InfluenceWatch Podcast

In this episode: We’re doing something different this week, because we're recording this on Thursday January 7, 2021. Yesterday, a riotous mob stormed the U.S. Capitol and attempted to prevent the certification of the votes of the Electoral College that make Democrat Joe Biden President-elect of the United States. There is no excuse for demonstrators, whatever their beliefs and goals, to overrun police barricades and attempt to prevent the people’s elected representatives from carrying out their duties. Violence is not speech—and storming the Capitol is violence. At Capital Research Center, we do have a specific point of view: We believe in free markets, Constitutional government, and individual liberty—violent disruption of the legislature is not that. 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

In this episode: A strange thing happened on the road to the Emerging Democratic Majority. Even as Joe Biden won a roughly four-and-a-half percentage point national lead in total ballots cast, the “Rising American Electorate” demographics that were supposed to deliver “blue Texas” actually kept the Lone Star State and Florida in the Republican column while swinging to the right—even in deep-blue areas—as the country tilted to the left relative to 2016. The swings were most notable in two areas: The Mexican border region of Texas (known as the Rio Grande Valley or RGV) and South Florida—in both places, Hispanic constituencies Democrats assumed would be permanently in their camp swung hard to the right, helping keep those states in the Republican column. Joining us to discuss this unexpected development is Alfredo Ortiz, President and CEO of the Job Creators Network. 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

In this episode: The federal government closed a substantial part of the book on its investigation into the largest labor union corruption scandal since the mob control over the Teamsters Union was broken. Federal prosecutors in Michigan announced that they had reached a settlement with the United Auto Workers to establish an oversight regime and adopt reforms to increase members’ ability to hold union leadership accountable. Joining us to recap how we got here and breakdown the settlement is Sean Higgins, Research Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute specializing in labor and employment. 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

As states finalize their results or find the ballots they misplaced or lost the sticky notes for—looking at you, New York Twenty Two—the debate over election procedures shifts from the concluded 2020 elections to protecting election integrity for the future. And while much heat and light—arguably too much of the former—has focused on voting machine manufacturers, less light has shone on the influencers that exploited the COVID pandemic to fundamentally alter how elections were conducted, often without due consideration of consequences. Joining me today is Capital Research Center president Scott Walter to discuss one of those influencers—the Center for Technology and Civic Life. For additional reading: https://capitalresearch.org/article/what-is-mark-zuckerbergs-election-money-doing-in-georgia/ 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

In this episode: Last week, free-market economics lost one of its greatest evangelists: George Mason University professor, occasional Rush Limbaugh Program substitute host, book author, syndicated columnist, and Capital Research Center Advisory Board member Dr. Walter Williams. Joining us to reflect on Williams’s life and legacy is one of his colleagues, Mercatus Center scholar and columnist Veronique de Rugy. For additional reading: Thomas Sowell: Walter E. Williams 1936-2020 Free to Choose Network: Walter Williams: Suffer No Fools Foundation for Economic Education: Book Review: South Africa’s War Against Capitalism by Walter E. Williams Marginal Revolution: The Great Walter Williams, Radical Troublemaker Walter E. Williams: Up from the Projects: An Autobiography Hoover Institution: "A Radical, a Troublemaker..." 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

In this episode: As all eyes are turned toward Georgia’s two Senate runoff races, we discuss proposed legislation that both the Democratic challengers in Georgia support, and that has serious implications for right-to-work laws nationally if the Senate flips from red to blue. The legislation is called the Pro Act, and it’s an expanded federal version of the controversial AB5 legislation in California that has upended independent contracting in that 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

In this episode: While the provisional results of the 2020 presidential election are disappointing to many conservatives, American voters threw roadblocks and cautions to an aggressive progressive agenda in even some of the bluest states. Illinois voters rejected a “progressive”—read, higher—income tax; California voters defeated the union-backed plan to override the commercial property tax limitations in Proposition 15 that we discussed a few weeks ago and rejected a measure to overturn the state’s ban on racial preferences; Colorado voters cut their state income taxes; and state legislative voters handed stinging defeats to Eric Holder’s National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a well-financed effort led by the Obama Administration’s attorney general that sought to secure Democratic state and Congressional power for the next decade by winning crucial state legislatures and gaining control of district-drawing after the 2020 Census. Joining us to discuss the ballot measures and broader down-ballot ramifications of the 2020 elections is Steve Malanga, George M. Yeager Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Steve Malanga's piece in teh New York Post: https://nypost.com/2020/11/10/the-left-lost-big-time-when-it-came-to-ballot-measures-too/ 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/capital.research.center/ • YouTube: https://bit.ly/CRCYouTube

In this episode: “Keep Portland Weird”—that is a common slogan for Oregon’s largest city. But the rest of the country would rather at least one particular weirdness stay in Portland: Antifa, the radical-left extremist faction that has spent most of the summer and fall rioting there. But what is Antifa? Is it an idea, an ideology, or a conventionally understood group? Joining us to explore this question is writer Mark Hemingway, a third-generation Oregonian who conducted an in-depth analysis of Antifa for Real Clear Investigations. Mark Hemingway's piece in Real Clear Investigations : https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2020/10/30/rootsofantifathisideahasviolentconsequences125818.html 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/capital.research.center/ • YouTube: https://bit.ly/CRCYouTube

In this episode: Since the enactment of the National Labor Relations act of 1935, American collective bargaining law in the private sector has relied on exclusive monopoly representation at the enterprise level. In layman’s terms, a single labor union forcing all employees in a designated portion of an employers’ work force to accept a single union negotiated contract. The unions and their allies have eyed a different approach, that of the social democracies of continental Europe, which practice so-called sectoral bargaining to set nationwide or region-wide contracts, while workplace representation is handled by union-influenced work councils. Joining us today to discuss the expansions of unions’ coercive power and possible alternatives to the current American or European coercive models, is Vincent Vernuccio, the Senior Fellow at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. 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

In this episode: For over forty years, residential and commercial property taxes in the State of California have been limited by a law known as “Proposition 13,” passed by voters in response to skyrocketing tax bills from steadily increasing property-value assessments. But while California—which hasn’t had a Republican “trifecta” control of its government since Ronald Reagan was governor—was never the blood-red state of partisan Republican memory, changes in its dominant industries (less gritty defense manufacturing, more “woke” information technology), an exodos of its middle classes in response to skyrocketing housing costs, and international immigration patterns that select for the most socialist-leaning immigrants (compare the voting patterns of Hispanics in California with Hispanics in Florida), liberals see an opportunity to break the dead hand of Howard Jarvis with 2020 Proposition 15, a measure to repeal the limitations on commercial property tax. Joining us to discuss the ballot measure, the special interests behind it, and the possible effects the measure could have on California is Capital Research Center’s Research Specialist, Robert Stilson. 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