InfluenceWatch Podcast

If you listen to the metropolitan press, the radical-Left ideology of critical race theory is not taught in public schools. But across the country, parents are objecting to curriculum material and education practices that are clearly informed or inspired by the precepts of critical race theory and promoted to school districts by consultancies and advocacy groups backed by the biggest names in Big Business and Big Philanthropy. Joining me to discuss one such group, The Education Trust, and the broader trends of critical race theory in schools is Jay Greene, Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation Center for Education Policy. Jay Greene Bio: https://www.heritage.org/staff/jay-p-greene-phd Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewatch.fireside.fm/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter • Twitter: https://twitter.com/capitalresearch • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capitalresearchcenter • YouTube: https://bit.ly/CRCYouTube • Rumble: https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all • Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/capitalresearch

Parents of America, it’s happened again. Right after a period in which teachers union officials, most prominently American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, conducted a preposterous public relations campaign to make themselves the supposed driving forces of post-COVID school reopenings, teachers unions are shutting schoolhouse doors again. The fiercest battle against the most entrenched adversary rages in Chicago, where the Chicago Teachers Union is conducting an industrial action to avoid going to schools to work; joining me to discuss that union, its radical history, and the ongoing state of play facing Chicago parents is Mailee Smith, director of labor policy at the Illinois Policy Institute. See more here: https://www.illinoispolicy.org/chicago-teachers-who-dont-want-to-walk-out-on-students-have-options/ Mailee Smith's bio: https://www.illinoispolicy.org/author/msmith/ Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewatch.fireside.fm/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter • Twitter: https://twitter.com/capitalresearch • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capitalresearchcenter • YouTube: https://bit.ly/CRCYouTube • Rumble: https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all • Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/capitalresearch

Congress has been receptive to the push, with Democrats proposing a bill to fine companies $20,000 each day if they do not have such an “equity audit” in any given two years. Joining me to discuss this proposal and the powers behind it is Santi Ruiz, reporter for the Washington Free Beacon. • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter • Twitter: https://twitter.com/capitalresearch • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capitalresearchcenter • YouTube: https://bit.ly/CRCYouTube • Rumble: https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all • Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/capitalresearch

Since the identification of the “Omicron Variant” of COVID-19, the left and paternalist factions of the right at home and abroad have returned to their favorite policy packages: Harsh lockdowns and tyrannical mandates. And while the American President has ruled out lockdowns “for now,” his party comrade Bill de Blasio, who remains Mayor of New York until the New Year, instituted the most severe vaccination passport regime this side of the Atlantic. No one over the age of five will be permitted to engage in almost any public activity without showing their papers in the so-called “greatest city in the world,” and a harsher edict on workers than President Biden’s OSHA vaccination mandate that has been enjoined by federal courts will take effect before the end of the month. Joining me to discuss de Blasio’s order is Joel Zinberg, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, director of Paragon Health Institute’s Public Health and American Well-Being Initiative, and associate clinical professor of surgery at the Icahn Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. All for Show: De Blasio’s eleventh-hour vaccine mandate is motivated by politics, not public health -- https://www.city-journal.org/mayor-de-blasio-vaccine-mandate-is-ill-conceived Joel Zinberg Bio -- https://cei.org/experts/joel-zinberg/ Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewatch.fireside.fm/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter • Twitter: https://twitter.com/capitalresearch • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capitalresearchcenter • YouTube: https://bit.ly/CRCYouTube • Rumble: https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all • Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/capitalresearch

I’m Michael Watson and this is the InfluenceWatch Podcast. Our guest today is a Time Magazine Hero of the Environment who at age 16 raised money for the Rainforest Action Network and at 17 “lived in Nicaragua to show solidarity with the Sandinista socialist revolution.” But our guest, author Michael Shellenberger, isn’t your typical Bill McKibben or Bernie Sanders type: He is a campaigner for the environmental benefits of nuclear energy through his group Environmental Progress and just released a new book, San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities criticizing how radical-left approaches to criminal justice and homelessness have battered the Bay Area. Ken Braun, who joins today’s conversation reviewed both San Fransicko and Shellenberger’s previous book, Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All for Capital Research Center; Shellenberger joins us to discuss his theses. Michael Shellenberger @ Environmental Progress: https://environmentalprogress.org/founder-president San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities: https://www.amazon.com/San-Fransicko-Progressives-Ruin-Cities/dp/0063093626 Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Y8FHFQ7/ref=dbsadefrwtbiblvppii1 “Pathological Altruism” May Kill a City Near You: https://capitalresearch.org/article/pathological-altruism-may-kill-a-city-near-you/ Antidote for “Apocalyptic Environmentalists” -- Apocalypse Never: https://capitalresearch.org/article/oliver-stones-antidote-for-apocalyptic-environmentalists-part-1/ A cautionary tale from the streets of San Francisco: https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2021/10/23/a-cautionary-tale-from-the-streets-of-san-francisco Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewatch.fireside.fm/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter • Twitter: https://twitter.com/capitalresearch • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capitalresearchcenter • YouTube: https://bit.ly/CRCYouTube • Rumble: https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all • Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/capitalresearch

By now, the story is familiar. Mark Zuckerberg (https://www.influencewatch.org/person/mark-zuckerberg/) financed the administration of the 2020 elections through the Center for Tech and Civic Life (https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/center-for-tech-and-civic-life/). Eric Holder and an army of Democratic lawyers ensured that liberals would compete on favorable district lines and with favorable voting rules, with no small help from a Philadelphia union boss and political fixer who was just convicted of fraud. And liberal “dark money” groups like Arabella Advisors’ Sixteen Thirty Fund poured hundreds of millions of dollars from the most prominent liberal political donors—men like George Soros, Hansjorg Wyss, and Pierre Omidyar—directly into supporting Democratic campaigns. In all, it makes one wonder if the 2020 elections were in some way rigged. Not coincidentally, Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections is the title of the book that our guest, The Federalist Senior Editor Mollie Hemingway, has just released on the 2020 Presidential election and its fallout. Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections by Mollie Hemingway -- https://www.regnery.com/9781684512591/rigged/ Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewatch.fireside.fm/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter • Twitter: https://twitter.com/capitalresearch • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capitalresearchcenter • YouTube: https://bit.ly/CRCYouTube • Rumble: https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all • Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/capitalresearch

Liberal special interests have effective control of many municipal governments and government arms. The most notable case: school boards. Thanks to “three exploits” of block voting, nonpartisan races, and off-cycle elections, teachers unions gain a structural advantage beyond their ideological support in electing the people who set standards, enforce policies, and fund public school systems. Joining me to discuss how special interest groups take advantage of municipal election structure is Max Eden, a research fellow in education policy at the American Enterprise Institute. News Links: State Chapters of National School Boards Group Slam Letter to White House: https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/11/02/state-chapters-of-national-school-boards-group-slam-letter-to-white-house-depicting-parents-as-domestic-terrorists/ Move School Board Elections On-Cycle to Restore Local Control: https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/move-school-board-elections-on-cycle-to-restore-local-control/ How Government Worker Unions Manipulate Municipal Elections: https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/11/05/how-government-worker-unions-manipulate-municipal-elections/ Defund the Education Deep State: https://americanmind.org/memo/defund-the-education-deep-state/ Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewatch.fireside.fm/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter • Twitter: https://twitter.com/capitalresearch • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capitalresearchcenter • YouTube: https://bit.ly/CRCYouTube • Rumble: https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all • Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/capitalresearch

Last month, the National School Boards Association threw a grenade into debates surrounding local school policy by sending a letter to the Biden administration asking for a federal investigation of behavior at school board meetings, even suggesting the Justice Department invoke the PATRIOT Act anti-terrorism law. Outrage descended from numerous quarters after the Biden Justice Department issued its own directive to convene FBI meetings on the matter; parents, political activists, school officials, and even state level school boards groups denounced NSBA’s actions, with some state associations disaffiliating from the national group—perhaps most prominent being Ohio. Joining me to discuss the Ohio School Boards Association’s decision to disaffiliate from the National School Boards Association is Sara Clark, OSBA's Chief Legal Counsel. Criticizing Teachers Unions and Their Allies? You Might Be A Domestic Terrorist: https://capitalresearch.org/article/criticizing-teachers-union-allies-you-might-be-a-domestic-terrorist/ Ohio School Boards Association Cuts Ties With National Board; Cites Letter To Biden Requesting Federal Assistance: https://www.10tv.com/article/news/local/ohio-school-boards-association-cut-ties-with-national-school-boards-association-over-request-for-federal-intervention/530-2142e402-09ea-4616-b901-0434baed8fa3 Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewatch.fireside.fm/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter • Twitter: https://twitter.com/capitalresearch • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capitalresearchcenter • YouTube: https://bit.ly/CRCYouTube • Rumble: https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all • Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/capitalresearch

CRC's Research Director Mike Watson talks to CRC's Research Associate Parker Thayer about the events of Climate Chaos Week. It happened last week when a network of radical environmentalist activists staged five days of demonstrations around Washington, DC, to pressure the Biden administration to impose more fossil fuel restrictions and shut down pipelines, despite already skyrocketing gas prices and a looming energy crisis this winter. The demonstrations received relatively little media coverage, possibly because they repeatedly escalated from peaceful to ugly. Protestors attempted to tear down barricades at the White House, vandalized a statue of Andrew Jackson scrawling “Expect Us” on it in red paint, assaulted police officers while blocking traffic near Capitol Hill, sprayed fake oil on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce building, and attempted to storm the Interior Department. The ensuing brawl at a Interior Department doorway led to more than 50 arrests and multiple officers injured. In total, an estimated 400 protestors were arrested during the week of “climate chaos.” Professional activist groups known for their dramatic style like Greenpeace were the primary agitators, but the protests were actually organized far in advance by a little-known group called Build Back Fossil Free. "Who Paid For 'Climate Chaos' Week?" -- https://capitalresearch.org/article/who-paid-for-climate-chaos-week/ Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewatch.fireside.fm/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter • Twitter: https://twitter.com/capitalresearch • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capitalresearchcenter • YouTube: https://bit.ly/CRCYouTube • Rumble: https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all • Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/capitalresearch

An interesting shift in the debate over electoral politics happened following the 2020 election: Americans began to wonder if the results they were seeing at the polls were reflective of the collective will of the people. Discussions about election integrity followed, and the focus quickly shifted to local elections as a potential source of at least some of the disconnect. CRC's Research Director Mike Watson is an expert at watching the role union organizers and activists play in local and off-cycle elections, and he's written an as-yet-unpublished op-ed explaining how those entities' involvement in local politics can be extrapolated out to explain some of the election integrity concerns at the state and federal level, and the broader -- and frankly radical -- culture shifts Americans are experiencing today. Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewatch.fireside.fm/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter • Twitter: https://twitter.com/capitalresearch • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capitalresearchcenter • YouTube: https://bit.ly/CRCYouTube • Rumble: https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all • Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/capitalresearch