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Ron DeSantis for President.
Tainted “Meat And Potatoes”—Andrew McCarthy On Political Trials, Public Tribulations |
| interview with John H. Cochrane, Niall Ferguson, Andrew McCarthy, H.R. McMaster, Bill Whalen via GoodFellows Former president Donald Trump faces at least four criminal trials that could overshadow the Republicans’ presidential nominating process—and maybe fatally wound him in a general election—while a legal cloud hangs over President Biden due to an ongoing investigation into his son’s business affairs. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ So what's new? EMET is Disappointed in the Biden Administration's Decision to Ignore Warnings about U.S. Indirect Support for Hamas (August 24, 2023, Washington, DC) – EMET expresses its deep disappointment in the recent reports showing the Biden administration resumed funding to the Palestinian Authority despite being warned that it may benefit Iranian-backed Hamas. Adam Kredo reported in the Washington Free Beacon that internal documents from the State Department reveal that “the Biden administration pushed through plans to distribute hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer aid to the Palestinians despite internal assessments that those plans could boost the Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas.” State Department officials in 2021 outlined the concerns in private communications, asking the Treasury Department to exempt them from laws that bar the U.S. government from injecting taxpayer aid into territories controlled by Palestinian terror groups. The Biden administration needed this authorization in order to move forward with its plans to unfreeze more than $360 million in U.S. funds for the Palestinian Authority that were cut off during the Trump administration due to the authority's support for terrorism. "We assess there is a high-risk Hamas could potentially derive indirect, unintentional benefit from U.S. assistance to Gaza. There is less but still, some risk U.S. assistance would benefit other designated groups," the State Department wrote in a draft sanctions exemption request circulated internally in March 2021, shortly after Biden took office. Notwithstanding the “high risk” assessment that Hamas would benefit from U.S. aid, the Biden administration plowed ahead despite the risks to innocent Israeli lives. Senator Ted Cruz, a staunch supporter of Israel and a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, stated: “Today's report again confirms that Joe Biden and Biden administration officials are pathologically obsessed with undermining Israel. They made a day-one decision to pour hundreds of millions of American taxpayer dollars into areas controlled by Palestinian terrorists, despite knowing that such actions would benefit terrorist groups that have the blood of Americans and Israelis on their hands. State Department officials knew that doing so risked violating the most basic American laws prohibiting assistance that benefits terrorists, and so they rushed to lawlessly exempt themselves from those restrictions.” This revelation is deeply troubling in light of the rising wave of Palestinian violence in the past few years, which is growing into a new era of terrorism and threatening a new Intifada. The administration’s efforts to pump money into the Palestinian Authority didn’t just prove ineffectual in stabilizing their rule. Moreover, it may actually have aided the growing terrorism with complete disregard for the safety of innocent lives. In August alone, there have been three terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens, resulting in the deaths of four innocent Jews, bringing the total number of Israelis killed by Palestinian “martyrs” to 24 this year. It is inconceivable that we continue to send U.S. taxpayer dollars to the PA despite the escalation of violence and news that Iranian proxies, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, are operating there. Moreover, these recent revelation reveals the administration was clearly aware that releasing the funds was bound to violate the law. EMET calls upon the Biden administration to abide by the U.S. law, which, through the Taylor Force Act, bars the U.S. from awarding funds to the Palestinian government until it stops paying salaries to imprisoned terrorists and their families, a policy known as "pay to slay." It is unacceptable that American dollars could casually benefit the enemies of the U.S. and Israel. We call on the administration to halt these payments until the State Department is able to abide by the legal restrictions on the transfer of such assistance. Says Sarah Stern, Founder and President of EMET, “Palestinian leadership has victimized its own citizens by feeding them propaganda encouraging them to demonize, hate and kill Jews, since even before the modern state of Israel. It is deeply troubling that the Biden administration chose to ignore warnings from the State Department and proceeded with releasing assistance funds to the Palestinian Authority even as it indirectly aids Hamas. Why should American tax payer money reward those who hate Israel and the US? This is not just a disregard of U.S. law but also of the daily violence with which innocent lives are threatened. We call on the U.S. Congress to take active measures ensuring the administration's compliance with legal restrictions on assistance to the Palestinians.” About The Endowment for Middle East Truth: Founded in 2005, EMET is a pro-American, pro-Israel, and pro-human rights, foreign policy think tank and policy shop in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.emetonline.org +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Green idiots have created a "whale" of a problem with their wind fans that are killing whales.+++ Why This Documentary May Save The WhalesFilmmaker discovered high-decibel sonar levels while shooting “Thrown To The Wind,” about why the wind industry could make the North Atlantic Right Whales extinct By MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER The increase in whale, dolphin, and other cetacean deaths off the East Coast of the United States since 2016 is not due to the construction of large industrial wind turbines, U.S. government officials say. Their scientists have done the research, they say, to prove that whatever is killing the whales is completely unrelated to the wind industry. But now, a new documentary, “Thrown To The Wind,” by Director and Producer Jonah Markowitz, proves that the US government officials have been lying. The full film, which is at the bottom of this article, documents surprisingly loud, high-decibel sonar emitted by wind industry vessels when measured with state-of-the-art hydrophones. And it shows that the wind industry’s increased boat traffic is correlated directly with specific whale deaths. The documentary may not stop the industrial wind projects from being built. After all, the wind projects were going forward despite urgent warnings from leading conservation groups and a top scientist at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). But “Thrown To The Wind” exposes the reality that the U.S. government agencies, and the scientists who work for them, either haven’t done the basic mapping and acoustic research to back up their claims, have done the research badly, or found what we found, and are covering it up. There appear to be at least two distinct mechanisms by which wind industry activities are killing whales. The first is through boat traffic in areas where there hasn’t historically been traffic. And the second is through high-decibel sonar mapping that can disorient whales, separate mothers from their calves, and send them into harm’s way, either into boat traffic or poorer feeding grounds. Whatever the case, “Thrown To The Wind” blows the lid off a major scientific scandal and will have an exponentially larger effect than past warnings. A big part of the reason is the high quality of the filmmaking. Shot in the hand-held style made famous by Paul Greengrass, the creator and director of the Jason Bourne movies, Markowitz’s “Thrown To The Wind” gives the experience of being on the ocean, in the forests, and in the room with the film’s stars, Lisa Linowes, who correlated the whale deaths to wind industry activity with Eric Turner, and Rob Rand. And the commitment by Markowitz to investigative documentary filmmaking led him to go out on the ocean with Rand to measure the sound of industrial wind activity. It was on that trip that Rand and his team discovered high-decibel sound emissions that appear to violate NOAA’s protective standards for marine life. When combined with the work of Linowes and Turner, correlating whale deaths with wind industry vessel traffic, Rand’s acoustic research should have far-reaching implications, including halting all industrial wind activity along the East Coast. Why, ultimately, do we think that “Thrown To The Wind” will have an exponentially larger effect than past warnings? Because of the integrity of the filmmakers, who include, beyond Markowitz, Editor Jorge Garcia-Spitz, Executive Producer and Public co-founder Leighton Woodhouse, and the researchers: Linowes, Turner, and Rand. Given the evidence presented in “Thrown To The Wind,” it’s clear that the American people and our representatives cannot trust NOAA and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the two government agencies that, for years, have repeatedly betrayed the public’s trust in service to powerful industrial interests. Because politics has corrupted the normal scientific and regulatory process for protecting the North Atlantic Right Whales, we are urging elected officials at the federal and state level to conduct an investigation, issue subpoenas, and hold public hearings. I have been involved in a lot of great causes in the 35 years that I have been politically active. This one, saving the whales, is easily one of the most noble and important. It’s clearly hit a nerve: over 20,000 people have re-posted, and 5 million people total, across two tweets, have viewed the posts with the embedded trailer for “Thrown To The Wind” on social media over the last 48 hours. Saving the North Atlantic Right Whale is a goal that is within reach and well worth pursuing. Yes, its numbers have plummeted from over 400 to just 340 at the last estimate. But the species will likely rebound if the sonar mapping and new boat activity in previously untrafficked areas is ended. We have done our part. As Linowes, Rand, and Turner can attest, the data acquisition and analysis haven’t been easy. Nor has the filmmaking. The high quality of the final product speaks to the love and passion felt for the subject by everyone involved. Now it’s your turn. What would you do to save the North Atlantic Right Whales from extinction? Would you pay as much as you might to see a forgettable Hollywood movie to watch, “Thrown to the Wind”? In the end, we believe that simply watching “Thrown To The Wind” and encouraging your friends and family to watch it will help change how we think about the problem. Viewers will see that the increase in whale and other cetacean deaths is, in reality, due to the wind industry, despite what U.S. government officials, and their obedient stenographers in the corporate news media, have said. "Thrown To The Wind" - Full Film Director and Producer: Jonah Markowitz Editor: Jorge Garcia-Spitz Executive Producers: Leighton Woodhouse and Michael Shellenberger ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Finally, I never thought investing had anything to do with the board of directors of a company I owned spending their time avoiding making my investment return the best of which they were capable.I understand Fink would love to become president. However, I am not interested in his doing so because he has some ideological concept that diminishes returnS on. my Investment. Perhaps Fink is the Soros of Wall Street and wants to destroy capitalism as Soros AND HIS SON have regarding law and order. +++ ESG Busters Need a New Playbook The key to defeating the global ‘sustainability’ campaign lies in following these guiding principles. By Paul H. Tice Good news is brewing in finance. The public backlash against ESG—environmental, social and governance investing—has grown, shedding light on the left’s ideological takeover of Wall Street. The bad news is that the anti-ESG coalition isn’t prepared to defeat a global “sustainability” campaign. The movement needs a makeover and should begin by following a few guiding principles: • Virtue signaling isn’t the only problem. The current bout of woke capitalism in corporate boardrooms is merely a symptom of the underlying malady. Through its pervasive asset integration and overriding focus on nonfinancial factors, ESG is slowly changing the pecuniary purpose of investing. Waging public spats with management over critical race theory and gender ideology distracts from how ESG investing is re-engineering global financial markets. No matter how many brands go broke from misplaced trust in sustainable policies or social-justice activism, it won’t slow ESG’s market momentum. • Focus on climate. This is ESG’s crown jewel, as evidenced by the countless net-zero initiatives that have been adopted since 2015. Other factors, such as “diversity, equity and inclusion,” are secondary—if not superfluous—to the movement’s priority of using private capital to fund a global energy transition. • ESG isn’t caused by lack of competition. The movement is the product of progressive activists seeking to impose their will through a combination of moral coercion and government pressure. Giving investors the choice of non-ESG funds won’t address ESG’s systemic threat. Creating a safe space for nonbelievers while ceding the public square of global financial markets to sustainability zealots isn’t the answer. Strive Asset Management—the investment firm co-founded last year by presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy—is a case in point. The company says it emphasizes “the pursuit of excellence over politics in boardrooms across corporate America.” That sounds attractive, yet like many other anti-ESG firms Strive has struggled to attract capital. As of March 31, 27 prominent anti-ESG funds tracked by Morningstar had only about $2 billion in assets under management—a rounding error compared with the roughly $100 trillion in assets under management in the global asset-management industry. Aggregate net inflows to these funds have slowed markedly since the launch of Strive’s first energy fund in August 2022. Part of the problem may be that these anti-ESG firms are employing the same tactics as the ESG movement. They actively engage with company management to push their own particular investment agenda—while functioning as passive fund managers with no real vote and as de minimis institutional shareholders. Aside from their ideological aims, there isn’t much daylight between Strive and BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street—the Big Three index-fund managers. Strive also bears a striking resemblance to Engine No. 1, the little investment fund that waged a high-profile climate proxy battle against ExxonMobil in 2021 by using its 0.02% company stake as leverage. While Strive and its counterparts are a testament to capitalism’s organizational capacity, the fight against ESG shouldn’t be viewed mainly as a business opportunity. It was this kind of shortsighted money-chasing instinct that suckered many Wall Street firms into initially supporting ESG’s empty promises of doing well by doing good—a position from which they can’t easily extricate themselves. • ESG thrives on a lack of transparency. The anti-ESG coalition has primarily focused on annual shareholder meetings to generate public press for the cause. Yet the main battle will transpire in the less-transparent credit markets—not public equity markets—given that bank loans and institutional bonds are the main source of liquidity for most companies. As the cheapest source of capital to fund operations and acquisition-related growth, debt-market access represents the kill switch for ESG activists looking to defund fossil fuels and other maligned industries. • The courts are necessary in this fight. Owing to increasing regulatory disclosure rules and sustainable-finance mandates, the financial industry won’t be able to solve the ESG problem on its own. Reversing the sustainability tide will require aggressive legal action. Rather than hold fruitless congressional hearings, strategists should push back against regulatory overreach through the courts. The Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (2022), striking down the agency’s 2015 Clean Power Plan, offers a useful template. In West Virginia, the justices held that the EPA had exceeded its congressionally delegated authority in violation of the “major questions doctrine.” The agency couldn’t enact regulations on matters of vast political or economic significance without Congress’s clear assent. The same legal argument should be used to challenge the sweeping ESG-related mandates promulgated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Labor Department. The time clock for mitigating climate change by 2030 through ESG and sustainable development began ticking in 2015. We’ve now crossed the halfway point. To stave off the left’s strategy of climate doomsaying and financial re-engineering, the anti-ESG squad needs a stronger game plan for the second half. Mr. Tice is a former Wall Street energy research analyst, an adjunct professor of finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business, and author of “The Race to Zero: How ESG Investing Will Crater the Global Financial System” (Encounter Books), forthcoming in January. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ |
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