according to a police representative.

[map pipe route]

The 11-page "field analysis report," stamped "Unclassfied//For Official Use Only," said that there are no pending threats to the $900 million, 440-mile pipeline under construction, but that the potential is very real.

"While the Diamond Pipeline project has not seen the same level of disruption as the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), we are concerned that negative perceptions about enforcement efforts against DAPL opponents could inspire like-minded individuals to seek out reprisal violence against similar targets, including the Diamond Pipeline," said the report, provided to Secrets.

Some peaceful protests have already occurred.

The report revealed that five oil pipelines crossing the U.S.-Canada border were shutdown in October, and it provided photographic evidence of the arson and sabotage of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Police are keen consumers of the report because it was sheriffs and local cops that felt the brunt of the pressure at Dakota, sometimes getting in violent clashes with protesters.

According to the report, "Pipeline construction projects frequently arouse concerns about environmental and land-use issues. While most opposition activity related to pipeline construction remains nonviolent and lawful protest activity, some violent extremists may take advantage of lawful gatherings to attempt to threaten, incite, or commit violent acts against public safety officers or facility staff."

The biggest concerns cited in the report:

— "DHS and the authoring fusion centers assess the most likely potential domestic terrorist threat to the Diamond Pipeline construction project or associated entities is fromenvironmental rights extremists motivated by resentment over perceived environmental destruction."

— "We assess that the second most likely potential domestic terrorist threat to the Diamond Pipeline or associated entities—including law enforcement and private contract security guards—is from militia extremists opposed to government enforcement of eminent domain policies."

— "We assess that potential attacks against the Diamond Pipeline or related entities would most likely be simple and designed to damage physical infrastructure or equipment by sabotage or arson. Previous attacks against pipelines or related targets have included assaults on law enforcement, private contract security guards, or construction personnel."[where? Fallin gun?]

— "We assess the primary potential threat of violence against the Diamond Pipeline and related entities is from lone offenders who adhere to environmental rights extremist beliefs and believe violence is justified against such projects due to their perceived harm to the environment. Previous incidents involving lone offenders committing violent acts against targets associated with similar energy projects suggest that the pipeline and associated entities could be attractive targets for an attack by lone environmental rights extremists."

— "Militia extremists have engaged in armed standoffs, threats, and disrupted IED plots targeting law enforcement entities perceived to be enforcers of oppressive government land-use policies, according to media reporting. Although their capabilities vary, some militia extremists have well-rehearsed paramilitary skills, as well as access to and proficiency using firearms and explosives. As a result, successful violent attacks have the potential to cause mass casualties."

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com

off bs

o one knows Washington secrets like Paul Bedard. This longtime D.C. reporter joined the Washington Examiner in 2012 after penning U.S. News & World Report's premiere political column, "Washington Whispers," for more than a decade. In addition to his Washington Secrets column, check out his signature feature, "Mainstream Media Scream.

https://www.mediamatters.org/national-rifle-association/paul-bedards-wash-examiner-column-pr-front-national-rifle-association

An opinion column billed by the conservative Washington Examineras an insider look at Washington, D.C.’s “secrets” is actually a lazy and credulous public relations front for the gun lobby.

In his Examiner Washington Secrets column, “longtime D.C. reporter”Paul Bedard has written dozens of pieces advancing the agenda of the National Rifle Association, most often by amplifying the NRA’s attacks on others or by serving as a conduit for the NRA to put forward unsubstantiated talking points to defend itself from criticism.

The latter was the case in an April 1 column run under the headline “NRA is back, ‘highest ever’ membership.” In the column, Bedard claims that the NRA’s membership has increased to 5.5 million members -- the “highest levels ever in its history” -- and quotes an anonymous NRA official who told him, “Keeping our numbers so steady is a great sign for us in an off election year,” and “What’s important is that we have great potential for growth in the coming months.”Of course, Bedard does not mention reporting over the years showing that the NRA puffs itself up by overstating its active membership figures.

The column then gets to the PR point Bedard wants to push for the NRA: “The positive news for the NRA comes amid lingering concerns about a costly New York fight,” he wrote, a reference to litigation the NRA is involved in over fines given to insurance policies the group underwrote. The policies allowed policyholders to attempt to recoup legal fees and other expenses such as “clean-up costs” in the event that they shot someone while claiming to act in self-defense.

Overall, Bedard’s column paints a rosy picture of the NRA’s future -- “What’s more, there are expectations that membership in the NRA will continue to grow going into the 2020 elections” -- that is at serious odds with actual reporting on financial troubles at the NRAand its media operation NRATV.

The column is not a one-off shilling exercise by Bedard. In fact, he has written dozens of columns over the past six years that serve as free PR for the NRA, sometimes publishing more than one pro-NRA column per day. The columns typically do some sort of legwork for NRA PR, and they often feature one or more of the following approaches:heavy credulous quoting of NRA officials; write-ups of NRA ads with video and full transcript; and promotions of NRA fundraising, membership levels, events, petitions, election messaging, executive branch confirmation messaging, polling, legislative efforts, and disputes with other organizations, businesses, and people:

2/24/19:

[long list of headlines]

lulz?

https://www.alternet.org/twitter-account-right-wing-newspaper-owned-billionaire-christian-conservative-declares-trump-going

https://www.ecowatch.com/koch-fueled-attack-on-electric-buses-2598163369.html

Koch-Fueled Attack on Electric Buses Picks Up Speed

By Dana Drugmand

Electric buses are replacing existing diesel-fueled fleets at an accelerating rate, and the transition to battery-powered buses is outpacing even the most optimistic projections. In this light, it should come as little surprise that commentators and organizations with ties to the Koch network and the oil industry are attacking a transportation option that yields fewer fossil fuel profits and cleaner, healthier air for people and planet.

A string of recent commentaries published in the conservative Washington Examiner have relied on a handful of critical reports about the rollout of electric buses in individual municipalities, which the commentators use to portray electric buses, as a class, as uneconomical and unreliable.

Despite these efforts by Koch affiliates and oil industry consultants, the electrification of bus transit is firmly underway. These high tech buses are already being widely deployed throughoutChina, which, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), is adding about 9,500 electric buses every five weeks. As China leads the way and North American and European municipalities follow suit, analysts expect this momentum to accelerate and predict 80 percent of the global municipal bus fleet to be electric by 2040.

That is bad news for the oil industry. Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecasts that switching from internal combustion engine transport to electric vehicles will displace 7.3 million barrels of oil a day.

According to Bloomberg, this year electric buses already will lower diesel consumption by 233,000 barrels a day.

Who's Behind a Series of Drive-by Attacks on Electric Buses in the Washington Examiner?

As more cities and states move toward this electrified mass transit option, it cuts into the demand for conventional diesel fuel—and into fossil fuel industry profits. A Washington Examiner article from Dec. 12, 2017 explores the rise of electric vehicles with a particularly telling headline: "Rise of electric vehicles threatens oil industry."

More recently, the Washington Examiner has run a series of opinion pieces criticizing electric buses. The main arguments are that they are expensive and unreliable, prone to breaking down. These pieces share arguments, and their authors share affiliations, with the Koch brothers and other oil industry funders.

For example, one commentaryby Philip Wegmann looks at a new electric bus fleet on Martha's Vineyard, pointing to the cost of the vehicles and the fact that they experienced technical problems early on. The piece neglects to mention any benefits of these buses to the environment or public health, nor does it reference the fact that the Vineyard Transit Authority's slow rollout of the buses was expected and that they plan on doubling the size of the electric fleet by next summer.

Wegmann has been closely tied to the Koch network since the beginning of his career. He started his writing career as a fellow of the Koch's America's Future Foundation writing program. Wegmann is currently a fellow at the Steamboat Institute, a right-wing think tank affiliated with the Koch-backed State Policy Network. This year, he was awarded the Steamboat Institute's Tony Blankley fellowship, which came with a $10,000 stipend and a host of other benefits.

Prior to joining the Examiner as a staff writer, Wegmann worked for conservative media outlet The Daily Signal, which is published by the Koch network-funded Heritage Foundation and which also features work by fellow America's Future Foundation alumnus Michael Bastasch.

Another Examiner piece by Wegmann slams electric buses in Los Angeles. "They don't run, they are expensive, and they're Chinese," Wegmann wrote. LA's neighbor Santa Monica is also converting its buses to electric, and Wegmann again attacks that move in another commentary. He again played the cost card, and claims, without statistical evidence, that "basically no one" rides the new buses.

Wegmann continues to rail against the electric bus in the Examiner, as recently as last week commenting on Atlanta, Georgia's purchase of a fleet from the Chinese company Build Your Dreams (BYD). "One expects cities like Albuquerque and Los Angeles to drop millions on the novelty environmental fleets, not a deep red state in the South that traditionally votes Republican and cares more for business than green pipe dreams," he writes.

Ross Marchand echoes this criticism in another Examiner opinion piece. Marchand is director of policy for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, which is basically a front group funded in part through Koch-connected channels. Previously Marchand interned for the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), both part of the Koch network.

Marchand's argument is primarily based on expense, but he even claims that electric buses could "prove dirtier than conventional fleet depending on which energy sources America relies on in the future." He backs that statement with a link to :{a piece by:(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}::{ Jonathan Lesser:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:, president of the consulting firm Continental Economics. Lesser has an antagonistic record towards clean energy policies, and he has "submitted expert testimony and reports on behalf of major utility and fossil fuel interests like Exelon, Occidental, Duke Energy, and FirstEnergy," according to the Energy and Policy Institute.

Lesser is also frequently contracted by the Manhattan Institute, a think tank that has received millions of dollars in funding from foundations in the Koch donor network.

Electric Bus Myths, Debunked

The claims laid out by electric bus antagonists use limited views and dog whistles of "communism" and "environmental zealotry" to attack the electric vehicles, especially when compared to "cleaner natural gas-burning buses." The unreliability argument is backed, for instance, by an investigative story in the LA Times from May that looks at problems with range and quality encountered by the Chinese e-bus manufacturing company BYD.

The Times article raises legitimate concerns about the products delivered by BYD, and the company responded with a statement saying that glitches are to be expected with "any groundbreaking technology." However, the article referred only to BYD buses, and not the electric bus industry as a whole.

"That was an article about a company, but the headline was about a category," Ryan Popple, CEO of electric bus maker Proterra, told GTM. "I hope that people don't paint a broad brush over the whole category." While the BYD buses struggled on hills—a major focus of the LA Times article—competitor Proterra's electric buses have been tested, for instance, in the mountains around Park City, Utah, to the satisfaction of local municipal transit planners, who ordered six units to serve the local bus routes.

Had he wanted, Wegmann could have looked even closer to find a counterpoint to the problematic BYD buses in Los Angeles. Foothill Transit, which serves 22 cities from downtown LA to the east, first tested Proterra buses in 2010 and is still using them.

"The technology is very robust," Doran Barnes, Foothill's executive director, told the Seattle Times. "We've had very few problems." Foothill Transit now operates 17 Proterra electric buses, and recently ordered 13 more, including a new set of all-electric double decker buses. Foothill Transit has pledged to serve its hilly region with an exclusively electric fleet by 2030.

So despite the early performance and mechanical issues from at least one manufacturer, as these issues are resolved and technology continues to improve, municipal transit authorities across the U.S. continue to order more of the buses from BYDand other major electric bus manufacturers like Proterra and New Flyer.

As for the cost argument, it is true that electric buses cost more up front than their diesel-powered counterparts. However, those costs are falling, and when considering the entire life cycle of the vehicle—purchase price, fuels, operational and maintenance expenses—electric buses prove to be cheaper than their diesel counterparts.

Moreover, according to BNEF, the projected decline in battery costs likely make electric buses cost-competitive with diesel at the point of purchase by 2026. By then, the number of electric buses on the road is expected to more than triple and make up nearly half of the worldwide city bus fleets.

There are solid reasons behind this trend.Electric buses are better for public health (reducing local air pollution from burning diesel), better for the climate (increasing efficiency and reducing reliance on fossil fuels), and make economic sense in terms of their full cost of moving passengers, when factoring in maintenance and fuel cost-savings. These various benefits are explained in a May 2018 report from U.S. PIRG and Environment America.

In terms of public health, there is no question that electric is better. Diesel exhaust is classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a likely carcinogen, and it is internationally recognized as a cancer-causing agent that is also responsible for respiratory and other illnesses. Chicago estimates that its electric buses will result in $55,000 in healthcare savings annually per bus, while a Columbia University analysis for New York City pegs it at $150,000 per bus.

Another obvious benefit of shifting from diesel to electric buses is the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector. In the U.S. alone, converting transit buses to electric could save over 2 million tons of emissions each year, a clear win for the climate.

Electric buses also have lower operating and maintenance costs. As with other electric vehicles, there is no fuel cost. Chicago Transit Authority estimates it saves $25,000 annually in net fuel costs for each bus.

Furthermore, the U.S. PIRG report states that:

"According to studies of electric buses currently in operation, electric buses save at least $0.19 per mile in lower maintenance costs. Over the lifetime of the bus, an electric transit bus can avoid hundreds of thousands of dollars in operating costs over an equivalent diesel or natural gas bus, from lower fuel and maintenance costs."

While the e-bus costs more upfront, the fuel and maintenance cost-savings make up the difference, usually within 10 years.

Improved models and better battery technology are moving toward solving reliability issues, too. The newer electric bus models apparently can travel up to 200 miles or more on a single charge. Proterra makes e-buses designed to go 200 to 350 miles, for example. Electric buses also have fewer parts than diesel buses, which would theoretically require less maintenance.

Given these considerations, many cities are now announcing transitions to electric bus fleets. New York City announced in April its plans to electrify its fleet by 2040. Los Angeles is committed to an entirely zero-emissions fleet by 2030. Seattle is purchasing 120 e-buses by 2020 and has committed to electrifying its entire fleet by 2040.

Electric buses are moving toward the mainstream, despite attacks from oil industry apologists.

818

The Washington Examiner is published by MediaDC, a subsidiary of Clarity Media Group.

Editorial Director

Hugo Gurdon is the editorial director of the Washington Examiner. He is the former editor-in-chief of The Hill and previously served as an editor and reporter at the Daily Telegraph of London and the National Post of Canada. His writing has also appeared in such publications as the Wall Street Journal (Europe), Financial Times and The Guardian.

pix wearing glasses so betsy must be smart/serous

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/dont-lower-standards-for-federally-subsidized-for-profit-colleges

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/brad-parscale-big-tech-is-becoming-big-brother

gotta be infowars, yup!

Big Tech has a big bias problem.

Social media platforms that once facilitated the free exchange of ideas and information are now actively seeking to silence and censor conservative opinions.

This new Orwellian impulse that is taking over Big Tech is particularly problematic because social media websites, which are supposed to be safe spaces for all free speech, get special legal perks.

Under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, websites such as Facebook and Twitter are not treated as publishers of “information provided by another” — which would subject them to libel laws and other headaches publishers have to deal with — because they “offer a forum for a true diversity of political discourse.”

This means social media platforms are not merely private companies who can censor whomever they wish — They are considered, by law, to be public forums that allow free and open debate.

Yet, they’re doing the exact opposite. They are stifling online speech, warping the national discourse, and obstructing the free flow of ideas. Big Tech is not just biased against conservatives — it is actively trying to silence them and deprive them of online platforms.

Big Tech’s bias was on full display recently when conservative activist Candace Owens was suspended from Twitter for satirical tweets mimicking the racist, anti-white tweets of New York Times editorial board member Sarah Jeong — who has never been suspended from Twitter despite a history of racist comments.

The ban came just weeks after another controversy hit Twitter for anti-conservative bias, following revelations that the website had shadowbanned prominent Republican leaders.

Twitter isn’t the only major social media site with a demonstrated history of bias against conservatives. Facebook is infamous for its lopsided application of its “community standards.” Conservative content is regularly removed from the site while vile, often violent, radical left-wing content is left alone. Recently, a GOP congressional candidate’s ad was banned because it depicted images of the Cambodian genocide.

To make matters worse, the social media giant recently changed its feed algorithms — ostensibly to combat fake news — but the result has been a suspicious and significant drop in the reach of conservative pages and advertisements. A study found that while liberal publishers saw a roughly 2 percent increase in web traffic from Facebook following the algorithm changes, conservative ones saw a loss of traffic averaging around 14 percent.

Big Tech’s anti-conservative bias is positively institutional. Facebook, Google (YouTube), and Twitter all work with the Southern Poverty Law Center, a far-left organization with a proven track record of anti-conservative bias, to decide what is and isn’t “hate speech.”

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Big Tech is set to return to its free speech roots anytime soon. The Left clearly no longer values free speech at all.

Controversial commentator Alex Jones and his website Infowars were deplatformed last week from Facebook, YouTube, and other sites. The act was met with relish by liberals and Democrats. They were excited by the establishment of a precedent that will inevitably lead to the silencing of those with far less controversial opinions than Jones.

What we are seeing in Big Tech is the inherent totalitarian impulse of the Left come into full focus. The Left is losing at the ballot box, and there are some signs it is starting to lose the culture war too. The free and open Internet has been indispensable in spreading conservative ideas, and it was indispensable in getting Donald Trump elected president — and now the Left wishes to destroy it.

The giants of Silicon Valley must be challenged and reminded of what made the Internet so great in the first place. They must be stopped from turning the Internet into Big Brother.

Bradley Parscale (@parscale) is campaign manager of Donald J. Trump for President Inc.

outed?!

mma

Right-wing media outlets The Daily Caller and the Washington Free Beacon have often acted as de facto press offices for Scott Pruitt's Environmental Protection Agency. Media Matters has documented how the two publications have defended Pruitt in the face of his many scandals and tried to discredit sources of information about his misdeeds. Now we learn from Washington Examiner reporter John Siciliano, who covers energy and environment for the conservative-leaning newspaper, that the EPA's press office tried to strong-arm him into writing flattering pieces about the agency and complained to his editors when he refused.

Speaking on June 11 on a panel about media coverage at a conference organized by Citizens' Climate Lobby, a nonpartisan climate activist group, Siciliano recounted the EPA’s attempts to coerce him and his paper to print favorable stories, which he described as “a really bizarre pressure play on their part that I’ve never experienced from an agency, a cabinet-level agency, to enforce an agenda on a journalist.” Siciliano also discussed how the agency referred to him in pejorative terms and pitted him against other journalists -- practices the agency has used against other environmental journalists.

From the June 11 panel titled “Covering Climate Change in the Current Political Landscape”:

....

nelson actually looks fair

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/noam-chomsky-antifa-is-a-major-gift-to-the-right/article/2631786

seems to be taking lead on dapl eco-terror BS? nope, other WT

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/27/authorities-begin-removal-dakota-access-protest-ca/

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/warnings-of-eco-terrorism-mass-casualties-at-new-okla-tenn-oil-pipeline/article/2620569

no link pix

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

WASHINGTON SECRETS

Warnings of eco-terrorism, 'mass casualties' at new Okla-Tenn oil pipeline

by Paul Bedard | Apr 18, 2017, 2:13 PM Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Email this article Share on LinkedIn

Dakota Access pipeline opponents burn structures in their main protest camp in southern North Dakota near Cannon Ball, N.D., on Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2017, as authorities prepare to shut down the camp in advance of spring flooding season. (AP Photo/James MacPherson)

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...

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A report from the Department of Homeland Security, and Arkansas, Tennessee, and Oklahoma, warns of attacks from eco-terrorists to anti-government militia on the Diamond Pipeline project.

Some peaceful protests have already occurred.

The report revealed that five oil pipelines crossing the U.S.-Canada border were shutdown in October, and it provided photographic evidence of the arson and sabotage of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Police are keen consumers of the report because it was sheriffs and local cops that felt the brunt of the pressure at Dakota, sometimes getting in violent clashes with protesters.

The biggest concerns cited in the report:

— "DHS and the authoring fusion centers assess the most likely potential domestic terrorist threat to the Diamond Pipeline construction project or associated entities is from environmental rights extremists motivated by resentment over perceived environmental destruction."

— "We assess that the second most likely potential domestic terrorist threat to the Diamond Pipeline or associated entities—including law enforcement and private contract security guards—is from militia extremists opposed to government enforcement of eminent domain policies."

— "We assess the primary potential threat of violence against the Diamond Pipeline and related entities is from lone offenders who adhere to environmental rights extremist beliefs and believe violence is justified against such projects due to their perceived harm to the environment. Previous incidents involving lone offenders committing violent acts against targets associated with similar energy projects suggest that the pipeline and associated entities could be attractive targets for an attack by lone environmental rights extremists."

— "Militia extremists have engaged in armed standoffs, threats, and disrupted IED plots targeting law enforcement entitiesperceived to be enforcers of oppressive government land-use policies, according to media reporting. Although their capabilities vary, some militia extremists have well-rehearsed paramilitary skills, as well as access to and proficiency using firearms and explosives. As a result, successful violent attacks have the potential to cause mass casualties."

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedardATwashingtonexaminer.com

Who should be the next FBI Director? Jim Reese.

Never heard of him? In part, that’s why Reese is the right leader for the job. Unlike others now jockeying for the prestigious Pennsylvania Avenue position, Reese has spent his life outside the headlines.

Over the hills and far away — risking life, limb, and mind, in service of the United States.

A 25-year veteran of the Army, Lt. Col. Reese is a retired Delta Force operator. The military’s most elite special mission unit, Delta is tasked with the riskiest, most important missions. Reese has fought these battles on the ground and in the operations center.

During the Iraq War, he commanded a task force that hunted down al Qaeda and other terrorists. And within the special operations community, Reese’s reputation is legendary. Distinguished former Delta operator Dalton Fury once argued that Reese “quite possibly would have made Ulysses S. Grant appear wanting when it came to working through chaos, calming nerves, and demanding the best out of subordinates.”

I have the fortune of knowing Reese personally. And I fully concur with that tribute of his individual leadership skills. He is not just any mentor. Reese has no qualms issuing challenge alongside praise. He tells you when he believes you’re wrong. He believes that success requires a fidelity to introspection and durable outcomes.

That characteristic of fidelity offers the first reason why Reese would be a great pick for the FBI. He is a leader who would not buckle under political pressure, nor yield to public expectation. He would use his office to advance the FBI’s mission rather than his own persona.

He would not, for example, follow the tradition of some senior military and government leaders who spend their evenings attending lavish dinner parties at Washington embassies and hotels. And he would not waver in supporting FBI agents and analysts as they performed their necessary duties. Whether Trump or Pelosi, no politician could import political pressure onto a Director Reese.

But Reese would also innovate. Like any big organization, the FBI is ripe for reform. Establishing a successful global company after leaving the military, Reese would bring a blend of public and private sector thinking to bear. He could make the bureau more efficient and forward looking. That will be necessary in the years ahead.

For one, facing growing mistrust of our political system, the FBI should probably increase its staffing of political corruption details. The bureau might do well to transfer more lower-level counter-terrorism duties away from agents and towards local police-dominated Joint Terrorism Task Forces. Regardless, Reese despises static thinking. His is an open-door, if-in-doubt-innovate philosophy of two parts: “No. 1: Strive to be a good listener. You have to be a good listener and an active listener. No. 2, if in charge, take charge.”

The next FBI director needs to be able to inspire the trust of the organization and the American people. Reese is the man for the job. He might not be a political celebrity, but he is an intellectual warrior. He deserves an interview with the Department of Justice.

Tom Rogan (@TomRtweets) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a foreign policy columnist for National Review, a domestic policy columnist for Opportunity Lives, a former panelist on The McLaughlin Group and a senior fellow at the Steamboat Institute.

http://conwebwatch.tripod.com/stories/2014/hollingsworth.html

...

egurgitating global warming distortions

Hollingsworth proclaimed in a Jan. 28 CNS article:

Dr. Don Easterbrook – a climate scientist and glacier expert from Washington State who correctly predicted back in 2000 that the Earth was entering a cooling phase – says to expect colder temperatures for at least the next two decades.

Easterbrook’s predictions were “right on the money” seven years before Al Gore and the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for warning that the Earth was facing catastrophic warming caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide, which Gore called a “planetary emergency.”

“When we check their projections against what actually happened in that time interval, they’re not even close. They’re off by a full degree in one decade, which is huge. That’s more than the entire amount of warming we’ve had in the past century. So their models have failed just miserably, nowhere near close. And maybe it’s luck, who knows, but mine have been right on the button,” Easterbrook told CNSNews.com.

“For the next 20 years, I predict global cooling of about 3/10ths of a degree Fahrenheit, as opposed to the one-degree warming predicted by the IPCC,” said Easterbrook, professor emeritus of geology at Western Washington University and author of 150 scientific journal articles and 10 books, including “Evidence Based Climate Science,” which was published in 2011.

There's lots that Hollingsworth has gotten wrong here, starting with her presumption that Easterbrook is right about global cooling.

Skeptical Science has demonstrated how Easterbrook's predictions of cooling contradict he actual temperatures that have been observed.

Another thing Hollingsworth got wrong: uncritically repeating Easterbrook's claim that the IPCC predicted "one-degree warming." As Skeptical Science points out, the IPCC served up numerous analyses of temperature predictions, and Easterbrook cherry-picked one of them:

He chose a figure which represented model simulations of temperature responses only to greenhouse gas changes, which neglects for example the temperature response to the cooling effects of aerosols.

He chose a single model run with an anomalous temperature spike in 2011.

He only presented the data from 2000 to 2011, which concealed the fact that the temperature spike in 2011 was a short-term anomaly.

He exaggerated his distorted IPCC temperature rise by a factor of two.

Thus Easterbrook's claim that the IPCC TAR projected a 1°C global surface warming from 2000 to 2010 was not even remotely accurate.

As per usual, Hollingsworth couldn't be bothered to seek out any alternative views. Indeed, Hollingsworth even shared one fawning question she asked Easterbrook: “How does it feel to have been right?” If Hollingsworth had done any basic research before her interview, she would have known not to ask such a stupid question.

Hollingsworth served as stenographer for another right-wing activist group's global warming-denying claims in a July 22 CNS article. This time, she uncritically repeated attacks from the Institute for Energy Research that a new report warning of the dangers of climate change "is just another attempt by economic and political elites to impose a carbon tax on Americans."

Hollingsworth not only failed to obtain any response to IER's criticism, she failed to disclose that IER has strong ties to the energy industry, including donations fromExxonMobil and Koch-affilated interests.

Such ties and funding would seem to counter Hollingsworth's implication that IER's criticism is objective and not agenda-driven, but she doesn't want you to know about it.

Hollingsworth performed her stenography services once again in a Sept. 24 CNS article, repeating a claim by global warming denier Patrick Michael that this is the 18th year of “no significant warming trend in surface average temperature."

Since Hollingsworth is in stenography mode, she doesn't tell her readers that Michaels has a history of getting things wrong or that his central claim -- there has been no global warming for 18 years -- is misleading. Michael's claim relies on cherry-picked data and choosing an arbitrary starting point; meanwhile, the long-term trend demonstrates continued global warming.

Hollingsworth also gullibly swallowed Michaels' assertion of Arctic ice: “And if you take a close look at the Arctic data, it appears the decline stopped somewhere around 2005/2006, which means we’ve almost had ten years without any net loss in Arctic ice." In fact, Arctic ice remains near record lows.

Writing press releases...

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Examiner.com launched in April 2008, to provide freelancers across the United States with a platform to share their knowledge and expertise through informative and entertaining content. We have an in-house editorial team that provides guidance and mentorship to the contributors. Our network has grown to over 100,000 contributors,captivating our audience with interesting, entertaining, relevant content on a variety of topics. Examiner.com is a top 100 website, reaching over 37 million unique visitors a month.*

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woodcock recycled by :

Bay Area Moderate Conservative Examiner Dwight L. Schwab Jr.

Dwight has 30 years of work experience in the publishing industry, including ABC/Cap Cities and International Thomson. He has a BS in journalism from the University of Oregon and minors in political science and American history. He is a native of Portland, Oregon and a resident of the SF Bay Area since 1977. Dwight has written over 800 articles, since 2009, regarding domestic politics and international affairs. Send any comments to dwight.schwab@gmail.com.

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LOS ANGELES, Jan. 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- AXS, AEG's digital ticketing and media platform, has acquiredExaminer.com, a top content destination, it was announced today by Bryan Perez, President of AEG Digital, Ticketing and Media.

Launched in 2008, Examiner.com is the leading content creation network, connecting consumers to effective online influencers, known as Examiners; and creating meaningful and authentic interactions through compelling stories. Garnering more than 40 million unique visitors every month, Examiner.com is the 37th largest website in the U.S. and the 10th largest mobile website according to Quantcast.

With the resources and content created by the thousands of affiliated, established writers, AXS.com will now have the ability to populate original content directly into the AXS.com platform. The end result will be a new immersive experience for AXS.com users around live events. The experience will couple the power of the thousands of 'Examiners' writing each day about live events, with AXS.com's ticketing platform and AEG's insider access to events to create a one of a kind destination – uniquely focused on the live experience – both the content and the commerce.

"Fans have told us they don't see the populated social media feeds of other event focused websites as truly engaging content; instead they are craving content with a deeper, authentic and editorial connection, curated for their live entertainment interests," said Mr. Perez. "The Examiner platform allows AXS to do this at scale immediately."

"We have created a large scale content platform and we are truly excited about the integration with AXS.com. With this merger, AXS will now have the opportunity to tap into our contributors who are passionate about live events and direct them towards bringing consumers great stories around live entertainment," said Ashish Kapur, CEO ofExaminer.com, who will now be joining the AXS team as the Senior Vice President of Content.

Existing content not related to live entertainment will continue to live on Examiner.com.

About Examiner.com

Examiner.com is an enterprise-quality publishing and community platform where independent, self-motivated contributors write on topics that matter to them and share content with like-minded audiences around the world. Every month over 10,000 Examiners create more than 70,000 articles adding to a growing library of over 4 million articles. The site averages 40M unique visitors per month and is ranked #37 according to Quantcast and #89 by comScore.

About AXS

Developed and operated by AEG, one of the leading sports and entertainment presenters in the world, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Anschutz Company, AXS is a new entertainment platform that also serves as AEG's primary consumer brand. AXS provides fans the opportunity to purchase tickets directly from their favorite venues via a user-friendly ticketing interface. AXS serves all phases of the event life-cycle beyond just ticketing, through its consumer facing website, AXS.com and the AXS App, as well as its portfolio of investment companies, including Carbonhouse, a leading website developer for venues, Frontgate Ticketing, a festival oriented ticketing platform owned in partnership with C3 Presents, and Bypass, the venue industry's leading supplier of cloud-based food and beverage point-of-sale systems. For more information on AXS, please visit AXS.com.

About AEG

AEG is one of the leading sports and entertainment presenters in the world. AEG, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Anschutz Company, owns or is affiliated with a collection of companies including over 100 of the world's preeminent facilities such as STAPLES Center (Los Angeles, CA), StubHub Center (Carson, CA), Best Buy Theater (Times Square, New York), Sprint Center (Kansas City), Rose Garden Arena (Portland, OR), Target Center (Minneapolis, MN), Mercedes-Benz Arena (Shanghai, China), MasterCard Center (Beijing, China), Allphones Arena (Sydney, Australia), Stockholm Globe Arenas (Stockholm, Sweden), O2 World arena (Berlin, Germany), O2 World Hamburg, Indigo2 and The O2 arena and entertainment district (London, England) which are all part of the portfolio of AEG Facilities. Developed by AEG, L.A. LIVE is a 4 million square foot / multi-million dollar downtown Los Angelessports, residential & entertainment district featuring Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE and Club Nokia, a 54-story, 1001-room convention "headquarters" destination along with entertainment, restaurant and office space that "officially" opened in 2010. In addition to overseeing privately held management shares of the Los Angeles Lakers (NBA), assets of AEG Sports include franchises and properties such as the Los Angeles Kings (NHL), Los Angeles Galaxy and Houston Dynamo (MLS), two hockey franchises in Europe and the Amgen Tour of California cycling race. AEG Live, the company's live-entertainment division, is the world's second largest concert promotion and touring companies and is comprised of touring, festival, exhibition, broadcast, merchandise and special event divisions with fifteen regional offices. AEG Global Partnerships, a division responsible for worldwide sales and servicing of sponsorships naming rights and other strategic partnerships and AEG Merchandising, a multi-faceted merchandising company are also core business units of AEG. In 2010, AEG launched its AEG 1EARTH environmental program with the announcement of 2020 environmental goals and the release of the industry's first sustainability report while in 2011, AEG introduced AXS Ticketing, the first phase of its new entertainment platform serving as the company's primary consumer brand. For additional information: aegworldwide.com

cited in steyn amicus:

Thomas Richard has been writing about the environment for Examiner.com since 2010. He has always endeavored to enhance the national discussion of human-caused global warming, our ever-changing climate, and other environmental issues. Richard emphasizes sound science over green ideology.

SUBSCRIBE to this column and get notified when he publishes a new article! You can also read his most recent articles at http://www.examiner.com/environment-in-national/thomas-richard

Thomas's other topics: Environment Examiner

New study: Warming climate is "preferable" to most Americans April 21, 2016

A new studypublished in the Nature this week is drawing praise and criticism from both sides of the global warming divide. It says that the reason global warming is ranked as such a non-issue by most people...

Australia's Attorney General says global warming science is not settled April 21, 2016

Australia's Attorney-General and Liberal Senator George Brandis said earlier this week he's not "at all" convinced the science of global warming is settled. Speaking to Parliament, the senior Turnbull government minister noted "...

NOAA says March warmest on record ahead of climate accord signing April 20, 2016

Just days before President Obama is scheduled to sign the global climate accord at the United Nations, NOAA declared March the warmest month on record. This Friday, which is also Earth Day, about 150 countries will officially ink the climate...

NASA attacks Facebook users over Bill Nye's global warming post April 15, 2016

On any given day, you can turn on the Science channel and hear NASA scientists talk about all the possible ways the Earth may get destroyed: From Coronal Mass Ejections to gamma ray bursts to wandering black holes to our...

Bernie Sanders promises to ban fracking if elected president April 13, 2016

The Democratic-Socialist presidential candidate Bernie Sanders doubled down on Monday his commitment to ban fracking across the country at a New York rally. He renewed his focus to end hydraulic fracturing, a process to extract oil and gas from...

Eighty percent of Chinese water is too toxic to drink April 13, 2016

Over 80 percent of China's wells is heavily polluted, according to new statistics reported by Chinese Media and the NY Times this week, raising new concerns about the world's most populated country. However, most Chinese cities...

Bill Nye the 'science guy' says energy revolution akin to human slavery April 12, 2016

The environmental website DeSmog Blog released a video yesterday showing Bill Nye the "science guy" comparing the fossil fuel energy revolution of the last 150 years to human slavery. According to journalist Marc Morano, who interviewed Nye for...

Fact check: White House says global warming is making billions sick April 8, 2016

As part of the president's second-term climate-legacy project, the Obama administration has issued an apocalyptic report this week saying climate change will make billions sick from famine, disease, and heat. In the 332-page report, it...

Study: No increase in extreme droughts, rainfall during 20th century April 7, 2016

A new study published yesterday shows there hasn't been an increase in extreme rainfall and droughts during the 20th century, even as humans ramped up burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil) in the late 1800s. It also shows...

EPA chief: Next administration must continue Obama's climate legacy April 6, 2016

EPA Chief Administrator Gina McCarthy had a message for voters yesterday: there's much more climate work to be done and it will be the next administration's duty to carry it out. This comes after the Supreme...

Wash. Examiner Duped By "Global Cooling" "Scam Artist" -- Even After We Warned Them

Blog››› August 6, 2013 1:39 PM EDT ››› SHAUNA THEEL

e Washington Examiner is promoting a press release from a man predicting "global cooling" who even a climate "skeptic" has called a "scam artist."

TheWashington Examiner's Paul Bedard writes that the "war between former Vice President Al Gore and his critics over global warming is about to hit the boiling point" with a "new claim" from John Casey that "global cooling" is coming. Who is John Casey? The Examiner says that Media Matterscalled Casey a scam artist "[b]ecause his predictions go against the mainstream." In fact, in 2010 Media Matters quoted blogger Tom Nelson -- who calls climate change a "hoax" -- warning that he thinks Casey is "a scam artist" trying to trick the "skeptic community" into bankrolling him.

Casey created the "Space and Science Research Corporation" (SSRC), which boasts that "it has a dedicated list of 'Supporting Researchers' who have committed their name and assistance to the mission of the SSRC." Four of these seven researchers are alsolisted as experts on Casey's other website, the "International Earthquake and Volcano Prediction Center," perhaps because they make no claim of expertise in climate change, instead stating that they study earthquakes and volcanoes.

Casey also has no background in climate science, possessing only an undergraduate degree in physics and math and a master's in management. Since we pointed that out in 2010, Casey has pumped up his biography, adding that he is "one of America's most successful climate change researchers and climate prediction experts," even though he does not appear to have ever published a single peer-reviewed paper on the subject.

Instead he wrote a self-published book on climate change "put together" with the help of an astrologer-cum-thoroughbred horse-racing advocate who claims to be the illegitimate daughter of Ernest Hemingway. He claimshis book, Cold Sun, is "internationally acclaimed," citing one of his own volcano-specialist "Supporting Researchers" and an anonymous Amazon.com review. In it, Casey predicts that there will be "catastrophic shortages in the world's food supplies" from "global cooling," and that the first indicators of this will "be felt at any time and certainly by December 2012" (2012 was actually one of the 10 warmest years on record globally and the warmest year on record in the U.S.). Despite his claims of international prominence, neither Skeptical Science nor DeSmogBlog -- which maintain extensive records on the industry of faux-experts sowing doubt on climate change -- have ever written a single word about him.

The actual press release from SSRC should have also set off alarm bells for the Examiner. It announces that SSRC will host a news conference "during which the end of global sea level rise will be formally declared," adding that this will be as "historic" as its 2008 news conference that no one has ever heard of:

The Space and Science Research Corporation (SSRC) announces today that a news conference has been scheduled for August 21, 2013, during which the end of global sea level rise will be formally declared and a specific timetable for sea level decline will be released.

[...]

Similar to the news conference of July 1, 2008, when the SSRC issued a declaration of the end of global warming, this next historic news event will be one of the final measures according to SSRC President John Casey that helps put to rest the theory of manmade climate change.

In unrelated news, a recent study found that consuming conservative media erodes public trust in scientists.

Conservative newspaper declares love for Obama’s fracker-friendly ways

By John Upton

Uber-conservative Beltway newspaper The Washington Examinerhas revealed its secret crush on Barack Obama and his administration’s fracker-friendly ways.

It’s not often that the newspaper says anything nice about the president. The Examiner is owned by Philip Anschutz, an oil-drilling magnate, and the newspaper sometimes seems to exist only to beam its owner’s conservative views into the brains of D.C. insiders.

In March, for example, the paper’s editorial writers likened the president to “a desperate gambler who doubles down on a losing bet” after he called for more green energy spending. In January, the editorial writers charged that “Obamacare threatens states’ fiscal autonomy.” And, famously, back in 2009, *Examiner* political correspondent Byron York argued that Obama’s “sky-high ratings among African-Americans make some of his positions appear a bit more popular overall than they actually are” — as if the opinions of blacks shouldn’t count.

But when it comes to the Obama administration’s complicity in the nationwide fracking spree, the Examiner has nothing but love. Here are some excerpts from “Two cheers for Obama on fracking,” the newspaper’s May 5 editorial:

Two significant pieces of good news last week deserved more attention than they received. First, the U.S. Geological Survey reported that recoverable natural gas resources in the northern Plains states are three times greater than previously thought. Second, President Obama’s newest secretary of the interior, Sally Jewell, said “we must develop our domestic energy resources armed with the best available science, and this unbiased, objective information will help private, nonprofit and government decision makers at all levels make informed decisions about the responsible development of these resources.”

Jewell was referring to hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” the process by which a pressurized mixture of (mostly) water and chemicals is injected into shale rock formations deep underground. …

More recently, Obama’s pick for Secretary of Energy, MIT scientist Ernest Moniz, has described water and air pollution risks associated with fracking “challenging but manageable” with proper regulation and oversight. …

For all of its claims regarding fracking’s dangers, Big Green’s real concern is that natural gas is becoming so plentiful and cheap that it will undermine the case for more expensive renewable energy. The fact that a succession of federally subsidized green-energy companies has been going bust doesn’t help the critics’ cause.

With Moniz’s nomination, Obama appears willing to at least minimize regulatory obstacles to fracking and thereby reap the rewards of clean, cheap, abundant domestic energy. Good for him. With American economic growth dependent on energy, it’s time to get fracking.

The president appears to have reached so far across the aisle on this one that he has tumbled fully to the other side.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

http://grist.org/news/conservative-newspaper-declares-love-for-obamas-fracker-friendly-ways/

Contents[hide]

History

The newspaper was formerly distributed only in the suburbs of Washington, under the titles of Montgomery Journal, Prince George's Journal, and Northern Virginia Journal. Their parent company, Journal Newspapers Inc., was purchased by Philip F. Anschutz's Clarity Media Group in October 2004. On February 1, 2005, the paper's name changed to the Washington Examiner, and it adopted a logo and format similar to that of another newspaper owned by Anschutz, the San Francisco Examiner.

Political slant

The Examiner's editorial page is heavily conservative; it is headed by Mark Tapscott, with American Spectator senior editor Quin Hillyer serving as its associate editor. The paper's national political coverage, which also appears in Examiner papers in Baltimore and San Francisco, was previously headed by Bill Sammon, a formerWashington Times reporter who has written several books praising George W. Bush. (Sammon is now the deputy managing editor for Fox News Channel's Washington bureau.^[1]) Chris Stirewalt, who has been described as "a true conservative voice"^[2], is the Examiner's political editor. Mary Katherine Ham, former managing editor of the conservative Townhall.com, briefly served as the Examiner's online editor for a few months in 2008 ^[3]^ before joining the Weekly Standard.^[4] Matthew Sheffield, executive editor of the Media Research Center blog NewsBusters, is in charge of the Examiner's website.^[5] Byron York, formerly of National Review, joined the paper in February 2009.^[6]

Contact information

1015 15th St. NW (the Examiner Building (Washington DC), home to numerous conservative organizations)

Suite 500

Washington, DC 20005

Phone: (202) 903-2000

Website: http://www.dcexaminer.com/

Articles and resources

References

↑ "Changes To FNC's DC Bureau," TV Newser, August 5, 2008.
↑ "Stirewalt will be missed", Change West Virginia blog, October 18, 2007.
↑ "MKH Relocation Efforts Underway", Mary Katherine Ham's blog, Townhall.com, May 23, 2008.
↑ "Exodus from the Examiner?" Robert Stacy McCain, The Other McCain, September 24, 2008.
↑ "Teaming Up With the Washington Examiner," NewsBusters, October 29, 2008.
↑ "Byron York joins Examiner as chief political correspondent," Washington Examiner, February 3, 2009.

External resources

External articles

"Right-wing slant for free in DC's new daily paper, the Washington Examiner", Media Matters for America, February 2, 2005.
Terry Krepel, "Right-Wing Tilt Drives Washington Examiner," Huffington Post, April 25, 2009.
Dirk Smillie, "The Stealth Media Mogul: Billionaire Philip Anschutz is quietly building a small empire of social-networking sites, newspapers and now a leading conservative weekly," Forbes.com, June 29, 2009.

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Wikipedia also has an article on Washington Examiner. This article may use content from the Wikipedia article under the terms of the GFDL.

Categories: Media | Newspapers | United States | Stubs

.com

Examiner.com launched in April 2008, to provide freelancers across the United States with a platform to share their knowledge and expertise through informative and entertaining content. We have an in-house editorial team that provides guidance and mentorship to the contributors. Our network has grown to over 100,000 contributors, captivating our audience with interesting, entertaining, relevant content on a variety of topics. Examiner.com is a top 100 website, reaching over 37 million unique visitors a month.*

POLICY: ENVIRONMENT & ENERGY

BY :{MARK TAPSCOTT:(style="text-decoration-line:none"):}: | DECEMBER 27, 2012 | 12:00 AM

'Richard Windsor' departure from EPA is a victory for transparency

TOPICS: :{:{CAMPAIGN 2012:(style="background-image:url("):}::(style="text-decoration-line:none"):}: :{:{EPA:(style="background-image:url("):}::(style="text-decoration-line:none"):}: :{:{ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT:(style="background-image:url("):}::(style="text-decoration-line:none"):}: :{:{TRANSPARENCY:(style="background-image:url("):}::(style="text-decoration-line:none"):}:

Lisa Jackson's forthcoming departure from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is a major victory for transparency and accountability in Washington.

After years of whispers that EPA officials frequently used private email addresses, fake names and coded messages to circumvent the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, Jackson admitted recently to using "Richard Windsor" as her chosen nom de plume on a government email account.

That was her choice because it reminded her of a much-beloved family pet, she claimed. (At least she didn't ask how anybody could suspect a puppy lover like her of any wrongdoing.) The EPA inspector general opened an investigation into the matter because it is against federal law to use nonofficial or secret email addresses to conduct official business.

The EPA IG could hardly do otherwise. The use of private or secret emails enables high government muckety-mucks like Jackson to hide things about which they don't want the rest of us to know. But we don't need an investigation to know officials have been hiding bad things within the EPA for a very long time.

During the Clinton years, Carol Browner (a former senatorial aide to Vice President Gore) headed the EPA. She ordered the hard drive on her government computer to be reformatted and all backup tapes destroyed, just hours after a federal judge ordered her agency to preserve all agency email records. Only hopelessly naive or blindly partisan folks took seriously Browner's doe-eyed claim that it was all just a big mistake and she certainly wasn't trying to cover up anything. Nothing to see here, so move along, folks.

But nothing was done.

Then, in the course of litigation initiated a few months ago by Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Christopher Horner, an internal memo from the EPA's IT department turned up. It described the process for establishing and using secret email accounts.

That revelation sparked trench warfare among Jackson's EPA, a federal court, at least two committees in Congress, Horner and the CEI over thousands of other internal emails and documents likely to shed additional light on the illegalities going on at the environmental agency.

The conflict is far from over, and the odds favor some ugly revelations before any cease-fire is declared. Jackson's defenders will claim her departure has nothing to do with these matters. But Horner well makes the obvious point to the contrary: "It is not only implausible that Lisa Jackson's resignation was unrelated to her false identity, which we revealed, given how the obvious outcome and apparent objective of such subversion of transparency laws was intolerable. But it became an inevitability when, last week, the Department of Justice agreed (as a result of our lawsuit) to begin producing 12,000 of her 'Richard Windsor' alias accounts related to the war on coal Jackson was orchestrating on behalf of President Obama outside of the appropriate democratic process."

There's also this: Having held dozens of Jackson's most costly and controversial proposed regulations until after the election, the Obama administration is now releasing those regulatory bombs. Still having "Richard Windsor" at the EPA would have immeasurably complicated the legal and political battles occasioned by each of the new Jackson regulations.

Maybe, as Horner jokes, Jackson just wants to spend more time with her dog, but it's impossible not to think Jackson'ssins against transparencyaccount at least in part for her departure from the EPA.

Here's why this is so significant if you believe the public's business ought to be conducted in public: Nobody in government has ever gone to jail for violating the FOIA.

Jackson isn't going to jail, either, but at least now she won't be running the EPA under an alias.

Mark Tapscott is executive editor of The Washington Examiner.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/richard-windsor-departure-from-epa-is-a-victory-for-transparency/article/2516944

jackson jihad:

Isn't it well past the time when democrats should at the least demand that those they voted for, oppose the agenda of our principle political enemies, the conservative media owning, and private army owning billionaire families of the christian evangelical right....things like lowering taxes of the wealthiest instead of raising them, specifically by, if necessary, allowing the sunsetting of all Bush era tax cuts set to expire at the end of this year? Wouldn't the comparatively modest increases wage earners would experience, be more than offset by the increased revenue from inheritance and top bracket income taxes, again set at Y2K levels?

Aren't those sunset provisions in force now because of a compromise then, demanded by our progressive representatives?

Just three CNP members, Philip Anschutz,

Edward Atsinger III, and his brother-in-law, Stuart W. Epperson, through the media they control, are responsible for the "Jesus flavored" political indoctrination of millions of voters.

Through "the message" distributed by Anschutz's

http://www.sourcewatch.org/...

Clarity Media Group is the holding company for media properties owned by Philip F. Anschutz. These include the San Francisco Examiner and the Washington Examiner. An Examiner newspaper in Baltimore was shut down in February 2009.[1]

Clarity Media has trademarked the name "Examiner" for possible future newspapers in dozens of other U.S. cities.[2] The company also operates news portal websites in numerous cities under the "examiner.com" name, and is seeking editors to oversee regional and local content for those websites.[3][4]

On June 17, 2009, Clarity Media Group acquired The Weekly Standard, a conservative opinion journal, from Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.[5]

...and by Atsinger III's and Epperson's

http://www.sourcewatch.org/...

Salem Communications Corporation promotes itself as "the leading provider of radio programming, online resources and magazines targeted to the Christian and family themes audience."[2][3]

Salem Communications states that it currently "owns and operates 95 radio stations nation-wide, with 60 stations located in the top 25 most populated U.S. markets," with the majority of its stations operating "within clusters involving three strategic formats" and its "foundational format ... Christian teaching and talk, featuring well-known speakers such as James Dobson, Janet Parshall, Dr. Charles F. Stanley and Chuck Swindoll."[4]

In April 2006, Salem Communications purchased conservative website Townhall.com.[1]

http://motherjones.com/...

....The left—which for years dismissed evangelical activists as out-of-touch zealots—has nothing on the radio dial even close to Salem’s reach and influence. Air America is broadcast on 70 stations and owns none. Salem owns 103 stations in the nation’s largest markets and broadcasts to more than 1,900 affiliates. It owns radio stations in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, and Atlanta. In fact, it doesn’t own just one station in those markets. It owns two—sometimes more. In Los Angeles it owns four. In Honolulu it owns seven. It also owns 62 websites and a magazine publishing division.

Though the chain is not as large as Clear Channel Radio (which owns 1,200 stations) or Viacom’s Infinity Broadcasting (178), Salem’s programming is available to one-third of the U.S. population; its websites are read by some 3 million people. Salem Radio Network News division is, according to its website, "the only Christian-focused news organization with fully equipped broadcast facilities at the U.S. House, Senate, and White House manned by full-time correspondents—ensuring timely, on-the-spot coverage of breaking news...specifically created for Christian-formatted radio stations." In a move that mirrors the Republican Party’s objectives, Atsinger and Epperson have recently expanded Salem’s stable of Christian talk-show hosts—James Dobson, Randall Terry, Janet Parshall—to include conservative Jews like Prager and Michael Medved. The company is a leading outlet for Christian rock, one of the music industry’s fastest-growing segments, and is chasing after black and Latino listeners. The company was also quick to embrace iPod technology to do what evangelicals call "godcasting."

By melding business savvy, generous political giving, and an unshakable faith in their own moral righteousness, Epperson and Atsinger have built Salem into a blue-chip Wall Street company that has tapped into what Medved calls "a conservative religious counterculture" that is "far more powerful and far more significant than anything in the stupid counterculture of the 1960s." ...

Instead of opposing every important, right wing political stance espoused by Salem Radio's stooge, Michael Medved, who has declared that there should be shame associated with the unemployed's receipt of public aid, that subsidized school lunch programs should be eliminated, and that the Food Stamps program should be replaced by government warehouses distributing cheese to the hungry queued up in in waiting lines, congressman Adam Smith (D-WA), to name one democrat, regularly appears on Medved's show to either agree with his extreme points or to react to some democratic initiative, with the disclaimer, "I didn't vote for that."

As long as we stand aside while the right cons voters who sell their labor to feed and clothe their families, via the distraction of their alleged obligations associated with their devotion to "Jesus", into voting for the CNP billionaire sponsored agenda and candidates, they will continually compensate for the votes they naturally lack due to the shear numbers of subsistance level voters.

(Continuing the theme in yesterday's diary...)

We must work tirelessly to get out the message to our elected officials and to voters whose net worth and income is not in the top ten percent, that this is the consequence of class division we stand against and intend to reverse through our political organizing and fund raising activities, and not via the propaganda weapon that uses religion to hide the crisis of the gross inequity of security, wealth, and power.

http://www.pbs.org/...

Middletown I

....The rough egalitarianism of the farmland had been replaced by a two-class system

in the city. The Lynds found a business class, which worked with people

and symbols, and a working class, which worked with things. And the

Lynds found that these two groups were as different as two different

tribes. They had different values, different expectations and did not

mingle. Among the differences between the two groups was financial

security: the working class was subject to frequent layoffs with no

notice, while the business class was almost never laid off.

http://online.wsj.com/...

FEBRUARY 13, 2010

From Deal Journal, MarketBeat and Wealth Report

Unemployment? Not for the Rich

Top Decile Earners' Rate Is 3%, New Study Says; Bottom 10th Is at 31%

Executive Editor

The Washington Examiner

April 2012 – Present (2 years 6 months)

Oversee special reporting team.

Editorial Page Editor

The Washington Examiner

April 2006 – April 2012 (6 years 1 month)

Managed staff of editors, editorial writers, bloggers and columnists producing two daily editorials and five daily pages of opinion commentary.

(Open)2 recommendations

Liz Barrett

Professional journalist, blogger, editor

Mark Tapscott taught the rest of us by example how to translate success in print to strength on the web. He was a pleasure...View

Lakhinder Jit Singh Vohra

Intelligent Home Specialist, Time Warner Cable

Mark was one of the first journalists I had a chance to work with when I started with The Washington Examiner newspapers. He...View

Director, Center for Media and Public Policy

The Heritage Foundation

2001 – 2006 (5 years)

Managed the foundation's new media development efforts in the political/media arena. Also started Heritage's Database 101 Computer-Assisted Research and Reporting (CARR) Boot Camps for Journalists that were co-hosted with the Sunlight Foundation and Center for Responsive Politics at the National Press Club from 2001 to 2011.

Managing Editor

The Journal Newspapers

November 1995 – October 1999 (4 years)

Managing Editor of The Prince William Journal until August 1996, then became Managing Editor of The Montgomery Journal until October 1999.

Assistant Managing Editor, National Editor, Business Editor, Assistant Business Editor, Reporter

Washington Times

1985 – 1989 (4 years)---:{

Whatever happened to the art of honorable compromise?:{(Link):(style="margin:0px 0px 0px 5px;padding:10px 0px 0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-weight:inherit;font-style:inherit;vertical-align:middle;font-variant:inherit;display:inline-block;zoom:1;overflow:hidden;width:10px;height:0px;background:url("):}:

The Washington Examiner

December 20, 2012

Example of weekly opinion column.

Cato Institute's Jim Harper is on a quest as a digital Diogenes:{(Link):(style="margin:0px 0px 0px 5px;padding:10px 0px 0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-weight:inherit;font-style:inherit;vertical-align:middle;font-variant:inherit;display:inline-block;zoom:1;overflow:hidden;width:10px;height:0px;background:url("):}:

The Washington Examiner

December 19, 2012

Profile for the Watchdog Team page on the Examiner's web site of of a significant Washington player on transparency and accountability issues.

House panel wants IG probe of secret emails at White House, EPA, other agencies:{(Link):(style="margin:0px 0px 0px 5px;padding:10px 0px 0px;border:0px;outline:0px;font-weight:inherit;font-style:inherit;vertical-align:middle;font-variant:inherit;display:inline-block;zoom:1;overflow:hidden;width:10px;height:0px;background:url("):}:

The Washington Examiner

November 16, 2012

Watchdog Team page news story.

Good-bye to all that

November 6, 2010

This will be my final article on Examiner.com. Thank you all for your support andyour criticism. You can help with a title for this...To Kim and Lucia who both knew best How thoughts like these...

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State of the Science: Global warming/climate change/disruption, whatever

September 24, 2010

We don't know everything about the climate, and we probably never will. We do know some important things, and we are learning more quickly. On Watt's Up With That we see a write up of a...

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Skeptics doing it right

September 23, 2010

I have two examples to offer of skeptics doing the right thing. One is action-based the other is analytical.Let's cut to the chase: An Australian family is being evicted after the government decided to change the...

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Climategate Investigations Revealed as Hopelessly Inadequate

September 14, 2010

Andrew Montford, also known as blogger Bishop Hill, has written a report on the various inquiries into the Climategate scandal. I think some people wrote a book about that once... Here's what Andrew said: That's the...

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Global warming: War below the fold

September 11, 2010

Most readers come by and read what I and other Examiners have to say and travel elsewhere on their internet journey. But about 1% of you decide to leave a comment, either in praise or fury. Almost all of the...

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A busman's holiday for global warming

September 7, 2010

Hi all. I've spent the last few days helping Anthony Watts keep content up on his weblog, and didn't really think it was fair to just double post stuff. I should be back to my normal...

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Bjorn Lomborg gets it coming or going

September 1, 2010

Bjorn Lomborg is author of The Skeptical Environmentalist and Cool It, both books about the environment that tried to put global warming into some kind of rational perspective, which God knows it needs. Yesterday he issued a call for $100...

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Global warming: Fixing the IPCC, Part 2

August 30, 2010

The Inter Academy Council has released its report on much needed reforms at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. While it nods its head at the 'good' the IPCC has done for the world to date, it makes...

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Global warming: Fixing the IPCC

August 29, 2010

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a very small secretariat of the United Nations with a very large job. I think there are less than a dozen people there, and their budget is minscule. They are in charge of...

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Global warming: What's important, what's irrelevant?

August 28, 2010

There are a lot of people obsessively watching the retreat of Arctic ice as we approach summer's end. More of it melts every summer and some scientists believe that Arctic ice will disappear each summer as global warming...

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Global warming: The blacklist

June 23, 2010

Efforts by Stephen Schneider and co-authors to show that climate scientists favor the AGW consensus are a) unnecessary and b) getting off on the wrong foot. When Spencer Weart, author of 'The Discovery of Global Warming,' says...

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Global warming: Open letter to Stephen Schneider

June 22, 2010

Dear Professor Schneider, I am writing in regards to your recently published paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, titled 'Expert Credibility in Climate Change.' I would like to start by asking you if your...

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Global warming: Black list a black day for science

June 21, 2010

Just when you think things can't sink any lower, the National Academy of Sciences has now published a list compiled by a non-academic weblogger that attempts to rank scientists by expertise, credibility and (oh!) belief in the...

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Green technology boom and bust

June 20, 2010

Germany, Italy and Spain either have or will soon cut government subsidies such as feed-in tariffs for renewable energy supplies such as wind and solar power. Wind power installations in the U.S. are down 40% from last year...

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Global warming: Differing degrees of alarm

June 18, 2010

There are people out there who say that global warming will drive many species to extinction, including polar bears. That sea levels will rise dramatically as the Greenland ice cap melts before the end of this century. That hurricanes will...

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Global warming: Painting a new picture

June 17, 2010

If President Obama is not willing to use the phrase 'climate change' in a speech on energy, it is clear where U.S. domestic politics stands. The president will not lead on this issue and is probably content...

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President Obama's Energy Speech--Not a word about climate change or global warming

June 15, 2010

President Obama spoke to the nation from the Oval Office for 20 minutes this evening about energy. It started with the Gulf Oil Spill and it ended with a push for clean energy. But nowhere in the speech did he...

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What I hope President Obama says tonight

June 15, 2010

My fellow Americans. Our society and the societies of all of us in the developed world are approaching a turning point. We've seen it coming for quite a while, but we have had other problems to solve as...

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Our Climategate book has been completely debunked!

June 14, 2010

It only took six months to do it, but writer Brian Angliss has exposed our book Climategate: The CRUtape Letters as a complete and utter fraud. Of course, he didn't read it... Angliss maintains a weblogs called Scholars...

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Global warming: Malthus would have been wrong about green energy, too

June 13, 2010

Global warming is very weird. Not the physical phenomenon--it's easy to understand and extremely normal. What's weird is where people's political opinion actually takes them. We have conservatives arguing against conservation and liberal...

**Thomas Fuller** - National environmental policy Examiner - Policy**...**

Tom Fuller has just returned to his home town of San Francisco following 10 years in ... has written a report on the various inquiries into the Climategatescandal.

www.examiner.com/environmental-policy-in.../thomas-fuller

**Thomas Fuller** - National environmental policy **...** - Examiner.com

Tom Fuller has just returned to his home town of San Francisco following 10 ... As part of the aftermath of Climategate, a number of errors and discrepancies in ...

www.examiner.com/environmental-policy-in.../thomas-fuller?page...

Special preview: **Climategate**--The CRUtape Letters - National **...**

Jan 9, 2010 ... Thomas FullerEnvironmental Policy Examiner ... We note that discussion ofClimategate, as the scandal has been dubbed, is full of defenders ...

www.examiner.com/.../special-preview-climategate-the-crutape-letters

The real crime in **Climategate** - National environmental policy **...**

Dec 1, 2009 ... Thomas FullerEnvironmental Policy Examiner ... to exclude unpopular opinions, I would like to say what I think the real crime is inClimategate.

www.examiner.com/article/the-real-crime-climategate

Global warming: The **Climategate** cover-up continues - Examiner.com

Jun 3, 2010 ... Thomas FullerEnvironmental Policy Examiner ... in the Climategate drama (and covered in our book, Climategate: The CRUtape Letters).

www.examiner.com/.../global-warming-the-climategate-cover-up-continues

Our **Climategate** book has been completely debunked! - National **...**

Jun 14, 2010 ... Thomas FullerEnvironmental Policy Examiner ... Nor has he read theClimategate emails, which are available just about anywhere on the ...

www.examiner.com/.../our-climategate-book-has-been-completely-debunked

What's at stake with **Climategate** and global warming - Examiner.com

Nov 30, 2009 ... Thomas FullerEnvironmental Policy Examiner .... (started on Lucia's blog), and I' ve been reading your blog regularly since Climategate broke.

www.examiner.com/.../what-s-at-stake-with-climategate-and-global-warming

Global warming, loyalty oaths, and **Climategate's** smoking gun **...**

Dec 11, 2009 ... Thomas FullerEnvironmental Policy Examiner ... The even more important story of yesterday, however, was Climategate's bete noire, Steve ...

www.examiner.com/.../global-warming-loyalty-oaths-and-climategate-s- smoking-gun

**Climategate**: If it was not conspiracy, if it was not a crime, then what **...**

Mar 31, 2010 ... Thomas FullerEnvironmental Policy Examiner ... The recently concluded Parliamentary enquiry into Climategate was emphatic in saying that ...

www.examiner.com/.../climategate-if-it-was-not-conspiracy-if-it-was-not-a- crime-then-what-exactly-was-it

How **Climategate** is affecting my future--a somewhat commercial **...**

Dec 17, 2009 ... Thomas FullerEnvironmental Policy Examiner ... Climategate has been in the news frequently, and in my articles almost continuously. In order ...

www.examiner.com/.../how-climategate-is-affecting-my-future-a-somewhat- commercial-announcement

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