Rosen, Jacky Rep

trump called her blackie jacky? stumps for opponent?

an 4 24

jeff Gunter, the Californian businessman hoping to unseat Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nevada), was recently caught using the largesse of his donors to establish his Western bona fides in an arguably cartoonish way.

The Daily Beast recently combed through Gunter's campaign finance filings and found that he spent nearly $800 in donor funds at retail chain store Boot Barn to purchase cowboy-themed attire that he then donned in a campaign ad from last August. shows Gunter driving a Ford F-150 pickup truck, and sporting a burgundy button-down shirt, cowboy boots and a large belt buckle with "NEVADA" written on it. The buckle also shows a cowboy riding a bucking bronco, a royal flush and the Nevada state seal. The Beast found that both the shirt and the belt buckle can be purchased at Boot Barn for $29.99 and $45, respectively.

"Nevadans deserve a senator who will put America first," Gunter said in the ad. "Now I'm bringing that same fighting spirit to stand up for every Nevadan."

While he's spending significant sums to bolster his Nevada credentials, Gunter's personal history tells a different story. The Beast reported that just last year, Gunter — who was former President Donald Trump's ambassador to Iceland — was registered as a Republican in Nevada and as a Democrat in California. In 2022, he requested a California absentee ballot to vote in the midterm election. And even though he's owned property in Nevada since 2007, Gunter launched his dermatology practice in California and raised his family in the Golden State. He also maintains several residences in Nevada's deep-blue neighboring state.

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"Jeff Gunter is a California Democrat who used campaign funds at a California-based store to play dress-up as a Nevada cowboy," an unnamed national Republican strategist for GOP Senate campaigns told the Beast. "You can't make this stuff up."

An unnamed Trump ally also cast doubt on Gunter's attempts to portray himself as an authentic Nevadan, describing Gunter to the Beast as "a fake cowboy, fake Trump supporter, but a real California Democrat."

Gunter disputed the claim that he was merely donning a costume and insisted that he was a proud resident of the Silver State.

“I have no idea what ‘fake cowboy’ means,” Gunter told the Beast. “This ad was filmed in rural Nevada, in fact where I have farms, farmland, and where I have treated patients for over 25 years. I guess my opponents truly have nothing substantive to attack me and instead are debating whether or not I satisfy some sort of Yellowstone cowboy fantasy aesthetic. Pretty weird! I am a proud Boot Barn customer.”

Gunter's campaign recently announced plans for a $3.3 million ad buy in Nevada television markets for a 30-second campaign commercial that shows the footage of him in the Boot Barn cowboy clothes. Gunter says in the ad that he is "110 percent pro-Trump."

The wealthy dermatologist is running against roughly a dozen other candidates for the Republican nomination in Nevada's U.S. Senate race, including former U.S. Army Captain Sam Brown (hand-picked by the GOP establishment) and former state representative Jim Marchant. And while Trump has not yet made his endorsement, Gunter's MAGA-focused campaign has garnered the endorsement of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida).

Click here to read the Beast's full report (subscription required).

'Go Out and Vote' Patagonia Endorses Candidates For First Time in Its History

Outdoor brand Patagonia is endorsing candidates for the first time in its history in an effort to protect the country's at-risk public lands and waters.

The civic-minded retailer is backing two Democrats in two crucial Senate races: the re-election of Sen. Jon Tester of Montana; and Rep. Jacky Rosen, who is trying to unseat Republican Sen. Dean Heller in Nevada

ith the nation's attention rightly transfixed by the Senate GOP's monstrous efforts to ram through a Supreme Court nominee who has been credibly accused by multiple women of sexual assault, House Republicans on Friday voted overwhelmingly to approve another $3 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans just weeks before the November midterms.

"In less than a year, House Republicans have handed out trillions of tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations. Now, middle class families are on the hook for higher healthcare costs, and Medicare and Social Security on the chopping block."

—Rep. Richard Neal

"Today the GOP doubled down on last year's giveaway to the donor class known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act," Morris Pearl, chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, said in a statement following the 220-191 vote. "Tax Cuts 2.0 gives nearly $3 trillion to the wealthiest Americans, and will become yet another excuse for Republicans to slash Medicare and Social Security."

"In less than a year, House Republicans have handed out trillions of tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations," added Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee. "Now, middle class families are on the hook for higher healthcare costs, and Medicare and Social Security on the chopping block."

Three Democrats—Reps. Conor Lamb (Penn.), Jacky Rosen (Nev.), and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.)—voted for the GOP-crafted measure, which would permanently extend the individual tax cuts under the current Republican tax law.

According to the an analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center (TPC), the House GOP's measure—which progressive critics have denounced as "Tax Scam 2.0"—would send the vast majority of benefits to the very top.

"The richest one percent of filers would see an average tax cut of $40,000, while those in the middle 20 percent of earners would see an average cut of $980," the Washington Post noted in a summary of TPC's findings.

"The American people are already paying too high a price for the GOP's blatant disregard for our families and our economy," Ryan Thomas of the Not One Penny coalition said in a statement on Friday. "This is yet another shameful tax law that would swindle working families and siphon even more funding from the programs that help our communities thrive—all in order to give more tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires and wealthy corporations."

"Today's vote is yet another call for us to end the culture of corruption endemic in the Republican Party," Thomas concluded. "The GOP believes they can continue to put the wants of the wealthiest people and corporations above the needs of the American people—but the American people are watching and we will hold them accountable."

https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/10/18/congressman-clay-higgens-gas-industry-three-percenters

Congressman Clay Higgins of Louisiana arrived at this year's Expanding Global Gas Infrastructure seminar with a message.

“Welcome to the war for the future of our planet,” Higgins said to the gathered officials from liquefied natural gas (LNG) firms and other fossil fuel companies.

“My role as your representative is to be not just your ally,” Higgins added, “but your warrior. Please allow the service of my office to represent the point of the spear that you wield. We'll knock down every bureaucratic wall. We'll kick down every federal barrier. We'll work with you. We'll work for you.”

Higgins, who represents Louisiana’s Third District in the U.S. House of Representatives, offered up a very specific idea of where the LNG industry, which exports gas from wells drilled and fracked in the U.S. to other countries, should fit into that planetary war.

“Some of you know, some of you perhaps do not, that the Revolutionary soldiers that gave birth to this nation, represented only three percent of the populace, the colonists,” he said. “Some of us refer to ourselves as 'Three Percenters.'”

“You, ladies and gentlemen, are the Three Percenters of the modern era,” he continued, “where wars are fought with monies and strategies and energy.”

He asked the crowd to “harken back to the courage and the faith represented by the three percent that you now join.”

What Higgins didn’t mention during his talk is that the Three Percenter ideology (sometimes written as 3%er or III%er) has its roots in a loosely organized right-wing militia movement with a troubling history of violent attacks and attracting white supremacists to its ranks.

The Three Percenter Movement and Its Ties to White Supremacy and Violence

The Three Percenter movement was founded in 2008, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which notes that claim that three percent of American colonists took up arms is “disputed” by scholars and historians.

Because the network is loosely organized, Three Percenter groups represent a range of beliefs which are at times contradictory. Some Three Percenter organizations appear to focus heavily on gun rights. Some have said they are preparing for civil war while others describe themselves as “true patriots” or say they’re “very pro-government, so long as the government abides by the Constitution.”

Some Three Percenter groups have publicly disavowed racist ideology, while an Alberta-based chapter has been labeled Canada’s “most dangerous” extremist group and a Georgia-based branch is considered an “anti-Muslim hate group,” according to CBS News.

Nationwide, Three Percenter adherents have engaged in self-appointed, heavily armed “border patrols,” attempted to detonate a car bomb outside a bank in Oklahoma City last year, and bombed a mosque in Minnesota in March.

Three Percenters also provided self-appointed “security,” via an armed presence, during the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017.

Parts of the Three Percenter network sought to distance themselves from white supremacists following the deaths in Charlottesville last year. The Three Percenters National Council issued a “stand down” order, writing that while their group would “support and defend everyone's right to free speech, we will not align ourselves with any type of racist group.”

It’s not clear whether Rep. Higgins counts himself as a member of any particular Three Percenter chapter or organization. A spokesperson for Higgins had not replied to questions from DeSmog as of publication time. But it’s not the first time Higgins has been connected to the Three Percenter movement.

In May, Higgins drew scrutiny over t-shirts with what appeared to be a Three Percenter logo on the back. The shirts were distributed to participants in the “Redemption Ride,” a motorcycle and jeep ride featuring Higgins and Dog the Bounty Hunter. Registration payments were processed online as individual donations to Higgins’ congressional campaign.

Three Percenter logos commonly feature the roman numeral three surrounded by a circle of thirteen stars.

Higgins, a former police officer, resigned from the Opelousas, Louisiana, police department in 2007 while facing disciplinary action for “unnecessary force on a subject” and making “false statements during an internal investigation.”

He went on to work for the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s office, but, as the Washington Post reported, “resigned after he appeared in a viral video calling a group of predominantly black gang members ‘thugs,’ ‘heathens,’ and ‘animals.’”

Rep. Higgins referenced his role in law enforcement — but not the reasons he’d resigned — during his talk to the gas exporting industry, held in Washington, D.C. on March 22. “Before I became a Congressman, I was a street cop, for twelve years,” he said. “It was a hell of a demotion from Captain to Congressman, I would like you to know. But I have embraced this path because I love my country and I serve my fellow man.”

Despite his law enforcement background and current role as a lawmaker, Rep. Higgins — who still refers to himself online as “Captain” Higgins— seemed to ignore the distinction between being suspected of wrongdoing and being guilty, and to connect being Muslim to crimes meriting death, when he wrote in a June 2017 Facebook post:

“Not a single radicalized Islamicsuspect should be granted any measure of quarter.Their intended entry to the American homeland should be summarily denied. Every conceivable measure should be engaged to hunt them down. Hunt them, identify them, and kill them. Kill them all. For the sake of all that is good and righteous. Kill them all.”

He later told the Washington Post that he didn’t expect those comments to be controversial and that he stood by what he wrote.

The following month, Higgins released in which he narrated his walk through the Auschwitz-Berkenau Memorial and Museum, including inside the Auschwitz gas chambers — despite signs at the entrance requesting that visitors maintain silence in that building. The video concludes with an image of Higgins above the logo for his congressional campaign website.

The video drew international condemnation, including from the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, which called the video a “global disgrace.” Higgins subsequently issued an apology and retracted the video.

Fossil Fuel Industry Funds Higgins

Higgins’ record has not appeared to deter some companies in the gas industry from funding his political campaign.

Tellurian, Inc. plans to begin construction on the Driftwood LNG export terminal, sited in Higgins’ district, next year. The Driftwood terminal will have the capacity to export 3.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day from the Gulf Coast, fed by pipelines connecting the terminal to the Permian and Haynesvilles shales in Texas and Louisiana.

In 2018, Higgins was Tellurian’s second biggest recipient of political contributions in theHouse of Representatives, just after Jacky Rosen, a Nevada Democrat, according to The Center for Responsive Politics’ OpenSecrets.org.

In April, Higgins signed onto a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), urging the commission to “review the [Driftwood LNG project’s] application as expeditiously as possible” and asserting that “the project enjoys substantial community and state support.”

“We're going to bring pressure at every opportunity,” Higgins said in a public statement accompanying that letter.

All told, Higgins received $51,850 from the oil and gas industry from 2017 to 2018, making the industry Higgins’ second largest source of campaign contributions after Leadership PACs, or political action committees run by politicians.

On his website, Higgins strikes a different tone than he did in his talk to the industry, when he pledged to be “not just your ally but your warrior” and to “kick down every federal barrier.”

“While unnecessary regulations will be removed,” his issues page says, “it is important that a balanced approach is taken that results in real economic benefits but also considers environmental impacts.”

Higgins has expressed doubts in climate science, telling PBS News Hour in August 2017: “Climate change has always happened, that's my argument, well before, you know, we had four-wheel drive trucks and boats and Suburbans rolling around or, you know, large industrial plants and whatnot.”

(NASA's website on the causes of climate change points out that “In its Fifth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of 1,300 independent scientific experts from countries all over the world under the auspices of the United Nations, concluded there's a more than 95 percent probability that human activities over the past 50 years have warmed our planet.”)

Paving the Path for LNG Exports

Last year, Higgins introduced a bill that would streamline the approval process for LNG export projects.

“While the United States has a strong and transparent regulatory process for the approval of LNG export terminals, there is no question that this process is expensive and time-consuming,” LNG Allies, the organization that sponsored the seminar where Higgins made his comments about the Three Percenters, said in a July 2017 statement commending Higgins and a Senate sponsor of the bill. “Thus, LNG Allies supports measures — such as the LNG Now Act — that would lessen the time and expense of securing LNG project authorizations.”

In September, when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission moved the Driftwood project one step further along by releasing an Environmental Impact Statement for the project, Higgins praised the commission. “Under President Trump’s leadership, FERC has demonstrated that it is determined to work past the bureaucratic barriers that have delayed project approvals,” Higgins said in a press release.

During the industry seminar in March, Higgins made his stance on exports of American fossil fuels clear.

“LNG exports must grow,” Higgins said. “The sun should not set upon the expansion of LNG.”

And he again sought to connect the gas industry to the Three Percenters.

“Because together, as the Three Percenters, we represent everything that's right about this world,” he told the industry representatives, “and we stand against everything that's wrong.”

Some of his listeners appeared receptive to Higgins’ message.

“I think we're all Three Percenters now, aren't we?” a panel moderator said as the Congressman from Louisiana left the microphone, to a smattering of applause.