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In this episode, we're joined by the insightful journalist and author, Stephen Armstrong, for a candid conversation about Generation X - those of us sandwiched between the Baby Boomers and Millennials. Having seen Stephen's article 50 And Out in The Independent, where he talked about the future of Gen X, we just knew we had to get him onto our podcast to dig deeper.Stephen reveals the unique struggles Gen X men face as they hit midlife, from career crossroads to dealing with the weight of unspoken expectations.  We reminisce about the freedom and world of possibility that followed the end of the cold war, backpacking, music and of course, we can't talk about Gen X without touching on the island that defined a generation and inspired one of Stephen's books - Ibiza. Tune in for an eye-opening, fun chat about where we are now, and what it means to be a Gen X-er in 2025.Read Stephen's Article Here: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gen-x-work-jobs-b2727513.htmlConnect with Stephen on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/stephenarmstrongukFind Stephen's books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B0034O40M8JOIN OUR IBIZA RETREAT: https://themidlifementors.com/retreats/The Midlife Male Handbook available now:AmazonWaterstonesWH Smith Please remember, if you find the show helpful or it makes you laugh, motivates and inspires you - please do like, share and rate us. We don't run ads on the podcast or for the show, because we want to keep it as enjoyable for you to listen as possible. So if you can help us spread the word, we'd be incredibly grateful.For more information about The Midlife Mentors, click the below link:https://linktr.ee/themidlifementors.comTik Tok: @themidlifementorsIG: @midlifementors

Today, Hunter spoke with journalist Piper French about the wrongful conviction of Jimmie “Chris” Duncan. In 1998, Duncan was convicted of murdering his girlfriend's 23-month-old daughter. Originally, Duncan was charged with negligent homicide as it appeared his story, that he stepped away for a few minutes while the child took a bath and then she fell and drowned, was accurate. However, the notorious peddler of the junk science bite mark “evidence,” Dr. Michael West, conducted a dubious autopsy where he pressed a mould of Duncan's teeth into the body of the girl. With this dubious autopsy and the help of a jail house snitch, the state convicted Duncan of capital murder. Since then, Duncan has been fighting to prove his innocence, but with Governor Jeff Landry's drive to increase the number of executions in the Louisiana, Duncan might never get the chance.     Guest Piper French, Part Time Staff Writer at Bolt Magazine, Freelance Journalist   Resources: Read the Article Here https://boltsmag.org/the-human-cost-of-jeff-landrys-drive-to-resume-executions/ https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/03/louisiana-execution-bolts-chris-duncan-jeff-landry-death-row-capital-punishment/  Read more by Piper Here https://www.psfrench.com/ Contact Piper piperstrehlowfrench@gmail.com https://x.com/pipersfrench https://bsky.app/profile/psfrench.bsky.social Read more About Duncan's Case Here https://innocenceproject.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-an-innocent-man-jimmie-chris-duncan/ https://www.propublica.org/article/louisiana-jimmie-duncan-bite-mark-analysis-death-row-junk-science   Contact Hunter Parnell:                                 Publicdefenseless@gmail.com  Instagram @PublicDefenselessPodcast Twitter                                                                 @PDefenselessPod www.publicdefenseless.com  Subscribe to the Patron www.patreon.com/PublicDefenselessPodcast  Donate on PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=5KW7WMJWEXTAJ Donate on Stripe https://donate.stripe.com/7sI01tb2v3dwaM8cMN Trying to find a specific part of an episode? Use this link to search transcripts of every episode of the show! https://app.reduct.video/o/eca54fbf9f/p/d543070e6a/share/c34e85194394723d4131/home  

Happy Wednesday Hockey Fans! Just 2 days away from the Trade Deadline!Today we start with the falling Edmonton Oilers. They make a big trade for Trent Frederic and later that night fall short to the Anaheim Ducks. What do they need to do to get back on the rails?Then on the flip side we look at the Boston Bruins and why they should be in sell off mode. Who could be the next Bruin shipped out?The New Jersey Devils now find themselves in a tough spot with Jack Hughes injured will they be able to hold onto their playoff position or is their season in trouble?Frank Seravalli just dropped a new article about the teams that are still shopping this week, let's take a sneak peak!Read Frank's Article Here!Then Carter Hutton joins to talk goalies in the Blue Paint!SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!

Jessica Hall from MarketWatch joins It Takes Two with Amy & JJ to discuss her recent article about how retirement communities are taking note and making changes to welcome Generation Xers (Those born between 1965 and 1980). Read Jessica's Article Here: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/board-games-and-firepits-senior-communities-are-pulling-out-all-the-stops-to-lure-generation-x-heres-why-2d2a31fb?mod=jessica-hallSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Episode 66! Today the Chicks chat about the NLL and the powerhouse that is the city of Buffalo. Credit to Dan Arestia and his awesome article "Dan Arestia in Banditland: There's Something About Buffalo" for USA Lacrosse Magazine! We hope you enjoyed this episode and as always... We will catch you on the flip side! Byeeeeee Read Dan's Article Here: https://www.usalacrosse.com/magazine/professional/nll/dan-arestia-banditland-theres-something-about-buffalo

Ho Ho Ho... It's the holiday season and we're kicking it off with a look back on some of the most iconic Santa Claus actors of all time. Read the Article Here: https://www.vulture.com/article/best-movie-santas-ranked.html Time Codes: NEWS 1:44 Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr Tom Cruise's New Doug Limen Film Yellowjackets Season 3 Trailer MAIN TOPIC 7:58 Business Inquiry: ironhawk56@gmail.com find me here: https://linktr.ee/TsunamiStudios

This week, hosts Ryan Williams Sr., Shannon Tynes, and Daniel Acevedo tackle a variety of pressing and thought-provoking cybersecurity topics, blended with personal updates and engaging discussions:

Sign Up With BetUS with Promo Code: Youtube150 Read Tim Kawakami's Article Here: https://sfstandard.com/2024/12/03/the-6-biggest-reasons-the-49ers-shouldnt-end-the-kyle-shanahan-era/ Be sure to LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, And COMMENT Down Below

In this episode of the Other Side of the Firewall podcast, hosts Ryan Williams Sr., Shannon Tynes, and Daniel Acevedo discuss the potential candidates for top cybersecurity policy roles in the Trump administration. They explore the qualifications of these candidates, express concerns about certain individuals, and emphasize the critical importance of cybersecurity in today's world. The conversation highlights the need for experienced leadership in cybersecurity to navigate the challenges ahead and the implications of these choices for national security. Article: Here's who could fill top cyber policy roles for Trump https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/07/trump-transition-cyber-roles-00188080?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR3O-nahXrS_sUtKPCY1sBzlvCsaMrhGH6nXPP3GVjy0tQ-thjdPOBkS5co_aem_WTRKgwDNe8vHqpE-nKjw4g Please LISTEN

In a recent article by relevant magazine it shared that science has determined that people are wired to be in relationship with God. And people experience a much richer life when they are in prayer and relationship with their Creator. But why is it so hard to make that connection with God today? Check out the Article Here: https://relevantmagazine.com/faith/how-your-brain-wired-god/ If you have questions for our Betterman Team please email info@betterman.com subject line Podcast Question. If you need help with your marriage or just need to talk to someone contact Isaac at 682-400-3613 Also be sure to be Subscribed to our Youtube channel, where you can watch our podcast. The Betterman Podcast is sponsored by Aroga Drive, and ArtofHomage

Storms like Helene and Milton ought to drive us to recommit to and expand the very institutions that have made natural disasters more survivable for so many, not to abandon them out of some false hope that bad weather can be eliminated.Read the Article Here: https://mises.org/mises-wire/hurricanes-are-not-going-away-we-must-double-down-whats-making-them-more-survivableBe sure to follow the Guns and Butter podcast at Mises.org/GB

Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message”What if we told you that protecting your child's innocence isn't an act of censorship, but a necessary stand in today's complex world? Join us as we unpack this pressing issue with Tom Hampson, a former undercover officer specializing in child sex trafficking investigations. Together, we explore the origins and ongoing impact of Banned Books Week, initiated by Judith Krug and the American Library Association in 1982. This discussion dives into the tension between parental rights and the ALA's policies, making a bold statement on the necessity of common sense when determining what content is appropriate for young minds in educational settings.Read and Share Tom's Article Here! Follow us and watch on X: John Paul II Renewal @JP2RenewalOn Rumble: JohnPaulIIRCCatch up with the latest on our website: jp2renew.org and Sign up for our Newsletter!!  Contact Jack: info@jp2renew.orgRead Jack's Blog substack.com/@jackrigert  Support the show

Donald Trump and Elon Musk want to make the federal government more efficient. But if the true aim of our political system is not to solve the problems facing Americans but to transfer wealth to the government and the politically-connected, the government is already very efficient.Read the Article Here: https://mises.org/mises-wire/america-doesnt-need-more-efficient-governmentBe sure to follow the Guns and Butter podcast at Mises.org/GB

This is a Special SHARE!! and it was a powerful call! We covered a LOT of ground! It was so fun & enlightening! Typically, Venus Circle is for Subscribers Only, however, when we get to the Reclamation side, in need of NEW Tools, Resources & Support, we always invite different Teacher/Guides to come in and share their Tools and Other Modalities for self-healing, individual education & personal soul work.    I want to thank those of you who could join us live – it was a great call! We had a very special contribution from https://www.NasaBawa.com who has a lot to offer with events coming up in Oct! Check out her website for details. How to Join the Monthly Venus Circle HERE:https://KellyMBeard.com/circle-up/$25/mo Includes Monthly Tools + ResourcesThe Venus Circle began in 2007 and has been dedicated to checking-in with our own values & priorities, on a regular basis. Venus Monthly TeleCircle is open to anyone who wants to drop-in for an infusion of the Sacred Feminine energy & guidance for the month. We explore the value of the Sign & Chakra of the month, along with potent Guidance & Divinations.CURRENT Cycle  =  LEO/LIBRA 2023-25Venus in LEO Cycle  ::  ARTICLE Here:https://KellyMBeard.com/wp-content/uploads/Venus-Rx-LEO-2023-Article-by-KellyMBeard.pdfUPCOMING Cycle  =  PISCES/ARIES 2025-26Starts in Feb 2025!!  Join Us!!#VenusCircle #KellyMBeard #KarmicTools #NasaBawa #AncestorMedium #Scorpio #Leo #Libra #ThroatChakra #TheAlchemistArchetype #VenusCycle #Cycles #Patterns #Shamanism #ShamanicAstrology #Astrology #EarthMedicine #EnergyUpdate #EnergeticSupport #SacredFeminine #MysticMentor #TransitsSupport the show

Many “mainstream” economists are bothered by the popularity of economically-flawed policy proposals like tariffs and price controls. It's their own fault.Read the Article Here: https://mises.org/mises-wire/economically-illiterate-policy-proposals-are-popular-and-economists-are-blame► Donate $5 today to support the Mises Institute's Fall Campaign and receive a physical copy of Murray Rothbard's Anatomy of the State: https://mises.org/$5Be sure to follow the Guns and Butter podcast at Mises.org/GB

1994 Pac n Save receipt was found....we talk about prices, what you happened to be doing and a great laugh! ARTICLE HERE.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Find Graham's Article Here: https://www.fantasypoints.com/nfl/art...Find Graham's Twitter Here:   / grahambarfield  Use Promo code "Ron" for a 100% deposit match up to $100 on Underdog Fantasy: https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-ro...- Dynasty Rankings & Tiers:   / ronstewart  - Rookie Rankings:   / ronstewart  - Rookie Prospect Model & Tiers:   / ronstewart  - Dynasty Buys/Sells:   / ronstewart  - 1 on 1 Fantasy Advice:   / ronstewart  - Exclusive Discord Chat:   / ronstewart  - Subscriber Leagues:   / ronstewart  Join our FREE Discord: (  / discord  )Follow Me on Twitter Here:   / ronstewart_​​​​​​​  Follow Me on Tik Tok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeJbWgfv/​​​​​...I'm always looking for editing help, email me here if interested: ronstewart.business@gmail.comEmail ronstewart.business@gmail.com for business inquiriesAudio versions of these videos can be found here:Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6iUFYKq...Google Podcasts: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=...Intro and Outro song is 'Snowcone' by KTXAS. His music can be found here: https://linktr.ee/ktxasTime Stamps:Intro (0:00)What is Yards Created? (0:55)Graham's Tier 1 RBs (4:25)How to wrestle with Jaylen Wright's College Offense (22:20)Graham's Tier 2 RBs (32:00)Braelon Allen might stink (43:10)Bucky Irving (46:45)Will Shipley (50:00)Is Ray Davis a Guy? (54:00)Graham Favorite Sleepers (56:50)#dynastyfootball #dynastyfantasyfootball #dynasty

Read the Article Here: https://news.thedumshow.com/?p=18078.4 million Tide and Gain laundry pods have been recalled over non-child-resistant packaging, posing ingestion and contact risks. Sold nationwide since September 2023, the CPSC urges consumers to secure these products and contact Procter & Gamble for a refund or replacement. No injuries reported yet, but concerns rise.Please consider donating to the show: linktapgo.com/thedumshow Thank you!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-don-t-unfriend-me-show--6012883/support.

Now that Nick Saban is no longer the head coach of Alabama, it is time to take a look at what this means for other programs within the SEC. We take a look at Ole Miss and Auburn. Jim Harbaugh Watch 2024 continues, and we take a look at that. We also preview a loaded College Baketball weekend! Today's show is brought to you by Fanduel, America's best sportsbook. Sign up at fanduel.com/Staples. Make one $5 bet and receive $150 in guaranteed bonus bets! (0:00-2:05) Intro - A jam packed show ahead (2:06-6:28) Jim Harbaugh Watch (6:29-9:39) Transfer Portal Predictions Pete's Article Here: https://www.on3.com/transfer-portal/news/transfer-portal-predicting-where-top-targets-commit/ (9:40-28:52) Zach Berry from OM Spirit Joins (28:53-52:37) Justin Hokanson from AuburnLive Joins (52:38-1:06:47) College Hoops with Joe Tipton (1:06:48-1:08:00) Conclusion Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you're growing a business… Speaking is the fastest way to find your clients online. And to find your clients quickly with speaking… you'll want to understand what your clients are really longing for… or craving.    People are no longer interested in content and getting loaded up with information. They're craving experiences and genuine connection.  That's why the CONTEXT of your client-attracting talk is so essential! In today's Monday Motivation training, I'm sharing… Why context matters 10x more than content Context-creating tools to help you dial in your talk Tips on how to create connection & trust at your next speaking event >>> Read the Article Here https://womenrockingbusiness.com/why-context-matters-10x-more-than-content/  -- Subscribe to My Channel Here: https://www.youtube.com/@WomenRockingBusiness -- Sage Lavine is the founder & CEO of Women Rocking Business, a training company reaching over 500,000 women entrepreneurs around the world, and the #1 best-selling Hay House author of Women Rocking Business.  As a notable women's empowerment speaker and coach, Sage has delivered business-building training across global platforms, including the TedX stage, and inside her comprehensive programs that serve thousands of women entrepreneurs annually.  Sage believes in purpose-based business. She has fundraised over a million dollars for humanitarian projects, focusing on empowering girls and women in developing countries and promoting a healthy environment. She is also an active advocate for closing the gender pay gap. Find Sage here: Website: https://womenrockingbusiness.com/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/womenrockingbiz/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/854906531317035 Instagram: http://instagram.com/sagelavine   Tik Tok: www.tiktok.com/@sagelavine  Blog: https://womenrockingbusiness.com/blog/ Watch my TedX Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjfnKO2ihr8&t=1s

Habits, Who You Associate With, Focus, & the Trick – Best of Host Matt on Business Topics Part 2 - AZ TRT S05 EP01 (216) 1-7-2024   Things We Learned This Week: Think Habits, Not Resolutions (vs. Goals) You Are Who You Associate With in relationships, business, & life The One Thing - Why Focus is Critical - Key Results That's the Trick - Daily Work, the Grind     Notes: Seg. 1   Think Habits, Not Resolutions We are often told to make New Year's Resolutions, but then by February we have all given up on those promises. I am encouraging you today to start the New Year early with looking at how to improve your habits, not make resolutions.     Real change does not happen overnight despite what Facebook, and a highlight society has promised. Most successful people have good daily habits, make proper decisions, and are consistent with their follow thru. We know that you probably are not motivated anyway to attack your New Year's Resolutions. So instead of some promise that can only be carried out by will power (or enthusiasm), how about a different approach? The goal is not really to have a Resolution, as so much a lifestyle change that sticks. We are a collection of our thoughts, lifestyle, and daily actions. You can see it when you meet with people all the time. You notice how they look, act, or what they eat. So let's stick to practical, and realistic advice. You want to develop actions (sleep habits, eating, rest, relaxation, meditation, etc.) that you will follow thru on daily. These will turn into habits, which will create that lifestyle change. The popular notion is it takes repetition of an act over 20 to 30 days for it to become a habit. The reality is it is more like 2 months (or more) according to a study by Phillippa Lally is a health psychology researcher at University College London. There are 3 books that have come out the last few years that cover these topics. We are all very busy, so I understand if you do not have time to read every self help or success book that is released. I've actually have only skimmed these books, but instead watched YouTube videos to get the themes. I am a believer in daily self improvement and online videos provide a good resource. The Power of Habit: Charles Duhigg at TEDxTeachersCollege Duhigg is a NY times writer who wrote a book that breaks down how we go about our habits, and what cues the brain has that create our habits.  What's fascinating about this is if you start understand what rewards you receive from bad habits, you can find substitutes to replace with better habits. The process for a habit goes like this - a Cue happens, then you have your Routine, then a Reward for the Habit. Duhigg's example is he would take a cookie break every afternoon about 3 pm. The Cue was 3pm, the routine was going to get the cookie, and the reward was eating the cookie. This was a bad habit, and he was gaining weight. So he replaced this habit with social time everyday at 3pm. He would wander over to another employee's cubicle and talk to them. His reward would be social interaction, and distraction and he stopped his bad snacking. Psychologically the more you do your habits, the less you think about the action. This is good when you have established healthy habits. Do not underestimate the reward part either. Even if you reward a positive action with a questionable gift. Over time you may not even need the reward, and you just do the action out of habit. Arianna Huffington on The Science of Sleep and Success with Lewis Howes This is not the best talk, but her main points about the importance of sleep cannot be overstated. So much of productivity is in society is linked to how much sleep one gets. Also a multitude of health disorders are linked to sleep, and everyone needs at least 7 (to 9) hours of sleep daily.  If you choose to ignore this, eventually you burn out or worse. We spend so much time adding things to our schedule, and this usually just makes us too busy. Instead of getting to all the things on your list, your work just suffers. Ultimately this affects your day, adds stress and hurts sleep. Slowing down, prioritizing your health (and sleep) will actually make you more productive over the long run. Hopefully these 3 examples will help you to evaluate your current habits. Then you evaluate what you are working to change in your current routine to improve yourself over the long term.  Good Luck with your new habits. Have a good and safe Holiday Season.   Article: HERE     Atomic Habits by James Clear The Book in Three Sentences 1.    An atomic habit is a regular practice or routine that is not only small and easy to do but is also the source of incredible power; a component of the system of compound growth. 2.    Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. 3.    Changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you're willing to stick with them for years. The Five Big Ideas 1.    Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. 2.    If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead. 3.    The most effective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve, but on who you wish to become. 4.    The Four Laws of Behavior Change are a simple set of rules we can use to build better habits. They are (1) make it obvious, (2) make it attractive, (3) make it easy, and (4) make it satisfying. 5.    Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior.                  Book Summay: HERE         Seg. 2 Clip from Seg. 2 of: You Are Who You Associate With - BRT S01 EP21 6-28-20 + Covid 19 Crisis & the Economy Homeless Population in Phx Struggling and How to Help   MB on You Are Who You Associate With - in relationships of business and life   Notes: Partner and hire ‘A' people Relationships Process / Results Strategies Ultimate example – Paypal Mafia and all the tech startups that came from it  Steve Jobs died in 2011 years ago – Apple still a Top 10 companies. Bill Walsh – Coaching Tree in football Good manager is not needed - business runs itself Guy Kawasaki on Bozo-itis: A hire A's, B manager hire C's – hire better than you. Jim Rohn – average of 5 people you associate with Partners – like a marriage. Pick carefully Rate yourself – would you hire you? Partner with you? If you do not like yourself – conscious choice to change, grow, adapt. Habits / Strategies – like habits vs. diets or fad ideas. Associate with Good People. People smarter than you.  Life and business – drop bad associates If you're the smartest in room – then you're in the wrong room. Keep learning – associate with people who help you grow.   Article: HERE   FULL SHOW: HERE       Seg. 3 Clip from Seg. 2 of: The One Thing, or Why Focus is Critical... - BRT S01 EP19 6-14-2020 China, Tariffs, Business Marketing       MB on Goals, the One Thing, OKR (objective, and key results), and the importance of Focus Business Books – Decision Making and Priorities   John Doerr – Measures What Matters Former Intel exec OKR – Objective and Key Results Big objectives Intel goal of overtaking Motorolla in chip making Doerr was advisor to Google founders   Decision Making in business is crucial Book Summaries on great business books to save time, and still get key concepts of the book Blogs, YouTube videos, book summaries in detail – 10 pages vs 250 pages   Peter Drucker – Effective Executive Managers need to understand their priorities Work on first things first, and second things not at all Goals, priorities, and time management Work on the most important things, and know what to not be working on   One Thing – Gary Keller and Jay Papasan The ONE Thing by Gary Keller & Jay Papasan – book summary The Book in Three Sentences The ONE Thing is the best approach to getting what you want. Success is a result of narrowing your concentration to one thing. Success is built sequentially, one thing at a time. The Five Big Ideas Not everything matters equally. Multitasking is a lie. Discipline is a result of habit. Willpower is a finite resource. Big is bad. Book Summary Link: HERE   Article: HERE      “Anything not worth doing, is worth not doing well.” - Robert Fulghum quote   ‘We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.'  – Jim Rohn   "Give me a place to stand (lever), and I will move the world." - Archimedes is said to have promised     Related show (Interview w/ Author Jay Papasan) on The One Thing Book: HERE   Full Show: HERE     Seg. 4 Clip from Seg. 1 of: This is the Trick? The One Thing to Exit Strategy to Moneyball & Business Lessons from Movies - Best of Business Part 2 - BRT S03 EP43 (142) 9-4-2022   What We Learned This Week That's the Trick - Daily Work, the Grind Dominos - Priority in Latin = First, what is your 1st Domino? Knock it down Advisory Team - importance of building a good team (CPA, Attorney, Banker) That's the Trick – this is the performance What's the Problem? - from Moneyball We Don't Hire Brokers, We Train Them - from Boiler Room   That's the Trick There's a scene in the movie The Prestige when the 2 young apprentice magicians go to see an older magician to learn his ‘Trick'. When the older magician is on stage he's doing amazing feats of strength. Then they get a watch him after the show get into a carriage, he seems like a crippled feeble old man who needs help. One magician says the other magician – ‘This is the Trick. This is the performance. This is why no one can detect his method. Total devotion to his art. Lot of self sacrifice.' The ‘Trick' is off stage, he's always acting like a crippled old man. It's simple, not easy. We often look for something that's not there, the big secret, when it's actually just in front of our faces. Always more simple than we think. We're looking for the big trick, how to get rich in a moment. When the actual trick, is doing the work daily, weekly, monthly, for years. You hone the craft, measure your progress, and adjust over time. Respect the craft, as there is no overnight success. The old line in business, it took him 20 years to be an overnight success. The Malcolm Gladwell book Outliers, says it takes 10,000 hours to master something. The expert has been practicing for 10 years. The professional golfer, the actor, the musician, the chest master, the salesman, or work on their craft. Even the greats like Tom Brady, Buffett, or bodybuilder Schwarzenegger all honed their craft over the decades. It's Simple, not Easy. You have to show up every day, to the repetitive work, just doing the grind. There is a great story about Sylvester Stallone trying to get auditions, and then trying to sell the screenplay for Rocky. He got thrown out of agents offices over 1500 times in the mid 10970s. Funny as there were only 500 agents in NYC. He actually got thrown out multiple times. There are no success hacks, no magic, no secret sauce. The secret is to just do the work. You work daily and improve 1% a week, leads to 66% improvement in a year. You must be willing to do what others will not. Compounding works with effort day and day out. Magic of Compounding is mass improvement over time, by perfecting the little things. Delay gratification and you see the results slowly. Build a base, not unlike the structure of a building. If someone says it's easy and you don't have to work for it…. Then probably selling you something. If it's easy with no sacrifice, or habit building, then it will not last. When you cook a meal, what doe sit look like if you pulled it from the oven midway thru? You have to let it cook, to get the finished product. Be in it for the Long Term. Let Compunding work for you. Back to the The Prestige: ‘Sacrifice is the price you pay for a good trick.' Not breaking character, you commit to the craft.   Article: HERE   Borden and Angier watch Chung Ling So's fish bowl trick The Prestige (2006) – movie clip Click HERE   Full Show: HERE     Reference Show: McDonalds, Apple, Disruption, 80/20 - Best of Host Matt on Business Topics - BRT S03 EP10 (109) 3-6-2022   Things We Learned This Week What Business Are You In? - McDonalds is a Real Estate Company Disruption in Business & Tech World - How to Handle The Innovator's Dilemma 80/20 Principle summed up is, 80% of outputs come from 20% of inputs – Focus on the 20% Steve Jobs 1997 Return to Apple – The Power of Focus & Simplify, Say No often, choose wisely   FULL SHOW: HERE       Business Topic: HERE   Investing Topic: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/category/investing More - BRT Best of: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/category/Best+Of   Thanks for Listening. Please Subscribe to the BRT Podcast.     AZ Tech Roundtable 2.0 with Matt Battaglia The show where Entrepreneurs, Top Executives, Founders, and Investors come to share insights about the future of business.  AZ TRT 2.0 looks at the new trends in business, & how classic industries are evolving.  Common Topics Discussed: Startups, Founders, Funds & Venture Capital, Business, Entrepreneurship, Biotech, Blockchain / Crypto, Executive Comp, Investing, Stocks, Real Estate + Alternative Investments, and more…    AZ TRT Podcast Home Page: http://aztrtshow.com/ ‘Best Of' AZ TRT Podcast: Click Here Podcast on Google: Click Here Podcast on Spotify: Click Here                    More Info: https://www.economicknight.com/azpodcast/ KFNX Info: https://1100kfnx.com/weekend-featured-shows/     Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the Hosts, Guests and Speakers, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent (or affiliates, members, managers, employees or partners), or any Station, Podcast Platform, Website or Social Media that this show may air on. All information provided is for educational and entertainment purposes. Nothing said on this program should be considered advice or recommendations in: business, legal, real estate, crypto, tax accounting, investment, etc. Always seek the advice of a professional in all business ventures, including but not limited to: investments, tax, loans, legal, accounting, real estate, crypto, contracts, sales, marketing, other business arrangements, etc.  

CRAFT BEER PODCAST NEWS EPISODE!Dan updates us on Snoop Doggs new beverage line while Rob talks about 'open carry' alcohol laws starting to begin in other states. The show ends with Wendy going over some of her favorite beers of the year as we cover with the Detroit Free Press mentioned as their favorites.Wendy's Article - Here are the top 12 Michigan craft beers of 2023 - https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/nightlife/2023/12/20/best-michigan-craft-beer-2023-breweries/71862308007/Dan's Article - Snoop Dogg Bursts Into Cannabis Beverages With ‘Death Row' Drink - https://www.brewbound.com/news/snoop-dogg-bursts-into-cannabis-beverages-with-death-row-drinkRob's Article - ‘I felt so naughty': New open carry alcohol laws boost downtowns - https://kansasreflector.com/2023/11/11/i-felt-so-naughty-new-open-carry-alcohol-laws-boost-downtowns/Sponsors:North Center Brewing - https://northcenterbrewing.com/Zetouna Liquor - https://www.facebook.com/Zetouna-Liquor-Fine-Wine-Cigars-146021445420374/Craftapped (Code BOD for 15% Off At Checkout) - https://craftapped.com/join-page-by-state/Join The Michigan Beer Discord - https://discord.gg/vEEDyzwdjTDownload the MI Beer Map - http://www.mibeermap.comSubscribe to Better on Draft - https://plnk.to/BODSpotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6AlzP1BH0iykayF856bGRc?si=xXZzdd3CTPqgUq_KYTnBKgiTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/better-on-draft-a-craft-beer-podcast/id1091124740Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/betterondraftUntappd - https://www.untappd.com/user/betterondraftYouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/betterondraftInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/betterondraftTwitter - https://www.twitter.com/betterondraft

On this weeks episode of do the work, Sabrina is joined by Dr. David Spiegal, psychiatrist and founder of the app Reveri  to chat about healing attachment styles and using self hypnosis to add to your tool box as a new healing modality. Want to work with Sabrina? HERE! Dont forget to follow Sabrina and Do the Work on instagram and Sabrina on Tik tok! Try the Reveri App FREE for 2 weeks HERE! Please support our sponsors! Want to shop Softwear? Get 20% off your first order with code- DOTHEWORK Get 3 free towels and 20% off Miracle brands HERE Join me on Open for 30 days free, head to withopen.com/DOTHEWORK Get $50 off your first order over $100 on Article HERE

Macrovoice's Erik Townsend & Patrick Ceresna welcome Freelancer Founder, Matt Barrie. Erik and Matt have an interesting discussion about the potential human prosperity and existential threat, AI may give us in a future not too far away. https://bit.ly/476Sauc   Read Matt's ‘AI-pocalypse' Article Here: https://bit.ly/3RIfJor   Check out Energy Transition Crisis on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EnergyTransitionCrisis1 Download Big Picture Trading Chartbook

Pre Silicon Valley - Claude Shannon & Bell Labs w/ Jimmy Soni  AZ TRT S04 EP49 (212) 12-10-2023   Revisit the Show w/ Clips From: PayPal Mafia - The Founders Story & Their Battle w/ EBAY w/ Jimmy Soni  - BRT S03 EP36 (135) 8-7-2022  Full Show: HERE    What We Learned This Week PayPal Mafia – alumni created or involved many other co's – Tesla, SpaceX, Palantir, Yelp, Yammer, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube & more PayPal had may contributors & a real long shot to happen during the DOTCOM Crash of 2000 Claude Shannon – creator of Information Theory, predecessor to the modern computer age, & algorithms Bell Labs was a classic Tech Incubator like Fairfield Semiconductor, Xerox Parc, Menlo Park – Edison / GE, Manhattan Project, Tuxedo Park PayPal sold to EBAY in 2002 for $1.5 Billion, prior to this, the two companies were rivals as EBAY wanted a different payment system   Full Show: HERE     Guest: Jimmy Soni, Author https://jimmysoni.com/ https://twitter.com/jimmyasoni   https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmysoni/ My books are passion projects. My topics come because I look for a book to buy on the subject and can't find one. I know it's supposed to be fancier than that, or that there must be some grand theory of my work, but there isn't one. That said, my readers seem to enjoy what I've written, so maybe it's fine? I am inspired by my literary heroes, including Robert Caro, Laura Hillenbrand, Candice Millard, Daniel James Brown, and Barbara Tuchman, among many others. They are all rigorous researchers—but reading their books doesn't feel like doing homework. That's what I'm going for, and hopefully I hit the mark a few times. For me, books are all-consuming projects, leaving little other time for the things that should populate this section like hobbies, interests, and even the ability to remain in basic touch with people. I enjoy obsessing over a subject for years, and my goal is to find as much information as possible and then make the material readable for a general audience.  When not writing or reading, I spend time with my daughter in Brooklyn, NY.  If you'd like to connect, please drop me a line at hello [@] jimmysoni.com.   https://jimmysoni.com/books/   The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley A definitive, deeply reported look at the origin of PayPal and its founding team, including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, Max Levchin, and others whose stories have never before been told. They defined the modern world. This experience defined them.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia Paypal Mafia   Elon Musk – Tesla, Space X, Boring Co. Peter Thiel – 1st FB Investor, AirBnB Investor, Founders Fund, Palantir Reid Hoffman – LinkedIn (sold to Microsoft) Max Levchin – Affirm, Investor in Yelp David O. Sacks – Geni.com & Yammer Chad Hurley – YouTube Russel Simmons – Yelp   https://fintechboomer.com/guide-evaluate-the-founders-the-story-of-paypal-and-the-entrepreneurs-who-formed-silicon-valley/   https://www.pressreader.com/india/the-hindu-business-line/20220620/281758452959411   https://twitter.com/jimmyasoni/status/1488992532268732419       A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age In this elegantly written, exhaustively researched biography, Soni and Goodman reveal Claude Shannon's full story for the first time. With unique access to Shannon's family and friends, A Mind at Play brings this singular innovator and always playful genius to life.   https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-claude-shannons-information-theory-invented-the-future-20201222/ QUANTIZED COLUMNS How Claude Shannon Invented the Future Today's information age is only possible thanks to the groundbreaking work of a lone genius.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9hfWiQKhcs&t=2s A Mind at Play | Jimmy Soni & Rob Goodman | Talks at Google     Life in Code and Digits: When Shannon met ... - ScienceOpen  Shannon is credited with the invention of signal-flow graphs, in 1942. He discovered the topological gain formula while investigating the functional operation of an analog computer. For two months early in 1943, Shannon came into contact with the leading British mathematician Alan Turing.   Ed Thorp, Claude Shannon and the World's First ... - Winton https://www.winton.com › technology › 2018/07 › ed-t... Jul 13, 2018 — Thorp, 85, is a former American mathematics professor and hedge fund manager, who became a New York Times bestselling author in 1962 with his ...   https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/magazine/15Battier-t.html The No-Stats All-Star     Notes: Claude Shannon Bio – A Mind at Play (2017) Claude Shannon – mathematician & MIT professor created Father of Information Theory – How do you make info transferrable, & secure in wartime? Friend of Alan Turing (British Mathematician), both worked on coding in WW2, German code breaking scientists became celebrities in WW2 and raised funding The science behind compressing info, digitizing info and MP3 files, transfer data Mathematics Theory of Communication, Shannon's paper and theory considered the Magna Carta of information age. Great paper theoretically and practically. Shannon created algorithm called sigsally. Imitation Game – WW2 bio movie about Alan Turing Shannon's work used for Gun torrents on Navy ships, target projectiles Bell Labs – math group that Shannon was a part of Famous Groups of Genius - Menlo Park – Edison/GE, Manhattan Project – Built the A Bomb Fairfield Semiconductor – predecessor to Intel and other Silicon Valley tech co's Bell Labs had money and started as R&D Dept. in Bell Telephone Bell Telephone ran all land lines in America, had a Fed guaranteed monopoly on the phone system Bell invented touch tone dialing, transistor, satellite tech, cell tech, communication networks We are all affected by Bell tech and inventions, modern age owes a solid to Bell Had big group of talent and could afford all of it, leading scientists of the time. During WW2 many major U.S. corporations – Bell, Ford were recruited by the US Government. War effort created urgency – math used to shoot down the enemy. The Founders – story of PayPal (2022) Dot Com burst created urgency to Pay Pal, bleeding money, had to survive. Dotcom crash – companies started 1 day, & BK out of business next day. Rise like a rocket and crash in 2 years Next Gen of Genius Teams - Xerox Parc, Microsoft, Apple Music Producer – Brian Eno coined the term “scenious” Scene meets genius - Clusters of talent American Revolution – Hamilton, Jefferson, Washington, Adams, Franklin all together for 1 cause Inklings, Fugitive Poets, 1960's British Music scene, Bill Walsh 49ers Coaching staff of the 1980s Paypal is the story of many – Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Reed Hoffman Alumni of Fairchild Semi led to Intel, Atari and Xerox Parc led to Apple. Post WW2 Bell Labs pressure decreased compared to PayPal. Bell Labs allowed free wheeling, could work on a project for 10 years.   PayPal Mafia - The Founders Story & Their Battle w/ EBAY w/ Jimmy Soni  - BRT S03 EP36 (135) 8-7-2022 Full Show: HERE   More on Bell Labs:   'The Idea Factory': How Bell Labs invented the future – Article HERE           Bell Labs: The research center behind the transistor, and so much more – Article HERE         Best of Biotech from AZ Bio & Life Sciences to Jellatech: HERE   Biotech Shows: HERE   AZ Tech Council Shows:  https://brt-show.libsyn.com/size/5/?search=az+tech+council *Includes Best of AZ Tech Council show from 2/12/2023     ‘Best Of' Topic: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/category/Best+of+BRT      Thanks for Listening. Please Subscribe to the BRT Podcast.     AZ Tech Roundtable 2.0 with Matt Battaglia The show where Entrepreneurs, Top Executives, Founders, and Investors come to share insights about the future of business.  AZ TRT 2.0 looks at the new trends in business, & how classic industries are evolving.  Common Topics Discussed: Startups, Founders, Funds & Venture Capital, Business, Entrepreneurship, Biotech, Blockchain / Crypto, Executive Comp, Investing, Stocks, Real Estate + Alternative Investments, and more…    AZ TRT Podcast Home Page: http://aztrtshow.com/ ‘Best Of' AZ TRT Podcast: Click Here Podcast on Google: Click Here Podcast on Spotify: Click Here                    More Info: https://www.economicknight.com/azpodcast/ KFNX Info: https://1100kfnx.com/weekend-featured-shows/   Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the Hosts, Guests and Speakers, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent (or affiliates, members, managers, employees or partners), or any Station, Podcast Platform, Website or Social Media that this show may air on. All information provided is for educational and entertainment purposes. Nothing said on this program should be considered advice or recommendations in: business, legal, real estate, crypto, tax accounting, investment, etc. Always seek the advice of a professional in all business ventures, including but not limited to: investments, tax, loans, legal, accounting, real estate, crypto, contracts, sales, marketing, other business arrangements, etc.  

Hosts Fran Chismar and Tom Knezick connect with Beth Yount of Penn State Extension, Philadelphia to discuss the truth about mosquito control.  Topics include misconceptions about spraying for mosquito control, impacts to beneficial mosquitos, the watershed, and food web, natural or less impactful ways to control mosquitos, and talking points if confronted by a salesperson. Intro music by Egocentric Plastic Men, outro music by Dave Bennett. Follow Beth Yount - Website  Read Beth's Article Here. Become a Master Watershed Steward Here. Have a question or a comment?  Call (215) 346-6189. Follow Native Plants Healthy Planet - Website / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube  Follow Fran Chismar Here Buy a T-shirt, spread the message, and do some good.  Visit Here. Get 10% off by using the discount code BIGFOOT until 12/1.

On this weeks episode of Do the Work, Sabrina talks solo about when and how to define the relationship, “what are we” conversation and milestones in dating! She answers questions like: Timeline to date before committing? Insecure in relationship vs single? How to figure out which to pick when dating multiple people? and so much more! Want to work with Sabrina? Click HERE Dont forget to follow Sabrina and Do the Work on instagram and Sabrina on Tik tok! Please support our sponsors! Want to shop Softwear? Get 20% off your first order with code- DOTHEWORK Join me on Open for 30 days free, head to withopen.com/DOTHEWORK Get 3 free towels and 20% off Miracle brands HERE Get $50 off your first order over $100 on Article HERE

Scott recently came across an article that discussed 8 ways the richest Americans avoid paying taxes. While many might think that these strategies wouldn't apply to their financial situation, we're going to discuss how you can apply these tactics to potentially reduce your taxes. Stay tuned as Scott breaks down these 8 strategies! Here are the 8 strategies that we'll discuss:  1.   No Taxes on Unrealized Capital Gains: Both billionaires and regular investors with investment gains can utilize the strategy of not paying taxes on unrealized capital gains as long as they hold their assets without selling them. 2.   Charitable Deductions: Philanthropy not only benefits causes you care about but also offers potential tax advantages through deductions on contributions. 3.   Long-Term Capital Gains Rates: Discover the tax benefits of holding assets for over a year, leading to more favorable tax rates compared to ordinary income. 4.   Roth IRAs: Understand the power of tax-free growth and withdrawals that Roth IRAs offer, and how they can be an excellent tool for long-term tax reduction. 5.   Pass-Through Income: Learn how business owners and self-employed individuals can benefit from tax deductions on pass-through income, and why proper management matters. 6.   Tax Breaks from Home Ownership: Explore the tax advantages available to homeowners, including mortgage interest and property tax deductions, provided they itemize their deductions. 7.   Medical Expense Deductions: Consider the often-overlooked possibility of deducting medical expenses that exceed a certain percentage of your adjusted gross income, potentially resulting in tax savings. 8.   Real Estate Investing Tax Breaks: Delve into the tax benefits of owning rental properties, including depreciation deductions, but also understand the complexities and potential implications when selling.   Links From Today's Show: CTA:  Tax Guide https://lifemoneyshow.com/taxes/   Review of Article:  Here are 8 Ways the Richest Americans Avoid Paying Taxes -The Ascent https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/taxes/articles/here-are-8-ways-the-richest-americans-avoid-paying-taxes/   Want to get in touch? Web: https://sierensfinancialgroup.com/ Email: office@sierensfinancialgroup.com Phone: 847-235-6989 Read more and get additional financial resources here: http://lifemoneyshow.com  Check out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPhQ-u12d60Z0HNCwwVubdQ   

Your favorite podcast hosts Jason A. Coombs and Samantha Tuozzolo are live on the red carpet of the Theatre World Awards from Monday, June 5! Featuring interviews from honorees and presenters including Myles Frost (MJ the Musical), Julie Benko (Funny Girl), Yahya Abdul-Mateen II  (Topdog/Underdog), Amir Arison (The Kite Runner), Callum Francis (Kinky Boots), Lucy Freyer (The Wanderers), Caroline Innerbichler (Shucked), Ashley D. Kelley (Shucked), Casey Likes (Almost Famous), Marilyn Caserta (Six), Lana Gordon (Chicago), Benjamin Pajak (The Music Man) and producer Dale Badway. The episode kicks off with the directors of the event, Michael and Tom D'Angora! First presented in 1945, the prestigious Theatre World Awards, founded by John Willis, the Editor-in-Chief of both Theatre World and its companion volume, Screen World, are the oldest awards given for Outstanding Broadway and Off-Broadway Debut Performances. The Theatre World Awards are presented annually at the end of the theatre season to six actors and six actresses for their significant, reviewable, debut performances in a Broadway or Off-Broadway production. The ceremony is a private, invitation-only event followed by a party to celebrate the new honorees and welcome them to the Theatre World "family." More info on the Theatre World Awards here! Broadway World Video and Article Here! You can support the podcast and the hosts at www.buymeacoffee.com/SurvivalJobsPod and on Instagram at @surivaljobspod | @SammyTutz | @JasonACoombs.  Info on Your Hosts:  Broadway World Article on our Season 2 Launch Party Follow Samantha: Instagram.   |  Samantha's Official Website here Follow Jason on Instagram  | Twitter. Check out Jason's Official Website here Check out and support The Bridgeport Film Fest Important Links: Native Land Map US Interior Indian Affairs NPR: "How To Help Puerto Rico" Article How to Help the People of Florida Article Abortion Funds Website Plan C Pills Website National Write Your Congressman Link How to help Uvalde families NPR Article Where to Donate to Support Access to Abortions Right Now Support Us... Please!  If you're feeling generous, Buy Us A Coffee HERE! Please don't become complacent: Support the Black Mamas Matter Alliance Support Families Detained and Separated at the Border.  Support the AAPI Civic Engagement Fund. Support Black Trans Folx here Donate to the Community League of the Heights (CLOTH) Support the People of Palestine How to be an Ally to the AAPI Community 168 Ways to Donate in Support of Black Lives and Communities of Color The New York Times: On Mexico's Border With U.S., Desperation as Migrant Traffic Piles Up PBS: How to help India during its COVID surge — 12 places you can donate Covid quarantine didn't stop antisemitic attacks from rising to near-historic highs Opening and Closing Theme Music: "One Love" by Beats by Danny | Game Music: "Wake Up" by MBB.  If you enjoy Survival Jobs: A Podcast be sure to subscribe and follow us on your preferred podcast listening app! Also, feel free to follow us on Instagram and Twitter! Thank you!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Your favorite podcast hosts Jason A. Coombs and Samantha Tuozzolo are back with a special Road to the Tony Awards Roundtable with the nominated cast of the "Cost of Living"! Though Cost of Living played its final Broadway performance over seven months ago, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play certainly was not forgotten by the nominating committee of the Tony Awards. It was nominated for five awards, three of which for its stars- Katy Sullivan, Kara Young, and David Zayas. All three just joined the hosts of BroadwayWorld's own Survival Jobs podcast, Samantha Tuozzolo and Jason Coombs, at the iconic Glass House Tavern for a very special roundtable discussion on their individual journeys with the play. Watch below as they have a conversation about what its like to be a nominee nominee and even play a very special round of Tonys Trivia! Martyna Majok's powerhouse play is an insightful, intriguing work is about the forces that bring people together, the complexity of caring and being cared for, and the ways we all need each other in this world. Broadway World Video and Article Here! You can support the podcast and the hosts at www.buymeacoffee.com/SurvivalJobsPod and on Instagram at @surivaljobspod | @SammyTutz | @JasonACoombs.    Info on "Cost of Living Cast":  Follow Kara Young on Instagram   Follow David Zayas on Instagram   Follow Katy Sullivan on Instagram   "Cost of Living" Official Website Mic Check Links: Bridgeport Film Fest: Save 50% on Film/Screenplay Submissions with code: BFFSJP Info on Your Hosts:  Broadway World Article on our Season 2 Launch Party Follow Samantha: Instagram.   |  Samantha's Official Website here Follow Jason on Instagram  | Twitter. Check out Jason's Official Website here Check out and support The Bridgeport Film Fest Important Links: Native Land Map US Interior Indian Affairs NPR: "How To Help Puerto Rico" Article How to Help the People of Florida Article Abortion Funds Website Plan C Pills Website National Write Your Congressman Link How to help Uvalde families NPR Article Where to Donate to Support Access to Abortions Right Now Support Us... Please!  If you're feeling generous, Buy Us A Coffee HERE! Please don't become complacent: Support the Black Mamas Matter Alliance Support Families Detained and Separated at the Border.  Support the AAPI Civic Engagement Fund. Support Black Trans Folx here Donate to the Community League of the Heights (CLOTH) Support the People of Palestine How to be an Ally to the AAPI Community 168 Ways to Donate in Support of Black Lives and Communities of Color The New York Times: On Mexico's Border With U.S., Desperation as Migrant Traffic Piles Up PBS: How to help India during its COVID surge — 12 places you can donate Covid quarantine didn't stop antisemitic attacks from rising to near-historic highs Opening and Closing Theme Music: "One Love" by Beats by Danny | Game Music: "Wake Up" by MBB.  If you enjoy Survival Jobs: A Podcast be sure to subscribe and follow us on your preferred podcast listening app! Also, feel free to follow us on Instagram and Twitter! Thank you!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Global Policy Watch: Chronicle Of A Crisis Foretold Reflections on global policy issues — RSJA major state election (Karnataka) is coming up this week. But there's hardly anything worth analysing. The Congress seemed to have a slight edge in the early opinion polls, but that's wearing thin. The BJP, always with its ears to the ground, has cranked up its poll machinery in the last couple of weeks drawing upon the star power of the PM in the urban areas of the state. The friendly media houses have been mobilised to pick up ‘emotive' issues that would tilt the scale in favour of the party in power. It is not too difficult to figure out what the average voter wants if you go by the opinion polls and surveys. But those substantive issues just don't feature in the public discourse. If you read the papers or media reports on what's being debated among parties in Karnataka, it is about who is a Hindu hater, who prostrates more often before deities and how going back to the OPS (old pension scheme) is such a wonderful idea. In the classical model of how representative democracy ought to work, the voters would have a limited view of how the world works, and it is the representative who owes the voters not only his labour but also his judgment on issues (to riff on Burke). That seems to be inverted here. One set of representatives has, over the last few years, instituted all kinds of targeted laws - hijaab ban, anti-conversion laws, scrapping minority quotas and cow slaughter ban - in the hope that they will yield electoral gains. The other set is talking of another set of bans convenient to them and some really bad economic policies. We often say that this newsletter attempts to change the demand side of the political equation by making people more aware of public policies and demanding better from their representatives. What we have here is the public demanding the right kind of things (if opinion polls are to go by), but their representatives are keen on dragging them back to divisive emotive issues. The Karnataka election will be a good test of what prevails eventually. I can almost see the straight line from these polls to the general elections due almost exactly 12 months from now. We will all be debating similar trivial issues than what really should matter to India. For some reason, that doesn't make for a good topic of debate. It makes any election analysis a waste of time, really. Switching gears, as I finished writing my last week's edition on what the US Fed refuses to learn from the SVB collapse, another mid-sized US bank, the First Republic Bank (FRB), went down and was sold to J.P. Morgan, the ultimate backstop in the US financial system. No amount of assurance from FDIC to the depositors of the bank nor the combined infusion of capital about a month back from a consortium of big banks into FRB was enough to stanch the outflow of deposits. Soon the bank was insolvent, the shareholders and bondholders lost everything, and J.P. Morgan was given enough of a sweet deal to pick up the pieces. I'm sure the Fed will come out with another report on the FRB collapse where it will blame the management for not hedging its treasury risks and being lax in its risk practices. There will be a light rap to the supervisors and staff from Fed who monitored FRB, and that will be that. I hope there's some more introspection by the Fed than that. Because as the shares of PacWest and Western Alliance have sunk over the last two days, it is clear that a number of mid-sized banks are going to collapse in slow-motion and end up in the lap of J.P. Morgan or FDIC very soon. The feeble Fed response was a 25 bps hike in rates last week with a strong indication that it will hit the pause button on hikes now. The question is if that's enough to structurally save many of these banks.I have argued for the past couple of months (just after the SVB collapse) that there are three problems for the Fed to contend with, and there are no real answers for them. It is Hail Mary time. Choose the best among the worst options and brace for the impact. I will lay out the three problems it faces before suggesting what looks like the best of the worst option that the Fed has chosen. First, the Fed continued raising interest rates to fight inflation without thinking through its impact on the banking system. This much is clear now. The surprises that have come up in the shape of SVB, Signature and FRB weren't anticipated at all. As the interest rates rose, the value of the long-term assets held by banks has fallen while their liabilities, in the form of deposits, which tend to be shorter in term, haven't fallen as much. The slowdown in the economy has meant there's not enough demand for credit at elevated rates, which means banks continue to invest in long-term US treasury bills. Every time the rates go up, these held-to-maturity (HTM) assets take a notional mark-to-market loss. A recent report by the Hoover Institution suggests that at this moment, the US Banking system's market value of assets is about $ 2 trillion below their book value. In an article on Yahoo Finance, Ambrose Evan-Pritchards writes:The second and third biggest bank failures in US history have followed in quick succession. The US Treasury and Federal Reserve would like us to believe that they are “idiosyncratic”. That is a dangerous evasion.Almost half of America's 4,800 banks are already burning through their capital buffers. They may not have to mark all losses to market under US accounting rules but that does not make them solvent. Somebody will take those losses.“It's spooky. Thousands of banks are underwater,” said Professor Amit Seru, a banking expert at Stanford University. “Let's not pretend that this is just about Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic. A lot of the US banking system is potentially insolvent.”The second problem, which kind of starts giving this a contagion feel, is the state of the commercial property market in the US. Interest rates have moved up too fast, the slowdown is real with many large employers laying off people, so there's no real need for commercial capacity, and the excess liquidity fuelled by the Fed during the pandemic meant additional capacity was built up cheaply, which now has no takers. What's worse, the rapid increase in rates means that a lot of these loans that will come up for refinancing soon (at higher rates) will face defaults. The mid-sized regional banks have a sizable exposure to commercial real estate, with estimates that about two-thirds of all commercial property borrowing comes from them. From the same Yahoo Finance article:Packages of commercial property loans (CMBS) are typically on short maturities and have to be refinanced every two to three years. Borrowing exploded during the pandemic when the Fed flooded the system with liquidity. That debt comes due in late 2023 and 2024.Could the losses be as bad as the subprime crisis? Probably not. Capital Economics says the investment bubble in US residential property peaked at 6.5pc of GDP in 2007. The comparable figure for commercial property today is 2.6pc.But the threat is not trivial either. US commercial property prices have so far fallen by just 4pc to 5pc. Capital Economics expects a peak to trough decline of 22pc. This will wreak further havoc on the loan portfolios of the regional banks that account for 70pc of all commercial property financing.Estimates vary, but it is likely that even a 10-15 per cent increase in default rates on commercial property when the refinancing chickens come home to roost could mean about $ 100 billion in losses for banks. And these are real losses, not the notional variety sitting on the books. Will the regional banks be able to weather this? And what happens if 4-5 of them catch a cold together in this portfolio? The risk of contagion flowing up the banking food chain is real.Lastly, the Fed, FDIC and the government took the extraordinary step of guaranteeing all deposits after the collapse of SVB to reassure depositors and not have further runs on mid-sized banks. But that didn't stop the ever-increasing deposit erosion for FRB during April. People can do the math, and they realise there's no way the government can fill a giant hole in case there's a real deposit run. The FDIC, after all, has a little over $ 100 billion to act as insurance for such an eventuality. That's loose change in the broader scheme of things. So, the depositors will flee the more you try and convince them all's well. Plus, the blanket deposit backstop has meant there's a moral hazard built right there for the management not to be too worried about the nature of deposits they bring or the risk of serious asset-liability mismatches. At the time of SVB collapse, I wrote in edition # 205:I guess one way to look at this is if you let fiscal dominance become the central canon of how you manage your economic policy, you will eventually reach the same place as other economies (mostly developing) that have indulged in the same for years. The monetary authorities in the U.S. have been accommodating the fiscal profligacy of the treasury for years. This was accentuated during the pandemic. Trillions of dollars were pumped in to save the economy. I'm not sure how much the economy needed saving then. But that bill has come now. First in the shape of inflation, followed by rapid, unprecedented rate hikes and the inevitable accidents that are showing up now. Almost certainly, a recession will follow. Isomorphic mimicry of Latin American monetary policy indeed.Now, back to Evans-Pritchard and his article in Yahoo Finance:The root cause of this bond and banking crisis lies in the erratic behaviour and perverse incentives created by the Fed and the US Treasury over many years, culminating in the violent lurch from ultra-easy money to ultra-tight money now underway. They first created “interest rate risk” on a galactic scale: now they are detonating the delayed timebomb of their own creation.Chris Whalen from Institutional Risk Analyst said we should be wary of a false narrative that pins all blame on miscreant banks. “The Fed's excessive open market intervention from 2019 through 2022 was the primary cause of the failure of First Republic as well as Silicon Valley Bank,” he said.Mr Whalen said US banks and bond investors (i.e. pension funds and insurance companies) are “holding the bag” on $5 trillion of implicit losses left by the final blow-off phase of the Fed's QE experiment. “Since US banks only have about $2 trillion in tangible equity capital, we have a problem,” he said.Going back to the original question I posed - what will Fed do given these problems on hand? I guess it has decided to choose what it thinks is the least worst option. It cannot let go of its fight against inflation. It has to find a way to avoid recession. So, all it can afford is a controlled banking crisis. An oxymoron if ever there was one. But that's where we are headed, where we will see things unfold in a slow but almost predictable manner. The Fed will try and boost the banks' capital in the meantime and hope the best of them brave through this without any risk of contagion. Anyway, in the worst case, there's always Jamie Dimon and his chequebook.Thanks for reading Anticipating the Unintended! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.Numbers that Ought to Matter: In April 2023, the Union Health Minister reported that India has 108,000 MBBS seats in 660 colleges and 118,000 BSc nursing seats in approx 900 colleges. The total number of seats on offer is quite low, despite the large number of colleges. On average, each medical college has 163 seats, and each nursing college has just 131 seats. Government policy should focus on helping existing colleges increase their intake. For more context, read edition #159.India Policy Watch #1: Coal is Out? Naah.Insights on issues relevant to India— Pranay KotasthaneEarlier this week, I came across this Business Standard report:“India plans to stop building new coal-fired power plants, apart from those already in the pipeline, by removing a key clause from the final draft of its National Electricity Policy (NEP), in a major boost to fight climate change, sources said.”My prior assumption was that given coal-based power's lower costs, India would construct many more coal-powered plants over the next two decades to meet a growing economy's demand. Hence, this news item came as a bit of a surprise. So I went through the draft National Electricity Plan to understand the reasoning.Before we dive in, some bureaucratic knots that need untangling. The cited “final draft” of the National Electricity Policy is nowhere to be found on the Ministry of Power website. But I could find an earlier draft on the IIT Kanpur's Centre for Energy Regulation website! A Policy document such as this only lists the priorities and steers the sector. From it arises a Plan that's to be released every five years by the Central Electricity Authority. The Plan document is the real deal as it does demand projections through an ‘Electric Power Survey'. It then presents the energy generation mix required to meet the projected demand scenarios. A part of this elusive plan document was released, after many delays, in September 2022. Some relevant insights from the plan:* The current installed power capacity of ~400GW split looks as follows:* By FY32, it is projected that India's energy demand will be 2538 Billion Units, and peak power demand will be 363 GW, up from 1624 Billion Units and peak demand of 216 GW in FY23. * Coal+Lignite accounted for 52.7% of total installed capacity in FY23.* Using a planning tool that optimises for factors such as fuel availability, operational availability, and sustainability, the Plan throws up a required power generation capacity mix.* After taking all these constraints into account, the Plan finds that by FY32, India would need an additional installed coal capacity of 42.6 GW in the base case scenario and 53.6 GW in the increased-demand scenario. * Around 25.6 GW of capacity addition is already in various stages of execution.Now, we come to the report claiming a ban on additional coal capacity addition beyond the current in-progress projects. It essentially means that to meet the projected demand, India will have to find other sources to compensate for coal. In the best case, an additional 17 GW capacity will have to be conjured up; and in the worst-case scenario, nearly 28 GW capacity will have to be compensated. This additional capacity goes beyond the planned additions in clean energy generation. That's why I am sceptical about this news report. It's unlikely that government will make a blanket commitment.If we assume the report to be true, advancing the date of halting further coal power generation will require compensation by another reliable source to provide the base load. Only two options can be imagined with today's technology — nuclear energy and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS).Nuclear energy accounts for just 2 per cent of the total power generation mix today. The current plan already assumes a threefold increase in nuclear power capacity addition. For it to absorb the slack of stopping further coal addition, it has to reach six to eight times the current capacity. Given that nuclear power generation faces the problem of high capital costs and invites protests, scaling it up is tough unless the Small Modular Reactor (SMR) technology breakthrough leads to mass adoption in India. Maybe for this reason, the government is “considering” overturning a ban on FDI in nuclear power. Expanding BESS capacity also depends on the ability to develop Lithium refining expertise and bring other options, such as Sodium-ion batteries, online. So, stopping the building of new coal-fired power plants requires far too many other pieces of the puzzle to fall into place. Keep watching this space.Tailpiece: check out this Puliyabaazi episode on the chemistry, geopolitics, and significance of Lithium-ion batteries.India Policy Watch #2: Lessons from Apple's India Journey Thus FarInsights on issues relevant to India— Pranay KotasthaneApple's quarterly results are out. Its India revenue registered double-digit growth, prompting Tim Cook to make the now-commonplace “India is at a tipping point” statement. The last seven years have been stunning for Apple's India business. From being shunned away by the government for their plan to import and sale of refurbished phones to becoming a poster child of electronics manufacturing in India, Apple's India strategy has come a long way.I've always wanted to know how Apple raised its India game and whether there are broader lessons for Indian public policy from this experience. So I was delighted to read Surajeet Das Gupta's Business Standard article narrating Apple's tryst with Indian public policy. Das Gupta identifies these milestones and speed-breakers:* In 2016, after denying the import-refurbish-sell request, Apple was told to start manufacturing in India if it wanted to set up Apple-owned retail stores.* In 2017, Apple put forward two pre-conditions for starting manufacturing in India:* “15-year duty concessions (on capital equipment, components, consumables for smartphones).. and a reduction in customs duty on completely knocked down and semi-knocked down devices to be assembled in India.” * relaxation of 30 per cent local sourcing directive for foreign direct investment (FDI) in single-brand retail stores.* After both its asks were rejected, it set up an India team to work with the government and mobile phone industry associations.* After three years of lobbying, the government relented by allowing the 30 per cent local norm to be met as an average for the first five-year period, not annually. Then the government agreed to qualify the value added by Apple's contract manufacturers in India—regardless of the destination of these products—as “local sourcing”.* The government allowed Apple to set up an online store before the physical store if it brought over $200 million FDI and extracted a commitment that the online store couldn't get into heavy discounting.* When PLI rules were modified to accommodate Samsung's entry, Apple went along with the change.* After the government made the entry of FDI from China in the Indian tech sector arduous due to the Galwan clash, Apple worked with the industry body to get 12 of its Chinese suppliers approved on the condition that they would enter into joint ventures with Indian partners who would have a majority stake. (We wrote about it in edition #199).Take a breath. And it has only been seven years. There are three ways of interpreting this journey from a public policy perspective.First, to the extent that the government has been able to capture Apple's China manufacturing—even if in a really small way—its approach can be called a limited success. The government can rightfully claim that Apple's supply chain has created over a lakh jobs in India. Grabbing some part of the manufacturing of the world's biggest company has a signalling effect as well. It will also help Apple's Indian partners upgrade technologically and raise their standards. Second, Apple's up-and-down journey also serves as a warning. If the world's most well-known company had to jump as many hoops, what chance does a smaller company have? How many other businesses will have the money and patience to set up India teams that negotiate with the government to remove roadblocks, one by one, calmly? And the approval of Apple's Chinese suppliers shows that the government is comfortable making pro-business exemptions but is uncomfortable making pro-market relaxations. There's a risk of going overboard with the “market access in return for manufacturing” approach. A policy analyst must also pop the opportunity cost question. Could the government have spent precious state capacity elsewhere by following a general easing of these constraints? How many companies did India lose in the process of playing hardball with Apple? And what about the Indian consumers - what did they lose as a result of these overbearing conditions? These are tough questions to answer.Third, this journey shows that technology policy is shaping up rather well in India. Industry associations and public advocacy departments of companies are now able to put forward their demands and grouses in front of governments in a far more transparent manner. Not just that, they are able to get governments to modify policies as well.In my view, all three interpretations are simultaneously true. But this is just the beginning of India's electronics manufacturing journey. The steps required to strengthen it might be drastically different from the approach required to start it.HomeWorkReading and listening recommendations on public policy matters* [Article] Here's a RestofWorld Q&A on the US-China chip war and its implications for India featuring one of us.* [Story] FT has an excellent visual explainer on quantum computing this week.* [Article] Niranjan Rajadhyaksha's Mint column comparing Asian countries when their median age was 28 like India's is today, is insightful. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit publicpolicy.substack.com

A few months ago, I really felt the burden of guilt on my soul…  And during that time, my ‘whine' was fairly constant; “I don't have time to ride!' Now, it is not lost on me the fact that I created all of this guilt myself. You see, whenever I was doing one thing, I was feeling like I ‘should' have been doing something else. So, when I was with ‘The Boys' (my children) I felt guilty because I ‘should‘ have been riding. And when I was at the stables and in the saddle, I felt guilty because I wasn't ‘with‘ the children.  When I was working, I seemed to be continually thinking “I need to ride today”.  And, then when I was riding I berated myself over my lack of planning to bring a tripod, phone, and mic with me to create some videos for work. Why is it that, as riders, we can often feel so guilty about riding – or about not riding? And why do so many of us struggle with finding ‘enough' time to ride?  Read the Rest of the Article HERE https://stridesforsuccess.com/episode1279-i-dont-have-enough-time-to-ride-experiement/ Get Going in Your Riding:- Daily Strides Premium is back! The first and original audio horse riding lessons you can use to improve your riding, train your horse, keep things interesting, have fun... Even if you don't have a trainer or coach Start today:- https://stridesforsuccess.com/dsp Get Your Free 'Finding Time to Ride Workbook' https://stridesforsuccess.com/time Connect with Lorna online:- Connect in the Mindset & Fitness for Equestrians Private Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SFS30DayRiderFitnessChallenge Connect in the Virtual Stable Lounge Private Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/1499737810323191

“Everything works out in the end. If it hasn't worked out yet, then it's not the end.” — Fernando Sabino Toni Okamoto is the founder of Plant-Based on a Budget, the mega-popular website, meal plan, and community that shows you how to break your meat habit without breaking your budget. She's also the author of the Plant-Based on a Budget cookbook and the co-host of The Plant-Powered People Podcast. Toni has a regular presence on local and national morning shows across the US and was featured in the popular Netflix documentary What the Health. In this episode: The defining moment that led to Toni's mission How she built a community of more than 500K+ followers Why most people struggle to eat healthy; and Simple tips to save you money and time with your household nutrition. Let's WIN THE DAY with Toni Okamoto! _

For February's clinical corner article, Matt and Allie discuss the importance of prehabilitaiton before surgery. Matt covers a literature review article that studied over 6 thousand cases of knee replacement and the positive effects prehab had on patient's recovery.Read the Article Here: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2022.11160Did you know that you don't need a doctor's prescription to receive physical therapy? The laws of Direct Access allow you to receive physical therapy without a referral and still use your insurance benefits! Learn more on how Direct Access can help YOU! Our website: https://www.oxfordphysicaltherapy.com/

It's 2023!   This year is slated to be a breakout year for…  

In this episode Luis talks about: Long-term cost and benefits of buying a home vs. renting The biggest difference between renting and owning Cost-benefit analysis and what you are able and willing to spend How much of your time can you invest into home ownership  Bottom line for Gen Z Resources: Read Luis's Article Here! Lets Make a Plan Website Download the 3 Fundamental “Money Moves” to Make Before Turning 45 The BLX Internship Program Luis' LinkedIn Luis' Twitter Luis' IG On My Way To Wealth YouTube channel

Not our 1st choice, was it yours? Article Here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Read Dr. Trexler's Article Here!Follow Dr. Trexler Here!Thanks For Listening!   LEAVE A REVIEW OF THE SHOW:There is NOTHING more valuable to a podcast than leaving a written review and 5-Star Rating. Please consider taking 1-2 minutes to do that (iTunes) HERE. You can also leave a review on SPOTIFY!OUR PARTNERS:Legion Supplements (protein, creatine, + more!), Shop (DANNY) HERE!Get Your FREE LMNT Electrolytes HERE! Care for YOUR Gut, Heart, and Skin with SEED Symbiotic (save with “DANNY15)  HERE! Take your love of sports to the next level with UNDERDOG FANTASY and play with danny HERE! (CODE: DANNY for first deposit match up to $100!)RESOURCES/COACHING:  Train with Danny on His Training AppHEREI am all about education and that is not limited to this podcast! Feel free to grab a FREE guide (Nutrition, Training, Macros, Etc!) HERE! Interested in Working With Coach Danny and His One-On-One Coaching Team? Click HERE!Want Coach Danny to Fix Your S*** (training, nutrition, lifestyle, etc) fill the form HERE for a chance to have your current approach reviewed live on the show. Want To Have YOUR Question Answered On an Upcoming Episode of DYNAMIC DIALOGUE? You Can Submit It HERE!Want to Support The Podcast AND Get in Better Shape? Grab a Program HERE!----SOCIAL LINKS:Follow Coach Danny on YOUTUBEFollow Coach Danny on INSTAGRAMFollow Coach Danny on TwitterFollow Coach Danny on FacebookGet More In-Depth Articles Written By Yours' Truly HERE! Sign up for the trainer mentorship HERESupport the show

Football season is here. Do you have a playbook for the retirement red zone? Bud Kasper and Logan DeGraeve discuss creating your game plan for retirement and what you need to know to score. Start Planning and Read the Article Here: https://barberfinancialgroup.com/creating-a-game-plan-for-retirement/?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=awms&utm_campaign=creating-a-game-plan-for-retirement

All the financial uncertainty that we're dealing with seems to be coming at us from every angle. While this financial uncertainty is uncomfortable, it's not uncommon. From the Dot-Com Bubble to the Financial Crisis, we've been through cycles similar to this. Dean Barber and Bud Kasper look back at some of those cycles and review eight ways to combat financial uncertainty. Start Planning and Read the Article Here: https://barberfinancialgroup.com/8-ways-to-combat-financial-uncertainty/?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=awms&utm_campaign=8-ways-to-combat-financial-uncertainty

This week on Harmony Beats Balance, Dana chats with Nailah Shah about her experiences growing up Muslim in a Post-9/11 America and her touching article, "Dear Little American Muslim Girls."    Read Nailah's Article Here: https://nailahshah21.wixsite.com/website/post/dear-little-american-muslim-girls   Follow Us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dana.mahina/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanaMahina LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danamahina/ Website: https://www.danamahina.com/ Intro & Outro Music by Kauilani

Most online retirement calculators miss crucial pieces of the retirement puzzle. While they will give an accurate answer for the data you put in, they're missing so many other things important to retirement. Dean Barber and Bud Kasper review nine items retirement calculators miss that our tool doesn't. Start Planning and Read the Article Here: https://barberfinancialgroup.com/9-items-retirement-calculators-miss-that-our-tool-doesnt/?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=awms&utm_campaign=9-items-retirement-calculators-miss-that-our-tool-doesnt

Dr. Robin Collins joined me to discuss his inter-connectedness theodicy to the problem of evil! He currently serves as the Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Find Collins' Article Here: https://www.amazon.com/Blackwell-Companion-Problem-Evil/dp/047067184X -------------------------------- GIVING -------------------------------- Please consider becoming a Patron! Patreon (Thanks!): https://www.patreon.com/AdherentApologetics YouTube Membership: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO8jj_CQwrRRwwwXBndo6nQ/join

Going to the doctor for a checkup usually isn't the most fun thing to do, but it's necessary so that you're up-to-date on your health situation. The same can be said about meeting with a financial planner to find out where you're at with planning for retirement. Bud Kasper and Logan DeGraeve discuss the five types of financial plans and how a comprehensive approach to financial planning is critical to getting to and through retirement. Start Planning and Read the Article Here: https://barberfinancialgroup.com/5-types-of-financial-plans/?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=awms&utm_campaign=5-types-of-financial-plans

Dean Barber and Bud Kasper take a trip down memory lane in this week's America's Wealth Management Show. They examine the Great Recession's history and why it remains relevant today. There are things going on today that are eerily reminiscent of what happened during the Great Recession. Start Planning and Read the Article Here: https://barberfinancialgroup.com/the-great-recessions-history-remains-relevant/?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=awms&utm_campaign=the-great-recessions-history-remains-relevant

We all have friends who talk about their diets. I've always been struck by the fact that people who like to talk about them the most are typically overweight. In fact, I can't remember the last time I heard a skinny person going on and on about his/her formula for success. In dieting and investing, it would seem that self-discipline plays a crucial role. So, what does self-discipline mean for investors? I think it can be a number of things, but here are some of the most critical elements as it relates to investment discipline. Article Here: https://evergreengavekal.com/diet-and-exercise/ DISCLOSURE: This material has been prepared or is distributed solely for informational purposes only and is not a solicitation or an offer to buy any security or instrument or to participate in any trading strategy. Any opinions, recommendations, and assumptions included in this presentation are based upon current market conditions, reflect our judgment as of the date of this presentation, and are subject to change. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All investments involve risk including the loss of principal. All material presented is compiled from sources believed to be reliable, but accuracy cannot be guaranteed and Evergreen makes no representation as to its accuracy or completeness. Securities highlighted or discussed in this communication are mentioned for illustrative purposes only and are not a recommendation for these securities. Evergreen actively manages client portfolios and securities discussed in this communication may or may not be held in such portfolios at any given time.

Nick, Garrett & Josh discuss their go to Movie Snacks, Books they'd recommend and an article from TGC on Missions. Article Here

Apple Podcasts Subscriptions are here to stay. And it's pretty clear they're just getting started. But for the first movers leaning into the offering, reaping the benefits of a tighter integration with the service that still commands the lion's share of podcasting attention, the results might just seem like a holiday miracle.Article Here: https://soundsprofitable.com/update/apple-podcast-subscriptionsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.Ver omnystudio.com/listener para obtener información sobre privacidad.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, Pastors Mark and Jeremy discuss how the 'Cajun Navy' lives out a Biblical calling by providing relief for victims of Hurricane Ida. Read the Article Here! Here at AZchurch.com, we're all about people because GOD is all about people. One of the ways we express our love for God is through our love for each other, and we do that by helping each person grow in their relationship with the Word. Our vision is to see God transform our neighbors, community, and the world as we connect people to Jesus.

Want to learn how to do ortho-K? Enroll NOW in the AAOMC Virtual Boot Camp for Newcomers https://www.orthokmeeting.com/ Dr. Somi Oh joins Matt on The Corrected View podcast to discuss her article “OK Sign Up Tips For Parents”. Topics Include…Myopia Management or Myopia Control?Managing The PatientManaging The ParentsDo Not DabbleManaging The ProgramREAD DR. OH's ARTICLE HERE: https://aaomc.site-ym.com/blogpost/1864452/363262/OK-SIGN-UP-TIPS-FOR-PARENTS CONTACT THE PODCAST: thecorrectedview@gmail.com BECOME A MEMBER: https://aaomc.site-ym.com/page/become-a-member PODCAST ARCHIVE: https://aaomc.site-ym.com/news/?id=15260 PODCAST RSS: https://www.orthokacademy.com/the-orthok-podcast?format=rss SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE PODCASTS: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-corrected-view-an-ortho-k-myopia-control-podcast/id1204529000 AAOMC FB GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/AAOMC

Good ol' Dr. Fauci has come out with his latest messaging, ‘no individual rights for you'! Andrew Cuomo has officially resigned as governor of New York. The Senate passed a trillion dollar “infrastructure bill” and 2021 is starting to look a whole lot like 2020 part 2…all this and it's only Tuesday. Buckle up kids, it's going to be a wild show.    CORRECTION: In this video I stated that the government injected syphilis into members of the black community without their consent. They actually told them they would receive free health care and many were already diagnosed with syphilis. They were not told they had the disease and were not given any treatment so doctors could watch the progression of this disease left untreated. ARTICLE HERE: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/05/16/youve-got-bad-blood-the-horror-of-the-tuskegee-syphilis-experiment/ MY PATRIOT SUPPLY: www.preparewithsavsays.com Get 25% off your 4-week or 3 month storable food supply CLICK HERE: https://mypatriotsupply.com/pages/rs-repdig-sav-says?rfsn=1750310.2a7b74&subid=Sav.Says    FOLLOW ME:   YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/savsays  ODYSEE: https://odysee.com/@SavSays:7?r=7q7r9... GAB: https://gab.com/SavanahHernandez  INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/savwith1n/    SUPPORT MY WORK:  PAYPAL: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/savsays WEBSITE: https://www.savsaysofficial.com/        

In this session, Dale will cover another Taboo subject. If you have been involved in the network marketing business model anytime at all you have heard over and over “Don't Ever Quit”. Dale disagrees. He will be the first to tell you to never quit your entrepreneurial pursuits, but let's face it the network marketing business model is not for everyone! If you personally have been focusing 5 -10 hours a week on building your network marketing business for six months, and you have not sponsored anyone at all. YOU SHOULD QUIT or possibly pivot.  In this session, Dale will talk about when to quit network marketing and find another business niche to peruse or when to simply pivot. Websites Mentioned in this podcast: THE MLM HAMSTER WHEEL www.mlmsuccess.com/story235   Goal MLM Millionaire www.mlmsuccess.com/story246   MLM LEADERS NEED TO LEARN FROM SPRINT –TELL YOUR DOWNLINE “YOU OUGHT TO QUIT”  ARTICLE HERE

How did Jen miss the FinCEN files? In this bonus thank you episode, Jen adds some information to the sanctions topic that should have been in CD235, shares some clues that suggest that the Afghanistan withdrawal is a bunch of malarkey, and responds to lots of notes from producers. Thanks for supporting the show! Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Click here to contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Click here to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536 Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Recommended Podcasts The Rural Health Voice Podcast Virginia Rural Health Association Articles/Documents Article Directory: FinCEN Files, BuzzFeed News Twitter thread: The Biden administration is telling Facebook which posts it regards as "problematic" so that Facebook can remove them. This is the union of corporate and state power -- one of the classic hallmarks of fascism -- that the people who spent 5 years babbling about fascism support., Twitter Article: “A Big Money Funneling Operation” — Afghanistan Vet Reflects On Withdrawal Of US Forces By Michael Tracey, July 13, 2021 Article: US left Afghan airfield at night, didn't tell new commander By Kathy Gannon and Tameem Akhgar, July 6, 2021 Article: Departure of U.S. Contractors Poses Myriad Problems for Afghan Military By The New York Times, July, 2021 Article: Here's What Is Changing After The FinCEN Files Shook The World Of Banking By Will Fitzgibbon, Jason Leopold, Anthony Cormier, John Templon, Tom Warren, Jeremy Singer-Vine, Scott Pham, Richard Holmes and Paul McLeod, BuzzFeed News, December 17, 2020 Article: DIRTY MONEY POURS INTO THE WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL BANKS. By Jason Leopold, Anthony Cormier, John Templon, Tom Warren, Jeremy Singer-Vine, Scott Pham, Richard Holmes, Azeen Ghorayshi, Michael Sallah, Tanya Kozyreva, and Emma Loop, BuzzFeed News, September 20, 2020 Producer Services Looking for a home in South Carolina? Producer jesse.ayala@kw.com is available to help Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations Music Presented in This Episode Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio)

In this video, Walker Reynolds responds to John Rinaldi's recent article titled: The Massive Pothole on the Road to Digitalization. Read John Rinaldi's Article Here

In this video, Walker Reynolds responds to John Rinaldi's recent article titled: The Massive Pothole on the Road to Digitalization. Read John Rinaldi's Article Here

Lots of Coaches, Consultants, Speakers and Trainers have certifications or frameworks you use to deliver your services. Maybe you're… John Maxwell certified A StoryBrand Guide A Business Made Simple Coach A Toastmaster Speaker Or certified through another International Coach Federation (ICF) program In this episode, we look at some simple steps to turn your certification, framework, or approach into powerful positioning for your brand and business. It's the third “P” you use to amplify your unique value and positioning in a crowded Coaching, Consulting, and Speaker marketplace. Take Control of How You're Positioned in the Market By the time you're done enjoying this one, you'll get answers to these copywriting questions: Where is the simplest place to start positioning your business when you're struggling to nail down who your customer is or even what you want to offer? How do you leverage your certification or unique approach when positioning your brand? Why you risk missing out on more customers and more business by ignoring the ‘process passivity' of your audience? --> Coaching Certification Programs: The Complete List (2020) Article » Here's a link to the article referenced in this episode.   ASK A QUESTION ABOUT POSITIONING YOUR BRAND  Got a question about how to position your coaching, consulting, or speaker brand? Let me know and I'll answer it on the podcast. Submit your question for the podcast here »   NEW GIFT FOR YOU Cheatsheet: 4 Ways to make a Great First Impression w Your Website » Download this new cheatsheet to make a great first impression with your website.    SHARE THIS EPISODE Know someone who has their own Coaching, Consulting, Speaking, or Training business? Click the share button on your phone and share this episode with them right now. ---> LET'S CONNECT Web: https://robbyf.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rfowler/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robby-fowler-0408201  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rfowler Twitter: http://twitter.com/rfowler  -->

We just lived through the craziest lame duck period - the time between when the President and members of Congress keep their power after being fired in an election - in United States history. In this episode, we look at everything that happened, from start to finish. That was literally one Hell of a ride. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Click here to contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Click here to support Congressional Dish via Patreon (donations per episode) Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank’s online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536 Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Recommended Episodes CD221: Kicking the Funding Can Bills H.R. 1520 (116th): Further Extension of Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 Congress.gov H.J.Res. 110 (116th): Extension of Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 Congress.gov H.J.Res. 107 (116th): Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 Congress.gov H.R. 8900 (116th): Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021, and Other Extensions Act Congress.gov Articles/Documents Article: Democrats ask ethics panel to investigate Sens. Cruz, Hawley, By Kevin Freking, AP, January 21, 2021 Article: Lawmakers Were Feet and Seconds Away From Confrontation With the Mob in the Capitol, By Ted Mann, Dustin Volz, Lindsay Wise and Chad Day, The Wall Street Journal, January 12, 2021 Article: How A Snap Impeachment Could Shatter Our Constitutional Balance, By Jonathan Turley, January 11, 2021 Article: Yes, It Was a Coup Attempt. Here’s Why., By Fiona Hill, Politico, January 11, 2021 Article: Censure resolution filed against Rep. Mo Brooks, WSFA News, January 11, 2021 Article: Trump and his allies tried to overturn Pennsylvania’s election results for two months. Here are the highlights., By Jeremy Roebuck and Jonathan Lai, Inquirer, January 7, 2021 Article: I Hate Federal Commissions, But Americans Need One To Look Into The 2020 Election, By Jonathan Turley, January 7, 2021 Article: Here are the Republicans who objected to certifying the election results, By Jenny Gross and Luke Broadwater, The New York Times, January 7, 2021 Article: We Must Talk About Constitutional Issues In The Election Certification, By Jonathan Turley, January 6, 2021 Article: Chip Roy challenges seating of House members from six presidential battleground states, By Juliegrace Brufke, The Hill, January 3, 2021 Article: McCarthy says he supports effort to challenge Electoral College results, By Juliegrace Brufke, The Hill, January 3, 2021 Article: 117th Congress: Breaking down the historic numbers, By Ethan Cohen, Liz Stark and Adam Levy, CNN, January 3, 2021 Article: Pelosi wins Speakership for fourth time in dramatic vote, By Mike Lillis and Scott Wong, The Hill, January 3, 2021 Article: Appeals court dismisses Gohmert's election suit against Pence, By John Kruzel, The Hill, January 2, 2021 Article: Congress overrides Trump veto for the first time, By Jordain Carney, The Hill, January 1, 2021 Article: Frustrations flare as $2,000 checks blocked for fourth straight day, By Jordain Carney, The Hill, January 1, 2021 Article: Congressman-elect Luke Letlow dies after battling Covid-19, By Jim Acosta, Jamie Gangel and Paul LeBlanc, CNN, December 30, 2020 Article: Pelosi presses McConnell to allow vote on bill for $2,000 stimulus checks, By Tal Axelrod, The Hill, December 30, 2020 Article: GOP senator says he'll block consent for $2,000 stimulus checks, By Alexander Bolton, The Hill, December 29, 2020 Article: Louisiana Rep.-elect Luke Letlow dies of COVID-19, By Juliegrace Brufke, The Hill, December 29, 2020 Article: McConnell blocks vote on $2K checks, signals new package, By Jordain Carney, The Hill, December 29, 2020 Article: Sanders to slow down NDAA veto override in bid to get vote on $2K checks proposal, By Jordain Carney, The Hill, December 28, 2020 Article: House overrides Trump veto of defense bill, By Rebecca Kheel, The Hill, December 28, 2020 Article: House GOP rejects unanimous consent on $2,000 direct payments, By Naomi Jagoda and Juliegrace Brufke, The Hill, December 24, 2020 Article: Republicans scramble to prevent year-end legislative disaster, By Alexander Bolton and Juliegrace Brufke, The Hill, December 24, 2020 Article: Republicans vent over surprise Trump move on COVID-19 relief, By Juliegrace Brufke, The Hill, December 23, 2020 Article: Congress unveils $2.3 trillion government spending and virus relief package, By Niv Elis, The Hill, December 21, 2020 Article: Congress to pass seven-day stopgap to buy time for COVID-19 funding deal, By Jordain Carney, The Hill, December 21, 2020 Article: Congress passes one-day stopgap bill ahead of shutdown deadline, By Jordain Carney, The Hill, December 21, 2020 Article: Congress passes $2.3T coronavirus relief, government funding deal, By Jordain Carney, The Hill, December 21, 2020 Article: Senate GOP absences snag Trump nominees, By Jordain Carney, The Hill, December 19, 2020 Article: Senators reach deal on Fed powers, setting stage for coronavirus relief passage, By Alexander Bolton and Mike Lillis, The Hill, December 19, 2020 Article: Trump signs bill to keep government open amid relief talks, By Brett Samuels, The Hill, December 18, 2020 Article: GOP senator backs down from shutdown threat, By Jordain Carney, The Hill, December 18, 2020 Article: Congress passes bill to avert shutdown as coronavirus talks drag into weekend, By Jordain Carney, The Hill, December 18, 2020 Article: GOP senator blocks bill for $1,200 stimulus checks for second time, By Jordain Carney, The Hill, December 18, 2020 Article: GOP senator blocks bill to provide $1,200 stimulus checks, By Jordain Carney, The Hill, December 18, 2020 Article: McConnell tees up weekend votes on nominations as coronavirus talks drag, By Jordain Carney, The Hill, December 17, 2020 Article: Explaining how Congress settles electoral college disputes, By Scott Bomboy, Constitution Daily, December 15, 2020 Article: Senate confirms two more Trump judicial nominees, By Harper Neidig, The Hill, December 15, 2020 Article: McConnell congratulates Biden on White House win, By Jordain Carney, The Hill, December 15, 2020 Letter: Addressed to President Trump, By William P. Barr, December 15, 2020 Article: More than 100 House Republicans sign brief backing Texas lawsuit challenging election results, By Juliegrace Brufke and Scott Wong, The Hill, December 10, 2020 Article: House approves defense policy bill despite Trump veto threat, By Rebecca Kheel, The Hill, December 8, 2020 Article: Supreme Court rejects GOP bid to nullify Biden win in Pennsylvania, By John Kruzel, The Hill, December 8, 2020 Article: Texas sues states Biden won in Supreme Court, seeking to delay Electoral College vote, By Harper Neidig, The Hill, December 8, 2020 Article: Supreme Court tosses GOP bid to throw out PA mail ballots without hearing it, By Edmund DeMarche, Morgan Phillips | Fox News, December 7, 2020 Article: Barr says DOJ hasn't uncovered widespread voter fraud in 2020 election, By Brett Samuels, The Hill, December 1, 2020 Article: Disputing Trump, Barr says no widespread election fraud, By Michael Balsamo, December 1, 2020 Article: Trump’s Election Attack Ends December 14—Whether He Knows It or Not, By Lily Hay Newman, Wired, November 27, 2020 Article: Trump's election fight includes over 50 lawsuits. It's not going well., By Pete Williams and Nicole Via y Rada, NBC News, November 23, 2020 Document: Counting Electoral Votes: An Overview of Procedures at the Joint Session, Including Objections by Members of Congress, Congressional Research Service, December 15, 2016 Article: Congress Ratifies Bush Victory After Challenge, By Sheryl Gay Stolberg and James Dao, The New York Times, December 17, 2005 Additional Resources Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors, U.S. House of Representatives Roll Call 17 | Bill Number: H. Res. 24, Clerk of U.S. House of Representatives, January 13, 2021 Sound Clip Sources Video: @keithboykin, Twitter, Newsmax January 12, 2021 Debate: Counting of Electoral College Votes, Part 3, U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, C-SPAN, January 6, 2021 Transcript: Proceedings and Debates of the 117th Congress, First Session, U.S. House of Representatives, January 6, 2021 Debate: Senate Debate on Arizona Electoral College Vote Challenge, Part 2, U.S. Senate, C-SPAN, January 6, 2021 Debate: Senate Debate on Arizona Electoral College Vote Challenge, Part 2, U.S. Senate, C-SPAN, January 6, 2021 Debate: Senate Debate on Arizona Electoral College Vote Challenge, Part 1, U.S. Senate, C-SPAN, January 6, 2021 Debate: House Debate on Pennsylvania Electoral College Vote Challenge, U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, C-SPAN, January 6, 2021 Debate: House Debate on Arizona Electoral Challenge, Part 3, U.S. House of Representatives, C-SPAN, January 6, 2021 Debate: House Debate on Arizona Electoral Challenge, Part 1, U.S. House of Representatives, C-SPAN, January 6, 2021 Counting of Electoral College Votes, Part 2, U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, C-SPAN, January 6, 2021 Video: House Chamber During Joint Session, U.S. House of Representatives, C-SPAN, January 6, 2021 Debate: House Debate on Pennsylvania Electoral College Vote Challenge, U.S. House of Representatives, C-SPAN, January 6, 2021 Debate: Senate Debate on Pennsylvania Electoral College Vote Challenge, U.S. Senate, C-SPAN, January 6, 2021 News Address: President Trump tells rioters at Capitol to 'go home', CNN, January 6, 2021 Footage: Shooting and Storming Of The US Capitol In Washington DC, Youtube.com, January 6, 2021 Debate: Senate Debate on Pennsylvania Electoral College Vote Challenge, The Washington Post, January 6, 2021 That Louie Gohmert lawsuit, The Hill, January 6, 2021 Video: Rally on Electoral College Vote Certification, White House, C-SPAN, January 6, 2021 Video: Donald Trump spoke at a “Save America” rally in Washington, D.C. on January 6 before Congress was set to confirm the election results. “We will never concede,” he said. Read the transcript of his speech remarks here., White House, rev.com, January 6, 2021 Call between Trump and Raffensperger, The Washington Post, January 5, 2021 Document: Court Document, U.S. District Court For The Eastern District of Texas, December 27, 2020 News Clip: McConnell congratulates President-elect Biden, Youtube, Reuters, December 15, 2020 News Clip: Stimulus: President Trump says stimulus checks need to be $2000, threatens to veto stimulus bill, Youtube, Yahoo Finance, December 11, 2020 News Clip: Meet the Press Blog: Latest news, analysis and data driving the political discussion, NBC News, December 11, 2020 News Clip: Sen. Rand Paul Condemns the 2021 NDAA for Prolonging War in Afghanistan - Dec. 10, 2020, Youtube, Senator Rand Paul, December 10, 2020 Ballot Count: Electoral College Ballot Count, U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, C-SPAN, January 6, 2005 Senate Session, U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, C-SPAN, January 6, 2005 Debate on Ohio Electoral Vote Objection, U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, C-SPAN, January 6, 2005 Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations Music Presented in This Episode Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio)

Read Along: https://www.nationalreformation.org/post/national-reformationism-as-law Written and Narrated by Joshua Noyer From the Article: Here’s the fundamental contradiction in liberal democratic social contract theory. If the State of Nature (which even amongst the proponents of the social contract, was admitted to have existed) were at any time, a reality then its essential brutishness would make it unlivable. Would a simple enforcement of contract and property rights really be adequate to address a social landscape characterized by constant anarchy and warfare?

Read Along: https://www.nationalreformation.org/post/national-reformationism-as-law Written and Narrated by Joshua Noyer From the Article: Here’s the fundamental contradiction in liberal democratic social contract theory. If the State of Nature (which even amongst the proponents of the social contract, was admitted to have existed) were at any time, a reality then its essential brutishness would make it unlivable. Would a simple enforcement of contract and property rights really be adequate to address a social landscape characterized by constant anarchy and warfare?

Read the Article Here: https://harpers.org/archive/2020/12/false-labor-lena-dunham-fertility/ Erik and Melissa discuss a memoir piece recently written by Lena Dunham about her experience with infertility, which ultimately ended without a baby. They weigh in on the harsh criticism the article received, particularly from many in the infertility community. Instagram: @livechildfree Website: livechildfree.com Email: livechildfree@gmail.com If you appreciate this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts!

Article Here: https://www.npr.org/2020/10/28/928336749/trump-has-weaponized-masculinity-as-president-heres-why-it-matters @boyswillbehuman

On this episode, I talk about the news that NPR Reporter Dina Raston broke about an unreleased CDC internal review. Thanks to NPR Reporter Dina Raston and her incredible investigate work and research, we have found this out. Read NPR Report Dina Raston's Article Here: https://www.npr.org/2020/11/06/929078678/cdc-report-officials-knew-coronavirus-test-was-flawed-but-released-it-anyway TJPS Podcast Information: TJPS Website- futurepres101.wixsite.com/mysite DISGRACE- anchor.fm/disgrace U.S Presidents- anchor.fm/uspresidents --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thejeremiahpattersonshow/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thejeremiahpattersonshow/support

In the last episode before the 2020 election, let's take a comprehensive look at what went on in the 116th Congress, a divided Congress during which the House of Representatives was controlled for the first time since Congressional Dish began by the Democratic Party. It was a chaotic two years, with a series of unprecedented events. Did our Congress serve us well in these crazy times? Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Click here to contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Click here to support Congressional Dish via Patreon (donations per episode) Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank’s online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536 Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Recommended Episodes CD221: Kicking the Funding Can CD216: Dingleberries Against Police Brutality CD213: CARES Act - The Trillions for COVID-19 Law CD212: The COVID-19 Response Laws CD211: Coronavirus (COVID-19) CD209: USMCA with Lori Wallach CD208: The Brink of the Iran War CD207: State of Corporatism CD206: Impeachment: The Evidence CD192: Democracy Upgrade Stalled CD188: Welcome to the 116th Congress CD167: Combating Russia (NDAA 2018) LIVE CD131: Bombing Libya CD068: Ukraine Aid Bill CD067: What Do We Want In Ukraine? Articles/Documents Article: Article on Joe and Hunter Biden Censored By The Intercept By Greenwald, October 29, 2020 Article: Trump campaign places Facebook ads telling users wrong election day By Kiran Stacey in Washington and Hannah Murphy, Financial Times, October 27, 2020 Article: Nancy Pelosi’s One-Woman Congress By Alexander Sammon, The American Prospect, October 26, 2020 Article: With the Hunter Biden Expose, Suppression is a Bigger Scandal Than The Actual Story By Matt Taibbi, Reporting by Matt Taibbi, October 24, 2020 Article: Unlike most Pa. counties, Perry County requires voters to pay for postage to cast ballots by mail By Jan Murphy, PennLive, October 21, 2020 Article: PART FIVE: COURTING CORPORATE THEOCRACY By Intercepted, The Intercept, October 20, 2020 Article: Worried about mailing your ballot? Here’s what postage you will need By ABC7 Staff, WWSB September 28, 2020 Article: BANKS STAND TO MAKE $18 BILLION IN PPP PROCESSING FEES FROM CARES ACT By Bryce Covert, The Intercept, July 14, 2020 Transcript: Joe Biden Leaked Call Transcript with Petro Poroshenko Rev, May 20, 2020 Article: Ukrainian lawmaker releases leaked phone calls of Biden and Poroshenko By Paul Sonne and Rosalind S. Helderman, May 19, 2020 Article: Here are the largest public companies taking payroll loans meant for small businesses By Thomas Franck, CNBC, April 24, 2020 Article: Buzz over Venezuela’s Guaido fades as Maduro holds firm By Scott Smith, AP News, December 23, 2019 Article: Federal judge blocks use of billions of dollars in Pentagon funds to build border wall By Priscilla Alvarez and Caroline Kelly, CNN, December 10, 2019 Article: Memo to Both Parties: On Emergency and Impeachment, Beware Unintended Consequences By Gerald F. Seib, The Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2019 Document: Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Southern Border of the United States by the Executive Office of the President, National Archives, February 15, 2019 Article: No ‘Emergency’ Will Allow Trump to Build His Wall By Noah Feldman, Bloomberg Opinion, January 8, 2019 Article: The Making of Juan Guaido: How the US Regime Change Laboratory Created Venezuela’s Coup Leader By Dan Cohen and Max Blumenthal, Mint Press News, January 19, 2019 Article: The US is currently in 31 other national emergencies. Here's what that means. By Indra Ekmanis, The World, January 11, 2019 Article: A Chronology of the Ukrainian Coup By Renee Parsons, Common Dreams, March 5, 2014 Article: In Ukraine, Sens. McCain, Murphy address protesters, promise support By Will Englund, The Washington Post, December 15, 2013 Additional Resources Confirmation Listing: Judicial Confirmations, United States Courts, October 30, 2020 State Laws Governing Early Voting, By National Conference of State Legislatures, October 22, 2020 2018–2019 United States federal government shutdown, Wikipedia Images Tweet: Chris Murphy, Twitter Tweet: Joe Biden, Twitter Tweet: Joe Biden Sound Clip Sources News Clip: Mark Meadows: We're not going to control the pandemic, CNN, October 25, 2020 News Clip: Woodward tapes show Trump knew the dangers of COVID-19 but downplayed it, CBS News, September 9, 2020 Hearing: Leaked conversation between Joe Biden and former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, May 20, 2020 Transcript: 13:00 VP Joe Biden: Hey, Mr. President. Joe Biden. How are you? Petro Poroshenko: Very well indeed, as is usual when I hear your voice. What we’re doing now, I think within the last three weeks, we have demonstrated a real, real great progress in the reforms. We voted in the Parliament 100% tariffs, despite the fact that the IMF expected only 75%. We are launching real reform of the state owned enterprises. We are launching reform for the prices for medicine, removing all the obstacles. VP Joe Biden: I agree, I agree. 14:45 VP Joe Biden: Hey, Mr. President. Joe Biden. How are you? Petro Poroshenko: Very well indeed, as is usual when I hear your voice. VP Joe Biden: You are doing very well. Congratulations on getting the new Prosecutor General. I know that there’s a lot more that has to be done but I really think that’s good and I understand your working with the Rada in the coming days on a number of additional laws to secure the IMF, but congratulations on installing the new prosecutor general. It’s going to be critical for him to work quickly to repair the damage Shokin did, and I’m a man of my word, and now that the new prosecutor general is in place we’re ready to move forward in signing that new one billion dollar loan guarantee. I don’t know how you want to go about that? I’m not going to be able to get to Kiev anytime soon, I mean, in the next month or so, and I don’t know whether you could either sign it with our ambassador… 26:20 VP Joe Biden: Hey, Mr. President. Petro Poroshenko: Very good to hear you. VP Joe Biden: Good to hear you. By the way, you know I’ve talked about this a lot before. I guess Monday is the second anniversary. Remember, I’m counting on you to be the founding father of the modern Ukraine. Petro Poroshenko: Thank you, Joe. And I… I just want to be a little bit proactive. So we have no doubt that we should… implement the reforms but we should implement the reforms in a way that the people trust because if people do not trust the reforms, the reforms will be impossible to implement. Hearing: Coronavirus Preparedness and Response, House Oversight and Government Reform, March 12, 2020 Watch on Youtube Witnesses: Dr. Anthony Fauci: Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease at the National Institutes of Health Dr. Robert Redfield: Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Robert Kadlec: Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services Transcript: 36:30 Anthony Fauci: In the spirit of staying ahead of the game, right now, we should be doing things that separate us as best as possible from people who might be infected. And there are ways to do that. You know, we use the word social distancing, but most people don't know what that means, for example, crowds. We just heard that they're going to limit access to the capital. That's a really, really good idea to do. I know you like to meet and press the flesh with your constituencies. I think not now, I think you need I need I think you need to really cool it for a while because we should we should be practicing mitigation, even in areas that don't have a dramatic increase. I mean, everyone looks to Washington State. They look to California, they're having an obvious serious problem. But their problem now may be our problem tomorrow. News Clip: Trump praises Venezuela’s Juan Guaidó at the State of the Union | 2020 State of the Union, White House, PBS NewsHour, February 4, 2020 Hearing: Impeachment Inquiry, House Hearings, Impeachment Inquiry Hearing with E.U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, C-SPAN Coverage, November 20, 2019 Watch on Youtube Witness Gordon Sondland, Owner of Providence Hotels Transcript: 54:00 Gordon Sondland: As I testified previously, Mr. Giuliani's requests were a quid pro quo for arranging a white house visit for President Zelensky. Mr. Giuliani demanded that Ukraine make a public statement announcing the investigations of the 2016 Election DNC server, and Burisma. 54:30 Gordon Sondland: Mr. Giuliani was expressing the desires of the president of the United States, and we knew these investigations were important to the president. 55:10 Gordon Sondland: I tried diligently to ask why the aid was suspended, but I never received a clear answer. Still haven't to this day. In the absence of any credible explanation for the suspension of aid, I later came to believe that the resumption of security aid would not occur until there was a public statement from Ukraine committing to the investigations of the 2016 elections and Burisma as Mr. Giuliani had demanded. 1:01:15 Gordon Sondland: Unfortunately, President Trump was skeptical. He expressed concerns that the Ukrainian government was not serious about reform, and he even mentioned that Ukraine tried to take him down in the last election. In response to our persistent efforts in that meeting to change his views, President Trump directed us to quote, "talk with Rudy." We understood that talk with Rudy meant talk with Mr. Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer. Let me say again, we weren't happy with the President's directive to talk with Rudy. We did not want to involve Mr. Giuliani. I believe then as I do now, that the men and women of the state department, not the president's personal lawyer, should take responsibility for Ukraine matters. Nonetheless, based on the president's direction we were faced with a choice, we could abandon the efforts to schedule the white house phone call and a white house visit between Presidents Trump and Zelensky, which was unquestionably in our foreign policy interest, or we could do as president Trump had directed and talk with Rudy. We chose the latter course, not because we liked it, but because it was the only constructive path open to us. 1:14:10 Gordon Sondland: I know that members of this committee frequently frame these complicated issues in the form of a simple question. Was there a quid pro quo? As I testified previously with regard to the requested white house call and the white house meeting, the answer is yes. Mr. Giuliani conveyed to Secretary Perry, Ambassador Volker and others that President Trump wanted a public statement from President Zelensky committing to investigations of Burisma and the 2016 election. Mr Giuliani expressed those requests directly to the Ukrainians and Mr. Giuliani also expressed those requests directly to us. We all understood that these prerequisites for the white house call and the right white house meeting reflected President Trump's desires and requirements. 1:43:00 Gordon Sondland: Again, through Mr. Giuliani, we were led to believe that that's what he wanted. 2:06:25 Gordon Sondland: President Trump never told me directly that the aid was conditioned on the meetings. The only thing we got directly from Giuliani was that the Burisma and 2016 elections were conditioned on the white house meeting. The aide was my own personal guess based again, on your analogy, two plus two equals four. 3:44:10 Daniel Goldman: It wasn't really a presumption, you heard from Mr. Giuliani? Gordon Sondland: Well, I didn't hear from Mr. Giuliani about the aid. I heard about the Burisma and 2016. Daniel Goldman: And you understood at that point, as we discussed, two plus two equals four, that the aid was there as well. Gordon Sondland: That was the problem, Mr. Goldman. No one told me directly that the aid was tied to anything. I was presuming it was. 5:02:10 Rep. Jim Himes (CT): What did mr Giuliani say to you that caused you to say that he is expressing the desires of the president United States? Gordon Sondland: Mr. Himes, when that was originally communicated, that was before I was in touch with mr Giuliani directly. So this all came through Mr. Volcker and others. Rep. Jim Himes (CT): So Mr. Volcker told you that he was expressing the desires of the President of the United States. Gordon Sondland: Correct. Hearing: [Impeachment Inquiry, House Hearings Ambassador Kurt Volker and National Security Aide Tim Morrison](https://www.c-span.org/video/?466377-1/impeachment-hearing-kurt-volker-tim-morrison), House Judiciary Committee, C-SPAN Coverage, November 19, 2019 Watch on Youtube Witnesses: Kurt Volker Timothy Morrison Transcript: 57:35 Kurt Volker: President Zelensky's senior aide, Andriy Yermak approached me several days later to ask to be connected to Mayor Giuliani. I agreed to make that connection. I did so because I understood that the new Ukrainian leadership wanted to convince those like Mayor Giuliani, who believes such a negative narrative about Ukraine, that times have changed and that under President Zelensky, Ukraine is worthy of us support. Ukrainians believed that if they could get their own narrative across in a way that convinced mayor Giuliani that they were serious about fighting corruption and advancing reform, Mayor Giuliani would convey that assessment to president Trump, thus correcting the previous negative narrative. That made sense to me and I tried to be helpful. I made clear to the Ukrainians, the mayor Giuliani was a private citizen, the president's personal lawyer, and not representing the US government. Likewise, in my conversations with mayor Giuliani, I never considered him to be speaking on the president's behalf or giving instructions, rather, the information flow was the other way. From Ukraine to mayor Giuliani in the hopes that this would clear up the information reaching President Trump. 1:00:15 Kurt Volker: I connected Mary Giuliani and Andriy Yermak by text and later by phone they met in person on August 2nd, 2019. In conversations with me following that meeting, which I did not attend, Mr Giuliani said that he had stressed the importance of Ukraine conducting investigations into what happened in the past, and Mr. Yermak stressed that he told Mr. Giuliani it is the government's program to root out corruption and implement reforms, and they would be conducting investigations as part of this process anyway. 1:00:45 Kurt Volker: Mr. Giuliani said he believed that Ukrainian president needed to make a statement about fighting corruption and that he had discussed this with Mr. Yermak. I said, I did not think that this would be a problem since that is the government's position. Anyway, I followed up with Mr. Yermak and he said that they would indeed be prepared to make a statement. 1:02:10 Kurt Volker: On August 16th, Mr. Yermak shared a draft with me, which I thought looked perfectly reasonable. It did not mention Burisma or 2016 elections, but was generic. Ambassador Sondland I had a further conversation with Mr. Giuliani who said that in his view, in order to be convincing that this government represented real change in Ukraine, the statement should include specific reference to Burisma and 2016 and again, there was no mention of vice president Biden in these conversations. Hearing: Diplomats Bill Taylor and George Kent Impeachment Inquiry Testimony, House Select Intelligence Committee, C-SPAN Coverage, November 13, 2019 Witnesses: William Taylor George Kent Transcript: 45:30 George Kent: In mid August, it became clear to me that Giuliani's efforts to gin up politically motivated investigations were now infecting U.S. Engagement with Ukraine, leveraging President Zelensky's desire for a white house meeting. Video: Mitch McConnell praises Trump for 'changing the federal courts forever', The Week, November 4, 2019 Press Video: Pelosi praises 'cleaner government' provisions in H.R. 1 , The Washington Post, March 7, 2019 2019 State of the Union Address, White House, U.S. Senate, February 5, 2019 Watch Transcript: 1:05:28 President Donald Trump - Two weeks ago, the United States officially recognized the legitimate government of Venezuela, and its new interim President, Juan Guaido. We stand with the Venezuelan people in their noble quest for freedom -- and we condemn the brutality of the Maduro regime, whose socialist policies have turned that nation from being the wealthiest in South America into a state of abject poverty and despair. Here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in our country. America was founded on liberty and independence --- not government coercion, domination, and control. We are born free, and we will stay free. Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country. News Clip: Rep. Jordan: We have to fund Trump’s border wall now, Fox Business Network, December 18, 2018 News Clip: Trump says he would be ‘proud’ to shut down the government over border wall funding, Jennifer Haberkorn, Los Angeles Times, December 11, 2018 Remarks by Secretary of State: Remarks on the Way Forward for the United States Regarding Syria, U.S. Department of State, January 17, 2018. Discussion: Foreign Affairs Issue Launch with Former Vice President Joe Biden; Council on Foreign Affairs; January 23, 2018. Speakers: Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations Joe Biden, former Vice President of the United States Transcript: 00:24:15 Haass: In the piece, the two of you say that there’s no truth that the United States—unlike what Putin seems to believe or say, that the U.S. is seeking regime change in Russia. So the question I have is, should we be? And if not, if we shouldn’t be seeking regime change, what should we be seeking in the way of political change inside Russia? What’s an appropriate agenda for the United States vis-à-vis Russia, internally? Biden: I’ll give you one concrete example. I was—not I, but it just happened to be that was the assignment I got. I got all the good ones. And so I got Ukraine. And I remember going over, convincing our team, our leaders to—convincing that we should be providing for loan guarantees. And I went over, I guess, the 12th, 13th time to Kiev. And I was supposed to announce that there was another billion-dollar loan guarantee. And I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor. And they didn’t. So they said they had—they were walking out to a press conference. I said, nah, I’m not going to—or, we’re not going to give you the billion dollars. They said, you have no authority. You’re not the president. The president said—I said, call him. (Laughter.) I said, I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars. I said, you’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch. (Laughter.) He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time. Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations Music Presented in This Episode Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio)

It's SPOOPY season!!! And to celebrate we have a 3-part Halloween Special featuring many of our previous guests and a few new ones! Join us to learn about some interesting and spooky Halloween-themed Emergency Medicine topics. This week Arman, Kyle, Adam, Pranav, Taylor, Frankie, Danny, Abby, Charlie, Nate, and (sort of) Chris come together to talk all things spoopy in honor of Halloween this weekend. We want to avoid spoilers as much as possible, but we discuss topics ranging from pumpkin carving safety to demonic possession. We also talk pumpkin facts because who doesn't want to know more about pumpkins? Part 2 features Taylor, Frankie (and Noa), Danny, and Abby presenting their topics, and Kyle sharing some more important pumpkin facts. We hope you enjoy this, and stay tuned for Part 3! *EPISODE SPOILERS BELOW* Taylor's Articles: Demonic Possession and Nesrin Shaheen Article Radecki, R. P. Demonic Possession or Autoantibody-Mediated Encephalitis?. Shaheen, N. (2016, August 24). From Demonic Possession to Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis. Retrieved October 25, 2020, from https://www.madinamerica.com/2016/08/not-so-rare-but-rarely-diagnosed-from-demonic-possession-to-anti-nmda-receptor-encephalitis/ Frankie's Article: A Real Life Werewolf? Hizli Sayar, G., Kağan, G., & Özten, E. (2014). Man transforming into wolf: A rare case of clinical lycanthropy. Danny's Article: "Here's Egg in Your Eye" Stewart, R. M. K., Durnian, J. M., & Briggs, M. C. (2006). “Here's egg in your eye”: a prospective study of blunt ocular trauma resulting from thrown eggs. Emergency medicine journal, 23(10), 756-758. Abby's Article: Zombie Outbreak Adams, A. J., Banister, S. D., Irizarry, L., Trecki, J., Schwartz, M., & Gerona, R. (2017). “Zombie” outbreak caused by the synthetic cannabinoid AMB-FUBINACA in New York. New England journal of medicine, 376(3), 235-242. DISCLAIMER: The views/opinions expressed in this podcast are that of the hosts/guests and do not reflect their respective institutions. This is NOT a medical advice podcast, if you are having a medical emergency you should call 911 and get help. This is an educational podcast, and as such, sometimes we get things wrong - if you notice this, please email us at emjccast@gmail.com.

Last night I read this article on Jeff Bezos and how he has built a culture of action at Amazon. My biggest takeaway was speed. Time to rev the engine... Read the Article Here

Read Ryan Holiday's Article Here: https://mailchi.mp/ryanholiday/will-you-choose-alive-time-or-dead-time-2835770?e=63c663d871

Episode #4: In this episode we cover:How farther the average golfer drives the ball? Our process for measuring power at North Pin Performance?Take a look at studies that show the impact of training on driving distance and swing speed. To receive our golf warm up and video of exercises, please sign up here!Article: Here's how far amateur golfers drove the golf ball in 2019To join the North Pin Performance Community:FacebookInstagramIf you have an questions, please reach out and email us as Dustin@northpinperformance.comThank you for listening and we look forward to helping you achieve your golf, health and wellness goals!

Article Here: https://forge.medium.com/prepare-for-the-ultimate-gaslighting-6a8ce3f0a0e0 To help me to continue to make more content like this please consider supporting me using one of the methods below: Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/aaronhill PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/aaronhill28 Cash App: $aaronhill28 Go Fund Me: https://www.gofundme.com/f/90-day-productivity-campaign OR grab a song or two from one of my 2 stores: http://www.aaronhilltv.com (click on the music tab) http://www.fruitionmusicstore.net If nothing else, please consider joining my email list at http://www.aaronhilltv.com Please join me on my other social media homes: FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/aaronhilltv/ INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/aaronhill.tv/ YOUTUBE https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsiiMHezzLk_9puTy54EOaw PODCAST https://anchor.fm/aaronhill MEDIUM https://medium.com/@aaronhilltv MY MUSIC https://aaronhillsmusic.com/ 
 
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Since COVID-19 began ravaging the human race, Congress has passed three bills into law that are meant to respond to both the health care crisis and the financial crisis. In this episode, Jen highlights the first two laws in their entirety and the provisions from the third law that are most likely to help the most Americans - the cash payments and unemployment provisions. She also documents the process used to pass all three bills into law, because this is NOT the way Congress is supposed to function. We have some firing to do.  Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Click here to contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Click here to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank’s online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536 Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes CD199: Surprise Medical Bills Bills HR 6074: Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020 Document Text: HR 6074: Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020 Summary: HR 6074: Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020 Passed 415-2 in the House on march 4 (two no votes were two GOP’s I’ve never heard of) Passed 96-1 in the Senate. Rand Paul was the only person to vote against it There was no rules committee hearing because they passed it bypasses suspending the rules of the house (requires 2/3rds of the house to vote yes to pass) Trump administration requested $2.5 billion Title III: $2.2 billion for the CDC that they can use until September 30, 2022 Requires $475 million of the CDC grants to be spent in 30 days Some of this money can be used to purchase and insure cars in foreign countries Title III: $836 million for NIH that they can use until September 30, 2024 - which is money that can be used here in the states or abroad Only $10 million was required to be spent on preventing and reducing exposure of hospital employees, emergency first responders, and other workers at risk of exposure = 1.2% of the total bill allocation Title III: $3.1 billion for the Public Health and Social Services fund, also available until September 2024. This is the largest batch of money in the bill (although there are permissions to move money around so it could be more or less depending upon the whims of the Trump administration) Can be used in the US or abroad Can be used to purchase medical supplies Can be used to pay private companies to develop and then buy vaccines Vaccines developed with this money must be purchased by the Federal government in accordance with existing guidance on fair and reasonable pricing but the HHS Secretary may use existing law to ensure the public can buy them at reasonable prices, he doesn’t have to do so. HHS Secretary is Alex Azar who made his millions as the President of the US division of Eli Lilly - one of the largest multinational drug companies in the world. On his watch, the company tippled the price of insulin so… Without that “shall”, we have no reason to believe that there will be a cap placed on the price gauging. The HHS Secretary can’t do anything that would “delay the development” of vaccines The vaccines can be purchased and stored in the Strategic National Stockpile The law allows our tax money to be used to build or upgrade the facilities of private companies that produce vaccines - so our tax money can be used to build and upgrade buildings for the pharmaceutical companies Sec. 303: Until September 30, 2024, the law allows contractors to be hired for “the provision of personal services”, but they must be contractors as “such individuals may not be deemed employees of the United States”. According to the Code of Federal Regulations, the government is normally required to get employees by direct hire and getting services by contract is a way to circumvent civil service laws Title IV: Provides $250 million for the State Department’s “Economic Support Fund” and this money will be allowed to be used to “address economic, security, and stabilization requirements” related somehow to coronavirus This money is allowed to be given to "international organizations” Sec. 506: “Coronavirus” means SARS-CoV-2 “or another coronavirus with pandemic potential” Division B, Sec 102: Allows Medicare to pay for Telehealth services during an emergency HR 6201: Families First Coronavirus Response Act outline Document Text: H.R.6201 - Families First Coronavirus Response Act, Congress.gov H.R.6201 - Families First Coronavirus Response Act, Congress.gov Money: $500 million for food stamps $400 million for the commodity assistance program $250 million for “aging and disability services programs” - more than half is for “home delivered nutrition services” Sec. 1101: If a school is closed for more than 5 consecutive days under a public health emergency designation, families of children who are eligible for free or discounted school lunches will be able to get benefits valued at least as much as the school meals. The level of benefits will be determined by the Secretary of Agriculture (Sonny Perdue). Benefits might be distributed via the food stamp program - with money on EBT cards. Appropriates unlimited funding and at least $100 million for the territories. Sec. 6001: Page 5 appropriates $1 billion or “public health and social services emergency fund” to pay the claims of health care providers for "in vitro diagnostic products” (testing) of COVID-19. Health insurance companies “shall provide coverage” and “shall not impose any cost sharing (including deductibles, copayments” and coinsurance” for tests for the detection of COVID-19 or the administration of those tests “furnished during any portion of the emergency period” (which began on March 13th). This includes in person and Telehealth visits, urgent care center visits, and emergency room visits that result in the ordering or administration of a COVID-19 test. Loopholes: Doesn’t seem to apply to people who got tested before March 13th, because that would be outside the “emergency period” If a doctor doesn’t order a test because there is no test available, the visit would be eligible for copays, deductibles, etc. It can be billed like any ordinary visit. There are also sections that prohibit cost-sharing for people on Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, people in the military, and veterans. Sec. 6004: The Federal government will pay 100% of the costs associated with States paying for testing for COVID-19 for uninsured individuals during the emergency period It’s not back dated Sec. 2301: Beginning in April 2020 and for each month end the month after the emergency declaration is lifted, work requirements for food stamps will not apply. Benefits can not be denied by States for people who had received food stamps for more than 3 months in the last 3 years while not working more than 20 hours per week, as is usually the case. Sec. 3102: Adds the COVID-19 public health emergency to the list of valid reasons that employees may get 12 workweeks of paid family and medical leave. To be eligible, you have to have been working for the company for at least 30 calendar days. The first 10 days are allowed to be unpaid days but the employee is allowed to use any accrued vacation leave, personal leave, or sick days. After 10 days, the employer “shall” provide paid leave for the following 10 weeks. The employee must be paid at least 2/3 of their regular pay, capped at $200/day and $10,000 total. For hourly workers, they will be paid based on the average numbers of hours worked per day for the 6 months prior. Employers required to provide leave are defined as someone with “fewer than 500 employees” instead of “50 or more employees”. Businesses with under 50 employees are exempt if the requirement could destroy the business. There are about 12 million private sector workers who work for companies with fewer than 50 employees and 59 million who work for companies with more than 500 employees - and 6.5 million of them have no paid sick leave. Not effective until April 2 Sec. 5102: Requires employers to provide paid sick time if the employee is subject to a mandated quarantine, has to self-quarantine for health reasons, is caring for someone sick with COVID-19, or if the employee’s child’s school or daycare is closed. Health care providers are exempt. Full time workers get 80 hours. Part time workers get paid based on the average amount of time they worked per day in the previous six months. The payments must be for the employees regular rate of pay if they are personally sick, no less than minimum wage, and 2/3rds their regular pay if they are caring for someone else. Payments are capped at $511/day and $5,110 total for sick employees and $200/day and $2,000 total for employees caring for children or sick family members. The paid sick time will not carry over to the following year and can’t be paid if an employee quits. Employers may not require employees to get their shift covered in order to receive their paid sick time. This is valid regardless of how long the employee has been with the company. Employer are not allowed to require employees to use their normally accrued sick time first. Employers can not punish employees for using their sick time. Employers who violate this law are subject to up to $10,000 in fines and up to 6 months in prison. Provision expires on December 31 Applies only to government workers and those working in companies with less than 500 employees. Businesses with fewer than 50 employees can apply for exemptions Sec. 4102: Gives States more money for unemployment insurance payments. Sec. 6005: Provides liability coverage to the manufacturers and distributors of personal respiratory protective devices subject to emergency use authorizations, including the one issued on March 2, 2020 and used in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency from January 27, 2020 through October 1, 2024. Sec. 7001 and Sec. 7003: Employers will be given a tax credit for 100% of the paid sick leave and paid family and medical leave provided to their employers, up to the limits in this law Sec. 7002 and Sec. 7004: Allows self-employed people to get a tax credit for the days they can’t work. The Secretary of the Treasury will write the regulation, including required documentation to be eligible H.R. 748: CARES Act Summary: H.R. 748: CARES Act Text: H.R. 748: CARES Act Record of House debate Vote Summary: Senate 96-0 on March 25 at 11:17pm Subtitle A: Unemployment Insurance Provisions Sec. 2102: Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Who qualifies: People who would qualify under existing State laws People who self-certify that are able to work except that the person has been diagnosed with COVID-19, someone in their home has been diagnosed with COVID-19, they are caring for someone with COVID-19, has a child whose daycare or school is closed due to COVID-19, can’t get to work because of a COVID-19 quarantine, their work is closed due to COVID-19, or they are self employed. People who do not qualify are people who have the ability to telework with pay or people who are receiving paid sick leave or other paid leave benefits Effective period: Beginning on or after January 27, 2020 and ending on or before December 31, 2020 Limits: No one can get unemployment benefits for more than 39 weeks, but this can be extended by the Secretary of Labor if needed Amounts: It’s the amount determined by your state’s unemployment law plus $600 per week if the state chooses to enter into an agreement with the Secretary of Labor. The Federal government will pay for 100% of the costs of the extra unemployment payments and the administration costs. It’s an unlimited appropriation and it’s valid until July 31, 2020. Sec. 2201: Issues a means tested “advanced refund" of $1,200 per adult and $500 per child. You only get the full amount as an adult if you make $75,000 per adult or less. People who make more than $75,000 per adult will have their check amount reduced based on their income up to about $100,000. People who make more than that will get nothing. The payment will be delivered via direct deposit to anyone who has authorized the IRS to do so since January 1, 2018 while everyone else will have to wait for checks. If we accidentally get overpaid, the IRS can’t charge us interest on that payment. The payments will be made for the 2019 tax year if you have already done your taxes for last year. If you haven’t, it’ll be based on 2018. They will send a notification in the mail to us about our payments to our last known address, which will tell us the amount and if it’s going to be delivered via direct deposit or by check. Articles/Documents Article: Federal government spent millions to ramp up mask readiness, but that isn't helping now By Jon Swaine, The Washington Post, April 3, 2020 Article: Inside America's mask crunch: A slow government reaction and an industry wary of liability By Jeanne Whalen, Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger , The Washington Post, April 2, 2020 Article: How and When Can Americans Access the $1,200 Coronavirus Stimulus Checks? By Matt Stieb, New York Intelligencer, April 2, 2020 Article: Needy Will Face Hurdles to Getting Coronavirus Stimulus By Ron Lieber and Alan Rappeport, The New York Times, April 1, 2020 Article: Obamacare Markets Will Not Reopen, Trump Decides By Margot Sanger-Katz and Reed Abelson, The New York Times, April 1, 2020 Article: N.Y. CONGRESSWOMAN DIAGNOSED WITH CORONAVIRUS AFTER VOTING FOR STIMULUS BILL IN D.C. by Ramsey Touchberry, Newsweek, March 30, 2020 Article: He Got Tested for Coronavirus. Then Came the Flood of Medical Bills. By Elisabeth Rosenthal and Emmarie Huetteman, The New York Times, March 27, 2020 Article: Sweeping economic aid bill to counter coronavirus passes Senate By Jennifer Shutt, The New York Times, March 26, 2020 Article: Senate leaving DC until April 20 after coronavirus stimulus vote By Jordain Carney, The Hill, March 25, 2020 Article: How to Get Health Insurance if You’re Worried About Coronavirus or Have Lost Your Job By Margot Sanger-Katz and Reed Abelson, The New York Times, March 25, 2020 Article: Senate, White House reach $2 trillion stimulus deal to blunt coronavirus fallout By Erica Werner, Mike DeBonis, Paul Kane and Jeff Stein, The Washington Post, March 25, 2020 Article: The new Cold War with China has cost lives against coronavirus by Max Blumenthal, Chicago Reader, March 24, 2020 Article: Senate falls far short of votes needed to advance coronavirus bill, as clash between Republicans and Democrats intensifies By Erica Werner, Seung Min Kim, Rachael Bade and Jeff Stein, The Washington Post, March 24, 2020 Article: Here's how a new law giving workers paid sick leave amid coronavirus will affect you by Jennifer Ortakaless, Business Insider, March 20, 2020 Article: Trump Signs Law to Grant Paid Leave Benefits Amid Coronavirus Crisis—But Millions Won’t Be Eligible by Abby Vesoulis, Time, March 18, 2020 Article: Paid sick leave: Who gets it during the coronavirus outbreak by Heather Long, The Washington Post, March 17, 2020 Article: House Democrats just passed another version of their coronavirus bill that significantly scales back paid sick leave by Joseph Zeballos-Roig, Markets Insider, March 17, 2020 Article: March 4 coronavirus news By Julia Hollingsworth, Adam Renton, Steve George, Emma Reynolds, Mike Hayes, Rachel Bowman and Meg Wagner, CNN, March 4, 2020 Additional Resources Technical Guidance: Coronavirus disease 2019-and-the-virus-that-causes-it) World Health Organization Tables: Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2019 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey, March 2020 Vote Results: FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 86, Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020 Clerk of House of Representatives, March 4, 2020 Act: FOOD AND NUTRITION ACT OF 2008, As Amended Through P.L. 116-94, Enacted December 20, 2019 U.S. House of Representatives Legal Counsel, January 21, 2020 Booklet: Health, United States, 2016 - With Chartbook on Long-term Trends in Health U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, May 2017 Sound Clip Sources Transcript: Congressional Record, U.S. Senate, March 25, 2020 Transcript: Congressional Record, U.S. Senate, March 24, 2020 Interview: Watch CNBC’s full interview with House speaker Nancy Pelosi on coronavirus stimulus bill, CNBC, March 24, 2020 Press Conference: White House Coronavirus Update, White House, March 22, 2020 Transcript: President Donald Trump: We're a country not based on nationalizing our business. Call a person over in Venezuela ask them how did the nationalization of their businesses work out? Not too well, the concept of nationalizing our businesses is not a good concept, but I'll tell you why... Presidential Address: Presidential Address on the Coronavirus Outbreak, White House, Oval Office, C-SPAN, March 11, 2020 Meeting: Rules Committee Meeting on HR 6201-Families First Coronavirus Response Act, United States House of Representatives Rules Committee, March 11, 2020 Watch on Youtube Transcript: 15:00 Rep. Tom Cole (OK): I understand, as I'm sure all members do, the gravity of the situation and the extraordinary times we're in. But I also must make clear that we learned a couple of days ago, through the press, mind you, that the Speaker's office was beginning to work on a bill. Just a few short hours ago, members of the Majority Party apparently received a closed door briefing on the contents of this package, and already was not given that same consideration. Text wasn't made available until 11pm. And now the Rules Committee is meeting to consider a rule that will provide for consideration on the floor tomorrow. 24:30 Rep. Frank Pallone (NJ): Whether you're in the Medicare program, Medicaid program, whether you're in the Health Service or you're getting your insurance privately or you have no insurance, we're trying to make sure that you can go and have the test done without having any cost. Whether it's deductible, a copay or just outright, not having to pay for it if you have no insurance. 25:30 Rep. Frank Pallone (NJ): But I did want to mention two things and that is for people who don't have insurance. There's flexibility in this. So the states can basically cover them through Medicaid or have them enrolled in Medicaid without having to meet the income requirements that we have now, and they would be tested and that would be paid for under Medicaid solely for the testing for the virus. 25:45 Rep. Frank Pallone (NJ): And then we also have a pot of money that goes to the National Disaster Medical System to pay for the uninsured. And so essentially, if someone goes to a community health center, for example, and they have no insurance, it would be covered with that as an example. 26:00 Rep. Frank Pallone (NJ): For those states right now, as you know, depending on the state and the level of poverty in the state, have to pay at a minimum 50%, or the federal government pays at a minimum 50 percent of Medicaid costs, and that's matched by the states, depending on the state. And so the F map provision increases that federal match by 8%. And this is for Medicaid in general. In other words, anticipating that a lot more people will have to be covered by the - go on to the Medicaid rolls. 27:00 Rep. Frank Pallone (NJ): The masks because they've been a lot of concern about that. And whether or not masks for healthcare providers would be available. As you know, the companies have asked for liability exemption. And that has been the case in the past when we've had other public health emergencies, like I don't know, all or some of the other things that we've had for vaccines and other things. So we do accept and extend that for a limited purpose. So if the mask is is basically approved by the federal government, and during the time of this emergency, as declared by the President under the prep act, there would be the liability exemption for for those masks so that we make sure that they're out there, and they're distributed. 28:00 Rep. Michael Burgess (TX): Like my ranking member on the Rules Committee, I do have some concerns about the process about how this came together. I just saw the text for the very first time when I walked in here I had a chance to read the first four lines on the first page. Look forward to reading more between now and eight o'clock in the morning. 31:00 Rep. Michael Burgess (TX): It's important that the vaccine be established as safe. I am old enough to remember, an episode of the swine flu during the Ford administration, where a vaccine was hastily developed, and its administration was mandated across the country, and some serious complications occurred. And we certainly don't want to repeat that. So once the vaccine has been established to safe Dr. Fauci has assured us that he will proceed with all dispatch to make sure it is effective, and it will be brought online as as quickly as possible. And I think we have provided the funding to allow them to do that. 36:00 Rep. Bobby Scott (VA): Comments have been made about how quickly this has been put together, we have an emergency and I don't think we have much choice. I'd like to spend a lot more time on the legislation but the more time we take putting it together and getting it out there, people will die. And so we've done it as quickly as we possibly can and everybody would like more time. 41:00 Rep. Virginia Foxx (NC): When I heard about this bill today I remembered something that well known democrat said, 'Never let a crisis go to waste.' But then I also remember the phrase 'act in haste and repent at leisure.' 57:00 Rep. Tom Cole (OK): It'd be a shame for us to leave, honestly, without doing something together for the American people. I think they're looking for that almost more than the individual items in the package. They really want to see us, in a time of crisis, put aside differences, find common solutions, common ground that we can agree on, and work together for their interest. And if we managed to do that, I think that'll not only be good in a time of crisis, I think it'll hopefully reinstill some confidence in the process and the institutions that we all are very proud to be part of, and remind Americans that, hey, we're in our very, very best when we're at a time of crisis. We really are. 1:04:00 Rep. Norma Torres (CA): Last week, at a meeting with the Export Import Bank chair Kimberly Reed stated that the US Commerce Department is still promoting the sales of critical supplies that the American people need. What are those critical supplies? masks, masks, hand sanitizer? How can you know what happened to America first? We need those critical supplies here. So part of what we need to do is direct these uninformed officials that the left hand needs to talk to the right hand. That may be the Commerce Department should be consulting with this new Coronavirus Committee that has been set up by the President. Those are the things that we cannot leave undone when we leave here this week. 1:10:00 Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO): How many hearings have we had on the bill that we've had before us tonight? None. Zero. I mean, that's that is a problem. And I my Republican colleagues have complained about it, but I, as a Democrat want to complain about it too. Because there's no question we have an emergency. Part of our emergency is we want to try to get out of here by tomorrow afternoon, or this afternoon. Okay, I mean, we're setting our own deadline here. Isn't that true? Am I mistaken on that? Rep. Frank Pallone (NJ): Well, look, I'm a big advocate for regular order. We don't always fall well. This is about as far for you're not gonna have you can't have regular order when you have an emergency. I mean, you know, it would for us to go. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO): And Mr. Chairman, I appreciate that. But I guess I would say is okay. Why aren't we doing this? You know, Friday. Today's what? Thursday? Now that we're - 12:15 Thursday. Okay, so I just want to get that out of the way. 1:14:00 Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO): Well, these things are emergencies. Clearly the testing. But I thought part of the testing was what we did last week. Rep. Frank Pallone (NJ): The testing is essentially the authorizing language. In other words, it's not the it's not the spending. What we're saying is that, you know, whether it's federal programs like Medicaid or Indian Health Service, or it's private insurance or for the uninsured, we want to make sure that everybody can have the test and not have to pay for it not have to have any copay, deductible, or out of pocket expenses. That's what we're doing with that. Rep. Bobby Scott (VA): And some of this ought to be done anyway. I mean, if you're taking a vaccine that should be under prevention, and should be on the most plans, no copay and deductible. So it's not it's not a new idea. Rep. Terri Sewell (AL): And what we did last week was to authorize, give the money to states to actually purchase and have these kits on hand. So what we're doing now is for individuals to make sure that the individual who's trying to see testing actually it's free of charge. Whether have private insurance, government insurance or no insurance, that the testing would be free. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO): All right, so would have last week's bill would that have covered the protective gear for the health providers and the tents and the ventilators that we try to separate? Rep. Terri Sewell (AL): Yes. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO): Okay. Rep. Michael Burgess (TX): About the ventilators. And that's a very good question. We, we can understand that perhaps, on the testing, there were things could have been done better. Can you anticipate what the next part of this crisis will be? If you look at the experience in some of the other countries, the next part of this crisis is going to be an overwhelming load of patients in acute respiratory failure, presenting to hospitals, needing ICU beds needing ventilators. I don't know if we have the capacity. I don't know if anyone has done a survey of unused military facilities that might be available. I don't know if as part of the Ready Reserve, some One has looked into it. Again, that would be one of the questions I would have asked had we had a hearing. But I do think if we want to think over the horizon, we do need to think about the significant number of patients who could be in acute respiratory failure and the stories, and I realize you're reading them online, I'm reading them online. I don't know if they're true. But the crowd out of people with other medical conditions who show up at the hospitals who can't be seen, acute appendicitis now can be a fatal event, because everyone else is tied up taking care of people who are dying of pneumonia. So it is something we need to think about. I don't know if we've addressed it in this bill. I don't think we addressed it in the appropriation last week. 1:30:00 Rep. Michael Burgess (TX): People have spoken about testing at no cost to the patient. I think that's fine. I think it's a great idea. Do remember someone has to administer the test. There has to be overhead paid for the personnel to be in the office to administer the test. Someone has to pay the liability insurance if the test is reported incorrectly, and someone is going to have to report the test to a patient, that tested is positive, someone's got to do the follow through because now a doctor patient relationship has been established. So we do need to think about that. I'm not objecting to what has been described here tonight, but it just it seems to me that it's incomplete. 1:31:00 Rep. Frank Pallone (NJ): And could I say I'm not going to suggest that that everything that the Dr. Burgess mentioned is covered. But it's not just the test. It's also the provider visit, you know the visit of the patient that provided this cover and also without charge, but...I'm not saying that covers everything, but a lot of the things that he mentioned, it's not just the test. It's also the actual visit and the provider. Video: S. 716: "Gut the STOCK Act" Passes House, U.S. House of Representatives, April 20, 2013 Video: User Clip: Senate STOCK Act gutting, U.S. Senate, April 11, 2013 Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations Music Presented in This Episode Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio)

The Trump administration has made a deal with the Taliban which has been reported as "the beginning of the end" of the Afghanistan war... But is it? In this episode, an examination of Afghanistan's past helps us understand our current role in Afghanistan and by looking into the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, 2020 government funding law, and some key Congressional hearings, we get some insight into our possible future in terms of America's "forgotten war". Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Click here to contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Click here to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank’s online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536 Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes CD093: Our Future in War CD208: The Brink of the Iran War Bills HR 1158: Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 Page 53: Operation and Maintenance, Defense-Wide: Allows up to $225 million to be given to other countries for military operations in Afghanistan in addition to over $1 billion that can be giving to “foreign security forces or other groups or individuals” for any “Department of Defense security cooperation programs” Page 55: Afghanistan Security Forces Fund: Provides over $4.1 billion to the security forces of Afghanistan that can be spent on equipment, supplies, services, training, facility and infrastructure repair, construction, and “funding”. Out of this $4.1 billion, $10 million musth be used for recruiting women into the Afghanistan National Security Forces Section 9021: Funds for the Afghanistan Security Forces are allowed to be transferred to them even if they have conducted human rights abuses that are so bad that funding them would be illegal, as long as the Defense Secretary certifies that “a denial of such assistance would… significantly undermine United States national security objectives in Afghanistan” and that Afghanistan’s officials have promised to do better. National Defense Authorization Act - 1,119 pages Signed December 20 Sec. 1211: Extends the authority for the Defense Department to transfer weapons and provide military services to the security forces of Afghanistan for two more years, until December 31, 2022. Section 1213: Allows (but doesn’t not require) a maximum of $3 million per year to be paid to people injured or killed by US forces or our partners. The Defense Secretary gets to write the regulations determining the amounts of payments and to whom they will go. Section 1216: The Secretary of State “shall seek to ensure the meaningful participation of Afghan women in the peace process in Afghanistan” Section 1520: Requires $10 million of the Afghanistan Security Forces fund to be spent on women’s integration and other women’s program Articles/Documents Article: Retired Army 4-Star Jack Keane to Receive Presidential Medal of Freedom by Gina Harkins, Military.com, March 4, 2020 Article: Afghan conflict: Taliban to resume attacking local forces after deal with US by Cat Schuknecht, BBC News, March 2, 2020 Article: Taliban and U.S. Strike Deal to Withdraw American Troops From Afghanistan by Mujib Mashal, The New York Times, March 1, 2020 Article: Afghan President Rejects Timing Of Prisoner Swap Proposed In U.S.-Taliban Peace Deal by Cat Schuknecht, npr, March 1, 2020 Article: Afghan conflict: US and Taliban sign deal to end 18-year war by Lyse Doucet, BBC News, February 29, 2020 Article: The Saudi Connection: Inside the 9/11 Case that Divided the F.B.I. by Tim Golden and Sebastian Rotella, The Nation, February 14, 2020 Article: The Members of Congress Who Profit From War by Donald Shaw and David Moore, Sludge, January 23, 2020 Article: The Members of Congress Who Profit From War by Donald Shaw and David Moore, Sludge, January 13, 2020 Article: US military presence in the Middle East and Afghanistan by Alia Chughtai, Sludge, January 13, 2020 Document: MILITARY CONSTRUCTION, VETERANS AFFAIRS, AND RELATED AGENCIES, 2020, Senate Appropriations Committee, 2020 Document: DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, 2020, Senate Appropriations Committee, 2020 Article: I Knew the War in Afghanistan Was a Lie By Maj. Danny Sjursen, truthdig, December 9, 2019 Article: What Did the U.S. Get for $2 Trillion in Afghanistan? By SARAH ALMUKHTAR and ROD NORDLAND, The New York Times, December 9, 2019 Article: At War With the Truth by Craig Whitlock, The Washington Post, December 9, 2019 Article: The U.S. Opioid Epidemic By Claire Felter, Council on Foreign Relations, September 17, 2019 Article: Afghanistan profile - Timeline BBC, September 9, 2019 Article: Timeline: US military presence in Afghanistan by Ellen Mitchell, Aljazeera, September 8, 2019 Article: Afghanistan’s Hired Guns by Paul D. Shinkman, U.S. News, April 26, 2019 Article: A retired general has twice turned Trump down to be defense secretary — a sign Trump has a self-inflicted personnel problem by Christopher Woody, Business Insider, January 8, 2019 Article: Here’s the blueprint for Erik Prince’s $5 billion plan to privatize the Afghanistan war By Tara Copp, Military Times, September 5, 2018 Article: Israel’s hugely controversial “nation-state” law, explained By Miriam Berger, Vox, July 31, 2018 Article: How the heroin trade explains the US-UK failure in Afghanistan By Alfred W McCoy, The Guardian, January 9, 2018 Article: At stake in US military efforts to stabilize Afghanistan: At least $3 trillion in natural resources By Mariam Amini, CNBC, August 19, 2017 Article: QUARTERLY REPORT TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS SIGAR - Special Inspector General forAfghanistan Reconstruction, July 30, 2017 Article: Trump Aides Recruited Businessmen to Devise Options for Afghanistan By Mark Landler, Eric Schmitt and Michael R. Gordon, The New York Times, July 10, 2017 Article: The MacArthur Model for Afghanistan by Erik D. Prince, WSJ, May 31, 2017 Article: What We Know About Saudi Arabia’s Role in 9/11 By Simon Henderson, Foreign Policy, November 20, 2016 Article: Ret. Army Gen. Jack Keane Says He Declined Trump's Defense Secretary Offer, npr, July 18, 2016 Article: What Sort of Foreign-Policy Hawk Is Hillary Clinton?, John Cassidy, The New Yorker, April 22, 2016 Article: How Hillary Clinton Became a Hawk, Mark Landler, The New York Times, April 21, 2016 Article: 10 years later, did the Big Dig deliver? by Anthony Flint, Boston Globe, December 29, 2015 Article: Robert Bales Speaks: Confessions of America’s Most Notorious War Criminal by BRENDAN VAUGHAN, GQ, October 21, 2015 Article: Why Ashraf Ghani Succeeded on his Rocky Road to the Afghan Presidency by Ali M Latifi, Vice, October 1, 2014 Article: Natural Resources Were Supposed to Make Afghanistan Rich. Here’s What’s Happening to Them. by Antony Loewenstein, The Nation, December 14, 2014 Article: A Historical Timeline of Afghanistan PBS, May 4, 2011 Article: From Errand to Fatal Shot to Hail of Fire to 17 Deaths By By James Glanz and Alissa J. Rubin, The New York Times, October 3, 2007 Additional Resources Homepage SIGAR - Special Inspector General for Afganistan Reconstruction Video Joe Rogan Experience #1436 - Adam Curry Mar 4, 2020 Sound Clip Sources Hearing: United States Strategy in Afghanistan, United States Senate Armed Services Committee, February 11, 2020 Witnesses Jack Keane: Chairman of the Institute for The Study of War Appointed by John McCain when he was Chairman to the Congressional Committee on the National Defense Strategy Dr. Colin Jackson: Professor at the United States Naval War College Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia Transcript: 27:30 Jack Keane: General, Scott Miller, one of our very best commanders in Afghanistan who was due to brief you next month, was working on reducing U.S. troop presence before negotiations began with the Taliban. He concluded after he took command and did his assessment that he had more troops than are required to do the mission. In other words, the troop reduction that we will undergo to 8,600 is an acceptable risk in the mind of the Commander in Charge. Second, we need to reduce the financial burden on the United States. Currently it's around $45.5 billion from a high down from a high of 110 billion in 2010 during the Afghan surge. Let's get it down. It's possible, certainly below 30 billion initially and eventually below that. Not just because of the troop reductions, but by reductions also in contractors who represent a $27 billion cost of the 45 billion. Ashraf Ghani, who I've spoken to on more than one occasion, if he forms a new government, wants to reduce the U.S. burden of $5 billion to the Afghan national security forces, he wants to provide more funds himself. He thinks he can do that, and he's had negotiations with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE and a couple of others to assist in the financing. 1:51:00 Sen. Angus King (ME): We're doing counter terrorism in other countries without a military presence. Colin Jackson: Absolutely. Sen. Angus King (ME): Would that be possible in Afghanistan? Colin Jackson: Not in the same way. In other words, it's much more...it's much easier for us geographically and politically to operate in a place like Yemen from offshore than it is for us to operate offshore into Afghanistan. It has to do with distances. It has to do with agreements with neighboring countries, that type of thing. 1:52:20 Sen. Angus King (ME): Is this a case, would you make to the American people that this is a place where we need an indefinite presence? Not at a terribly high level but as at a level that will enable us to keep, as I think you use the term "keep a foot on the throat of the terrorists." Jack Keane: I totally agree with that assessment. I think it's a political apple that leaders are not willing to swallow and talk to the American people honestly about - this is a multigenerational problem that we've got. We are being selective about which radical Islamic groups are threatening the American people. And you can make a case that we could possibly have to have a counterterrorism for us someplace in central South Asia, best place is Afghanistan, as long as that threat is there indefinitely. Sen. Angus King (ME): And it will require a military presence to support the counter terrorism function, is that what you're saying? Jack Keane: And I think we will eventually, frankly, get down below 8,600, at some point, and we'll narrow that down to Intelligence, Counter-Terrorism and Air Power that's outside the country to be able to support our activities. But it could possibly lead to an indefinite commitment of a small number of forces in that country. Much like we have less than a thousand now trying to keep our foot on ISIS, keep our foot on their throat in Syria to make sure that they don't re-emerge. Sen. Angus King (ME): I think you'd agree on it and I'm out of time, but I think you'd agree that if that's going to be the case, somebody's got to tell the American people. Jack Keane: I totally agree with that, Senator. Totally agree with that. Sen. Angus King (ME): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 1:53:48 Sen. Jim Inhofe (OK): I think there's merit in having a closed hearing for this committee. But not necessarily, we can do it ourselves. Good thought. We'll follow through. Hearing: Examining the Trump Administration’s Afghanistan Strategy, United States House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Homeland Security, January 28, 2020 Watch on Youtube Watch on CSPAN Witnesses John Sopko: Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction Transcript: 17:35 Rep. Jody Hice (GA): To date, American taxpayers have spent $780 billion on combat operations, $137 billion on reconstruction efforts since 2002, so we're pushing $1 trillion here during that time. And in spite of that money, we've lost 2,400 courageous American service members during the conflict and one stat that often is overlooked is over 20,000 who had been wounded in action, many of them very seriously. 18:15 Rep. Jody Hice (GA): The United States is drawn down our military presence from a peak of about a hundred thousand under the Obama administration to less than 14,000 today. 26:30 John Sopko: Unfortunately, since my last appearance, not much has changed on the ground in Afghanistan to diminish our concerns. The military situation is still a deadly stalemate. The Afgan economy - extremely weak. Corruption - rampant. Narcotics production - growing. Reintegration of ex-combatants - problematic. Women's rights - threatened. And oversight restricted by widespread insecurity. Our newest quarterly report, which will be released in a few days, discusses all of these threats and in particular highlights that if peace is to be sustainable, financial support from donors will need to continue and may need to continue for years to come. 28:00 John Sopko: Now more than ever, I caution that if there is a peace agreement and continued assistance provided to the Afghan people, oversight needs to remain mission critical. Otherwise you might as well pile up all the dollars and euros in Masood Circle and downtown Kabul and burn them for whatever good they can accomplish. 32:55 John Sopko: Every metric that we used to provide you the Congress and the American people in our quarterly reports. Every metric that you would find useful is now either classified or no longer available. Now it's available, some of it in a classified setting, and I know Chairman, you and I spent some time there briefing on it. You know how difficult it is to use that, but this was information that we'd been providing publicly for years, and then it's been taken away. So that is a problem, but I can't answer why they eliminated that. 46:00 John Sopko: We decided to embark upon trying to learn some lessons from those 18 years. And what happened is in the course of that, we got a lot of information, reviewed a lot of cables, interviewed a lot of people. Some of the people we interviewed were reflective of what happened 10 years ago. And they basically were saying...I think General Lute and others that...we didn't know what was going on, but that was sort of after the fact. They're reflecting. It was very useful information in some areas, but a lot of the information was also talking about the warfighting and none of our reports deal with the warfighting. We deal with reconstruction and the training. We don't look at whether we should be in Afghanistan or not. So when Ambassador Lute or General Flynn say, we shouldn't be there, that's nice. It's his opinion, it's their opinion. But it doesn't help us do these lessons learned reports, which we've done seven. So that explains it. It's not that these people were evil, they're just reflecting on what they saw and observed seven, eight years ago. 48:55 John Sopko: We've almost created a system that forces people in the government to give happy talk - success stories because they're over there on very short rotations. They want to show success. The whole system is almost geared to give you, and it goes up the chain of command all the way to the President sometimes. He gets bad information from people out in the field because somebody on a nine month rotation, he has to show success and that goes up. 50:25 John Sopko: Well, Congress, I don't know if I can answer the bigger question about whether we are wasting our time or not. I'm going to leave that to you and the President to decide. But we are giving them systems, whether it's military hardware or other systems, that they can't use. And one of the questions we asked early on is do the Afghans and know about what we're giving them? Will they use it? Do they want it? And we couldn't even get government agencies that asked those questions. And I have run across Afghans who said, "I didn't know that clinic was being built until it was given to us by the donors." 53:05 John Sopko: We also have this hubris, which I think was identified before, that we think we can turn Afghanistan into little America or another Norway. We can't. That's the hubris. 54:25 John Sopko: Maybe incentivize honesty. And one of the proposals I gave at that time, cause I was asked by the staff to come up with proposals, is put the same requirement on the government that we impose on publicly traded corporations. Publicly traded corporations have to tell the truth. Otherwise the SEC will indict the people involved. They have to report when there's a significant event. So put that on us, call it The Truth in Government Act if you want, that you in the administration are duty bound by statute to alert Congress to significant events that could directly negatively impact a program or process. So incentivize honesty. 56:15 John Sopko: Well, I think now more than ever, because there are fewer state department aid people and DOD people there, you need somebody watching the store. And there will be a tendency, because of a security situation, decrease staffing to give the money directly to the Afghan government or to give the money through third party monitors such as the world bank and UN and other international organizations. And we have reported in the past that, first of all, the Afghan government's incapable of handling the money. We really need to do a ministerial assessment ministry by ministry to determine whether they can handle our taxpayer money. And then secondly, we have some real questions about some of these international organizations. The UN and the World Bank we've already identified have serious problems with monitoring it. So what we're saying is don't just focus on the troop level. Don't just focus on the amount of money, focus on how we are going to protect the U.S. taxpayers dollars. That's why I think now more than ever, we have to keep our focus on that. 59:11 Rep. Tom Massie (KY): Can you tell us how much we have spent on Afghanistan reconstruction at this point? John Sopko Congressman Massey, I can. The latest figure is 136.97 billion as of December 31st. So 136, you can round it off to 137 billion. That's staggering to me. But just for reference, the entire federal budget for roads and bridges is 50 billion to 60 billion. It's gone up a little bit. We could double our spending on our nation's infrastructure for two or three years for what we've spent in Afghanistan. 1:04:10 John Sopko: This building of this empire. You talk about it, you don't want to see, well, there is a soldier or somebody from the Pentagon who is trying to oversee that. If he comes back and the first traunch who's going to be protecting your money? That's my concern. That is the big concern. Getting out as a concern. But we've kind of worked our way around that. But you can't cut the oversight capabilities of Aid, State, and DOD in this, this drive for what they called right-sizing. 1:06:35 John Sopko: It has been our goal from the beginning is that kicked the Taliban out and try to help to create an Afghan government to keep the bad guys out from attacking us. So that's been a constant goal of all of the administrations. Rep. Virginia Foxx (NC): However, that goal seems to be very far in the distance. I mean, we have a great difficulty in achieving that. Correct? John Sopko: Well, I think the obvious answer is that we got 80,000 or 60,000 Taliban plus you have five to 10,000, I think ISIS members, and you got 20 over terrorist groups there. So obviously we have not succeeded in keeping the bad guys out or creating a government that can keep them out. 1:10:25 John Sopko: 70%. Over 70% of the Afghan budget comes from the United States and the donors. If that money ended, I have said before and I will stand by it, then the Afghan government will probably collapse. 1:10:45 Rep. Stacey Plaskett (VI) I can only think of those soldiers, those USA ID individuals who had been there all these years through their rotations, risking life, supporting the Americans objective, to have that thrown away because we believe we need to withdraw our troops at this point is just such a slap in their face. 1:13:15 Rep. Virginia Foxx (NC): And the American people, be sure the money being sent to Afghanistan is being spent for legitimate purposes and not being used for corrupt purposes. John Sopko: As hard as we all try, I don't think I have a warm, fuzzy feeling about the money being spent and its intended purposes. And I don't mean to be facetious ma'am, but the former head of CSTCA is an example. That's the Combined Security Training Command Afghanistan - estimated at one point that 50% of the fuel that we purchase for the Afghans disappears. 50%, so we're talking billions. So it is a significant problem, ma'am. 1:16:30 Chairman Carolyn Maloney (NY): I'd like to focus my questions on the importance of women in Afghanistan and the differences that has made with a America allowing them to participate in the economy and an education. I recall when we first went to Afghanistan, women were murdered and killed if they went to school. And now I'm told that they have made a tremendous progress over the past 18 years. They make up a 14% of a kindergarten to 12th grade and 30% of university students now are women. And there are more than 170 public and private higher education institutions across the country, even in the most difficult parts of Afghanistan. And I'm told that women are the majority of teachers at these schools, which is important. And according to some government reports, women make up to 27% of government employees before they were not even allowed to work. And they serve as ministers, deputy ministers, judges, and in many other positions. According to the United nations, maternal mortality rates...They used to be second in the world and they have fallen substantially. And that is because there are so many women that are trained as midwives and health professionals now and are working to help other women. And I understand they're over 530 public and private hospitals and hundreds of health and sub health centers. And even if these numbers are exaggerated women appear to be an important part of the success that is happening, certainly in education and healthcare. And so, wouldn't that alone makeup our investments, wouldn't that alone justify our investments in the country? I know the United nations has made several reports that when women are educated and empowered and respected, the amount of terrorism in that country or in that village goes down. So investing in women and allowing them to be part of of the country and not killing them if they go to school. I think we've made a tremendous impact in that country. And I'm afraid if we retreat and leave, it'll go back to the way it was before. 1:19:40 John Sopko: I must admit, for all the trips I've gone there and all of the Afghan women I have talked to, I have not met one Afghan woman who trusts the Taliban. And the concern is if they're excluded from the negotiations or if the negotiations are done by men and they ignore the advances, it is going to be very bad for women in Afghanistan. 1:29:45 John Sopko: Well, we actually, at the request of former Congressman Walter P. Jones and others, we did an analysis on how much money was wasted in Afghanistan. It was a very difficult, long term project. So we looked at all of our contracts that we have reviewed. And so 52 billion of that, 136 billion we looked at, and we basically determined that up to 15 billion. So about 30% was either wasted or stolen. Now, that was just of the universe that we had already looked at. 1:31:00 John Sopko: And again, how do we define waste? You notice three variables that we as IGs look at inputs, outputs, and outcomes. We look at the outcome that the administrations told Congress they were supposed to resolve. So like in counternarcotics, it was to lessen the amount of opium, it was to end that scourge. Well, it's been a total waste. None of our programs have led to any reduction in opium in Afghanistan. As a matter of fact, opium is the largest export of Afghanistan. It's more than the licit crop. I think it's 1.2 to $2 billion in export. The licit, the pine nuts and everything else they sell comes to less than a billion. So we looked at that program and said, that's a waste. We spent, we wasted $9 billion. We've accomplished really nothing. 1:32:25 John Sopko: Back in 2013, I sent a letter to the Sec Def, Sec State and Administrator of USAID and I said, can you list your top 10 successes and your bottom 10 failures and why? And this would have forced the administration to rack and stack their programs, list what works, what doesn't, and try to understand what works there. They refused to answer the mail in 2013. So in 2014 we basically came up the lessons learned program. I was trying to answer my mail to you. You got to force the administration to be honest. And, and it's not political, Republican, Democrat. The administration has to come in and tell you specifically, why are you spending this money? What do you expect to accomplish at the end, you're going to spend $9 billion in counter narcotics and the end result is that there's actually more opium been grown. Are you going to spend $500 million on airplanes and they can't fly? You're going to spend millions of dollars on air on buildings that melt. I mean, you need to hold people accountable. You need to bring in the head of those programs and say, "what were you thinking?" And don't be negative about it. Just say, look at if it doesn't work, stop, do something else. 1:38:15 John Sopko: But if you decide this is important, then the biggest stick you have for the Afghans as well as the Taliban, because the Taliban want foreign assistance too. That's what's been reported, is that 70% of the budget, those billions of dollars that they will want, and you have to hold their feet to the fire. It's called conditionality. So if you want assistance, you can't go back to your old ways. I mean, that would be the way I would bargain this. 1:42:55 John Sopko: We need to have a government that the Afghan people trust and believe in, and it offers a modicum of services that those people want. Because the difficulty we have is that, for example, Afghan people want a little bit of justice. They don't want to have to pay a bribe to get it. What we gave them were a bunch of courthouses that looked nice. They would fit in any American city, but that's not what the Afghan people wanted. They wanted a modicum of justice that they didn't have to pay a bribe. Hearing: Craig Whitlock on the Afghanistan Papers, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, January 6, 2020 Guest Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post Transcript: 1:45 Bill Scanlan: The Special Inspector General - SIGAR...They've done monthly reports, almost weekly updates. They're very transparent and open. What was the purpose they told you of these, these interviews and why had they been held secret or classified or unavailable to the public? Craig Whitlock: Right. So the reason they did these interviews was for a special project called Lessons Learned in which they were trying to figure out the mistakes made during the war in Afghanistan. This started in 2014 and it's important to remember, this was five years ago, people thought the war was coming to an end. You know, President Obama had declared an end to combat operations. He had promised to withdraw all U.S. troops by the end of his presidency. So the Inspector General thought it'd be a good time to figure out what mistakes were made that they could learn about for the future if they were ever involved in another war. So they did hundreds of these interviews and did publish a number of reports about these lessons learned. But what they did is they left out all the good parts, all the striking quotes, all the unvarnished commentary from people who were involved in the war about just how bad things were. They left all that out, and so we had to go in under the Freedom of Information Act and obtain those. That way. They're not classified, these are public documents. It's just we had to persuade the Inspector General to finally release them. Speech: U.S. Strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, C-SPAN, White House Speech, March 27, 2009 Full Transcript Guest Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post Transcript: 5:00 Barack Obama: So I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future. 12:00: Barack Obama: We will shift the emphasis of our mission to training and increasing the size of Afghan security forces, so that they can eventually take the lead in securing their country. 13:55 Barack Obama: to advance security, opportunity and justice -- not just in Kabul, but from the bottom up in the provinces -- we need agricultural specialists and educators, engineers and lawyers. That's how we can help the Afghan government serve its people and develop an economy that, isn't dominated by illicit drugs. And that's why I'm ordering a substantial increase in our civilians on the ground. That's also why we must seek civilian support from our partners and allies, from the United Nations and international aid organizations. 15:20 Barack Obama: As we provide these resources, the days of unaccountable spending, no-bid contracts, and wasteful reconstruction must end. So my budget will increase funding for a strong Inspector General at both the State Department and USAID, and include robust funding for the special inspector generals for Afghan Reconstruction. Testimony: International Campaign Against Terrorism, C-SPAN, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, October 25, 2001 Witness Colin Powell: Secretary of State Transcript: 26:50 Colin Powell: Our work in Afghanistan though, is not just of a military nature. We recognize that when the Al Qaeda organization has been destroyed in Afghanistan, and as we continue to try to destroy it in all the nations in which it exists around the world, and when the Taliban regime has gone to its final reward, we need to put in place a new government in Afghanistan, one that represents all the people of Afghanistan and one that is not dominated by any single powerful neighbor, but instead is dominated by the will of the people of Afghanistan. 27:10 Colin Powell: We need to put in place a new government in Afghanistan. 27:25 Colin Powell: Ambassador Richard Haass, the Director of Policy Planning at the State Department is my personal representative working with the United Nations. 42:45 Colin Powell: I think once the Taliban regime is gone and there's hope for a new broad-based government that represents all the people of Afghanistan, and when aid starts to flow in, I think that will cause most of the groupings in Afghanistan to realize this is not the time to fight this as the time to participate in this new world. That's our hope. Public Address: U.S. Military Strikes, C-SPAN, President George W. Bush, October 7, 2001 Transcript: President George W. Bush: Good afternoon. On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against Al-Qaida terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. These carefully targeted actions are designed to disrupt the use of Afghanistan as a terrorist base of operations and to attack the military capability of the Taliban regime. More than two weeks ago, I gave Taliban leaders a series of clear and specific demands, closed terrorist training camps, hand over leaders of the Al Qaeda network, and return all foreign nationals including American citizens, unjustly detained in your country. None of these demands were met and now the Taliban will pay a price by destroying camps and disrupting communications. We will make it more difficult for the terror network to train new recruits and coordinate their evil plans.

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President Donald Trump has been impeached. In this episode, hear the key evidence against him presented by the witnesses called to testify in over 40 hours of hearings that took place in the "inquiry" phase of the impeachment. Using this episode, you will be able to judge for yourself how strong the case against President Trump really is as the country prepares for his Senate trial.  Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Click here to contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Click here to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536 Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes CD067: What Do We Want In Ukraine? CD068: Ukraine Aid Bill CD136: Building WWIII CD156: Sanctions – Russia, North Korea & Iran CD167: Combating Russia (NDAA 2018) LIVE CD202: Impeachment? Articles/Documents Article: Pelosi Says She Plans To Send Articles Of Impeachment To Senate By Claudio Grisales and Dirdre Walsh, npr, December 18, 2019 Article: Impeachment Timeline: From Early Calls To A Full House Vote by Brian Naylor, npr, December 17, 2019 Article: Ukraine and Russia agree to implement ceasefire BBC News, December 10, 2019 Article: How America’s System Of Legalized Corruption Brought Us To The Brink Of Impeachment By Brendan Fischer, Talking Points Memo, December 5, 2019 Article: Who Is Michael J. Gerhardt? Professor Made Impeachment His Specialty by Emily Cochrane, The New York Times, December 4, 2019 Article: The Betrayal of Volodymyr Zelensky by Franklin Foer, The Atlantic, December 3, 2019 Article: Eric Ciaramella: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know By Tom Cleary, heavy November 24, 2019 Article: Why Did ASAP Rocky Keep Coming Up at the Impeachment Hearing? By Aaron Mak, Slate, November 20, 2019 Article: Impeaching Trump And Demonizing Russia: Birds Of A Feather By Robert W. Merry, The American Conservative, November 19, 2019 Article: Gordon Sondland Was A Low-Profile Hotel Owner. Until He Went To Work For Trump By Jim Zarroli, npr, November 19, 2019 Article: Yovanovitch's Moment: Will Her Testimony Help Dems or the GOP? By Susan Crabtree, RealClear Politics, November 14, 2019 Article: Who Is Bill Taylor? Key Witness in the Impeachment Inquiry By Lara Jakes, The New York Times, November 13, 2019 Article: Mulvaney will not pursue court fight over subpoena By Katelyn Polantz, CNN, November 12, 2019 Article: After boost from Perry, backers got huge gas deal in Ukraine By Desmond Butler, Michael Biesecker, Stephen Braun, and Richard Lardner, AP News, November 11, 2019 Article: CNN host was set to interview Ukrainian President until scandal took shape By Caroline Kelly, CNN, November 7, 2019 Article: Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, defies subpoena in impeachment inquiry By Bart Jansen, USA Today, October 15, 2019 Article: 'Disruptive Diplomat' Gordon Sondland, a key figure in Trump impeachment furor long coveted ambassadorship By Aaron C. Davis, Josh Dawsey, Michelle Ye Hee Lee, and Michael Birnbaum, The Washington Post, October 14, 201 Article: The Sleazy Career of Kurt Volker By Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect, October 8, 2019 Article: Here’s what you need to know about the US aid package to Ukraine that Trump delayed by Joe Gould and Howard Altman, Defense News, September 25, 2019 Article: After Years Of Stalling, Can Ukraine Finally Become Energy Self-Sufficient? By Todd Prince, RadioFreeEurope RadioLiberty, September 15, 2019 Transcript: Nancy Pelosi Impeachment Statement Transcript: House of Representatives Launching Impeachment Inquiry of Trump Rev, September 24, 2019 Article: Trump holds up Ukraine military aid meant to confront Russia By Caitlin Emma and Connor O'Brien, Politico, August 28, 2019 Article: Trump kills plan to cut billions in foreign aid by John Bresnahan, Jennifer Scholtes and Marianne Levine, Politico, August 22, 2019 Article: The Complete Timeline of A$AP Rocky’s Arrest in Sweden By Isabelle Hore-Thorburn, High Snobiety, August 14, 2019 Document: Letter to Richard Burr & Adam Schiff August 12, 2019 Article: NATO is the obstacle to improving Russian-Western relations By Ruslan Pukhov, Defense News, March 28, 2019 Article: In Ukraine, A Make Believe Politician Prepares For the Presidency By Kenneth Rapoza, Forbes, March 26, 2019 Article: US staged a coup in Ukraine – here’s why and how by Chris Kanthan, Nation of Change, August 15, 2018 Article: How and Why the US Government Perpetrated the 2014 Coup in Ukraine by Eric Zuesse, Strategic Culture Foundation, June 3, 2018 Article: What Did Ex-Trump Aide Paul Manafort Really Do in Ukraine? by Kenzi Abou-Sabe, Tom Winter and Max Tucker, NBC News, June 27, 2017 Article: What Exactly Did Paul Manafort Do Wrong? by Julia Ioffe, The Atlantic, March 24, 2017 Article: How William Hague Deceived the House of Commons on Ukraine By David Morrison, Huffington Post, October 3, 2014 Article: That time Ukraine tried to join NATO — and NATO said no By Adam Taylor, The Washington Post, September 14, 2014 Article: It's not Russia that's pushed Ukraine to the brink of war By Seumas Milne, Guardian, April 30, 2014 Article: Facing Russian Threat, Ukraine Halts Plans for Deals with E.U. By David M. Herszenhorn, The New York Times, November 21, 2013 Article: Former Soviet States Stand Up to Russia. Will the U.S.? By Carl Gershman, The Washington Post, September 26, 2013 Article: Ukraine Says ’No’ to NATO By Kathleen Holzwart Sprehe, Pew Research Center, March 29, 2010 Article: Ukraine Faces Battle of NATO, Pro and Con By Mara D. Bellaby, The Associated Press, Washington Post Archive, June 6, 2006 Article: 'Meddling' In Ukraine By Michael McFaul, The Washington Post, December 21, 2004 Article: AFTEREFFECTS: THE LAW; American Will Advise Iraqis On Writing New Constitution By Jennifer 8. Lee, The Washington Post, May 11, 2003 Additional Resources Bill Summary: H.Res.755 — 116th Congress (2019-2020) Biography.com, Updated December 16, 2019 Biography: Rudolph Giuliani Biography.com, Updated December 16, 2019 Biography: David Hale, U.S. Department of State Biography: George P. Kent, U.S. Department of State Biographies: Speakers’ Bios: US-Ukraine Working Group Yearly Summit IV, Center For US Ukrainian Relations Explanatory Statement: DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2020 Explanatory Statement: DEPARTMENT OF STATE, FOREIGN OPERATIONS, AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2020 State Department Explanatory Statement: DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2019, CONFERENCE REPORT TO ACCOMPANY H.R. 6157 Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN, SEPTEMBER 13, 2018 Explanatory Statement: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019 State Department Hearing: The Impeachment Inquiry into President Donald J. Trump: Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment U.S. House Committee on The Judiciary Profile: Gordon Sondland LinkedIn Profile: Kurt Volker LinkedIn Profile: Timothy Morrison LinkedIn Public Library of US Diplomacy: UKRAINE: PM YANUKOVYCH TELLS A/S FRIED: UKRAINE'S EUROPEAN CHOICE HAS BEEN DECIDED Wikileaks, November 17, 2006 USIP: About United States Institute of Peace USIP: Stephen J. Hadley United States Institute of Peace The Origins of USIP: Institute’s Founders Were Visionaries, Grass-Roots Americans, World War II Veterans United States Institute of Peace Video: Ukraine Crisis - What You're Not Being Told, YouTube, March 12, 2014 Sound Clip Sources Hearing: Emerging U.S. Defense Challenges and Worldwide Threats, United States Senate Committee on Armed Services, December 6, 2019 Witnesses General John M. Keane Mr. Shawn Brimley Dr. Robert Kagan Transcript: 55:55 Robert Kagan: But as we look across the whole panoply of threats that we face in the world, I worry that it’s too easy to lose sight of what, to my mind, represent the greatest threats that we face over the medium- and long term and possibly even sooner than we may think, and that is the threat posed by the two great powers in the international system, the two great revisionist powers international system—Russia and China, because what they threaten is something that is in a way more profound, which is this world order that the United States created after the end of World War II—a global security order, a global economic order, and a global political order. This is not something the United States did as a favor to the rest of the world. It’s not something we did out of an act of generosity, although on historical terms it was a rather remarkable act of generosity. It was done based on what Americans learned in the first half of the twentieth century, which was that if there was not a power—whether it was Britain or, as it turned out, it had to be the United States—willing and able to maintain this kind of decent world order, you did not have some smooth ride into something else. What you had was catastrophe. What you had was the rise of aggressive powers, the rise of hostile powers that were hostile to liberal values. We saw it. We all know what happened with two world wars in the first half of the twentieth century and what those who were present at the creation, so to speak, after World War II wanted to create was an international system that would not permit those kinds of horrors to be repeated. CNN Town Hall: Pelosi says Bill Clinton impeached for "being stupid", CNN, December 5, 2019 Speakers: Nancy Pelosi Transcript: Questioner: So, Ms, Pelosi. You resisted calls for the impeachment of president Bush in 2006 and president Trump following the Muller report earlier this year, this time is different. Why did you oppose it? Why did you oppose impeachment in the past? And what is your obligation to protect our democracy from the actions of our president now? Pelosi: Thank you. I thank you for bringing up the question about, because when I became speaker the first time, there was overwhelming call for me to impeach president Bush on the strength of the war in Iraq, which I vehemently opposed. And I say it again, I said it other places. That was my wheelhouse. I was intelligence. I was a ranking member on the intelligence committee, even before I became part of the leadership of gang of four. So I knew there were no nuclear weapons in Iraq. It just wasn't there. They had to show us, they had to show the gang of four. All the intelligence they had, the intelligence did not show that that was the case. So I knew it was a misrepresentation to the public. But having said that, it was in my view, not a ground for impeachment. They won the election. They made a representation. And to this day, people think, people think that it was the right thing to do. People think Iraq had something to do with the 9/11. I mean, it's appalling what they did. But I did and I said, if somebody wants to make a case, you bring it forward. They had impeached bill Clinton for personal indiscretion and misrepresenting about it and some of these same people are saying, Oh, this doesn't rise to impeachment or that right there. And impeaching Bill Clinton for being stupid in terms of something like that. I mean, I love him. I think it was a great president, but being stupid in terms of that and what would somebody do not to embarrass their family, but in any event, they did Bill Clinton. Now they want me to do George this. I just didn't want it to be a way of life in our country. As far as the Muller report or there was a good deal of the academic setting and a thousand legal experts wrote a statement that said, the Muller Report impeach...is what's in there as an impeachable offense? So much of what's in the Muller report will be more clear once some of the court cases are resolved, but it wasn't so clear to the public. The Ukraine, this removed all doubt. It was self evident that the president undermined our national security, jeopardize the integrity of our elections as he violated his oath of office. There's just... That's something that cannot be ignored. Hearing: Hearing on Constitutional Framework for Impeachment, House Judiciary Committee, C-SPAN Coverage, December 4, 2019 Watch on Youtube: The Impeachment Inquiry into President Donald J. Trump Witnesses Professor Noah Feldman Professor Pamela Karlan Professor Michael Gerhardt Professor Jonathan Turley Transcript: 1:41:00 Michael Gerhardt: The gravity of the president's misconduct is apparent when we compare it to the misconduct of the one president resigned from office to avoid impeachment conviction and removal. The House Judiciary Committee in 1974 approved three articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon who resigned a few days later. The first article charged him with obstruction of justice. If you read the Muller report, it identifies a number of facts. I won't lay them out here right now that suggest the president himself has obstructed justice. If you look at the second article of impeachment approved against Richard Nixon, it charged him with abuse of power for ordering the heads of the FBI, IRS, and CIA to harass his political enemies. In the present circumstance, the president is engaged in a pattern of abusing the trust, placing him by the American people, by soliciting foreign countries, including China, Russia, and Ukraine, to investigate his political opponents and interfere on his behalf and elections in which he is a candidate. The third article approved against president Nixon charged that he had failed to comply with four legislative subpoenas. In the present circumstance, the president has refused to comply with and directed at least 10 others in his administration not to comply with lawful congressional subpoenas, including Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and acting chief of staff and head of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney. As Senator Lindsey Graham now chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee said when he was a member of the house on the verge of impeaching president Clinton, the day Richard Nixon failed to answer that subpoena is the day he was subject to impeachment because he took the power from Congress over the impeachment process away from Congress, and he became the judge and jury. That is a perfectly good articulation of why obstruction of Congress is impeachable. 2:02:30 Norm Eisen: Professor Feldman, what is abuse of power? Noah Feldman: Abuse of power is when the president uses his office, takes an action that is part of the presidency, not to serve the public interest, but to serve his private benefit. And in particular, it's an abuse of power if he does it to facilitate his reelection or to gain an advantage that is not available to anyone who is not the president. Noah Feldman: Sir, why is that impeachable conduct? Noah Feldman: If the president uses his office for personal gain, the only recourse available under the constitution is for him to be impeached because the president cannot be as a practical matter charged criminally while he is in office because the department of justice works for the president. So the only mechanism available for a president who tries to distort the electoral process for personal gain is to impeach him. That is why we have impeachment. 2:09:15 Norm Eisen: Professor Gerhardt, does a high crime and misdemeanor require an actual statutory crime? Michael Gerhardt: No, it plainly does not. Everything we know about the history of impeachment reinforces the conclusion that impeachable offenses do not have to be crimes. And again, not all crimes are impeachable offenses. We look at, again, at the context and gravity of the misconduct. 2:35:15 Michael Gerhardt: The obstruction of Congress is a problem because it undermines the basic principle of the constitution. If you're going to have three branches of government, each of the branches has to be able to do its job. The job of the house is to investigate impeachment and to impeach. A president who says, as this president did say, I will not cooperate in any way, shape, or form with your process robs a coordinate branch of government. He robs the House of Representatives of its basic constitutional power of impeachment. When you add to that the fact that the same president says, my Department of Justice cannot charge me with a crime. The president puts himself above the law when he says he will not cooperate in an impeachment inquiry. I don't think it's possible to emphasize this strongly enough. A president who will not cooperate in an impeachment inquiry is putting himself above the law. Now, putting yourself above the law as president is the core of an impeachable offense because if the president could not be impeached for that, he would in fact not be responsible to anybody. 3:15:30 Jonathan Turley: I'd also caution you about obstruction. Obstruction is a crime also with meaning. It has elements. It has controlling case authority. The record does not establish obstruction. In this case, that is what my steam colleagues said was certainly true. If you accept all of their presumptions, it would be obstruction, but impeachments have to be based on proof, not presumptions. That's the problem. When you move towards impeachment on this abbreviated schedule that has not been explained to me - why you want to set the record for the fastest impeachment. Fast is not good for impeachment. Narrow, fast, impeachments have failed. Just ask Johnson. So the obstruction issue is an example of this problem. And here's my concern. The theory being put forward is that President Trump obstructed Congress by not turning over material requested by the committee and citations have been made to the third article of the Nixon impeachment. Now, first of all, I want to confess, I've been a critic of the third article, the Nixon impeachment my whole life. My hair catches on fire every time someone mentions the third article. Why? Because you would be replicating one of the worst articles written on impeachment. Here's the reason why - Peter Radino's position as Chairman of Judiciary was that Congress alone decides what information may be given to it - alone. His position was that the courts have no role in this. And so by that theory, any refusal by a president based on executive privilege or immunities would be the basis of impeachment. That is essentially the theory that's being replicated today. President Trump has gone to the courts. He's allowed to do that. We have three branches, not two. You're saying article one gives us complete authority that when we demand information from another branch, it must be turned over or we'll impeach you in record time. Now making that worse is that you have such a short investigation. It's a perfect storm. You set an incredibly short period, demand a huge amount of information and when the president goes to court, you then impeach him. In Nixon, it did go to the courts and Nixon lost, and that was the reason Nixon resigned. He resigned a few days after the Supreme Court ruled against him in that critical case. But in that case, the court recognized there are executive privilege arguments that can be made. It didn't say, "You had no right coming to us, don't darken our doorstep again." It said, "We've heard your arguments. We've heard Congress's arguments and you know what? You lose. Turn over the material to Congress." Do you know what that did for the Judiciary is it gave this body legitimacy. Now recently there's some rulings against president Trump including a ruling involving Don McGahn. Mr. Chairman, I testified in front of you a few months ago and if you recall, we had an exchange and I encouraged you to bring those actions and I said I thought you would win and you did. And I think it's an important win for this committee because I don't agree with President Trump's argument in that case. But that's an example of what can happen if you actually subpoena witnesses and go to court. Then you have an obstruction case because a court issues in order and unless they stay that order by a higher court, you have obstruction. But I can't emphasize this enough. And I'll say just one more time. If you impeach a president, if you make a high crime and misdemeanor out of going to the courts, it is an abuse of power. It's your abuse of power. 3:26:40 Jonathan Turley: There's a reason why every past impeachment has established crimes, and it's obvious it's not that you can't impeach on a non-crime. You can, in fact. Non-crimes had been part of past impeachments. It's just that they've never gone up alone or primarily as the basis of impeachment. That's the problem here. If you prove a quid pro quo that you might have an impeachable offense, but to go up only on a noncriminal case would be the first time in history. So why is that the case? The reason is that crimes have an established definition and case law. So there's a concrete, independent body of law that assures the public that this is not just political, that this is a president who did something they could not do. You can't say the president is above the law. If you then say the crimes you accuse him of really don't have to be established. 3:39:35 Jonathan Turley: This is one of the thinnest records ever to go forward on impeachment. I mean the Johnson record one can can debate because this was the fourth attempt at an impeachment, but this is certainly the thinnest of a modern record. If you take a look at the size of the record of Clinton and Nixon, they were massive in comparison to this, which was is almost wafer thin in comparison, and it has left doubts - not just in the minds of people supporting president Trump - now it's in the minds of people like myself about what actually occurred. There's a difference between requesting investigations and a quid pro quo. You need to stick the landing on the quid pro quo. You need to get the evidence to support it. It might be out there, I don't know, but it's not in this record. I agree with my colleagues. We've all read the record and I just come to a different conclusion. I don't see proof of a quid pro quo no matter what my presumptions, assumptions or bias might be. Hearing: Impeachment Hearing with Fiona Hill and David Holmes, House Select Intelligence Committee, C-SPAN Coverage, November 21, 2019 Watch on Youtube: Open Hearing with Dr. Fiona Hill and David Holmes Witnesses Dr. Fiona Hill David Holmes Transcript: 44:45 David Holmes: Our work in Ukraine focused on three policy priorities: peace and security, economic growth and reform and anti-corruption and rule of law. These policies match the three consistent priorities of the Ukrainian people since 2014 as measured in public opinion polling, namely an end to the conflict with Russia that restores national unity and territorial integrity, responsible economic policies that deliver European standards of growth and opportunity and effective and impartial rule of law, institutions that deliver justice in cases of high level official corruption. Our efforts on this third policy priority merit special mention because it was during Ambassador Yovanovitch's tenure that we achieved the hard-fought passage of a law establishing an independent court to try corruption cases. 51:00 David Holmes: It quickly became clear that the White House was not prepared to show the level of support for the Zelensky administration that we had originally anticipated. In early May, Mr Giuliani publicly alleged that Mr. Zelensky was "surrounded by enemies of the U S president" and canceled a visit to Ukraine. Shortly thereafter we learned that Vice President Pence no longer plan to lead the presidential delegation to the inauguration. The White House then whittled down an initial proposed list for the official presidential delegation to the inauguration from over a dozen individuals to just five. Secretary Perry as its head, Special Representative for Ukraine and negotiations Kurt Volker representing the State Department, National Security Council director Alex Vindman representing the White House, temporary acting Charge D'affairs Joseph Pennington representing the Embassy, and Ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland. While Ambassador Sondland's mandate as ambassador as the accredited ambassador to the European Union did not cover individual member states, let alone non-member countries like Ukraine, he made clear that he had direct and frequent access to President Trump and Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and portrayed himself as the conduit to the President and Mr. Mulvaney for this group. Secretary Perry, Ambassador Sondland, and Ambassador Volker later styled themselves "the three Amigos" and made clear they would take the lead on coordinating our policy and engagement with the Zelensky administration. 53:30 David Holmes: The inauguration took place on May 20th and I took notes in the delegations meeting with President Zelensky. During the meeting, Secretary Perry passed President Zelensky a list that Perry described as "people he trusts." Secretary Perry told President Zelensky that he could seek advice from the people on this list on issues of energy sector reform, which was the topic of subsequent meetings between Secretary Perry and key Ukrainian energy sector contacts. Embassy personnel were excluded from some of these later meetings by Secretary Perry's staff. 56:50 David Holmes: Within a week or two, it became apparent that the energy sector reforms, the commercial deals, and the anti-corruption efforts on which we were making progress were not making a dent in terms of persuading the White House to schedule a meeting between the presidents. 58:10 David Holmes: We became concerned that even if a meeting between Presidents Trump and Zelensky could occur, it would not go well. And I discussed with embassy colleagues whether we should stop seeking a meeting all together. While the White House visit was critical to the Zelensky administration, a visit that failed to send a clear and strong signal of support likely would be worse for President Zelensky than no visit at all. 58:30 David Holmes: Congress has appropriated $1.5 billion in security assistance for Ukraine since 2014. This assistance has provided crucial material and moral support to Ukraine and its defensive war with Russia and has helped Ukraine build its armed forces virtually from scratch into arguably the most capable and battle-hardened land force in Europe. I've had the honor of visiting the main training facility in Western Ukraine with members of Congress and members of this very committee, Ms. Stefanik, where we witnessed firsthand us national guard troops along with allies conducting training for Ukrainian soldiers. Since 2014 national guard units from California, Oklahoma, New York, Tennessee, and Wisconsin have trained shoulder to shoulder with Ukrainian counterparts. 59:30 David Holmes: Given the history of U.S. security assistance to Ukraine and the bipartisan recognition of its importance, I was shocked when on July 18th and office of management and budget staff members surprisingly announced the hold on Ukraine security assistance. The announcement came toward the end of a nearly two hour national security council secure video conference call, which I participated in from the embassy conference room. The official said that the order had come from the president and had been conveyed to OMB by Mr. Mulvaney with no further explanation. 1:03:30 David Holmes: The four of us went to a nearby restaurant and sat on an outdoor terrace. I sat directly across from Ambassador Sondland and the two staffers sat off to our sides. At first, the lunch was largely social. Ambassador Sondland selected a bottle of wine that he shared among the four of us and we discuss topics such as marketing strategies for his hotel business. During the lunch, Ambassador Sondland said that he was going to call President Trump to give him an update. Ambassador Sondland placed a call on his mobile phone and I heard him announce himself several times along the lines of Gordon Sondland holding for the president. It appeared to be he was being transferred through several layers of switchboards and assistance. And I then noticed Ambassador Sondland's demeanor changed and understood that he had been connected to President Trump. While Ambassador Sondland's phone was not on speaker phone, I could hear the president's voice through the ear piece of the phone. The president's voice was loud and recognizable and Ambassador Sondland held the phone away from his ear for a period of time, presumably because of the loud volume. I heard Ambassador Sondland greet the president and explained he was calling from Kiev. I heard president Trump then clarify that Ambassador Sondland was in Ukraine. Ambassador Sondland replied, yes, he was in Ukraine and went on to state President Zelensky "loves your ass." I then heard President Trump ask, "So he's going to do the investigation?" and Sondland replied that "He's going to do it" adding that President Zelensky will do anything you ask him to do. Even though I did not take notes of these statements, I have a clear recollection that these statements were made. I believe that my colleagues who were sitting at the table also knew that Ambassador Sondland was speaking with the president. The conversation then shifted to Ambassador Sondland's efforts on behalf of the president to assist a rapper who was jailed in Sweden. I can only hear Ambassador Sondland's side of the conversation. Ambassador Sondland told the president that the rapper was "kind of effed there and should have pled guilty." He recommended that the president "Wait until after the sentencing or we'll only make it worse", and he added that the president should let him get sentenced, play the racism card, give him a ticker tape when he comes home. Ambassador Sondland further told the president that Sweden quote "should have released him on your word, but that you can tell the Kardashians you tried." 1:15:00 David Holmes: Today, this very day, marks exactly six years since throngs pro-Western Ukrainians spontaneously gathered on Kiev's independence square, to launch what became known as the Revolution of Dignity. While the protest began in opposition to a turn towards Russia and away from the West, they expanded over three months to reject the entire corrupt, repressive system that had been sustained by Russian influence in the country. Those events were followed by Russia's occupation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and invasion of Ukraine's Eastern Donbass region, and an ensuing war that to date has cost almost 14,000 lives. 1:17:00 David Holmes: Now is not the time to retreat from our relationship with Ukraine, but rather to double down on it. 2:00:15 David Holmes: In the meeting with the president, Secretary Perry as head of the delegation opened the meeting with the American side, and had a number of points he made. And, and during that period, he handed over a piece of paper. I did not see what was on the paper, but Secretary Perry described what was on the paper as a list of trusted individuals and recommended that President Zelensky could draw from that list for advice on energy sector reform issues. Daniel Goldman: Do you know who was on that list? Holmes: I didn't see the list. I don't know other colleagues. There are other people who've been in the mix for a while on that set of issues. Other people, Secretary Perry has mentioned as being people to consult on reform. Goldman: And are they Americans? Holmes: Yes. 4:18:15 Fiona Hill: As I understood there'd been a directive for a whole scale review of our foreign policy assistance and the ties between our foreign policy objectives and the assistance. This has been going on actually for many months. And in the period when I was wrapping up my time there, there had been more scrutiny than specific assistance to specific sets of countries as a result of that overall review. 4:21:10 Fiona Hill: I asked him quite bluntly in a meeting that we had in June of 2019. So this is after the presidential inauguration when I'd seen that he had started to step up in much more of a proactive role on a Ukraine. What was his role here? And he said that he was in charge of Ukraine. And I said, "Well, who put you in charge Ambassador Sondland?" And he said, "The president." Stephen Castor: Did surprise you when he told you that. Fiona Hill:It did surprise me. We'd had no directive. We hadn't been told this. Ambassador Bolton had never indicated in any way that he thought that Ambassador Sondland was playing a leading role in Ukraine. 4:36:30 Fiona Hill: And one of Ukraine's Achilles heel, in addition to, it's military disadvantage with Russia, is in fact, energy. Ukraine remains for now the main transit point for a Russian oil and gas and pipelines to Europe. And this has been manipulated repeatedly, especially since 2006, by the Russian government. And in fact, I mean many of you here will remember, in the Reagan era, there was a huge dispute between the United States and Europe about about whether it made sense for Europe to build pipelines from the then Soviet union to bring gas to European markets. 4:55:30 David Holmes: United States has provided combined civilian and military assistance to Ukraine since 2014 of about $3 billion plus to $1 billion - three $1 billion loan guarantees that's not...those get paid back largely. So just over $3 billion, the Europeans at the level of the European Union and plus the member States combined since 2014. My understanding and have provided a combined $12 billion to Ukraine. 5:02:05 Fiona Hill: And so when I came in Gordon Sondland was basically saying, "Well, look, we have a deal here that there will be a meeting. I have a deal here with the Chief of Staff, Mulvaney there will be a meeting if the Ukrainians open up or announce these investigations into 2016 and Burisma" and I cut it off immediately there because by this point, having heard Mr. Giuliani over and over again on the television and all of the issues, that he was asserting. By this point, it was clear that Burisma was code for the Bidens because Giuliani was laying it out there. I could see why Colonel Vindman was alarmed and he said this is inappropriate with the National Security Council. We can't be involved in this. 5:03:45 Fiona Hill: And that's when I pushed back on Ambassador Sondland and said, "Look, I know there's differences about whether one, we should have this meeting. We're trying to figure out whether we should have it after the Ukrainian, democratic, sorry, parliamentary elections, the Rada elections", which by that point I think had been set for July 21st. It must have been, cause this is July 10th at this point. And Ambassador Bolton would like to wait until after that to basically see whether President Zelensky gets the majority in the parliament, which would enable him to form a cabinet. And then we can move forward. 6:05:50 Rep. Elise Stefanik (NY): Dr. Hill, turning back to you, there's been discussion about the process of scheduling the meeting between President Zelensky and President Trump, and you testified that there was hesitancy to schedule this meeting until after the Ukrainian parliamentary elections. Is that correct? Fiona Hill: That is correct, yes. Rep. Elise Stefanik (NY): And that's because there was speculation in all analytical circles, both in Ukraine and outside the Ukraine, that Zelensky might not be able to get the majority that he needed to form a cabinet, correct? Fiona Hill: That is correct. Rep. Elise Stefanik (NY): And you also testified that another aspect of the NSC hesitancy to schedule this meeting was based on broader concerns related to Zelensky's ability to implement anti-corruption reforms. And this was in specific relation to Ukrainian oligarchs who basically were the owner of the TV company that Mr. Zelensky his program had been a part of. Is that correct? Fiona Hill: That is correct. 6:21:40 Rep. Joaquin Castro (TX): One of them is headlined "After boost from Perry, backers got huge gas deal in Ukraine." The other one is titled "Wall Street Journal, federal prosecutors probe Giuliani's links to Ukrainian energy projects." Mr. Holmes. Thank you, chairman. You indicated that Secretary Perry, when he was in the Ukraine, had private meetings with Ukrainians. Before he had those private meetings, in a meeting with others, including yourself, I believe, he had presented a list of American advisers for the Ukraine energy sector. Do you know who was on that list? David Holmes: Sir, I didn't see the names on the list myself. Rep. Joaquin Castro (TX): Do you know if Alex Cranberg and Michael Blazer were on that list? David Holmes: I have since heard that Michael Blazer is on the list. Hearing: Impeachment Inquiry Hearing with Laura Cooper and David Hale, House Select Intelligence Committee, C-SPAN Coverage, November 20, 2019 Watch on Youtube: Open Hearing with Laura Cooper and David Hale Witnesses Laura Cooper David Hale Transcript: 45:30 Laura Cooper: I have also supported a robust Ukrainian Ministry of Defense program of defense reform to ensure the longterm sustainability of US investments and the transformation of the Ukrainian military from a Soviet model to a NATO inter-operable force. 45:50 Laura Cooper: The National Defense Authorization Act requires the Department of Defense to certify defense reform progress to release half of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative or USAI funds, a provision we find very helpful. Based on recommendations from me and other key DOD advisers, the Department of Defense in coordination with the Department of State certified in May, 2019 that Ukraine had "taken substantial actions to make defense institutional reforms for the purposes of decreasing corruption, increasing accountability and sustaining improvements of combat capability."  47:15 Laura Cooper: Let me say at the outset that I have never discussed this or any other matter with the president and never heard directly from him about this matter. 48:05 Laura Cooper: I and others at the interagency meetings felt that the matter was particularly urgent, because it takes time to obligate that amount of money. And my understanding was that the money was legally required to be obligated by September 30th to the end of the fiscal year. 49:15 Laura Cooper: I received a series of updates and in a September 5th update, I and other senior defense department leaders were informed that over a $100,000,000 could not be obligated by September 30th. 49:45 Laura Cooper: After the decision to release the funds on September 11th of this year, my colleagues across the DOD security assistance enterprise worked tirelessly to be able to ultimately obligate about 86% of the funding by the end of the fiscal year, more than they had originally estimated they would be able to. Due to a provision in September's continuing resolution, appropriating an amount equal to the unobligated funds from fiscal year 2019, we ultimately will be able to obligate all of the USAI funds. 51:04 Laura Cooper: Since my deposition, I have again reviewed my calendar, and the only meeting where I recall a Ukrainian official raising the issue with me is on September 5th at the Ukrainian independence day celebration. 51:45 Laura Cooper: Specifically, on the issue of Ukraine's knowledge of the hold or of Ukraine, asking questions about possible issues with the flow of assistance. My staff showed me two unclassified emails that they received from the state department. One was received on July 25th at 2:31 PM. That email said that the Ukrainian Embassy and House Foreign Affairs Committee are asking about security assistance. The second email was received on July 25th at 4:25 PM that email said that the Hill knows about the FMF situation to an extent, and so does the Ukrainian embassy. I did not receive either of these emails. My staff does not recall informing me about them and I do not recall being made aware of their content at the time. 53:04 Laura Cooper: On July 3rd at 4:23 PM they received an email from the State Department stating that they had heard that the CN is currently being blocked by OMB. This apparently refers to the congressional notification State would send for Ukraine FMF. I have no further information on this. 53:20 Laura Cooper: On July 25th a member of my staff got a question from a Ukraine embassy contact asking what was going on with Ukraine security assistance. Because at that time, we did not know what the guidance was on USAI. The OMB notice of apportionment arrived that day, but the staff member did not find out about it until later. I was informed that the staff member told the Ukrainian official that we were moving forward on USAI, but recommended that the Ukraine embassy check in with State regarding the FMF. 1:02:40 David Hale: We've often heard at the state department that the President of the United States wants to make sure that a foreign assistance is reviewed scrupulously to make sure that it's truly in US national interests, and that we evaluated continuously to meet certain criteria that the president's established. Rep. John Ratcliffe (TX): And since his election, is it fair to say that the president Trump has looked to overhaul how foreign aid is distributed? David Hale: Yes. The NSC launched a foreign assistance review process, sometime, I think it was late August, early September, 2018. 1:04:30 Rep. John Ratcliffe (TX): In the past year, Ukraine was not the only country to have aid withheld from it, is that correct? David Hale: Correct. Rep. John Ratcliffe (TX): In the past year, was aid held withheld from Pakistan? David Hale:Yes sir. Rep. John Ratcliffe (TX): Why was aid withheld from Pakistan? David Hale: Because of unhappiness over the policies and behavior of the Pakistani government towards certain proxy groups that were involved in conflicts with United States. Rep. John Ratcliffe (TX): And in the past year was aid also withheld from Honduras. David Hale: Aid was withheld from three States in central Northern central America, yes. Rep. John Ratcliffe (TX): The past year was aide withheld from Lebanon? David Hale: Yes sir. Rep. John Ratcliffe (TX): And when aid was first held withheld from Lebanon, were you given a reason why it was withheld? David Hale: No. Rep. John Ratcliffe (TX): So having no explanation for why aid is being withheld is not uncommon. I would say it is not the normal way that we function... Rep. John Ratcliffe (TX): But it does happen. David Hale: It does happen. Rep. John Ratcliffe (TX): And is it true that when aid was being withheld from Lebanon that was at the same time aid was being withheld from Ukraine? David Hale: Correct, sir. Rep. John Ratcliffe (TX):And, you've testified that the aid to Lebanon still hasn't been released, is that right? David Hale: That is correct. Rep. John Ratcliffe (TX): Alright. 1:26:05 Laura Cooper: Russia violated the sovereignty of Ukraine's territory. Russia illegally annexed territory that belonged to Ukraine. They also denied Ukraine access to its Naval fleet at the time. And to this day, Russia is building a capability on Crimea designed to expand Russian military power projection far beyond the immediate region. 1:59:40 Laura Cooper: There are three separate pieces to our overall ability to provide equipment to the Ukrainian armed forces. The first is the foreign military finance system, which is a State Department authority and countries around the world have this authority. That authority is used for some of the training and equipment. There's also the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. That's a DOD authority. Unlike the State authority, the DOD authority is only a one year authority. And then third, there's an opportunity for defense sales. And that is something that we're working with Ukrainians on now so that they can actually purchase U.S. equipment. But the javelin specifically was provided under FMF initially and now the Ukrainians are interested in the purchase of javelin. 2:00:35 Rep. Will Hurd (TX): And there wasn't a hold put on purchasing of equipment, is that correct? Laura Cooper: Not to my understanding, no. 2:04:15 Laura Cooper: There were two ways that we would be able to implement presidential guidance to stop obligating the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. And the first option would be for the president to do a rescission. The second is a reprogramming action that the Department of Defense would do... Rep. Joaquin Castro (TX): In both of those would require congressional notice. There would be an extra step that the president would have to take to notify Congress. As far as, you know, was there ever any notice that was sent out to Congress? Laura Cooper: Sir, I did express that, that I believed it would require a notice to Congress and that then there was no such notice to my knowledge or preparation of such a notice to my knowledge. 2:07:41 Rep. John Ratcliffe (TX): But you can't say one way or another whether the inquiries in these emails were about the whole, is that fair? Laura Cooper: I cannot say for certain. Rep. John Ratcliffe (TX):Right, and you can't say one way or another, whether the Ukrainians knew about the whole before August 28th, 2019 when it was reported in Politico, correct? Laura Cooper: Sir, I can just tell you that it's the recollection of my staff that they likely knew, but no, I do not have a certain data point to offer you. Hearing: Impeachment Inquiry Hearing with E.U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland, House Select Intelligence Committee, C-SPAN Coverage, November 20, 2019 Watch on Youtube: Open Hearing with Ambassador Gordon Sondland Witness Gordon Sondland Transcript: 54:00 Gordon Sondland: As I testified previously, Mr. Giuliani's requests were a quid pro quo for arranging a white house visit for President Zelensky. Mr. Giuliani demanded that Ukraine make a public statement announcing the investigations of the 2016 Election DNC server, and Burisma. 54:30 Gordon Sondland: Mr. Giuliani was expressing the desires of the President of the United States, and we knew these investigations were important to the president. 55:00 Gordon Sondland: I was adamantly opposed to any suspension of aid, as the Ukrainians needed those funds to fight against Russian aggression. 55:10 Gordon Sondland: I tried diligently to ask why the aid was suspended, but I never received a clear answer. Still haven't to this day. In the absence of any credible explanation for the suspension of aid, I later came to believe that the resumption of security aid would not occur until there was a public statement from Ukraine committing to the investigations of the 2016 elections and Burisma as Mr. Giuliani had demanded. 59:40 Gordon Sondland: During the Zelensky inauguration, on May 20th the US delegation developed a very positive view of the Ukraine government. We were impressed by President Zelensky's desire to promote a stronger relationship with the United States. We admired his commitment to reform, and we were excited about the possibility of Ukraine making the changes necessary to support a greater Western economic investment. And we were excited that Ukraine might, after years and years of lip service, finally get serious about addressing its own well known corruption problems. 1:01:15 Gordon Sondland: Unfortunately, President Trump was skeptical. He expressed concerns that the Ukrainian government was not serious about reform, and he even mentioned that Ukraine tried to take him down in the last election. In response to our persistent efforts in that meeting to change his views, President Trump directed us to quote, "talk with Rudy." We understood that talk with Rudy meant talk with Mr. Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer. Let me say again, we weren't happy with the President's directive to talk with Rudy. We did not want to involve Mr. Giuliani. I believe then as I do now, that the men and women of the state department, not the president's personal lawyer, should take responsibility for Ukraine matters. Nonetheless, based on the president's direction we were faced with a choice, we could abandon the efforts to schedule the white house phone call and a white house visit between Presidents Trump and Zelensky, which was unquestionably in our foreign policy interest, or we could do as president Trump had directed and talk with Rudy. We chose the latter course, not because we liked it, but because it was the only constructive path open to us. 1:12:05 Gordon Sondland: After the Zelensky meeting, I also met with Zelensky's senior aide, Andre Yermak. I don't recall the specifics of our conversation, but I believe the issue of investigations was probably a part of that agenda or meeting. 1:12:15 Gordon Sondland: Also, on July 26 shortly after our Kiev meetings, I spoke by phone with President Trump. The White House, which has finally, finally shared certain call dates and times with my attorneys confirms this. The call lasted five minutes. I remember I was at a restaurant in Kiev, and I have no reason to doubt that this conversation included the subject of investigations. Again, given Mr. Giuliani's demand that President Zelensky make a public statement about investigations. I knew that investigations were important to President Trump. We did not discuss any classified information. Other witnesses have recently shared their recollection of overhearing this call. For the most part, I have no reason to doubt their accounts. It's true that the president speaks loudly at times and it's also true, I think, we primarily discussed ASAP Rocky. It's true that the president likes to use colorful language. Anyone who has met with him at any reasonable amount of time knows this well. I cannot remember the precise details. Again, the White House has not allowed me to see any readouts of that call and the July 26 call did not strike me as significant. At the time, actually, actually, I would have been more surprised if President Trump had not mentioned investigations, particularly given what we were hearing from Mr. Giuliani about the president's concerns. However, I have no recollection of discussing Vice President Biden or his son on that call or after the call ended. 1:14:10 Gordon Sondland: I know that members of this committee frequently frame these complicated issues in the form of a simple question. Was there a quid pro quo? As I testified previously with regard to the requested White House call and the White House meeting, the answer is yes. Mr. Giuliani conveyed to Secretary Perry, Ambassador Volker and others that President Trump wanted a public statement from President Zelensky committing to investigations of Burisma and the 2016 election. Mr Giuliani expressed those requests directly to the Ukrainians and Mr. Giuliani also expressed those requests directly to us. We all understood that these prerequisites for the White House call and the White House meeting reflected President Trump's desires and requirements. 1:23:10 Gordon Sondland: There was a September 1st meeting with President Zelensky in Warsaw. Unfortunately, President Trump's attendance at the Warsaw meeting was canceled due to Hurricane Dorian. Vice President Pence attended instead. I mentioned Vice President Pence before the meetings with the Ukrainians that I had concerns that the delay in aid had become tied to the issue of investigations. I recall mentioning that before the Zelensky meeting. During the actual meeting, President Zelensky raised the issue of security assistance directly with Vice President Pence and the vice president said that he would speak to President Trump about it. Based on my previous communication with Secretary Pompeo, I felt comfortable sharing my concerns with Mr. Yermak. It was a very, very brief pull aside conversation that happened. Within a few seconds, I told Mr. Yermak that I believe that the resumption of US aid would likely not occur until Ukraine took some kind of action on the public statement that we had been discussing for many weeks. 1:38:30 Gordon Sondland: I finally called the president, I believe it was on the 9th of September. I can't find the records and they won't provide them to me, but I believe I just asked him an open ended question, Mr. Chairman. "What do you want from Ukraine? I keep hearing all these different ideas and theories and this and that. What do you want?" And it was a very short, abrupt conversation. He was not in a good mood and he just said, I want nothing. I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. Tell them Zelensky to do the right thing. Something to that effect. 1:43:00 Gordon Sondland: Again, through Mr. Giuliani, we were led to believe that that's what he wanted. 2:06:25 Gordon Sondland: President Trump never told me directly that the aid was conditioned on the meetings. The only thing we got directly from Giuliani was that the Burisma and 2016 elections were conditioned on the White House meeting. The aide was my own personal guess based again, on your analogy, two plus two equals four. 2:10:30 Gordon Sondland: Again, I don't recall President Trump ever talking to me about any security assistance ever. 2:44:00 Stephen Castor: Did the president ever tell you personally about any preconditions for anything? Gordon Sondland: No. Okay. Stephen Castor: So the president never told you about any preconditions for the aid to be released? Gordon Sondland: No. Stephen Castor: The president never told you about any preconditions for a White House meeting? Gordon Sondland: Personally, no. 3:01:10 Stephen Castor: And are you aware that he was also interested in better understanding the contributions of our European allies? Gordon Sondland: That I'm definitely aware of. Stephen Castor: And there was some back and forth between the state department officials trying to better understand that information for the president. Gordon Sondland: Yes, that's correct. Stephen Castor: And how do you know that wasn't the reason for the hold? Gordon Sondland: I don't... Stephen Castor: But yet you speculate that there was a link to the this announcement. Gordon Sondland: I presumed it, yes. Stephen Castor: Okay. 3:07:05 Stephen Castor: And when you first started discussing the concerns the president had with corruption, Burisma wasn't the only company that was mentioned, right. Gordon Sondland: It was generic, as I think I testified to Chairman Schiff, it was generic corruption, oligarchs, just bad stuff going on in Ukraine. Stephen Castor: But other companies came up, didn't they? Gordon Sondland: I don't know if they were mentioned specifically. It might've been Naftagas because we were working on another issue with Naftagas. So that might've been one of them. Stephen Castor: At one point in your deposition, I believe you, you said, "Yeah, Naftagas comes up at every conversation." Is that fair? Gordon Sondland: Probably. 3:14:55 Gordon Sondland: I think once that Politico article broke, it started making the rounds that, if you can't get a White House meeting without the statement, what makes you think you're going to get a $400 million check? Again, that was my presumption. Stephen Castor: Okay, but you had no evidence to prove that, correct? Gordon Sondland: That's correct. 3:44:10 Daniel Goldman: It wasn't really a presumption, you heard from Mr. Giuliani? Gordon Sondland: Well, I didn't hear from Mr. Giuliani about the aid. I heard about the Burisma and 2016. Daniel Goldman: And you understood at that point, as we discussed, two plus two equals four, that the aid was there as well. Gordon Sondland: That was the problem, Mr. Goldman. No one told me directly that the aid was tied to anything. I was presuming it was. 5:02:10 Rep. Jim Himes (CT): What did Mr. Giuliani say to you that caused you to say that he is expressing the desires of the President of the United States? Gordon Sondland: Mr. Himes, when that was originally communicated, that was before I was in touch with Mr. Giuliani directly. So this all came through Mr. Volcker and others. Rep. Jim Himes (CT): So Mr. Volcker told you that he was expressing the desires of the President of the United States. Gordon Sondland: Correct. 5:20:40 Rep. Michael Turner (OH): Well, you know, after you testified, Chairman Schiff ran out and gave a press conference and said he gets to impeach the president and said it's because of your testimony and if you pull up CNN today, right now, their banner says "Sondland ties Trump to withholding aid." Is that your testimony today, Mr. Ambassador Sondland, that you have evidence that Donald Trump tied the investigations the aid? Cause I don't think you're saying that. Gordon Sondland: I've said repeatedly, Congressman, I was presuming. I also said that President Trump... Rep. Michael Turner (OH): So no one told you, not just the president...Giuliani didn't tell you, Mulvaney didn't tell you. Nobody - Pompeo didn't tell you. Nobody else on this planet told you that Donald Trump was tying aid to these investigations. Is that correct? Gordon Sondland: I think I already testified. Rep. Michael Turner (OH): No, answer the question. Is it correct? No one on this planet told you that Donald Trump was tying this aid to the investigations. Cause if your answer is yes, then the chairman's wrong. And the headline on CNN is wrong. No one on this planet told you that president Trump was tying aid to investigations. Yes or no? Gordon Sondland: Yes. Hearing: Impeachment Hearing with Ambassador Kurt Volker and National Security Aide Tim Morrison, House Select Intelligence Committee, C-SPAN Coverage, November 19, 2019 Watch on Youtube: Open Hearing with Ambassador Kurt Volker and Timothy Morrison Witnesses Kurt Volker Timothy Morrison Transcript: 43:20 Timothy Morrison: I continue to believe Ukraine is on the front lines of a strategic competition between the West and Vladimir Putin's revanchist Russia. Russia is a failing power, but it is still a dangerous one. United States aids Ukraine and her people, so they can fight Russia over there and we don't have to fight Russia here. Support for Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty has been a bipartisan objective since Russia's military invasion in 2014. It must continue to be. 48:00 Kurt Volker: At no time was I aware of or knowingly took part in an effort to urge Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Biden. As you know, from the extensive realtime documentation I have provided, Vice President Biden was not a topic of our discussions. 50:20 Kurt Volker: At the time I took the position in the summer of 2017 there were major complicated questions swirling in public debate about the direction of US policy towards Ukraine. Would the administration lifts sanctions against Russia? Would it make some kind of grand bargain with Russia in which it would trade recognition of Russia seizure of Ukrainian territory for some other deal in Syria or elsewhere? Would the administration recognize Russia's claimed annexation of Crimea? Will this just become another frozen conflict? There are also a vast number of vacancies in key diplomatic positions. So no one was really representing the United States in the negotiating process about ending the war in Eastern Ukraine. 51:20 Kurt Volker: We changed the language commonly used to describe Russia's aggression. I was the administration's most outspoken public figure highlighting Russia's invasion and occupation of parts of Ukraine, calling out Russia's responsibility to end the war. 54:45 Kurt Volker: The problem was that despite the unanimous positive assessment and recommendations of those of us who were part of the US presidential delegation that attended the inauguration of President Zelensky, President Trump was receiving a different negative narrative about Ukraine and President Zelensky. That narrative was fueled by accusations from Ukraine's then prosecutor general and conveyed to the president by former mayor Rudy Giuliani. As I previously told this committee, I became aware of the negative impact this was having on our policy efforts when four of us, who were a part of the presidential delegation to the inauguration, met as a group with President Trump on May 23rd. We stressed our finding that President Zelensky represented the best chance for getting Ukraine out of the mire of corruption and had been in for over 20 years. We urged him to invite President Zelensky to the White House. The president was very skeptical. Given Ukraine's history of corruption. That's understandable. He said that Ukraine was a corrupt country full of terrible people. He said they tried to take me down. In the course of that conversation, he referenced conversations with Mayor Giuliani. It was clear to me that despite the positive news and recommendations being conveyed by this official delegation about the new president, President Trump had a deeply rooted negative view on Ukraine rooted in the past. He was receiving other information from other sources, including Mayor Giuliani, that was more negative, causing him to retain this negative view. Within a few days, on May 29th, President Trump indeed signed the congratulatory letter to President Zelensky, which included an invitation to the president to visit him at the White House. However, more than four weeks passed and we could not nail down a date for the meeting. I came to believe that the president's long-held negative view towards Ukraine was causing hesitation in actually scheduling the meeting, much as we had seen in our oval office discussion. 57:35 Kurt Volker: President Zelensky's senior aide, Andriy Yermak approached me several days later to ask to be connected to Mayor Giuliani. I agreed to make that connection. I did so because I understood that the new Ukrainian leadership wanted to convince those like Mayor Giuliani, who believes such a negative narrative about Ukraine, that times have changed and that under President Zelensky, Ukraine is worthy of us support. Ukrainians believed that if they could get their own narrative across in a way that convinced Mayor Giuliani that they were serious about fighting corruption and advancing reform, Mayor Giuliani would convey that assessment to President Trump, thus correcting the previous negative narrative. That made sense to me and I tried to be helpful. I made clear to the Ukrainians that Mayor Giuliani was a private citizen, the president's personal lawyer, and not representing the US government. Likewise, in my conversations with Mayor Giuliani, I never considered him to be speaking on the president's behalf or giving instructions, rather, the information flow was the other way. From Ukraine to Mayor Giuliani in the hopes that this would clear up the information reaching President Trump. 1:00:15 Kurt Volker: I connected Mayor Giuliani and Andriy Yermak by text and later by phone they met in person on August 2nd, 2019. In conversations with me following that meeting, which I did not attend, Mr. Giuliani said that he had stressed the importance of Ukraine conducting investigations into what happened in the past, and Mr. Yermak stressed that he told Mr. Giuliani it is the government's program to root out corruption and implement reforms, and they would be conducting investigations as part of this process anyway. 1:00:45 Kurt Volker: Mr. Giuliani said he believed that the Ukrainian president needed to make a statement about fighting corruption and that he had discussed this with Mr. Yermak. I said, I did not think that this would be a problem since that is the government's position. Anyway, I followed up with Mr. Yermak and he said that they would indeed be prepared to make a statement. 1:02:10 Kurt Volker: On August 16th, Mr. Yermak shared a draft with me, which I thought looked perfectly reasonable. It did not mention Burisma or 2016 elections, but was generic. Ambassador Sondland I had a further conversation with Mr. Giuliani who said that in his view, in order to be convincing that this government represented real change in Ukraine, the statement should include specific reference to Burisma and 2016 and again, there was no mention of Vice President Biden in these conversations. 1:02:40 Kurt Volker: Ambassador Sondland and I discussed these points and I edited the statement drafted by Mr. Yermak to include these points to see how it looked. I then discussed it further with Mr. Yermak. He said that for a number of reasons, including the fact that since Mr. Lutsenko was still officially the prosecutor general, they did not want to mention Burisma or 2016 and I agreed. And the idea of putting out a statement was shelved. These were the last conversations I had about this statement, which were on or about August 17 to 18. 1:04:00 Kurt Volker: At the time I was connecting Mr. Yermak and Mr. Giuliani and discussing with Mr. Yermak and Ambassador Sondland a possible statement that could be made by the Ukrainian president, I did not know of any linkage between the hold on security assistance and Ukraine pursuing investigatio

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This week, Matty K reads Pete Quiñones' latest article "A Redcoat Murders a Colonist in Her Home". The article can be found at the Libertarian Institute and is linked below. Remember, y'all: STOP CALLING THE POLICE! We can no longer outsource our own safety to the state. Make friends with your neighbors. Take responsibility for the security of your property and that of your neighborhood. Read the Article Here: https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/a-redcoat-murders-a-colonist-in-her-home/ You can support Pete at the following places: Pete's books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=mance+rayder&i=stripbooks&crid=HUOAVHL96M5T&sprefix=mance+r%2Caps%2C263 Pete's books for purchase with crypto: https://freemanbeyondthewall.com/store/ Pete's Bitbacker: https://bitbacker.io/user/peteraymond/ Pete's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ManceRayder Follow us on twitter! @MattyKfromPA @Mikee2Names @ErasetheState --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erasethestate/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/erasethestate/support

Q&A Episode 404 Have a podcast question for Ben? Click the button at the bottom of the page (or go to ), or use the Contact button in the free . News Flashes.. -Why I save all my carbohydrate intake for the evening, usually in a post-workout scenario, followed by a 12-16 hour intermittent fast: Article: -Blue light from modern, fluorescent lighting is damaging to the mitochondria in your retina: Article: ...and interestingly, not everyone responds the same way: Article: -Here’s one good reason why sauna use makes you live longer, and why some people can get away with LESS heat therapy: Article: Special Announcements: – – – –  or ! Here's where I'm speaking and traveling around the world coming soon. - This podcast is brought to you by: -: Support for normal blood sugar levels and healthy energy metabolism, even after large, carb-rich meals. Ben Greenfield Fitness listeners, receive a 10% discount off your entire order when you use discount code: BGF10. -: Enjoy all the benefits of the 11 superfoods and their micronutrients that help increase resting metabolism, support cardiovascular health, and remove toxins to turn back the hands of time! Receive a 20% discount on your entire order when you use discount code: "BENG20" -: Delivers healthy 100% grass-fed and finished beef, free-range organic chicken, and heritage breed pork directly to your door on a monthly basis. All their products are humanely raised and NEVER given antibiotics or hormones. For 2 lbs of 100% grass-fed beef FREE in every box for the life of your subscription PLUS $20 off your first box go to ButcherBox.com/BEN OR enter promo code BEN20 at checkout -: Safe, simple, effective products that people use in the bathroom everyday. Native creates products with trusted ingredients and trusted performance. Get 20% off your first purchase when you use discount code: BEN Listener Q&A: Is Earthing Dangerous? Ray asks: After your , I was fascinated with the science and immediately began digging deeper into the topic. I ordered Clint's sleeping mats for me, my wife and two boys, and as you know the mats plug into the ground via a wall outlet. We immediately noticed a huge positive difference when we began sleeping on the mats. Then I started reading and watching videos about dirty electricity dangers when using earthing mats that plug into the ground with the home outlets. They say the long ground wires create loops in our homes, and act as antennas which pick up EMF's from everything including our appliances and wifi, and it focuses that EMF on our bodies while we sleep. Is this something you've researched, and if so, is it better to connect the mats using grounding rods? In my response, I recommend: - -Article: -Article: Ben's Top Recovery Tactics Aaron asks: I'm about a year into jiu jitsu, and I've noticed a common theme from most of the upper belts. Everyone is always injured. I know that soreness and pulled muscles are inevitable, but I'm talking about more extreme injuries that require some sort of surgery. Can you recommend any recovery and injury prevention tactics that will help me avoid similar injuries? In my response, I recommend:  Can You Do Cold Therapy If You're Sick? Carmen from Germany asks: I want to start cold therapy for health reasons, but also to not always feel as cold as I do right now. I've tried cryotherapy and cold showers, but I've always gotten sick afterwards. I have Hashimoto's disease, and I'm also recovering from adrenal fatigue. A doctor once told me I get sick after trying cold therapy because my adrenals can't handle the cold. Is this true? How can I start any type of cold therapy, and what else from cold showers can I do? In my response, I recommend: -Article: -Article: -- - - - - - ------------------------------------------ Prior to , do a search in the upper right-hand corner of this website for the keywords associated with your question. Many of the questions we receive have already been answered here at Ben Greenfield Fitness! -----------------------------------------------------

Donald Trump. Ukraine. Joe Biden. A phone call. Election Interference. Impeachment! What the hell is going on? In this episode, an irritated Jen gives you the backstory that you need to know about the impeachment drama, including what the steps to impeachment are. Prepare yourself: Everyone devoted to the Republican or Democratic parties will be pissed off by this episode. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Click here to contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Click here to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536 Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes CD167: Combating Russia NDAA CD102: The World Trade Organization: COOL? CD067: What do We Want in Ukraine CD068: Ukraine Aid Bill CD190: A Coup for Capitalism CD176: Target Venezuela Regime Change in Progress Articles/Documents Article: Pelosi, Trump may reach trade deal despite impeachment by Niv Elis, The Hill, October 3, 2019 Article: This 2016 letter proves that GOP attacks on Biden over Ukraine are nonsense by Alex Ward, Vox, October 3, 2019 Article: Civilian Deaths in U.S. Wars Are Skyrocketing Under Trump. It May Not Be Impeachable, but It’s a Crime. by Murtaza Hussain, The Intercept, October 2, 2019 Article: Hunter Biden, the black sheep who might accidentally bring down Trump, explained by Matthew Yglesias, Vox, October 1, 2019 Article: Shoot Migrants’ Legs, Build Alligator Moat: Behind Trump’s Ideas for Border by Michael D. Shear and Julie Hirschfeld Davis, The New York Times, October 1, 2019 Article: Impeachment inquiry erupts into battle between executive, legislative branches By Karen DeYoung, Josh Dawsey, Karoun Demirjian and John Hudson, The Washington Post, October 1, 2019 Article: McConnell says if House impeaches Trump, Senate rules would force him to start a trial by Seung Min Kim, The Washington Post, September 30, 2019 Article: Trump claim on stalled aid for Ukraine draws new scrutiny by Robert Burns, Lolita Baldor, and Andrew Taylor, The Associated Press, MilitaryTimes, September 30, 2019 Article: Hunter Biden: The Most Comprehensive Timeline by Jim Geraghty, National Review, September 30, 2019 Article: The gas tycoon and the vice president’s son: The story of Hunter Biden’s foray into Ukraine by Paul Sonne, Michael Kranish and Matt Viser, The Washington Post, September 28, 2019 Article: The gas tycoon and the vice president’s son: The story of Hunter Biden’s foray into Ukraine by Paul Sonne, Michael Kranish and Matt Viser, The Washington Post, September 28, 2019 Article: Piety and Power by Tom LoBianco, The New York Times, September 27, 2019 Article: White House Knew of Whistle-Blower’s Allegations Soon After Trump’s Call With Ukraine Leader by Julian E. Barnes, Michael S. Schmidt, Adam Goldman and Katie Benner, The New York Times, September 26, 2019 Article: Democrats, Please Don’t Mess This Up. Impeach Trump for All His Crimes, Not Just for Ukraine. by Mehdi Hasan, The Intercept, September 26, 2019 Document: S. 2583 [Report No. 116-126], September 26, 2019, Pg 144 Article: Here’s what you need to know about the US aid package to Ukraine that Trump delayed by Joe Gould and Howard Altman, Defense News, September 25, 2019 Article: Read the record of Trump’s controversial call to Ukraine’s president Zelensky by Ephrat Livni, Quartz, September 25, 2019 Article: How the Impeachment Process Works by Charlie Savage, The New York Times, September 24, 2019 Article: Trump ordered hold on military aid days before calling Ukrainian president, officials say By Karoun Demirjian, Josh Dawsey, Ellen Nakashima and Carol D. Leonnig, The Washington Post, September 23, 2019 Article: Ukraine military aid extension passes US House after White House delay by Joe Gould, Defense News, September 19, 2019 Article: US State Department clears Ukraine security assistance funding. Is the Pentagon next? by Aaron Mehta, Defense News, September 12, 2019 Document: S. 2474: Defense Appropriations Act, September 12, 2019, Pg 305 Document: DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS BILL, 2020, September 12, 2019, Pg 148 Letter: For Chairman Burr and Chairman Schiff August 12, 2019 Article: Will Hunter Biden Jeopardize His Father’s Campaign? by Adam Entous, The New Yorker, July 1, 2019 Article: What Powers Does a Formal Impeachment Inquiry Give the House? by Molly E. Reynolds, Margaret Taylor, Lawfare, May 21, 2019 Article: U.S. ambassador to Ukraine is recalled after becoming a political target by Josh Rogin, The Washington Post, May 7, 2019 Article: Timeline in Ukraine Probe Casts Doubt on Giuliani’s Biden Claim by Stephanie Baker and Daryna Krasnolutska, Bloomberg, May 7, 2019 Article: How does impeachment work? Here is the step-by-step process by Debbie Lord, Cox Media Group National Content Desk, AJC, April 22, 2019 Article: Trump’s feud with Jerry Nadler rooted in decades-old New York real estate project by Rachael Bade and Josh Dawsey, The Washington Post, April 8, 2019 Article: Joe Biden's 2020 Ukrainian nightmare: A closed probe is revived by John Solomon, The Hill, April 1, 2019 Article: Senior Ukrainian official says he's opened probe into US election interference The Hill, March 20, 2019 Article: Top Ukrainian justice official says US ambassador gave him a do not prosecute list The Hill, March 20, 2019 Document: 2019 Funding Report, February 13, 2019 Article: The Danger of President Pence by Jane Mayer, The New Yorker, October 16, 2017 Article: Joe Biden, His Son and the Case Against a Ukrainian Oligarch by James Risen, The New York Times, December 8, 2015 Additional Resources Document: H.R. Full Committee Print, Department of State Appropriations Document: DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS BILL, 2020, Pg 100 Prepared Remarks: Prepared Remarks by Senator John McCain on America’s Role in Europe’s East, Atlantic Council, December 19, 2013 Sound Clip Sources Interview with Mitch McConnell:, CNBC, September 30, 2019 Speakers: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Transcript: Sen. Mitch McConnell (KY): Yeah, it's a, it's a Senate rule related to impeachment that would take 67 votes to change. So I would have no choice but to take it up. How long you're on it is a whole different matter, but I would have no choice but to take it up. President Trump Meeting with Ukrainian President, C-SPAN, 74th U.N. General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York City, September 25, 2019 Speakers: Donald J. Trump President Zelensky Transcript: 1:45 Volodymyr Zelensky: It’s a great pleasure to me to be here, and it’s better to be on TV than by phone. 3:30 Volodymyr Zelensky: My priority to stop the war on Donbass and to get back our territories, –- thank you for your support in this case, thank you very much. 6:40 Volodymyr Zelensky: And to know when, I want world to know that now we have the new team, the new parliament, the new government. So now we – about 74 laws, new laws, which help for our new reforms, land reform, -- law about concessions, that we – general – and we launched the – secretary, and anti-corruption court. As we came, we launched the anti-corruption court, it began to work on the 5th of September. It was, you know, it was, after five days we had the new – So we are ready, we want to show that we just come, and if somebody, if you, you want to help us, so just let’s do business cases. We have many investment cases, we’re ready. 12:00 Reporter: Do you believe that the emaiIs from Hillary Clinton, do you believe that they are in Ukraine? Do you think this whole -- President Trump: I think they could be. You mean the 30,000 that she deleted? Reporter: Yes. President Trump: Yeah, I think they could very well, boy that was a nice question. I like, that's why, because frankly, I think that one of the great crimes committed is Hillary Clinton deleted 33,000 emails after Congress sends her a subpoena. Think of that. You can't even do that in a civil case. You can't get rid of evidence like that. She deleted 33,000 emails after, not before, after receiving the subpoena from the U.S. Congress. 16:00 Translator for Volodymyr Zelensky: During the investigation, actually, I want to underscore that Ukraine is an independent country. We have a new –- in Ukraine, a hired, professional man with a western education and history, to investigate any case he considers and deems -- Speaker Pelosi Announcement of Impeachment Inquiry, C-SPAN, September 24, 2019 Speakers: Nancy Pelosi 0:40 Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA): Shortly thereafter, press reports began to break of a phone call by the President of the United States calling upon a foreign power to intervene in his election. 4:30 Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA): And this week, the President has admitted to asking the President of Ukraine to take actions which would benefit him politically. The action of the Trump, the actions of the Trump presidency revealed dishonorable fact of the President's betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security, and betrayal of the integrity of our elections. Therefore, today, I'm announcing the House of Representatives moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. I'm directing our six committees to proceed with their investigations under that umbrella of impeachment inquiry. The president must be held accountable. No one is above the law. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) talks with CNN's Erin Burnett, CNN, August 8, 2019 Speakers: Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) Transcript: Rep. Jerrold Nadler (NY): This is formal impeachment proceedings. We are investigating all the evidence, we are gathering the evidence, and we will at the conclusion of this, hopefully by the end of the year, vote to, vote articles of impeachment to the House floor, or we won't. That's a decision that we'll have to make, but that, but that's exactly the process we're in right now. Council of Foreign Relations: Foreign Affairs Issue Launch with Former Vice President Joe Biden, Tuesday, January 23, 2018 Speakers: Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Michael R. Carpenter Presider, Richard N. Haass Transcript: 6:00* Joe Biden: I think there's a basic decision that they cannot compete against a unified West. And I think that is Putin's judgment. And so everything he can do to dismantle the post world war two liberal world order, including NATO and the EU, I think is viewed as they're in their immediate self-interest. 52:00 Joe Biden: I’ll give you one concrete example. I was—not I, it just happened to be that was the assignment I got. I got all the good ones. And so I got Ukraine. And I remember going over, convincing our team and our leaders, that we should be providing for loan guarantees. And I went over, I guess, the 12th, 13th time to Kiev. I was supposed to announce that there was another billion-dollar loan guarantee. And I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor, and they didn’t. So they said they were walking out to a press conference. I said, nah, I’m not going to—or, we’re not going to give you the billion dollars. They said, you have no authority. You’re not the president. The president said—I said, call him. (Laughter.) I said, I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars. I said, you’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch. (Laughter) He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time. 54:00 Joe Biden: But always worked in Kiev because, as I said, look, it's simple proposition. If in fact you do not continue to show progress in terms of corruption, we are not going to be able to hold the rest of Europe on these sanctions and Russia is not going to roll across the inner line here and take over the rest of the country with their tanks. What they're going to do is they're going to take your economy down. You're going to be absolutely buried and you're going to be done, and that's when it all goes to hell. 56:00 Joe Biden: It's a very difficult spot to be in now, when foreign leaders call me, and they do, because I never, ever, ever would say anything negative to a foreign leader, and I mean this sincerely, about a sitting president, no matter how fundamentally I disagree with them. And it is not my role, not my role to make foreign policy. But the questions across the board range from, what the hell is going on, Joe, to what advice do you have for me? And my advice always is to, I give them names of individuals in the administration who I think to be knowledgeable and, and, and, and, and committed, and I say, you should talk to so and so. You should, and what I do, and every one of those times, I first call the vice president and tell him I received the call, tell him, and ask him whether he has any objection to my returning the call. And then what is the administration's position, if any, they want me to communicate to that country. Interview, ABC News, March 30, 2015 Speakers: Mike Pence George Stephanopoulos 8:00 George Stephanopoulos: One fix that people have talked about is simply adding sexual orientation as a protected class under the state civil rights laws. Will you push for that? Mike Pence: I will not push for that. That's not on my agenda. And that's not been an objective of the people of the state of Indiana. Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call, BBC News, February 7, 2014 Speakers: Victoria Nuland Geoffrey Pyatt Watch on YouTube Victoria Nuland: Good. So, I don’t think Klitsch should go into the government. I don’t think it’s necessary, I don’t think it’s a good idea. Geoffrey Pyatt: Yeah, I mean, I guess. In terms of him not going into the government, just let him sort of stay out and do his political homework and stuff. I’m just thinking in terms of sort of the process moving ahead, we want to keep the moderate Democrats together. The problem is going to be Tyahnybok and his guys, and I’m sure that’s part of what Yanukovych is calculating on all of this. I kind of— Victoria Nuland: I think Yats is the guy who’s got the economic experience, the governing experience. What he needs is Klitsch and Tyahnybok on the outside. He needs to be talking to them four times a week, you know? I just think Klitsch going in—he’s going to be at that level working for Yatsenyuk; it’s just not going to work. Victoria Nuland: So, on that piece, Geoff, when I wrote the note, Sullivan’s come back to me VFR, saying, you need Biden, and I said, probably tomorrow for an “atta-boy” and to get the deets to stick. Geoffrey Pyatt: Okay. Victoria Nuland: So, Biden’s willing. Geoffrey Pyatt: Okay, great. Thanks. Senator John McCain on Ukraine, C-SPAN, Atlantic Council of the U.S., December 13, 2013 Speakers: John S. McCain III Watch on YouTube Transcript: 16:45 Sen. John McCain: Finally, we must encourage the European Union and the IMF to keep their doors open to Ukraine. Ultimately, the support of both institutions is indispensible for Ukraine's future. And eventually, a Ukrainian President, either this one or a future one, will be prepared to accept the fundamental choice facing the country, which is this: While there are real short-term costs to the political and economic reforms required for IMF assistance and EU integration, and while President Putin will likely add to these costs by retaliating against Ukraine's economy, the long-term benefits for Ukraine in taking these tough steps are far greater and almost limitless. This decision cannot be borne by one person alone in Ukraine. Nor should it be. It must be shared—both the risks and the rewards—by all Ukrainians, especially the opposition and business elite. It must also be shared by the EU, the IMF and the United States. All of us in the West should be prepared to help Ukraine, financially and otherwise, to overcome the short-term pain that reforms will require and Russia may inflict. Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations Music Presented in This Episode Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio)  

Coffee table or cocktail table? What do you call it? We don't care, we just love them! They add presence to your room and make the living room feel grounded. Today we're talking about what to look for in a coffee table and also including links to our favorites. Anita loves these coffee tables Aberlard coffee table HERE. Devito coffee table HERE Rittenhouse tufted coffee table ottoman HERE Janise coffee table HERE Ringgold extendable coffee table HERE Rosendahl coffee table HERE Athena bench HERE Bornova coffee table HERE Kelly loves these coffee tables: Hammered brass HERE (https://www.potterybarn.com/products/bermuda-hammered-brass-coffee-table/?catalogId=11&sku=4316236&cm_ven=PLA&cm_cat=Google&cm_pla=Outdoor%20%3E%20Accent%20Tables%20%3E%20Coffee%20Tables&cm_ite=4316236&gclid=CjwKCAjwscDpBRBnEiwAnQ0HQBkY3NTkw486VHJvwDTXMT0LqnPOlRp7rtytFTPnopkpv48U_3EIqBoCLgEQAvD_BwE) Marble topped from Anthro HERE (https://www.anthropologie.com/shop/leavenworth-marble-coffee-table?category=furniture-coffee-end-tables&color=070) Light gray from Article HERE (https://www.article.com/product/11719/silicus-light-gray-oblong-coffee-table?forceCurrencyId=1%3Fartcl_campignID%3D900506311&artcl_network=g&artcl_adgroupid=44470072225&artcl_keyword=&artcl_source=google&gclid=CjwKCAjwscDpBRBnEiwAnQ0HQPAeh3J7Vic5JMzLChqrVFz6MfT_HxOFgM7oLO7F7C27ipz6Ytjx6hoCXm4QAvD_BwE). Crate & Barrel set of two tables HERE (https://www.crateandbarrel.com/echo-bunching-table-set-of-2/s668005?localedetail=US&a=1552&campaignid=853779501&adgroupid=46164021347&targetid=aud-304545242345:pla-301746307103&pla_sku=668005&pcat=FURN&ag=adult&scid=scplp668005&sc_intid=668005&gclid=CjwKCAjwscDpBRBnEiwAnQ0HQPacrDiZrcL_LsjpXz5aVW6wSifavEpE5Nc2LrUgiaH7RX4z6GjzBhoCF8AQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds). Target brass tray topped table HERE (https://www.crateandbarrel.com/echo-bunching-table-set-of-2/s668005?localedetail=US&a=1552&campaignid=853779501&adgroupid=46164021347&targetid=aud-304545242345:pla-301746307103&pla_sku=668005&pcat=FURN&ag=adult&scid=scplp668005&sc_intid=668005&gclid=CjwKCAjwscDpBRBnEiwAnQ0HQPacrDiZrcL_LsjpXz5aVW6wSifavEpE5Nc2LrUgiaH7RX4z6GjzBhoCF8AQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds). affiliate links Anita is crushing on Pacifica eye shadow HERE Kelly is crushing on hot yoga. The afterglow is worth the 90 minute struggle ! Want to stay on top of everything DTT? Get our emails! CLICK HERE.  xx, Anita and Kelly

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Things often don’t go according to plan. In this episode, featuring a feverish and frustrated Jen Briney, learn about the shamefully rushed process employed by the Democrats to pass their top priority bill, H.R. 1, through the House of Representatives. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Click here to contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Click here to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536 Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes CD129: The Impeachment of John Koskinen Bill Outline: HR 1 For The People Act of 2019 Govtrack - Full Text Official title: “To expand American’s access to the ballot box, reduce the influence of big money in politics, and strengthen ethics rules for public servants, and for other purposes.” Short Title: For the People Act of 2019 Sponsor: Rep. John Sarbanes (MD-3) First co-sponsor: Nancy Pelosi Referred to 10 committees: House Administration House Intelligence (Permanent Select) House Judiciary House Oversight and Government Reform House Science, Space, and Technology House Education and the Workforce House Ways and Means House Financial Services House Ethics House Homeland Security Division A: Voting TITLE I: ELECTION ACCESS Subtitle A: Voter Registration Modernization “Voter Registration Modernization Act of 2019" Part 1: Promoting Internet Registration Sec. 1001: Every State Has to Allow Us To Register to Vote Online Requires every State to allow residents to register to vote online and be given an online receipt of their completed voter registration application Signatures can be electronic as long as the individual has a signature on file with a State agency, including the DMV. People who don’t have signatures on file can submit handwritten signatures through digital means or sign in person on Election Day. Signatures will be required on Election Day for people who registered to vote online and have not previously voted in a Federal election in that state. Sec. 1002: Every State Has To Allow Us To Update Our Registration Online States must allow registered voters to update their registrations online too Sec. 1003: Voter Information Online Instead Of Regular Mail Tells states to include a space for voters to submit an email address and get voting information via email instead of using regular mail (we may need that to be “in addition to”) Prohibits our emails from being given to anyone who is outside the government. The State will have to provide people who opted for emails, at least 7 days before the election, online information including the name and address of the voter’s polling place, that polling place’s hours, and which IDs the voter may need to vote at that polling place. Sec. 1004: 'Valid Voter Registration' Form Definition Defines what is a “valid voter registration form”: The form is accurate and the online applicant provided a signature. Sec. 1005: Effective Date: January 1, 2020. Part 2: Automatic Voter Registration “Automatic Voter Registration Act of 2019" Sec. 1012: Automatic Registration of Eligible Voters Every State will have to create and operate a system for automatically registering everyone eligible to vote “for Federal office in the State”. The States will have 15 days to register a person to vote after getting updated voter information from another agency. Sec. 1015: "Voter Protection and Security in Automatic Registration" Declining automatic registration can’t be used as evidence “In any State or Federal law enforcement proceeding" States will have to keep records of all changes to voter records, including removals and updates, for 2 years and make those available for public inspection. Gives the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology the power to write the rules for how States can use voter information to deem a person ineligible and to write privacy and security standards for voter registration information Voter registration information “shall not be used for commercial purposes.” Sec. 1016: Corrections to Voter Information Can Be Done on Election Day Voters in all States would be able to update their address, name, or political party affiliation in person on Election Day, and they could vote using the corrected information using a regular ballot, not a provisional ballot. Sec. 1017: The Federal Government Will Pay to Make The Changes Authorizes $500 million for 2019, available until it’s gone. Sec. 1021: Effective Date - January 1, 2021 Part 3: Same Day Voter Registration Sec. 1031: Voters Can Register At the Polling Place On Election Day System would have to be in place by November 2020 Part 4: Conditions on Removal on Basis of Interstate Cross-Checks Sec. 1041: Requirements To Use Cross Check To Remove Voters Prohibits States from using interstate crosscheck systems to remove people from voter rules until the State receives the voter’s full name, including their middle name, date of birth, and last 4 digits of their social security numbers and if the State has documentation verifying the voter is no longer a resident of the State. Interstate cross checks can not be used to remove voters from rolls within six months of an election Effective date: Six months after enactment Part 7: Prohibiting Interference with Voter Registration Sec. 1071: Fines and Prison For Interference in Voter Registration People who prevent another person from registering to vote, or attempt to prevent another person from registering, “shall be fined” or imprisoned for up to five years, or both. Effective date: Elections on or after enactment Subtitle B: Access to Voting for Individuals With Disabilities  Subtitle C: Prohibiting Voter Caging  Sec. 1201: Prohibits Removal of Names Based Solely on Caging Lists State/local election officials will not be allowed to deny a voter registration if the decision is based on a voter caging document, an unverified match list, or an error on a registration that is not material to the citizen’s eligibility to vote. Challenges to voter registration by non-election officials will only be allowed if the person has personal knowledge documented in writing and subject to an attestation under penalty of perjury. Penalties for knowingly challenging the eligibility of someone else’s voter registration with the intent to disqualify that person is punishable by a fine and/or one year in prison for each violation. Subtitle D : Prohibiting Deceptive Practices and Preventing Voter Intimidation - “Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2019" Sec. 1302: Prohibits Lying To Prevent People From Voting Makes it illegal to communicate by any means false information regarding the time and place of an election, the voter’s registration status or eligibility, or criminal penalties for voting within 60 days of an election if the communication has the intent of preventing another person from voting. Makes it illegal, within 60 days of an election, to communicate by any means false information regarding an endorsement by a person or political party that didn’t actually happen. Penalties: A fine of up to $100,000, five years in prison, or both. The penalties are the same for attempts to lie to people to prevent them from voting. Subtitle E: Democracy Restoration - “Democracy Restoration Act of 2019" Sec. 1402: Voting Rights Extend to Ex-Cons “The right of an individual who is a citizen of the United States to vote in any election for Federal office shall not be denied or abridged because that individual has been convicted of a criminal offense unless such individual is serving a felony sentence in a correctional institution or facility at the time of the election." Sec. 1408: Effective for any election held after enactment Subtitle F: Promoting Accuracy, Integrity, and Security Through Verified Permanent Paper Ballot - “Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2019” Sec. 1502: Requires Paper Ballots for All Federal Elections Requires all voting systems to use individual paper ballots that are verified by the voter before their vote is cast which “shall be counted by hand or read by an optical character recognition device or other counting device” The paper ballots must be preserved as the official ballots and will be counted by hand for recounts and audits If there is a difference between the electronic vote count and the hand count of paper ballots, the hand count of paper ballots will be the final count. Subtitle H: Early Voting Sec. 1611: Every State Must Allow Early Voting for 15 Days Every State will be required to allow citizens to vote in Federal elections during the 15 days preceding the election, with polls open for at least 4 hours per day except on Sundays. Effective Date: Elections after January 1, 2020 Subtitle I: Voting by Mail Sec. 1621: Vote By Mail National Standards States can’t count absentee ballots until they match the signature on the ballot to the signature on the State’s official list of registered voters States must provide ballots and voting materials at least 2 weeks before the election Effective date: Elections held on or after January 1, 2020 Subtitle J: Absent Uniformed Services Voters and Overseas Voters Subtitle K: Poll Worker Recruitment and Training Sec. 1801: Federal Employees As Poll Workers Employees of Federal agencies will be allowed to be excused from work for up to 6 days in order to work in polling places on Election Day and for training. Subtitle L: Enhancement of Enforcement Subtitle M: Federal Election Integrity Sec. 1821: Head of Elections Can’t Campaign for Elections They Oversee It will be illegal for a chief State election administration official to take part in a political campaign “with respect to any election for Federal office over which such official has supervisory authority” Subtitle N: Promoting Voter Access Through Election Administration Improvements  Sec. 1902: Notification for Polling Place Changes States must notify voters at least seven days in advance if the State has changed their polling place to somewhere other than where they last voted Effective January 1, 2020 Sec. 1903: Election Day Holiday The Tuesday after the first Monday in November 2020 and each even-numbered year after that will be treated as a legal public holiday Encourages, but does not require, the private sector to give their workers the day off for elections Sec. 1904: Sworn Written Statements to Meet ID Requirements If a State requires an ID to vote, a person may vote if they provide, in person, a sworn written statement signed under penalty of perjury attesting to their identity and that they are eligible to vote, unless they are first time voters in the State. Effective for elections occurring on or after enactment Sec. 1905: Postage Free Ballots Absentee ballots will not require postage The Post Office will be reimbursed by States for the lost revenue TITLE II: ELECTION INTEGRITY Subtitle E: Redistricting Reform - “Redistricting Reform Act of 2019” Sec. 2402: Independent Commissions for Redistricting Congressional redistricting must be done by an independent redistricting commission established in the State or by a plan development and enacted into law by a 3 judge court of the US District Court for the District of Columbia Sec. 2411: Creating the Independent Redistricting Commissions The Commissions will be made up of 15 members from the “selection pool” (see Sec. 2412) 5 members will be selected randomly from the 12 belonging to the political party with the most registered voters in the State 5 members will be selected randomly from the 12 belonging to the political party with the second most registered voters in the State 5 members will be selected randomly from the 12 who are not affiliated with the two largest political parties The Chair must be a member of the group that is not affiliated with the largest two parties in the State and will be selected via a majority vote of the commission The State can not finalize a redistricting plan unless the plan gets a vote from someone in each of the three membership categories and it passes with a majority of the commission voting yes. Contractors for the commission can be required to provide their political contribution history Sec. 2412: Eligibility for the Independent Commission “Selection Pool” To qualify, the individual must... Be registered to vote Either be with the same political party or with no political party for the previous 3 years Submits an application including a declaration of their political party, if they belong to one, and a commitment to impartiality. An individual is disqualified if the individual or an immediate family member within the 5 years preceding their appointment... Holds public office or is a candidate for public office Serves as an officer of a political party or as a political party consultant Is a registered lobbyist Is an employee of an elected public official, a contractor with the legislature of a State, or a donor who gives more than $20,000 to candidates for public offices. The selection pool will have 36 individuals made up of... 12 individuals affiliated with the political party with the largest percentage of registered voters in the State 12 individuals affiliated with the political party with the second largest percentage of registered voters in the State 12 individuals who are not affiliated with either of the two largest political parties The selection pool must be approved by the State’s Select Committee on Redistricting Inaction is a rejection of the selection pool Sec. 2413: Criteria for New Districts Districts must be created using this criteria in this order: Districts must comply with the Constitution, including the requirement that the equalize total population Districts must comply with the Voting Rights Act and all Federal laws Districts can’t be drawn in a way that dilutes the ability for minority communities to elect candidates Districts must minimize the division of neighborhoods, counties, municipalities, and school districts “to the extent practicable” Districts may not be drawn to favor or disfavor any political party The commission may not consider the political party affiliation or voting history of the district’s population or the resident of any member of the House of Representatives when drawing the district maps All meetings must be held in public, must take comments into consideration and they must publish information, including video archives, about their meetings on a public website Sec. 2431: Authorizes payments to States of $150,000 per district to help pay for the redistricting process Subtitle F: Saving Voters from Voter Purging -“Stop Automatically Voiding Eligible Voters Off Their Enlisted Rolls in States Act” - “Save Voters Act”  Sec. 2502: Restricting Voter Roll Purges States can’t use the failure of a voter to vote or the voter’s failure to respond to a notice as the basis for removing their name from the voter rolls TITLE III: ELECTION SECURITY Subtitle A: Financial Support for Election Infrastructure Part 1: Voting System Security Improvement Gains Part 2: Grants for Risk-Limiting Audits of Results of Elections Part 3: Election Infrastructure Innovation Grant Program Subtitle B: Security Measures Subtitle C: Enhancing Protections for United Stated Democratic Institutions Subtitle D : Promoting Cybersecurity Through Improvements in Election Administration Subtitle E: Preventing Election Hacking Division B: Campaign Finance TITLE IV: CAMPAIGN FINANCE TRANSPARENCY Subtitle B: DISCLOSE Act - “Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections Act”  Part 1: Regulation of Certain Political Spending Sec. 4101: Foreign Owned Corporations Count as “Foreign Nationals” Makes it illegal for a corporation, LLC, or partnership which is more than 5% owned by a foreign government or 20% owned by foreign individual to directly or indirectly make a contribution in connection with a Federal, State, or local election or a contribution to a political party. It’s also illegal for Americans to accept or solicit a contribution from “foreign nationals” (amends 52 U.S.C 30121(b)) Effective 180 days after enactment, regardless of if regulations are done Part 2: Reporting of Campaign-Related Disbursements Sec. 4111: Corporations Must Report Donations Any corporation, LLC, or tax exempt organization (other than 501(c)3 “charities”) that make campaign contributions totaling more than $10,000 in the 2 year election cycle must file a statement containing the name of the donating organization, the business address, a list of that business or corporations’ controlling owners, and the name/address of the person who received each donation of more than $1,000. If the corporation, LLC, or tax exempt organization pays for a public communication, they must report the name of any candidate identified and whether the communication was in support or opposition to that candidate. Subtitle C: Honest Ads - “Honest Ads Act” Sec. 4205: Disclosure of Sources of Online Political Ads Extends political ad disclosure laws to internet and other digital communication Sec. 4207: Disclosures Must Be Clear Ads must include a statement telling us the name of the person who paid for the communication in a way that is not difficult to read or hear Sec. 4208: Public Record of Online Political Ads * Requires online platforms to create and make available online for public inspection a complete record of requests to purchase political advertisements if they purchase more than $500 worth in one calendar year Subtitle D : Stand by Every Ad - “Stand By Every Ad Act" Subtitle E: Secret Money Transparency Sec. 4401: IRS Can Investigate Dark Money Groups Again Repeals the restriction enacted by the 115th Congress on the IRS that prevented them from making sure tax exempt organizations aren’t using their funds for political expenditures Subtitle F: Shareholder Right-to-Know Sec. 4501: SEC Can Enforce Shareholder Disclosure Laws Repeals the restriction enacted by the 115th Congress on the Securities and Exchange Commission that prevented them from enforcing laws related to corporations informing shareholders about the corporations political activity. Subtitle G: Disclosure of Political Spending by Government Contractors Sec. 4601: Contractors Can Be Forced to Disclose Donations Repeals the restriction enacted by the 115th Congress that prevented requiring government contractors to report their political spending Subtitle H: Limitation and Disclosure Requirements for Presidential Inaugural Committees - “Presidential Inaugural Committee Oversight Act" TITLE V: CAMPAIGN FINANCE EMPOWERMENT Subtitle B: Congressional Elections - “Government By the People Act of 2019” Part 1: My Voice Voucher Pilot Program Sec. 5101: Voucher Pilot Program The Federal Election Commission will create an pilot program and select 3 states to operate it Sec. 5102: Pilot Program Details State’s will provided individuals who request one a “My Voice Voucher" worth $25 Individuals can give their voucher dollars, in $5 increments, to qualified candidates for Congress. Part 2: Small Dollar Financing of Congressional Election Campaigns Sec. 5111: 6x Matching of Small Dollar Donations Payments will be 600% of the amount of small dollar contributions received by the candidate during the Small Dollar Democracy qualifying period Small dollar contribution is between $1 and $200 Limit: The total amount of payments made to a candidate may not be more than 50% of the average of the “20 greatest amounts of disbursements made by the authorized committees of any winning candidate for the office of Representatives in, or Delegate or Resident Commissioner to, the Congress during the most recent election cycle, rounded to the nearest $100,000.” Candidates can get an additional payment of up to $500,000 during the period between 60 days and 14 days before the election, which doesn’t count towards the total limit. Candidates are eligible if they can get 1,000 people to make a small dollar contribution and if the candidate can raise at least $50,000. Eligible candidates can’t take more than $1,000 total from any individual. Eligible candidates can’t use more than $50,000 in personal funds. Will be funded by a “Freedom of Influence Fund" Sec. 5112: Coordination with Parties Sec. 5114: Effective starting in 2024 elections Subtitle C: Presidential Elections - “Empower Act of 2019" Part 1: Primary Elections Part 2: General Elections Part 3: Effective Date Subtitle D : Personal Use Services as Authorized Campaign Expenditures - “Help America Run Act” TITLE VI: CAMPAIGN FINANCE OVERSIGHT Subtitle A: Restoring Integrity to America’s Elections Sec. 6002: Changes to FEC make up Subtitle B: Stopping Super PAC-Candidate Coordination Division C: Ethics TITLE VII: ETHICAL STANDARDS Subtitle B: Foreign Agents Registration Sec. 7101: New Department of Justice Investigation Unit Will be dedicated to enforcing the Foreign Agents Registration Act Subtitle C: Lobbying Disclosure Reform Sec. 7201: Expands Definition of “Lobbyist” To include people who provide “legislative, political, and strategic counseling services, research, and other background work” as lobbyists in terms of disclosure requirements Effective upon enactment Subtitle D : Recusal of Presidential Appointees Sec. 7301: Recusal of Appointees Any officer or employee appointed by the President must recuse themselves from any matter involving the President who appointed the officer or employee or that President’s spouse. TITLE VIII: ETHICS REFORMS FOR THE PRESIDENT, VICE PRESIDENT, AND FEDERAL OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES Subtitle A: Executive Branch Conflict of Interest Sec. 8002: Prohibits Private Sector Payments for Entering Government Private companies can’t provide bonus payments, pensions, retirement, group life/health/accident insurance, profit-sharing, stock bonus, or other payments contingent on accepting a position in the U.S. Government. Sec. 8003: Slowing the Revolving Door Executive Branch employees can’t use their government position to “participate in a particular matter” if they know a company they worked for in the last two years has a financial interest. Penalty: Fine and/or 1 year in prison. Penalty for willful violation: Fine and/or up to 5 years in prison Civil penalties: The greater of $100,000 per violation or the amount the person received or was offered for conducting the violation Sec. 8004: Waiting Period For Procurement Officers To Work for Contractors A former official responsible for a government contract can not accept payments from any division, affiliate, or subcontractor of the chosen contractor for 2 years after awarding the contract. A government employee can not award a contract to his or her former employer for 2 years after they leave the company. Sec. 8005: Lobbying Job Waiting Period Senior level Executive Branch employees have to wait 2 years before they can be paid to influence their former colleagues Subtitle B: Presidential Conflicts of Interest Subtitle C: White House Ethics Transparency Subtitle D : Executive Branch Ethics Enforcement Subtitle E: Conflicts for Political Fundraising Sec. 8042: Disclosure of Certain Types of Contributions People who are nominated to high level Executive Branch offices will have to disclose their contributions to political organizations, 501(c)4’s, and 501(c)6’s. Subtitle F: Transition Team Ethics Subtitle G: Ethics Pledge for Senior Executive Branch Employees TITLE IX: CONGRESSIONAL ETHICS REFORM Subtitle A: Requiring members of Congress to Reimburse Treasury for Amounts Paid as Settlements and Awards Under Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 Subtitle B: Conflicts of Interest Sec. 9101: Members Can’t Be on For-Profit Boards of Directors Changes the House Rules so that members of the House of Representatives will not be allowed to serve on the board of "any for-profit entity" while serving in the House of Representatives. Sec. 9103: Prohibition Above Can Be Changed via House Rules Subtitle C: Campaign Finance and Lobbying Disclosure - “Connecting Lobbying and Electeds for Accountability and Reform Act” “CLEAR Act" Sec. 9202: Separate Reports for Lobbyist Donations Report submitted by political campaigns will have to report which donations are made by registered lobbyists in a separate statement (amends 52 U.S.C. 30104(b)) Sec. 9203: Effective 90 Days After Enactment Subtitle D : Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Sec. 9303: Online Portal for Congressionally Mandated Reports Portal will create, within one year of enactment, an online portal providing free public digital access to all congressionally mandated reports Reports will be available within 30 days of their submission to Congress TITLE X: PRESIDENTIAL AND VICE PRESIDENTIAL TAX TRANSPARENCY Sec. 10001: Presidential and Vice Presidential Tax Return Disclosure Requires candidates for President and Vice President to submit their tax returns for the last 10 taxable years to the Federal Election Commission within 15 days of declaring their candidacy The chairman of the Federal Election Commission must make the candidates’ tax returns, with personal information redacted, publicly available Effective upon enactment    Additional Reading Article: 10 things you might not know about HR 1 by Lindsey McPherson and Kate Ackley, Roll Call, March 6, 2019. Article: Conservative expert privately warned GOP donors that a voting rights bill would help Democrats by Lee Fang and Nick Surgey, The Intercept, February 27, 2019. Article: House Democrats forge ahead on electoral reform bill by Zach Montellaro, Politico, February 26, 2019. Markup: H.R. 1, For the People Act of 2019, February 26 ,2019. Article: House Democrats officially unveil their first bill in the majority: a sweeping anti-corruption proposal by Ella Nilson, Vox, January 4, 2019. Article: One state fixed its gerrymandered districts, the other didnt. Here's how the election played out in both by Christopher Ingraham, The Washington Post, November 9, 2018. Article: 6 takeaways from Georgia's 'Use It Or Lose It' voter purge investigation by Johnny Kauffman, NPR, October 22, 2018. Article: Registration is a voter-suppression tool. Let's finally end it by Ellen Kurz, The Washington Post, October 11, 2018. Report: Purges: A growing threat to the right to vote by Jonathan Brater, Kevin Morris, Myrna Pérez, and Christopher Deluzio, Brennan Center for Justice, July 20, 2018. Article: How Maryland Democrats pulled off their aggressive gerrymander by Christopher Ingraham, The Washington Post, March 28, 2018. Article: Pennsylvania Supreme Court draws 'much more competitive' district map to overturn Republican gerrymander by Christopher Ingraham, The Washington Post, February 20, 2018. Article: Pennsylvania redistricting decision gives Democrats a boost by Bill Barrow and Mark Scolforo, AP News, February 6, 2018. Article: How redistricting became a technological arms race by Vann R. Newkirk II, The Atlantic, October 28, 2017. Article: Government by Goldman by Gary Rivlin and Michael Hudson, The Intercept, September 17, 2017. Article: The most gerrymandered states ranked by efficiency gap and seat advantage by Daniel McGlone and Esther Needham, Azavea, July 19, 2017. Article: Here are the first 10 members of Trump's voting commission by Christopher Ingraham, The Washington Post, July 6, 2017. Article: 3 Trump Cabinet officials will still be receiving millions from corporate America by Jeff Stein, Vox, February 3, 2017. Article: Trump adviser Gary Cohn's $285 million Goldman Sachs exit raises eyebrows by Matt Egan, CNN Business, January 27, 2017. Article: The IRS gives up on fighting 'dark money' by Editorial Board, The Washington Post, February 19, 2016. Article: How Crossroads GPS beat the IRS and became a social welfare group by Robert Maguire, OpenSecrets.org, Febraury 12, 2016. Blog: Congress uses PATH to cut IRS off from Section 501(c)(4) social welfare regulations, Wagenmaker & Oberly, December 30, 2015. Article: This is the best explanation of gerrymandering you will ever see by Christopher Ingraham, The Washington Post, March 1, 2015. Article: Five 501(c)(3) groups that might have broken the law by Lee Fang, The Nation, May 21, 2013. Article: The voter-fraud myth by Jane Mayer, The New Yorker, October 29, 2012. Article: Justice Dept. accused of partisan voter-roll purge by Pam Fessler, NPR, October 11, 2007. Resources Congressional Budget Office: H.R. 1, Estimated Effects on Direct Spending and Revenues Federal Election Commission: Using Campaign Funds for Personal Use How Stuff Works: PACs vs. Super PACs Research: All About Redistricting - Who draws the lines? Website: The Redistricting Majority Project Website: RepresentUs Sound Clip Sources Short Film: Unbreaking America: A NEW Short Film about Solving the Corruption Crisis, RepresentUs, YouTube, February 27, 2019. Full Committee Markup: H.R. 1, The For the People Act of 2019, Committee on House Administration, February 26, 2019. Youtube Video Hearing: For the People: Our American Democracy, Committee on House Administration, February 14, 2019. Youtube Video Witnesses: Chiraag Bains - Director of Legal Strategies at Demos Wendy Weiser - Director of the Democracy Program at the Brennen Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law Fred Wertheimer -President of Democracy 21 Kym Wyman - Secretary of State of Washington Alejandro Rangel-Lopez, Senior at Dodge City High School in Kansas and plaintiff in LULAC & Rangel-Lopez v. Cox Peter Earle - Wisconsin Civil Rights Trial Lawyer Brandon Jessup - Data Science and Information Systems Professional and Executive Director at Michigan Forward David Keating - President at the Institute for Free Speech Hearing: Full Committee Hearing on the "Strengthening Ethics Rules for the Executive Branch", Committee on Oversight and Reform, February 6, 2019. YouTube Video Witnesses: Scott Amey - General Counsel, Project on Government Oversight Karen Hobert Flynn - President of Common Cause Rudy Mehrbani - Spitzer Fellow and Senior Counsel, Brennen Center for Justice Walter Schaub Jr - Senior Advisor, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington Bradley Smith - Chairman at the Institute for Free Speech Sound Clips: 17:30 Rep. Elijah Cummings (D - MD) Title eight includes a bill that I introduced called the executive branch ethics reform act. It would, it would ban senior officials from accepting "golden parachute" payments from private sector employers in exchange for their government service. This would have prevented Gary Cohn from receiving more than $100 million in accelerated payments from Goldman Sachs while leading the Trump administration's efforts to slash corporate taxes. 19:00 Cummings Title eight also would make clear that Congress expects the president to divest his business holdings just as every single president since Jimmy Carter has done and place them in an independent and truly blind trust. 28:00 Rep. Jim Jordan (R - OH) In 2013 we learned that the IRS targeted conservative for their political beliefs during the 2012 election cycle systematically for a sustained period of time. They went after people for their conservative beliefs, plan in place, targeted people. They did it. The gross abuse of power would have continued, if not for the efforts of this committee. 2014 the Obama Administration doubled down and attempted to use the IRS rule making process to gut the ability of social welfare organizations to participate in public debate. Congress has so far prevented this regulation from going into effect, but HR 1 would change that. 28:30 Jordan Furthermore, this bill would roll back another critical victory for privacy and free speech secured just last summer following efforts by this committee and others, the IRS changed its policy as it relates to schedule B information. Schedule B contains personal information like names, addresses, and the amounts donated to nonprofit entities. Even though this information is supposed to remain private under current law, states and federal government have leaked these personal details in the past. In changing its policies, the IRS noted that there had been at least 14 breaches resulting in the unauthorized disclosure of schedule B information just since 2010. The result was everyday Americans receiving death threats and mail containing white powder. All because someone disagreed with what they believe and who they gave their hard earned money to. 59:00 Walter Schaub HR 1 addresses big payouts to incoming officials. These golden parachutes raise concerns about an employee appointees loyalty to a former employer. When former Treasury Secretary Jack Lew left Wall Street to join the State Department, he received a large bonus in his employment agreement. Let him keep that bonus specifically because he landed at a high level government job. 1:04:00 Bradley Smith Subtitle B of title six is called Stopping Super PAC and candidate coordination. The sponsors and drafters are either being intentionally disingenuous here or are they simply do not understand what has been put into their own legislation. Nothing in subtitle B, nothing limits. It's reached a super PACs. It applies to every union trade association, advocacy group and unincorporated association in the country. It applies to planned parenthood and right to life, to the NAACP and the ACLU to the national federation of Independent Business and to the Brady Campaign for gun safety. It even applies to individual citizens who seek to participate in public discussion. Nothing. This cannot be said often enough limits it to super PACs through the interplay of its definitions of coordination and coordinated spenders. The laws treatment, uh, traditional treatment of coordinated spending as a contribution to a candidate and current contribution limits in the law. Subtitle be, will actually have the effect of banning, not limiting, but actually banning a great deal of speech that was legal even before the Supreme Court's decision in citizens United versus FEC and Buckley v Vallejo. 1:39:00 Smith I would only add that I think that the disclosure provisions are often worse than people think because they're defining as political activity things that have never been defined as political before. And you run the risk of a regulation swallowing up the entire, uh, discourse in which public, uh, engages. So I would only say that I think the provisions are worse than people think and that they're often hidden through the complex interrelationship of different positions. Well, one, one example would be if an organization, uh, for example, were to hire somebody who had previously been an intern, a paid intern for a member of Congress, that organization would then be prohibited from making any communications that were deemed to promote a tax support or oppose a that candidate. And that vague term could apply to almost anything praising the candidate for introducing a bill, uh, criticizing the congressman for opposing a bill, whatever it might be. Jordan Wow. That put the whole consultant business in this town out of business, it seems to me. Smith It's not just the consulting business. Oh, of course. It puts out of business all of the interest groups and all of the civic groups that people belong to. 1:43:00 Cummings One year ago today when my mother's dying bed at 92 years old, former sharecropper, her last words were, do not let them take our votes away from us. They had fought, she had fought and seen people harmed and beaten, trying to vote. Talk about inalienable rights. Voting is crucial, and I don't give a damn how you look at it. There are efforts to stop people from voting. That's not right. This is not Russia. This is the United States of America, and I will fight until the death to make sure every citizen, whether they're Green party, whether they're Freedom Party, whether they're Democrat, whether you're Republican, whoever has that right to vote. 1:46:00 Karen Hobert Flynn Election day registration is a perfect antidote to a purge so that you can show up on election day. If you see that there's a problem, then you can register to vote and vote on that day. 2:19:00 Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R - ND) North Dakota is the only state in the country without voter registration. We have voting. We have counties that vote exclusively by mail, and we currently have no excuse, absentee ballot, absentee voting. We have, we allow felons to vote immediately upon release from prison. Um, our poll workers are almost exclusively volunteers across the entire state. So in short, we have the, the best and easiest vote voting, voting booth access in the entire country, and we are incredibly proud of that. 2:23:00 Armstrong North, we, and this might be a little change, but it's really important to the voters in North Dakota. So we, uh, we start our absentee or early voting process, I think for military deployed overseas, it says early as August. And we have, as I said, no excuse absentee ballots. But what we require is that our ballots are postmarked the day before the election. And in North Dakota, we really, really try to make sure the election is over on election day. Um, north Dakotans don't understand how an election can change by 12, 13, 14,000 votes in the two to three weeks after an election day. Now I'm not in the business and telling people in California or somewhere else how to do their voting laws, but that just is something that is not appropriate here. And this would require ballots to be postmarked up until election day, correct? That's correct. 2:24:00 Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD) I wish Mr. Meadows were still here because I'm delighted that he's thinking of stepping into the small donor matching system that has proposed an HR 1. Because when you step into that system, you step into a system that is owned by the people. This is why it's in the bill because the public is tired of feeling like their elections, their system, their government, their democracy is owned by special interests, big corporations, Wall Street, oil and gas industry, super PACs, lobbyists, everybody. But then this is the power move. They want to own their democracy again. 2:27:00 Sarbanes Somebody said, why are we hooking all these things together? Voting ethics, campaign finance, because the people have told us, if you just do one and you don't do the others were still frozen out. The system is still rigged. You fix the voting stuff, but if you go to Washington and nobody's behaving themselves, that doesn't solve the problem or you fix the ethics part, but we're still, the system is still owned by the big money in the special interests because they're the ones that are underwriting the campaigns. Then we're still left out. The system is still rigged. You got to do all of these things together to reset the democracy in a place where it respects the average citizen out there. Who right now is sitting in their kitchen, they're looking at the TV screen there. They're hearing about billionaires and super PACs who are making decisions inside conference rooms somewhere on K Street that affect their lives and all they're saying is we want back in. We're tired of sitting out here with our nose is pressed against the window looking in on the democracy that we have no impact on. That's why we're linking all of these things together to reset the table. So the special interests aren't the ones that are calling the shots. 2:29:00 Sarbanes The provisions of transparency in this bill are targeted to mega donors who give more than $10,000 who right now are hidden behind this Russian doll kind of structure where you can't see who it is, who's behind the curtain, who's putting all this money into campaigns. The public wants to know that that's reasonable. 2:38:00 Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) And I'm deeply troubled at what appears to be a Russian engagement through 501(c)(4)s in this country, whether it's the NRA or, um, other, uh, nonprofits that are created for the express purpose here in the United States to lobby on behalf of Russia as it related to the Magnitsky Act. Um, so right now there is no limitation on how much money can be contributed by a foreign government entity to a 501(c)(4). Is that correct? Hobert Flynn I believe that is, yes. Speier And there is no disclosure required as well. Is that correct? Hobert Flynn I believe that's right. Speier So in your estimation, would it be prudent for us to one, limit the amount of contributions that a foreign individual can make to a 501(c)(4), and two, that all of that be subject to disclosure? Hobert Flynn Yeah, I think, I think it would be very important. Um, you know, there are limits. There are bans on foreign nationals giving money in campaign contributions, and I think we should be looking at those kinds of limits for, um, and it's certainly disclosure for, um, contributions to 501(c)(4)s. 2:56:00 Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-OH) You hear so much attack on political action committees, PACs, Mr. Smith, or maybe you'd be best one to answer this. I don't know, maybe I don't want us to answer it. Where do political action committees get their money? Smith Political action committees get their money from individuals. Traditional PACs do. Now Super PACS as they're called, can take money from corporations and unions, but they are not able to contribute directly to candidates. Sort of coordinate anything with candidates. Gibbs I appreciate that. Uh, make the point. Um, because I, I got attacked because I take political action money, but it comes from businesses in my district. A lot of it, it comes from associations. You know, everybody has somebody lobbying for them in DC. I mean, if you're, if you're a member, of a retirement association, any organization, you've got a lobbyist here. 2:57:00 Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) Let's play a game, let's play a lightening round game. I'm going to be the bad guy, which I'm sure half the room would agree with anyway. And um, and I want to get away with as much bad things as possible, ideally to enrich myself and advance my interest even if that means putting, uh, putting my interests ahead of the American people. So, um, Mrs Holbert Flynn. Oh, and by the way, I have listed all of you as my co conspirators, so you're going to help me legally get away with all of this. So Mrs Herbert Flynn, I want to run, if I want to run a campaign that is entirely funded by corporate political action committees, is that, is there anything that legally prevents me from doing that? Hobert Flynn No. Ocasio-Cortez Okay. So there's nothing stopping me from being entirely funded by corporate PACs, say from the fossil fuel industry, the healthcare industry, big Pharma. I'm entirely 100% lobbyists PAC funded. Okay. So let's see. I'm a really, really bad guy and let's see, I've have some skeletons in my closet that I need to cover it up so that I can get elected. Um, Mr. Smith, is it true that you wrote this article, this opinion piece for the Washington Post entitled These Payments to Women Were Unseemly? That doesn't mean they were illegal. Smith Well, I can't see the piece but I wrote a piece or that headline in the post's so I assume that's right. Ocasio-Cortez Okay, great. So green-light for hush money, I can do all sorts of terrible things. It's totally legal right now for me to pay people off and that is considered speech. That money is considered speech. So I use my special interest, dark money funded campaign to pay off folks that I need to pay off and get elected. So now I'm elected, now I'm in, I've got the power to draft, lobby and shape the laws that govern the United States of America. Fabulous. Now is there any hard limit that I have, perhaps Mrs Herbert Flynn? Is there any hard limit that I have in terms of what legislation I'm allowed to touch? Are there any limits on the laws that I can write or influence? Especially if I'm a based on the special interest funds that I accepted to finance my campaign and get me elected in the first place. Herbert Flynn There's no limit. Ocasio-Cortez So there's none. So I can be totally funded by oil and gas that can be totally funded by big Pharma come in. Right. Big Pharma laws and there's no limits to that whatsoever. Herbert Flynn That's right. Ocasio-Cortez Okay, so awesome. Now, uh, now Mr Mehrabani, the last thing I want to do is get rich with as little work possible. That's really what I'm trying to do as the bad guy. Right? So is there anything preventing me from holding stocks say in an oil or gas company and then writing laws to deregulate that that industry and cause you know, that could potentially cause the stock value to soar and accrue a lot of money in that time, Rudy Mehrbani You could do that. Ocasio-Cortez So I could do that. I could do that. Now with the way our current laws are set up. Yes? Mehrbani Yes. Ocasio-Cortez Okay, great. Okay. So my last question is, or one of my last questions, I guess I'd say is, is it possible that any elements of this story apply to our current government in our current public servants right now? Mehrbani Yes. Ocasio-Cortez So we have a system that is fundamentally broken. We have these influences existing in this body, which means that these influences are here in this committee shaping the questions that are being asked of you all right now. Would you say that that's correct, Mr Mehrbani or Mr Shaub? Mehrbani Yes. Ocasio-Cortez Alright. So one last thing, Mr Shaub, in relation to congressional oversight that we have, the limits that are placed on me as a congress woman compared to the executive branch and compared to say, the president of the United States, would you say that Congress has the same sort of standard of accountability? Are there, is there more teeth in that regulation in Congress on the president? Or would you say it's about even or more so on the federal? Schaub Um, in terms of laws that apply to the president, there's just almost no laws at all that applied to the president. Ocasio-Cortez So I'm being held and every person in this body is being held to a higher ethical standard than the president of the United States. Schaub That's right. Cause or some committee ethics committee rules that apply to you. Ocasio-Cortez And it's already super legal as we've seen for me to be a pretty bad guy. So it's even easier for the president of the United States to be one, I would assume. Schaub That's right. Ocasio-Cortez Thank you very much. 3:04:00 Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) Uh, and when we think about what we're dealing with, with respect to a campaign finance, uh, are you familiar with doxing? Smith In the sense of outing people online that you're referring to? Yes, generally. Roy So for example, are you familiar with a Twitter account called every Trump donor, which tweeted out one by one, the names, hometowns, occupations, employers, the people who contribute as little as $200 to the president's campaign, each tweet, following a particular formula. My point being in the question for you is, when we talk about campaign disclosures, are we aware of the negative impacts that you have on forcing American citizens and exercising their free speech to have that information be disclosed? Whether that's good policy or not might be debatable, but is there, are there negative consequences to that with respect to free speech given you're an expert on free speech? Smith There are, and there are definitely studies that have shown that disclosure does tend to decrease participation. Now, that doesn't mean as you point out that it's not worth it, but it certainly has costs. And so we have to be careful on how broad we would let that disclosure become. 3:11:00 Scott Amey The law is created that has cooling off periods. And so there's no cooling off period of one year or two year or a permanent bans. HR 1 would move a lot of those to two years I think, which would be beneficial. And there's even disagreement in our community whether one year or two, you know, what is the appropriate time to kind of cool off so that your contacts aren't there. But this is also something that President Trump brought up when he was a candidate. He talked about, uh, I think it was Boeing at the time, but he went on record saying that people who give contracts should never be able to work for that defense contractor. This isn't a bipartisan, this is a bipartisan issue. This is something we can resolve. The laws are already on the books. We just need some extensions in some tweaking of those to improve them and allow people to cool off and not be able to provide a competitive advantage to their new employer or favor them as they're in office and they're walking out the door. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) And so you do believe that extending this cooling off period and strengthening these prohibitions would protect the integrity of the process and helped to reign in these flagrant abuses. Amey 100% in one of the nice things with HR 1 is there is an extension of a cooling off period for people coming into government service. Currently it exists and it's uh, it's one year. This will move it to two and I think that's a probably better place to be in. You shouldn't be handling issues that involve your former employer or clients. Pressley One final question. How might these cozy relationships between government officials and corporate leaders or private contractors help to boost profits for these prison and detention centers? Amey Well, certainly they go with a lot of information, uh, when, when they go over to the private sector. But it also allows them to get back into their former office and within their former agency and call on them. Access as, as you were just pointing out, access is everything in this town. And so if you can get your phone calls answered, if you can get emails read, if you get meetings at that point, that can, not only with members of Congress, but with agency heads that can determine who gets contracts. I mean, it does trickle down from the top and we need to make sure that we prevent as many like actual and also appearances of conflicts of interest as we can. 3:17:00 Rep. Carol D. Miller (R-WV) What impact would the passage of this legislation have on those groups that are not political but may put out policy oriented communications? Smith It would be very curious and I've given a number of examples in the written testimony. I just say that I should add to this of course that the bill includes personal liability for officers and directors of some of these organizations. So you need to almost have to be crazy to let your organization get anywhere close to this promote support attack opposed standard. And again, what does that mean as I suggested? Well, you know, again, uh, government union might take out an ad maybe in a month, right? Or three weeks from now saying don't let president Trump, we shouldn't have to pay because he wants his wall in Mexico, you know, so, so tell them to reopen the government. Is that an attack on president Trump? I think that's the kind of thing that, that folks would not know and would make people very hesitant to run that kind of ad. Miller So it is a personal risk as well. Smith Yes. Yes. Not only risk. Plus it would be a risk, by the way, as well, to the tax status of some of the organizations involved in many of these organizations might have some type of tax status. 501(c)(3) organizations would have to be very careful because if they engage in speech that is now defined as political speech, 501(c)(3) organizations can't engage in political speech. They would jeopardize their tax exempt status. So that's another reason that these organizations would stay far clear of commenting on any kind of public issue. Video: H.R. 1: A Democrat Political Power Grab, Senator Mitch McConnell, YouTube, January 30, 2019. Video: Video Tweeted by Senator Mitch McConnell, January 29, 2019. Hearing: Full Committee Hearing on the "For the People Act of 2019", House Committee on the Judiciary, January 29, 2019. YouTube Video Witnesses: Christian Adams- President and General Counsel, Public Interest Legal Foundation Vanita Gupta - President and Chief Executive Officer, Leadership Conference one Civil and Human Rights Sherrilyn Ifill - President and Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Adav Noti - Chief of Staff, Campaign Legal Center Sarah Tubervillie - Director of the Constitution Project, Project on Government Oversight Hans von Spakovsky - Senior Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation Sound Clips: 10:45 Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) The official title of this bill is The For The People Act. This bill though is not for the people. It's not for everyday citizens. This bill siphons power from state legislatures, local elected officials and voters, and seeds, power to Washington lawmakers, unelected federal judges and lawyers. This bill is in particular for the unelected elites. It's for the people who don't answer directly to the voters. Contrary to it's name, this bill takes power away from the people and it does this by violating the constitution, by trampling over both the spirit and the letter of our most fundamental laws. 32:00 Sherrilyn Ifill Well before the midterm election, in fact, Georgia officials began placing additional burdens on voters, particularly black and Latino voters, by closing precincts and purging. Over half a million people from the voter rolls the voter purge, which removed 107,000 people, simply because they did not vote in previous elections and respond to a mailing was overseen by the Republican candidate for governor Brian Kemp, who was also the secretary of state. LDF and a chorus of others called on him to recuse himself from participating in the election. But he refused. 1:08:00 Ifill I think, I think the problem we have is that you know, when we begin talking about the powers between the federal and the state government as it relates to elections, it is of course critical that we look to the constitution and that we look to the articles of the constitution that govern elections. But what we have left out of the conversation at least to this moment is the reordering of the relationship between the federal and state government that came with the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments and the 14th and 15th amendments in particular. The 14th amendment guaranteeing equal protection of laws under, the 15th Amendment prohibiting the denial of the right to vote based on race. National origin includes enforcement clauses that gives this body, the United States Congress, the power to enforce the rights that are articulated in those amendments to the constitution. And it is those amendments to the constitution that provided this body the right, for example, to pass laws like the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for which all the same arguments that are being made today about the power of the states, about interference, about what the federal government is allowed to do and not allowed to do were raised and overcome. So the federal government actually does have the power when there is evidence and when they are enforcing the rights under the 14th and 15th, amendments to actually, your word would be interfere, but to engage robustly, in the protection of the voting rights of racial minorities. 1:15:00 Vanita Gupta There are over 13,000 election jurisdictions in our country, and elections can be run in a multitude of ways, but it is clear that Congress has the authority to make sure that civil rights are not violated in the course of running these elections. And that there are, there are equitable national standards to guide how this has done. And that is exactly what HR 1 does. 1:26:00 Ifill Let me use as an example. Texas has voter I.D. law from your own state the voter I.D. law that Texas imposed after the Shelby decision as a voter I.D. law that they had attempted to get pre-clearance prior to the Shelby decision and pre-clearance was denied, in other words they were not allowed to make that law, become real because of the pre-clearance requirement. After Shelby, the Attorney General, decided that they were going to move forward with that law. It was imposed. We sued. We challenged that law and we won. But in the three years that it took us to litigate that case during that time Texas elected a United States senator in 2014. All 36 members of the Texas delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives, the governor, the lieutenant governor, the attorney general, the comptroller, various statewide commissioners, four justices of the Texas Supreme Court. Candidates for special election in the state Senate State Boards of Education 16 state senators all 150 members of the statehouse over 175 state court trial judges and over 75 district attorneys. We proved at trial that more than half a million eligible voters were disenfranchised by the I.D. law. We were ultimately successful in challenging but it was too late for those elections and this was a scheme that had been denied pre-clearance. This is the kind of thing that undermines confidence in our electoral system and that threatens our democracy. What excuse can we have as a nation for disenfranchising over half a million voters from all of the elections I just described. 1:35:00 Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) Where are the states, Ms. Ifill, that have most of the states that have prohibitions on people having the APP for you to vote if they've committed a felony? Ifill Well, they have been all over the country, but certainly there was a concentration in the south. As you may know, some of the history of these laws emanated, at the turn of the 19th century, I guess the turn of the 20th century, after southern states received back their power, they pass new constitutions. This is after the civil war and after reconstruction around 1900 and we saw the expansion of ex felon voting restrictions in state constitutions during that period, when there was a very robust effort to try and disenfranchise, at that point, newly freed slaves who had been free for several decades. 2:05:00 Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) It contains a provision where federal tax dollars from hardworking middle class families and single mothers would be lining the pockets of politicians to pay for nasty TV ads and robo calls and paying for politicians, personal childcare and healthcare. Under this bill, it's estimated that at least $3.9 billion of taxpayer dollars would line the pockets of house congressional candidates based on estimates from Bloomberg and an estimated $6.25 billion with line the pockets of presidential candidates based on the formula in this bill and the 2016 election, for a total of $10.1 billion of taxpayer dollars. To me, this is an outrageous, outrageous use of taxpayer dollars. 2:23:00 Hans Von Spakovsky This provision of HR 1 says that if a commission is not established, or if it doesn't adopt a plan, then, the redistricting lines for Congress will be drawn up by a three judge federal court. Now, yeah, the courts get involved, federal courts get involved and redistricting, but they only get involved when there has been a violation of the voting rights act because there's been discrimination in drawing the lines or because the equal protection doctrine of the 14th amendment, one person, one vote, has been violated because the districts aren't equal enough and that's appropriate. And courts do that. But this bill would give the judicial branch the ability to draw up lines when there's, there's been no such violation. And so they're, in essence, you're taking a power of the constitution gives to the legislative branch and you're giving it to the judicial branch. 2:52:00 Gupta Well, our recourse used to be that changes in local voting patterns would be reported to the Justice Department and there would be recourse for the Justice Department to ensure that racial discrimination was not animating these changes and preventing people from exercising their franchise. As we said, in 2013, the United States supreme court gutted that key tool of the voting rights act. And it is why HR 1 is such an important, uh, act in order to restore the voting rights act and to restore the ability of the Justice Department and federal courts to actually prevent these kinds of nefarious actions from taking place before elections. Uh, litigation is crucial and groups that have risen to the challenge to, to file section two cases, but they are time intensive and they occur after elections after people have already been disenfranchised and can take years to come to adjudication during which elections are taking place. And so that is why, uh, it is incumbent and unnecessary for Congress to restore the provisions of the voting rights act. Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA) So HR 1 will help protect the rights of my American citizens to vote before the election. Gupta HR 1, yes, expresses a commitment to restoring the voting rights act, and, uh, and that is what we hope to achieve in this congress. It is HR 1 also contains a slew of protections that have become proxies for racial discrimination around list maintenance and unwarranted voter purging. Hr 1 seeks to remedy those so that, uh, so that people can have their rights guaranteed before elections take place. 3:25:00 Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) And I have to tell you after that, being in Congress for six years, uh, I have come to find that there are so many issues that uh, my republican colleagues and I agree on and that the American people agree that we've reached consensus on it and that ranges from reducing gun violence to addressing climate change, to finding healthcare solutions. But my constituents ask and people I encounter across the country always ask, if we've reached consensus where 90% of Americans think we should have background checks. Majority of Americans believe that climate change is happening. 90% of Americans think we should have the Dream Act. Why can't you guys even vote on these issues? And I've concluded that it's the dirty maps and the dirty money. It is rigged gerrymandered maps where politicians from both parties protect their friends and the status quo and it's the outside unlimited nontransparent money, where Republican colleagues have told me, I am with you on this issue -and I've had someone say this to me - I am afraid about how I'm going to be scored, meaning that these outside groups, we'll give scores based on how you vote and if you're not with them, they'll primary you with more money in an unlimited way. And then that's poisoning our politics and preventing us from reaching consensus. 3:27:00 Swalwell I want to start with Miss Ifill, and if it's OK I want to call you Professor Ifill because I don't know if you remember you were my civil procedure professor at the University of Maryland. You wouldn't remember me I remember you. I was not a standout student at all but Miss Ifill according to your testimony Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act would have prevented some of the voter suppression schemes that we have encountered over the past five years. And I was hoping you could articulate some of those schemes today. Ifill Yeah just a few of them. Earlier I spoke about Texas's voter I.D. law, an I.D. law that had been denied pre-clearance prior to the Shelby decision. Two hours after the Shelby decision the attorney general of Texas tweeted out his intention to resuscitate that law which he did. And we spent three years litigating it. We ultimately prevailed, but in the ensuing three years there were elections for all kinds of offices a law that clearly could not have survived pre-clearance. Just in 2018 we were on the ground in Georgia on election day doing election protection work in Grady County, the polling place had been changed two weeks prior to the election. A notice had been placed in a very small community newspaper but otherwise there was not real notice provided to the community and so people arrived at the old polling place and community residents had to spend the day standing outside the old polling place directing people to the place of the new polling place that had not been properly identified Under Section 5, the moving of a polling place is the kind of thing that you had to submit to pre-clearance and have it approved by the Justice Department before it could be implemented. Now there are a number of people that day who could drive to the new polling place but there were a number of people who had just taken off work and had a limited amount of time to vote and could not dri

#QualityMatters In today’s first ever episode we will introduce you to the husband and wife duo of Kyle and Darci Chambers, founders of Texas Quality Assurance. Together we will explore a customer service complain from 3,800 years ago that could just as easily have been a modern event. Times change, but the expectation for quality does not. Find the Podcast, Subscribe, Download and Review! https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/qualitymatters/id1447300405?mt=2 Your Beautiful Host - DarciYour not so beautiful co-host - Kyle 3,800-YEAR-OLD TABLET WITH WORLD'S OLDEST CUSTOMER COMPLAINT GOES VIRAL: 'WHAT DO YOU TAKE ME FOR?' Check out the Article Here https://www.newsweek.com/3800-year-old-tablet-worlds-oldest-customer-complaint-goes-viral-who-do-you-1088904 3,800-year-old Babylonian tablet from the ancient Sumerian city-state of Ur in Mesopotamia—now Tell el-Muqayyar—is the oldest documented customer complaint known to man. In the clay tablet, a man named Nanni whined to merchant Ea-nasir about how he was delivered the wrong grade of cooper ore. “How have you treated me for that copper?” he wrote. “You have withheld my money bag from me in enemy territory; it is now up to you to restore [my money] to me in full.” Customer complaints, quality demands, and the need to provide consistent products and services at a consistent quality have been around a very very long time. Stay tuned to #QualityMatters to learn more about how Quality Matters to you, you just might be surprised. Learn more about #QualityMatters & Texas Quality Assurance LLC:LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter  | Instagram  | YouTubewww.qmcast.com | Texas Quality Assurance |QMS Bootcamp