InfluenceWatch Podcast

This week we cast our eye to the Pacific Coast, with inquiries into two major left-wing funders in the Golden State. First, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation is suing the Tides Foundation; even as we say “Let them fight,” we must also ask what these two major left-wing institutions are fighting about. And then we introduce the California Endowment, one of many major left-wing grantmakers of which the average listener might not yet have heard. Joining us to discuss these major California institutions is Thomas Buckley, senior fellow at the California Policy Center.https://californiaglobe.com/fr/blm-sues-tides-foundation/https://thomas699.substack.com/p/pennies-for-health-care-millionshttps://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/california-endowment/https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/black-lives-matter-foundation/

What efforts are American nonprofits funding overseas? By and large, we don’t know, and federal disclosure laws are no help because they don’t require American nonprofits (other than private foundations) to disclose their grants to organizations outside the United States. But that may change, as Congress considers legislation to reform “Schedule F” on the nonprofit tax return. Joining us to discuss the proposal is our colleague Robert Stilson, one of the loudest voices calling for the change.Links: Require Nonprofits to Disclose Their Foreign GrantmakingThe Need for Foreign Grant Disclosure by NonprofitsSmucker Foreign Grant Reporting Act Receives Unanimous Support in CommitteePeople’s Support Foundation (PSF)People’s Welfare Association (PWA)Follow us on our Socials: Twitter: @capitalresearchInstagram: @capitalresearchcenterFacebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenterYouTube: @capitalresearchcenter

To say the federal government is merely “broke” is a gross understatement; as of recording the US Debt Clock shows the federal debt at over $34.7 trillion with the running annual deficit at nearly $2 trillion. While federal entitlement spending drives the growth in debt, the discretionary decisions of the Biden administration are very much not helping, as a new report from the Heritage Foundation shows. In short, the Biden administration is using a suspiciously expansive reading of the authorities delegating power from Congress to the Executive Branch to pursue “Whole of Government” Everything-Leftism policies at great public expense. Joining us to discuss his report is David Ditch, senior policy analyst at Heritage.Links: Funding Leftism, Making Power Grabs: The Biden Administration’s Bureaucratic RadicalismExplaining “Everything Leftism”Follow us on our Socials: Twitter: @capitalresearchInstagram: @capitalresearchcenterFacebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenterYouTube: @capitalresearchcenter

If you’re a regular listener, you’ve heard the name “Arabella Advisors” before—the management company that sits at the center of a network of left-wing “dark money” advocacy nonprofits. Now, the story of Arabella Advisors, its network, and its influence is told in a volume authored by Capital Research Center’s president Scott Walter, imaginatively titled Arabella: The Dark Money Network of Leftist Billionaires Secretly Transforming America. Scott joins us this week to discuss the book.Links: Arabella BookWritten Testimony on Extreme Environmental Activist GroupsDonors to the Arabella Advisors NetworkShedding Light on Governing for ImpactFollow us on our Socials: Twitter: @capitalresearchInstagram: @capitalresearchcenterFacebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenterYouTube: @capitalresearchcenter

I’m fond of saying—it’s in my Twitter bio—that “there’s always a labor angle.” From bad MLB umpiring to anti-anti-Hamas demonstrations, Big Labor is there. So I am the least surprised person to discover that the left-wing environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) activist investing movement is backstopped in part by and operates in service of Big Labor and its Everything Leftist agenda. Joining me and my colleague Robert Stilson, who studies the ESG movement for Capital Research Center, is Vinnie Vernuccio of the Institute for the American Worker.Links: Unions using ESG to control workers — and drain Americans’ retirement savingsREPORT: Big Labor’s Push to Force Investment Managers to Ignore Fiduciary Duty and Promote UnionsAs You Sow20 Years of ESG ActivismFollow us on our Socials: Twitter: @capitalresearchInstagram: @capitalresearchcenterFacebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenterYouTube: @capitalresearchcenter

It might be America’s worst teachers’ union—and knowing American teachers’ unions, that’s saying something. Since its takeover by a radical-left-wing, militant caucus in 2010, the Chicago Teachers Union has pushed a radical-left agenda through numerous strike actions and controversially aided the mayoral campaign of Brandon Johnson, a former lobbyist for the union, in the city. Just last month, the union allegedly used school time to rally students to vote for a tax hike ballot measure supported by the union and now-Mayor Johnson. Joining us to discuss the Chicago Teachers Union is Mailee Smith, Senior Director of Labor Policy at the Illinois Policy Institute.Links: CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION CONTRACT DEMANDS ABOUT POLITICS, BOSSES’ POWERILLINOIS POLICY INSTITUTE ETHICS COMPLAINT: CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION PRESSURED STUDENTS TO VOTE ‘YES’ ON TAX HIKEWHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE CHICAGO TEACHERS UNIONKaren G. J. LewisChicago Teachers UnionTeachers’ Unions vs. Teachers, Parents, and Children: The COVID-19 LessonIt’s Time to Get MadFollow us on our Socials: Twitter: @capitalresearchInstagram: @capitalresearchcenterFacebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenterYouTube: @capitalresearchcenter

Journalism is changing, with nonprofit outlets, especially on the left, playing an increasing role in how information gets to the people. Just this week, the press has praised States Newsroom, the Arabella Advisors-seeded network of DEI-focused state-level journalism outlets, and a senior editor at the government-and-Big-Philanthropy-funded National Public Radio has published an article detailing how the outlet shifted from orthodox-liberal in outlook to a radical vanguardist Everything Leftism with a commitment to esoteric identity politics. Soon Capital Research Center will publish a special issue of our magazine focusing on nonprofit journalism and other ideological media projects; joining me to discuss that are my colleagues Ken Braun and Parker Thayer. Links: I’ve Been at NPR for 25 Years. Here’s How We Lost America’s Trust.States Newsroom (Newsroom Network)Press ForwardFollow us on our Socials:Twitter: @capitalresearchInstagram: @capitalresearchcenterFacebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenterYouTube: @capitalresearchcenter

It is increasingly well known, including through the work of our Capital Research colleague Parker Thayer exposing the Voter Registration Project, that left-wing billionaires and institutional interests use what are supposed to be charitable organizations to help win elections. But an Executive Order by President Joe Biden putting federal agencies into the voter-registration game has people asking whether federal taxpayers are now being dragooned into this “nonpartisan” electioneering. Joining us to discuss Executive Order 14019 is Stewart Whitson, legal director of the Foundation for Government Accountability. Links: Behind Massive Mail-in Ballot Push Is a Little-Noticed Executive OrderLegal Director Stewart Whitson on the Glenn Beck Program: Biden’s DOJ Is a “Threat” to State Election IntegrityCorrupt Voter Registration Scheme Persists: VRP’s Activity in 2022 and BeyondDemosFollow us on our Socials:Twitter: @capitalresearchInstagram: @capitalresearchcenterFacebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenterYouTube: @capitalresearchcenter

Have you ever wondered how and why Big Labor became such a driving force in American politics, and how it’s come to be associated with the American left and the Democrat party? Many may be surprised to learn that in the Trump-era – for lack of a better expression -- some conservatives have begun embracing labor unions, and unions have, in return, begun openly donating to Republican politicians. But when one learns the history of the public and private labor union sector in this country, it’s immediately apparent that Big Labor has always been all over the map ideologically, and that political twists and turns are actually the norm rather than the exception. I’ll be interviewing the regular host of this podcast today, who also happens to be our labor expert here at CRC, Michael Watson, on a five-part history of Big Labor he recently published at our website. Sitting third chair today is CRC Special Projects researcher Robert Stilson, who will have a few questions of his own.Links: Big Labor’s Decline and Left Turn: A New Power RisesThe Turn at the Millennium: Why Big Labor Switched Sides on ImmigrationDemocracy Alliance (DA)Follow us on our Socials:Twitter: @capitalresearchInstagram: @capitalresearchcenterFacebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenterYouTube: @capitalresearchcenter

Congressional debate over the social media app TikTok has brought the subject of China’s influence operations into sharp focus for many Americans who might have known China was a geopolitical adversary but may not have known just how close they are to home, that they may have been quite literally in their child’s pocket as they sent them out the door.But TikTok is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what China has been up to stateside, much of it in conjunction with lobbying and currying influence with American legislators, many of them at the state and local level. Fortunately, a new organization called State Armor was formed in January to counter these influence operations and give states quote “the tools they need to thwart Chinese Communist Party influence operations and comprehensively protect residents and state assets.” State Armor founder Michael Lucci joins us today to discuss his organization and their goal of using federalism to protect national security.Links: State ArmorTikTok Is The CCPTo Combat China's Infiltration Of The US We Must Start With The StatesSelect Committee Unveils CCP Influence Memo, "United Front 101"Follow us on our Socials:Twitter: @capitalresearchInstagram: @capitalresearchcenterFacebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenterYouTube: @capitalresearchcenter