museum
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aha:? family fdn tax shelter, ~ estate tax, arts philanthropy also tax dOdge but also rehabiliatation PR (// "job-creators"?)
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7 25 trump smithsonian impeach removed
JDV ~ WOKE DEI
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AN 2 26
Trump has successfully pressured the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) into adopting new guidelines — and some officials feel that they amount to ideological loyalty tests.
The official letter emphasizes "uplifting and positive narratives of our shared American experience" but also instructs “improper ideology” be scrubbed from federal cultural institutions, according to a report by The Washington Post. Because the IMLS distributes grants to museums and libraries, they have the power to make both personnel and curatorial choices. As such, all references to "inclusive," "equity," and "diverse" or "diversity" have been removed from the IMLS’ recent 13 grant notices, even though they were previously commonplace in competitive applications. On some occasions, it has forced people out of the funding process.
"It feels like organizations like ours are boxed out from telling a complete and true and honest American story,” explained Ashley Rogers, executive director of the Whitney Plantation in New Orleans. Because of what Rogers does for a living, it is practically impossible for her to request grant money while remaining consistent with the administration’s standards.
"Our mission is to educate the public about the history and legacies of slavery,” Rogers told the Post. “We're a nonprofit. This is the only thing we do. I don't know how to make that align with the current funding opportunities at IMLS and more fundamentally than that, if I did, would I be betraying my mission?"
Lori Byrd, a former museum professional and IMLS grant reviewer, expressed a similar concern more broadly.
"If you even apply for this, are you going to get pushback from either your museum community or your fellow museum professionals because you're kind of caving to the administration?" Byrd asked. Museum consultant Andrea Jones made the same point when talking about her own professional responsibilities.
"Not only is the risk to my livelihood too great … but I care about doing credible, nuanced work — not being part of a propaganda machine,” Jones said.
Because of the uncertainty caused by the Trump administration’s approach, the IMLS grant cycle is already months behind schedule, The Post reported. Nor are Trump’s loyalty tests merely harming museums and libraries. A retired high-ranking military officer explained in a conservative publication that Trump’s policies are doing the same thing to America’s armed forces.
"The implications are immediate and corrosive," Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling wrote in The Bulwark earlier this week. "If promotions to general officer rank can be rescinded for perceived associations with others, officers may begin to prioritize 'safe' assignments or noncontroversial bosses. Candor — already fragile in large bureaucracies — may diminish if officers fear that honest service under controversial leaders will later be used against them. The apolitical ethic that underpins the profession of arms risks erosion."
Hertling added, "The Army's strength has always rested on trust: trust that performance matters more than patronage, that merit outweighs politics, and that the institution protects those who serve honorably in any job they are assigned. Undermining that trust does not merely harm an officer's career; it weakens the foundation of professional military service."
Loyalty oaths are not just in libraries, museums and the military. The US economy itself could be at risk because of Trump’s loyalty oaths, as evidenced by the controversy over National Economic Council directorKevin Hassett calling for Federal Reserve officers to be “disciplined” for issuing a report which showed Trump’s tariffs are hurting ordinary Americans.
“In the end, Mr. Trump’s decision evinced both the risk and reward for an economist whose previous views had morphed in service of the White House and its economic agenda," The New York Times recently reported. "The president did not want to lose one of his most forceful champions, whose full-throated advocacy had won deep praise from Mr. Trump but had fueled fears that Mr. Hassett could not guide monetary policy while resisting political influence.”
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climate invest soon:
The Smithsonian takes a lot of corporate money. There is the Koch Hall of Origins anthropology exhibit at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. They renamed the Air and Space museum theater, Lockheed Martin theater, erasing the name Langley, an daviation pioneer. The museums newly renovated Hall of Oceans might have been called the American Petroleum Institute Hall of Oceans if not for the intervention of Sen. Leahy of Vermont and another corporate philanthropist, Roger Sant, then chair of the Smithsonian board and an energy industry millionaire.
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february 4, 2018
In January 2018, more than 200 scientistsendorsed an open lettercalling on the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) to remove climate change denier Rebekah Mercer from its board and to “end ties to anti-science propagandists and funders of climate science misinformation.” *The New York Times* reported that those among the AMNH letter calling for Mercer to step down were Michael E. Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, and Katharine Hayhoe, director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University. [60]
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https://www.desmog.co.uk/2020/02/14/new-bp-ceo-ends-greenwashing-ad-campaign
BP’s new CEO Bernard Looney made a big announcement this week, saying he wants to “reinvent” the company and ensure it has “net-zero” carbon emissions by 2050.
But alongside such headline-grabbing statements about the company’s future was a little-noticed change with more immediate impact – that the company will cease its “Possibilities Everywhere” advertising campaign.
And not only that, it will also revise its relationship with lobbying groups that it believes are not taking the climate crisis sufficiently seriously.
Advertising campaign
The “Possibilities Everywhere” campaign was the company’s biggest global campaign in a decade, and was the source of many complaints and accusations of greenwashing.
The adverts included videos and billboards, and rolled out online, in newspapers and on social media. Focused on the company’s renewable and low-carbon energy, the adverts highlighted its solar and wind energy projects, despite 96 percent of BP’s annual spending going on fossil fuels[vid]
environment lawyers ClientEarth took action against the oil company over the campaign in December 2019, reporting the company under OECD guidelines governing corporate conduct, as well as demanding BP pull its adverts. Client Earth alleged that the company “was giving the public a misleading impression that it was focused on clean energy investments”.
The lawyers also set up a petition calling for fossil fuel company adverts to display climate change warnings, in the same way tobacco products are required to carry health warnings. A statement on Client Earth’s website argues that “fossil fuel companies should not be able to buy a good reputation for their climate-damaging products through advertising.”
Looney's announcement that BP would cease the “Possibilities Everywhere” campaign and not replace it was welcomed by ClientEarth.
Climate Accountability Lead for Client Earth Sophie Marjanac said: “With today’s announcement, BP appears to have accepted that its approach to advertising was not in line with its stated ambition of helping the world get to net zero and that it was primarily aimed at improving the company’s reputation.”
The announcement to stop the campaign was generally seen by campaigners as a positive move from BP, which has spent millions improving its image, from huge global campaigns to sponsoring local science workshops in schools in order to secure a social licence to operate in small towns.
However, Marjanac said that more needs to be done, and other big oil and gas companies such as Shell, Chevron, Total and Exxon must now follow suit.
Lobbying
Looney also took the opportunity in his speech to announce that he will “lay down the law” on what is and isn't acceptable in BP’s lobbying.
He said the issue of lobbying is something he is “very, very focused on”, and that BP must not be seen to be saying one thing and doing another.
BP is a member of many lobby groups, most notably the American Petroleum Institute, which according to thinktank InfluenceMap, the company has a strong relationship with. BP is also a member of American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufactures, a lobby group that Shell announced it would be leaving this year due to disagreement over climate policies.
BP’s announcement has raised a few eyebrows among those familiar with the companies’ tactics.
Belén Balanyá, a climate and energy researcher at campaign group Corporate Europe Observatory told DeSmog that she is sceptical about BP’s announcement, as this is not the first time the company has rebranded. Originally called British Petroleum, it took the name BP in 2000 and introduced the tagline “Beyond Petroleum” in an attempt to emphasise an apparent transition away from oil and gas.
Balanyá tells DeSmog that “until now what their track record shows is that they have kept lobbying to preserve their core business, fossil fuels. They are actually following suit in what other oil and gas companies are doing.” She points to Madrid-based oil and gas company Repsol, which recently announced it would be a net zero emissions company by 2050.
For fossil fuel companies such as BP, “net-zero” is just a buzzword that they are exploiting, she says: “For oil and gas companies, net-zero means keeping burning fossil fuels while increasing a wide range of 'false solutions' which are at best dangerous distractions and very often plain harmful for the climate: offsets, carbon markets, carbon capture and storage, gas, forest plantations etc.”
“This is also the tune that major lobby groups are singing now, which will allow BP and others to keep membership of many lobby groups which are actively lobbying to delay, weaken or block effective climate and energy policies while saying they are aiming for climate neutrality, low carbon economy or net-zero emissions.”
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https://www.desmog.co.uk/2020/02/09/activists-occupy-british-museum-calling-end-fossil-fuel-BP-sponsorship
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milloy desmog
February 4, 2018
In January 2018, more than 200 scientists endorsed an open letter calling on the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) to remove climate change denier Rebekah Mercer from its board and to “end ties to anti-science propagandists and funders of climate science misinformation.” The New York Times reported that those among the AMNH letter calling for Mercer to step down wereMichael E. Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, and Katharine Hayhoe, director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University. [60]
Milloy was among a group of climate change deniers who responded with their own open letter, calling for the AMNH “not to cave in to this pressure.” The letter was signed by numerous individuals with ties to groups funded by the Mercer Family Foundation such as Will Happer of the CO2 Coalition; Richard Lindzen, a fellow at the Cato Institute; and Craig Idso, the chairman of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change. There are a number of signatories affiliated with the Heartland Institute, which has received over $5.78 million from the Mercer Family Foundation since 2008. [61]
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in New York City, activists from over 30 groups took over the prestigious Whitney Museum Friday to call for the removal of Vice Chair Warren Kanders, CEO of tear gas manufacturer Safariland, from the museum’s board. The protest launched a 9-week series of actions organized by Decolonize This Place. Democracy Now! spoke to one of the activists at Friday’s action.
Marz Saffore: “My name is Marz Saffore, and I’m with MTL+ Collective and Decolonize This Place. Today we’re here for week three of the 'Nine Weeks of Art and Action' at the Whitney Museum, demanding the removal of Vice Chairman Warren Kanders. Warren Kanders is the CEO of Safariland, an international weapons manufacturer who manufactured the tear gas used against migrant families at the border, water protectors in Standing Rock, black folks in Ferguson, Palestine, Oakland, Turkey, Egypt, and the list goes on.”
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Massive protest breaks out over Guggenheim Museum’s ties to Big Pharma: ‘Lock them up’
Demonstrators dropped thousands of white slips designed to look like OxyContin prescriptions to highlight the Sackler family's role in fueling the opioid epidemic.
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https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/02/06/climate-science-deniers-new-york-american-museum-natural-history-rebekah-mercer
With friends like climate science deniers and alt-right megaphones like Breitbart, you have to wonder whether New York’s iconic American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) needs any enemies right now.
As the New York Times and others are reporting, the museum is facing calls from hundreds of scientists, its own curators, campaigners, and the public to drop rich benefactor and major Trump funder and ally Rebekah Mercer from its board of trustees.
As DeSmog reported in 2017, the foundation of the billionaire Mercer family has given millions to the museum, with latest figures putting their generosity at $3.8 million since 2013.
Rebekah Mercer, the daughter of hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, heads the Mercer Family Foundation that has also been giving millions to climate science denial groups, including the notorious Heartland Institute.
But now the museum finds itself in the unenviable position of being defended, perhaps not surprisingly, by the Mercer-funded hyper-partisan outlet Breitbart and climate science denial characters from other Mercer-funded groups.
Deniers on the Defense
In a typically verbose screed on Breitbart, climate science denier James Delingpole called the scientists who had signed a letter protesting Mercer’s presence “basically frauds” and “imbeciles.”
Now climate science deniers have begun to circulate their own “open letter” calling for the AMNH to keep Mercer on the board and “not to cave in to this pressure.”
The letter reads: “The Earth has supported abundant life many times in the geological past when there were much higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It is quite likely that future generations will benefit from the enrichment of Earth’s atmosphere with more carbon dioxide.
“Make no mistake, the agitators are not defending science from quackery — quite the contrary!”
That statement itself is contradicted by every major scientific institution in the world and thousands of scientific studies over many decades.
Many of that letter’s signers are affiliated with groups funded by Mercer’s family foundation in recent years. There’s retired Professor Will Happer of the CO2 Coalition; Richard Lindzen, a fellow at the Cato Institute; and Craig Idso, the chairman of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change.
In a footnote, the letter states: “The views represented in this letter are those of the individual signatories and not the institutions they are affiliated with. Institutions are listed simply for identification purposes.”
The first signatory is Professor J. Scott Armstrong of the University of Pennsylvania.
Marketing professor Armstrong has spoken at several Heartland Institute conferences and was handed a “lifetime achievement” award at the institute’s March 2017 conference in Washington D.C.
The Mercer’s family foundation, which Rebekah leads, has given some $5.78 million to Heartland since 2008. Both Rebekah and father Robert attended Heartland’s D.C conference and have recently extended their funding to other anti-science groups.
As DeSmog reported, at the D.C conference Armstrong compared the apparently heroic work of climate science deniers to New York’s brave 9/11 firefighters.
Many of the names on the pro-Mercer petition have also signed numerous other letters denying the risks of human-caused climate change.
Pro-Science Petition Spammed
What’s more, it appears that some have targeted the pro-science public petition calling for Mercer's removal — which is separate from the open letter signed by scientists — by adding fake names.
In a statement, Beka Economopoulos of the Natural History Museum, a mobile science museum which is helping co-ordinate the letters, and petitions, said:
“There have been about a dozen fake names added to the public sign-on list, ranging from the inventor of the steam engine James Watt, to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.
“It’s not clear if the names were added as a simple prank or in a deliberate attempt to damage our credibility, but either way we quickly removed them and are keeping a close eye to ensure only legitimate names are added. It’s sad that people will go so far to protect Rebekah Mercer as to invoke the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, but here we are.”
The museum’s famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is known for his impassioned attacks on climate science deniers.
In 2017 when DeSmog asked Tyson about the Mercers' financial support, he stressed how his position showed the independence of science from funding, but added: “All knowledge has value, especially knowledge of how people distort knowledge.”
In response to questions about the current protests, Tyson told DeSmog: “I have nothing to add or subtract from my previous correspondence with you on this matter.”
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More than 200 scientists have called on the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) to cut ties with board member Rebekah Mercer, the billionaire backer of President Donald Trump who has also funded "climate denial" groups in order to protect the fossil fuel industry's pollution-causing extraction of oil and gas.
"We ask the American Museum of Natural History, and all public science museums, to end ties to anti-science propagandists and funders of climate science misinformation, and to have Rebekah Mercer leave the American Museum of Natural History Board of Trustees," wrote the group, which includes James Hansen, who first brought climate change to the U.S. government's attention in 1988, and other prominent researchers.
Mercer has held her position on the museum's board since 2013. Along with her billionaire father, Robert Mercer, she oversees the Mercer Family Foundation. The group has donated more than $2 million to organizations that deny the consensus that the earth is in a state of climate crisis driven by human activity.
The foundation's contributions include $800,000 to the Heartland Institute, which holds regular meetingspromoting the denial of climate crisis, and $500,000 to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank which, as recently as this month, has published articles claiming that cold weather proves that the Earth is not warming.
"The most important asset any museum has is its credibility," wrote the scientists. "This can be damaged by ties to donors and board members who are publicly known for investing in climate science obfuscation and opposing environmental solutions."
Mercer has also sought to directly impact the Trump administration's climate policy. She reportedly suggested to the president that Arthur Robinson, who has called scientists' belief in climate crisis "a false religion" and distributed a widely-discredited petition signed by supposed experts which stated that global warming is not harmful, should be named the administration's chief science advisor.
Along with calling for Mercer's dismissal, the letter took issue with "misleading information on climate science in an Exxon-funded exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History," which environmental economist Jonah Busch drew attention to in a tweet last week.
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March 25, 2015
According to a post from Patrick Moore's Twitter Account (see below), the CO2 Coalition is behind anOpen Letter to Museums of Science and Natural History that was promoted at the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change (CO2 Science). [9]
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