InfluenceWatch Podcast

Regular listeners might remember that earlier this year, a North Dakota jury awarded $667 million to Energy Transfer, the company building the Dakota Access Pipeline, for damages caused by Greenpeace. Because that poses an existential threat to the environmentalist activism group, Greenpeace has vowed to appeal pending final court action, and supporters published a mass open letter of 400 fellow activist groups and a large number of individual supporters, including (of course) prominent celebrities. But the case and the letter raise more fundamental questions about the activities of tax-exempt groups; namely, is it proper for nonprofits to advocate for, endorse groups that, and in some cases, outright engage in lawbreaking?  Joining us to discuss this is our colleague Robert Stilson. Greenpeace, nonprofits, and illegal protestsInfluenceWatch Podcast #361: Justice for GreenpeaceMegaphone philanthropy

In Washington, D.C., the “government shutdown” continues as Democrats demand that Republicans expand subsidies for Obamacare in exchange for lifting a filibuster on a “clean continuing resolution” that would reopen the government through approximately Thanksgiving. What listeners might not know is that there are is a big, well-known advocacy group and major corporation that look to benefit from those subsidies being extended: AARP, and its $9 billion funder, UnitedHealth. Joining us to discuss the dance of Obamacare, the AARP, and UnitedHealth is Phil Kerpen, president of American Commitment. How AARP Makes Health Insurance Unaffordable for Its MembersHow AARP’s Profits Harm Patients —And Violate Its PrinciplesAARP: Influence Watch

It has been a lousy couple of years for one of the leftist factions most deserving of a lousy couple of years—no, not organized labor, institutional transgender activism. Great Britain, home to noted critic of transgenderism J.K. Rowling who not long ago faced odds as impossible as those of the Britons defending Rorke’s Drift in the 19th century, issued the Cass Report condemning activists’ preferred approaches to treating “gender dysphoria” by the “affirming” model, and the country’s Supreme Court ruled that a woman is, in fact, an adult human female. In the United States, our Supreme Court ruled that states had the power to prohibit sex changes for minors in U.S. v. Skrmetti and the Trump administration has sought to extirpate “gender ideology” from federal executive policy. But the campaign to “trans the kids” continues, and our colleague Parker Thayer went into the belly of the institutional beast to study it.Transgender medical symposium showcases radical quackeryACLU Attorney Confesses: Transgender-Suicide Claim is a MythWorld Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH)InfluenceWatch Podcast 341: Progressive Transgender Coercion

Last week, radical-left terrorist and cop killer Joanne Chesimard, better known by her nom de guerre Assata Shakur, died in exile in Communist Cuba. You would think that leftists, even radical leftists, would let Chesimard go quietly, especially with the hot lights of public scrutiny on left-wing political violence. But the Chicago Teachers Union, one of America’s most powerful and influential radical-left groups did not, posting a Tweet praising the terrorist. Joining us to discuss this latest controversy and her group’s efforts to push back against America’s worst labor union—and I would normally hesitate to award that title—is Mailee Smith, vice president of policy and litigation at the Illinois Policy Institute.Chicago Teachers Union honors convicted murderer, wanted terroristThe Chicago Teachers Union Is Exactly Who You Thought They WereHow Chicago Teachers Union acts like Illinois’ newest political party

That left-wing violence is on the rise is undeniable; even The Atlantic, the bien-pensant left-wing magazine propped up by liberal heiress Laurene Powell Jobs’s billions has published a piece admitting it. But how high does support for such violence go, and how do violent left-wing extremists obtain resources? Our colleague Ryan Mauro, an expert in extremist networks, recently issued a report showing that the support, at least in terms of resources, stretches all the way to the top of institutional progressivism, with the Soros network of funding entities providing over $80 million into groups tied to terrorism or extremist violence. He joins us today to discuss his research. Exclusive: Soros’ Open Society gave $80 million to pro-terror groupsExclusive: Soros’ Open Society Gave Terrorist and Pro-Terror Groups Over $80 Million - ReportStochastic Terrorism, Speech Incantations and F orism, Speech Incantations and Federal Tax ExemptionLeft-Wing Terrorism Is on the Rise

You’ve heard of “Soros DAs”—prosecutors, whose campaigns were financially backed by George and Alexander Soros, who seek election on promises not to prosecute. But the anti-criminal-justice movement is bigger than one eccentric progressive billionaire and his nepo-baby son. Today’s guest, Sean Kennedy of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, focuses on one previously hidden link in the anti-criminal-justice movement: The Wren Collective, a secretive donor and advocacy organization that worked with over 40 current and former non-prosecuting prosecutors, including such radicals as ousted San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin. Also joining is my colleague Parker Thayer, who has written extensively on the “Soros DA” phenomenon.Unearthed emails show left-wing group quietly writing policies for progressive DAs: ‘No billing, no publicity’Outsourcing justiceSocial and Environmental Entrepreneurs (SEE)Vital Projects FundCari TunaChloe Cockburn

Before it was pushed from the headlines by the horrifying assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the major national crime story was the murder of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian woman stabbed to death on public transportation in Charlotte, North Carolina in late August whose killing was captured on graphic surveillance video. The suspect in the killing had an extensive criminal record, and his mother had previously pleaded to have her son committed to a mental institution. But at the time of the crime, the alleged killer was out on a written promise to appear for a charge of misusing the 9-1-1 system. The alleged killer’s extensive criminal record and the shocking horror of his crime has reignited a debate over criminal justice policy in America; today’s guest, the Daily Wire’s Megan Basham, discovered that in Charlotte itself, Big Philanthropy has pushed the policies that may have left the man free to kill Zarutska.Fatal Charlotte Stabbing Highlights The Failure Of Racial Equity Policies(Daily Wire)John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation(InfluenceWatch)A Gruesome Murder in North Carolina(New York Times)Charlotte train stabbing suspect's brother says killing could have been 'prevented'(Fox News)Analysis: Chicago foundation paid $3.3 million to Mecklenburg County to keep career criminals, like DeCarlos Brown, on the streets(SE Valley Times)

After widely publicized revelations of highly ideological nonprofits receiving federal funds and spending them on highly ideological projects, the Trump administration (and now, through the “rescissions” package and “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” passed before Congress went on its August district work period, also even Congress) has started cutting off some of those nonprofit-led projects. What does this mean for the nonprofit sector? Mike Hartmann, longtime conservative philanthropoid and director of Capital Research Center’s Center for Strategic Giving, joins us to discuss.The New Era for Nonprofits Eight things to know about Big Philanthropy and the populist reaction against itThe New Populist Conservatism and Civil SocietyA self-protective “deep state” in the nonprofit industrial complex 

I'm Michael Watson joined by Parker Thayer and Sarah Lee and this is the InfluenceWatch Podcast. We're recording a special episode from the SPN Annual Meeting because there's big news from the world of Arabella Advisors: The New York Times is reporting that Bill Gates and his Gates Foundation are cutting off grantmaking to the Arabella network. We discuss the report, how the Arabella name has become deservedly synonymous with liberal politics and left-wing ideology, and what might come next for the left-wing "dark money" enterprise.Bill Gates cuts ties with Arabella

The Smithsonian Institution, the federal government-created and funded entity that manages the national museums in D.C., is under a very political review courtesy of the Trump administration. Progressives decry the move as improper interference in what is supposed to be an independent entity, but perhaps such a move is necessary? Joining us today to present the case for some political supervision for the nation’s curators of cultural heritage is Mike Gonzalez, the Angeles T. Arredondo E Pluribus Unum Senior Fellow at The Heritage Foundation.Trump’s Smithsonian review is long overdueSmithsonian’s American History Museum Is Wall-To-Wall Anti-American PropagandaThe Smithsonian’s Latino Exhibit Is a Disgrace