InfluenceWatch Podcast

Arabella Advisors, we hardly knew ye. The once obscure, multi-billion dollar, private-equity-owned machine of leftist funding has gone the way of the dinosaurs. Or has it?Arabella, an organization we here at CRC worked diligently to help bring into the light, has in fact, after being rather publicly and unceremoniously dumped by the Gates Foundation in June, simply split, been restructured, been sold, and/or rebranded, depending on your perspective. The two new entities born of Arabella’s demise are Sunflower Services, a public benefit corporation, and Vital Impact, a philanthropic consulting firm that most resembles the former dark money machine.  The three c3 workhorse nonprofits housed under the former Arabella, who often served as fiscal sponsors for other nonprofits and from which the funding flowed – New Venture Fund, Hopewell Fund, and Windward Fund – are now investors in the aforementioned Sunflower Services and have vowed to continue the work of helping leftist nonprofits accomplish their goals on everything from DEI, to abortion, to social justice. But there are many questions remaining, with perhaps the most interesting: what happens to Arabella’s most political entities, the c4s, notably the notorious Sixteen Thirty Fund? And what prompted them to make this momentous change?Arabella Advisors Dissolves After Years of GOP-Led InvestigationsBill Gates to Stop Grantmaking via Arabella AdvisorsArabella: The Dark Money Network of Leftist Billionaires Transforming AmericaWhat, Exactly, Just Happened to the Left’s Dark Money Behemoth Arabella Advisors?Bill Gates may have just set off the death of far-left-tainted philanthropy

What makes a journalistic outfit “completely independent”? According to Drop Site News, the outlet is exactly that, and “reader-supported” to boot. But recent Open Society Foundations spending reports suggest that the outlet is not completely reader-supported: George Soros’s philanthropy spent $250,000 to support the creation of a “MENA desk” for the group through a fiscal sponsorship cut-out. Joining us to discuss the Open Society-Drop Site relationship is Chuck Ross, senior investigative reporter at the Washington Free Beacon. EXCLUSIVE: Soros Bankrolling Anti-Israel Drop Site NewsSame Game, Different Name: 'Radioactive' Arabella Advisors Announces Rebrand to 'Sunflower Services' as Prominent Donors Flee

It can seem infuriating: Leftist demonstrators wantonly violate the law, only to face no or negligible consequences because the powers that be either support or refuse to oppose their disruptive tactics. But as a famous progressive politician was fond of saying, “The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice.” Last month, a North Dakota jury awarded Energy Transfer, the company building the Dakota Access Pipeline, $667 million in justice, holding that Greenpeace USA had defamed the company during demonstrations against the pipeline. Joining us to discuss the protests, the verdict, and what it might mean for leftist activism going forward is James Meigs, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.City Journal: Greenpeace Verdict Is a Wake-Up Call for Progressive NGOsWashington Post: Greenpeace ordered to pay Dakota Access Pipeline operator $667 million in case that could destroy the groupMartin Luther King, Jr.: Letter from a Birmingham JailCity Journal: Dismantle the “Environmental Justice” Juggernaut

A defining feature of the creeping leftism the country has experienced over the last several years is just that: It’s creeping, coming in on padded feet behind the scenes until Americans began to see it everywhere, in boardrooms, schoolrooms, and entertainment options. Now, there’s real concern that emerging technology like AI is embracing the ideology of woke on the sly, bringing it into the very information people seek online. Fortunately, there are organizations monitoring these things on behalf of consumers, such as Consumers Research via their Woke Alerts, which very recently sounded the alarm about a partnership between Anthropic AI and Salesforce that they say could make it easier to push left-wing ideologies on technology consumers.Here to discuss is Will Hild, Executive Director of Consumers' Research.Consumer protection organization warns of partnership between two 'woke' tech companiesWoke alertMarc BenioffSam Bankman-FriedEffective Altruism Animal Welfare Fund

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