Podcasts about ideologically

Fair warning for indie artists: this episode may cause an extreme bout of optimism about the future. And not because the big institutions are coming to save us.And not because the government is funding art as if it's a societal good.And not because somehow the American economy now works.Nope! None of those things, as far as I can see, are on the horizon.But this week's episode of Let's Go Again with guests Joshua Morgan and Mike Labbadia is going to change your life with all the power of a guided ayahuasca experience because it imagines a way to redistribute power back to indie artists available to us right now.Here's what you get when you press play:* The new work of the indie artist is not to “break through” but to put themselves “in context”.* Ideologically aligned projects might be more powerful than production companies. * Your artistic identity doesn't need to make sense.* The new mode of organization is not found in institutional hierarchy, it's found in the ideas shared between like-minded artists.* When artists align, the validation of previously isolated experiences creates a flywheel of self-motivation.* Long-term alignment among artists can lead to financial returns, prestige, momentum, and creative growth.* To work in a collective does not mean you have to give up your individuation.* A running debate about whether or not I'm FBI.

Ideologically motivated, violent extremist groups, use different kinds of hate to recruit followers and inspire violence. A report dated May 2024 released under the access to information law by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) says Extremist groups are also tapping into current events to build support. Alex Guye reached Brad Galloway to talk about this. He is the coordinator at the Centre On Hate, Bias & Extremism at Ontario Tech University.

WarRoom Battleground EP 730: Lefts Contradiction To The Wealthy; Ideologically Possesed Judges

On this episode of "The Federalist Radio Hour," Daniel Cameron, former attorney general of Kentucky and CEO of the 1792 Exchange, joins The Federalist's Senior Elections Correspondent Matt Kittle to discuss the dangers of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies and analyze the shift away from woke corporations. If you care about combating the corrupt media that continue to inflict devastating damage, please give a gift to help The Federalist do the real journalism America needs.

On this episode of “The Federalist Radio Hour,” Daniel Cameron, former attorney general of Kentucky and CEO of the 1792 Exchange, joins The Federalist’s Senior Elections Correspondent Matt Kittle to discuss the dangers of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies and analyze the shift away from woke corporations.

Focusing on the exploits of Hans Reinerth and the prehistoric archaeological research undertaken under Nazi rule, it is evident that the abuse and manipulation of archaeological evidence can be dangerously instrumental in ideological propaganda. The field of archaeology must not only endeavour to learn from this to implement guidelines and precautions to mitigate the abuse of the past, but actively amend erroneous research, with public sites becoming more transparent about how they were previously misused for corrupt political motives. To read the transcript visit https://www.sphinxthinks.com/post/archaeological-abuse-in-nationalist-propaganda

"Elon Musk has allegedly exposed an ideologically motivated cover-up of sexual abuse in Britain that was reportedly permitted by British authorities, including PM Starmer." 1650 Trial of Charles I

Last time we spoke about the fourth encirclement campaign against the CCP. In 1931, the CCP survived brutal encirclement campaigns while the threat of Japanese invasion in Manchuria shifted focus in China. The new leadership, known as the 28 Bolsheviks, seized control after the downfall of Li Lisan, leading to infighting within the CCP. Despite initial successes, Mao Zedong opposed the aggressive military strategies favored by the Bolsheviks. As the Red Army expanded, Mao's calls for caution clashed with the Central Committee's ambitions, highlighting the struggle for power and differing strategies within the party during a time of upheaval. As the 28th Bolsheviks gained power, they stripped Mao Zedong of key positions, deeming his strategies outdated. The Red Army, while suffering losses, adapted tactics and launched further offensives. Political tensions rose, leading to purges and reorganization under more orthodox leadership. Ultimately, despite setbacks, the CCP's resilience and guerrilla tactics allowed them to persist against KMT forces.   #128 the fifth encirclement campaign Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. So the CCP had just survived 4 encirclement campaigns. Now each time an encirclement campaign was unleashed, it was done so during a very tumultuous time to say the least. The first three were done between 1930-1931 where the Central Plains War and multiple large scale rebellions were kicking off. It was also on the cusp of the re-unification of China, thus Chiang Kai-Shek arguably had bigger fish to fry. During the fourth encirclement campaign Chiang Kai-Shek was very much taking notice of the red menace in his interior, however a rather earth shattering moment occurred, the Japanese had invaded Manchuria. And yes, we will get to the 15 year war in good time no worries folks your boy has a lot of goodies coming. So one can understand Chiang Kai-Shek could not very well fully go after the Reds when the Japanese had invaded northeast China and there was absolutely no telling where or when they would stop. Well the fourth encirclement campaign did not provide the results the KMT needed, so obviously there was to be a fifth…and guess what, the Japanese began an invasion of North China that same year of 1933. Now if you really are itching to hear more about these events we will tackle in a few episodes, over at the Pacific War Channel on Youtube or on all major podcast platforms might I suggest the following: my Kanji Ishiwara series covering his entire involvement in these events and during WW2, my full documentary/podcast on the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and lastly my full podcast on the Japanese invasion of North China. I am a very busy boy over there as you can see.  In the late winter and early spring of 1933, the Kwantung Army had begun an invasion of North China. They specifically began by invading the province of Rehe, modern day Jehol. After this they attacked the Great Wall of China, a pretty insane story to be honest, and descended further into north china. Understandably Chiang Kai-Shek shifted his focus from the Red menace to the Japanese at his front door. Beginning in July, the KMT established a review team to examine why the encirclement campaigns were failing to provide real results and what improvements could be made. They also established division level training units to retrain the forces with the lessons learned against the Reds. There was also a lot of integration of foreign military advisers, particularly Germans who helped develop better tactics and strategies. The Germans immediately proposed a more deliberate strategy against the Soviets. The first step they argued was to establish an economic blockade. Raw materials and durable goods could not be allowed to enter or leave the Soviet areas. Foods like rice and salt were especially targeted, there was to be an absolute ban on them going in or out. The second step was to establish a series of fortifications, basically blockhouses made out of concrete to provide fire support to offensive operations in nearby cities. As NRA forces advanced into areas to clear them, the previous blockhouses would be abandoned as new ones were built. There also needed to be lines of operation, requiring road development in rear areas to expedite logistical needs to the front. Now none of this sounds new compared to what we spoke about in the previous campaigns, but what was the issue was that it was not being done by all units prior. The KMT was also going to introduce political reforms that complemented the new standardized military strategies. New slogans arose such as “Thirty Percent Military, Seventy Percent Political,”. They were going to revive the baojia system.  The Baojia system was an administrative structure that emerged during the Song Dynasty 960–1279 AD and was prevalent in various forms throughout subsequent dynasties. Its primary purpose was to enhance local governance, community responsibility, and social stability. The system was based on the grouping of households into units known as "bao" and "jia". Each bao typically consisted of ten households, while a jia consisted of ten baos, totaling about one hundred households. This hierarchical structure allowed for more manageable governance and oversight, facilitating communication and administration at the local level. Under the Baojia system, each household was assigned to a bao, and the head of the bao was responsible for maintaining order, collecting taxes, and ensuring the compliance of families with local laws and regulations. The heads of the baojia units worked in conjunction with local officials to enforce state policies and maintain social harmony. This system not only provided a means for effective local governance but also fostered a sense of community among families. Neighbors were encouraged to cooperate and support one another, creating a network of mutual responsibility. In addition to its administrative functions, the Baojia system played a significant role in maintaining social order. By organizing families into these small units, it facilitated surveillance and mutual accountability among community members. Residents were motivated to monitor each other's behavior, discouraging misconduct and promoting adherence to social norms. As a result, the system contributed to the overall stability and cohesion of society, particularly in rural areas where government presence was often limited. Now to get all of this done, the KMT increased the NRA forces deployed to Jiangxi to nearly 700,000 who were broken down into 4 area armies and 5 air corps. They deployed the Northern Route NRA Army consisting of 33 divisions in Jinzhi, Jishui, Nangeng and the Le'an front; and the Southern Route NRA Army, consisting of eleven Guangdong divisions and one independent regiment, established a blocking position along a line connecting the cities of Wuping, Anyuan, Shangyou and Ganxian. The Southern Route NRA army would move to the blocking positions north in coordination with the other NRA forces to try and squeeze the Reds. The Western Route NRA army consisting of 9 Hunanese divisions and 3 independent regiments were responsible for blocking the Reds from advancing west of the Gan River. The Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi area army HQ was assigned 11 divisions and 4 security regiments to block any Reds from escaping through northeast Jiangxi. All of this encompassed the fifth encirclement campaign.  When the NRA was ready to commence the campaign, it was too late for the Reds to properly mount a counter encirclement campaign. The only thing the Reds had going for them was their recruitment efforts that saw them grow perhaps 100,000 strong. The Red Army even began touting a slogan “Million Man Army” to further recruit. By late October 1933, the Reds were certainly numerous, but this also meant they needed more supplies and equipment. With their Eastern Front Army now in Fujian, the Central Front Army and local populace should have been raising revenues and stockpiling supplies, especially rice and salt, but that is of course if they knew a fifth encirclement campaign was coming.  On September 25th, the NRA deployed 3 divisions south from Nanchang to attack Lichuan. Within 3 days of battle, the city fell, which greatly shocked the CCP. The Central Front Red Army fell back, waiting for the Eastern Front Red Army to rush back over from Fujian to meet the threat. By October 6th both front Red armies consolidated to perform a counterattack. They first attacked Xunkou, where they annihilated 3 NRA brigades. However the success was to be short lived. For the proceeding two months, the Red Army attacked multiple NRA blockhouses in Zixi, Huwan Bajiaoting, Xiaoshi, Daxiongguan and Yuangai Mountain. Yet they were unsuccessful at breaching the defensive line. The concrete block houses were acting as pillboxes allowing the NRA to concentrate fire using brand new German made machine guns. They also were utilizing new Krupp artillery pieces and German made aerial bombs against the Red army formations whenever they assaulted the blockhouse line. By November the KMT's attention was slightly diverted as Fujian had just seen a full blown rebellion, more about that in the next episode, but to summarize a bit. On November 30th, the KMT 19th route army in conjunction with the Fujian provincial government rebelled against the KMT and set up an independent government. As you might be guessing, they were also working with the CCP. Back in October they had formed a military alliance, better said cease fire. This little arrangement did not last long and there even emerged hostilities. During this chaos the revolutionary military council held an emergency meeting to figure out a course of action. Otto Braun advocated for a strong offensive to decisively defeat the KMT. He argued the golden age of guerrilla warfare in China was over and now the Red Army must conduct convention warfare against NRA positions. Thus Mao Zedong's “lure the enemy in deep” strategy was replaced by “defending against the enemy outside the Soviet”. In January of 1934 the second soviet congress was held where a series of resolutions were passed to focus the Red Army against the fifth encirclement campaign. The resolutions reiterated Otto Braun's offensive strategy and repeatedly attacked Mao Zedong's strategies. Building upon the strategy of defending against the enemy outside the Soviets, Otto Braun also proposed using “short, swift thrusts”. This would see the employment of repeated infantry assaults to overwhelm the NRA blockhouse lines. Otto Braun also advocated for continuing the mass recruitment efforts and brought up perhaps beginning a system of conscription to fill the ranks. After the Fujian rebellion situation simmered down, the NRA refocused their attention against the Reds. The NRA established a line of blockhouses going from Lichuan to Le'an and began clearing out the area south of Ruijin using 35 divisions. The NRA forces first targeted Guangchang, lying about halfway between Nanchang and Ruijin. The NRA's Eastern Front also began advancing west, totaling some 14 divisions. By March of 1934 the NRA Northern and Eastern Fronts linked up at Deshengguan where they began coordinated efforts towards Guangchang. In response to the NRA advances towards Guangchang, the Red Army built a series of fortifications and trenchworks to defend the area. On April 9th, the NRA began its attack on Guangchang, deploying the 3rd Route army's 10 divisions from Nanfeng with heavy artillery and aircraft support. The NRA forces advanced south along both sides of the Xu River leading towards Guangchang. The Northern Route NRA Army established new blockhouses on one side of the river before clearing the other side. It took the NRA forces roughly 2 weeks to advance down the riverway to Guangchang. By April 23rd, they breached the Red Army's defensive lines and seized control over some high ground surrounding the area. The Reds were forced to pull back into the city where they continued to build fortifications and trench lines. On the 27th the NRA began to artillery and aerially bomb the city, easily destroying the wooden fortifications and trench lines constructed by the Reds. On the 28th, the NRA stormed the city forcing the Reds to retreat south. The Reds had suffered 5093 casualties, roughly 20% of their defending force at Guangcheng whereas the NRA suffered 2000 casualties. It was very evident, the NRA were wielding superior equipment, notably the heavy artillery and aircrafts that the Red's had no real answer for.  After Guangchang the NRA advanced in all four directions. By May 1, NRA forces from the Western Front had taken control of both Shaxi and Longgang. Meanwhile, the Eastern Route NRA forces advanced and captured Jianning by May 16. By June, the CCP began feeling the strain from these assaults. A combination of the blockade and the baojia system was gradually eroded local support for the CCP. The attrition warfare strategy also took a toll on the quality of leadership and experience in the Red Army, as more inexperienced soldiers filled the ranks. Under pressure, many of these recruits deserted, further weakening the Red Army's effectiveness. Additionally, the shortage of supplies and food lowered morale and diminished public support for the Red Army's offensive. Even military and party publications gradually withdrew their support for the offensive, shifting focus to the promotion of guerrilla warfare to conserve resources. Recruitment efforts to replenish losses had little impact as the NRA's superior strategy continued to stifle the Soviet, reducing its control from seventeen counties to ten. In the summer of 1934, the Red Army began exploring new strategies, establishing a defensive perimeter stretching from Ninghua to Ningdu and Xingguo. By May, the Central Committee convened and concluded that the current offensive strategy was ineffective, likely necessitating the Red Army's evacuation from the Soviet area. They sought approval from the COMINTERN to change their approach, which was granted a few days later, stressing that the CCP's priority should be preserving the Red Army's combat strength. However, Braun and Bo Gu proposed a different method. Instead of immediately preparing to withdraw from the Soviet, they advocated for a final stand, urging everyone to give their all to defend the territory and secure victory. Alongside this shift in rhetoric, the Red Army maintained its defensive posture, constructing wooden blockhouses and trenches. Additionally, the CCP approved an expansion of guerrilla warfare across multiple fronts to defeat the NRA. In July, the NRA launched another offensive, focusing this time on the city of Shicheng, positioned between Ninghua and Ningdu as their entry point. The two forces clashed fiercely along this final line of defense for nearly a month. In early August, the Red Army mounted a strong counteroffensive during the battle of Gaohunao, inflicting over 4,000 casualties on the NRA. However, the Red Army also suffered heavy losses and was forced to retreat to the last defensive line just north of Shicheng. At Shicheng, the Red Army managed to hold the NRA in a stalemate. Ultimately, the NRA deployed twelve large howitzers, breaking through the defensive line in August. Shicheng eventually fell in October. The defense cost the Red Army 5,000 casualties, leaving it severely weakened and forcing its leaders to consider drastic actions. By this point, the Jiangxi Soviet had been reduced to a small area around Ruijin and Xingguo. With mounting casualties and the imminent threat of an NRA assault on Ruijin, the Red Army made a bold decision to retreat from Jiangxi on October 10, 1934, ending the Fifth Extermination Campaign. There has been a lot of thorough investigative work into why the CCP failed during the fifth encirclement campaign. This episode will be a bit different then previous ones as I thought it might be interesting to tell the overall story and then explain the finer details as to why it went down this way. Going back to when I discussed the NRA analyzing why their fourth encirclement campaign had failed. The analytics from that were incorporated into plans formed by the German advisers such as Hans von Seeckt and Alexander von Faulkenhausen. The Germans dramatically improved the NRA's performance across the board. This was seen in terms of training, the employment of more modern military tactics and of course the Germans sold the NRA some really good toys. Now again this was done in the vacuum of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and Northern China. The real aim of the Germans' assistance was directed against the Japanese, but the advisers acknowledged how China must combat the external aggressor while not succumbing to internal threats. Ironically it was that exact situation that had toppled multiple Chinese dynasties in the past, take the Ming for example.  The NRA also employed effective counterinsurgent strategies that complimented their conventional warfare strategies. Beginning back in 1928 the KMT gradually re-instituted the baojia system. The NRA first cleared out Red areas and then established local administrators who were loyal to the KMT, protected by local militias. Through this the NRA was able to hold cleared areas and block any Red infiltration. Many residents in these areas actively began providing intel to the NRA. The Baojia system also supported the economic blockade, providing a system of sentries at the entrance of villages placing a lot of pressure on the Red Army and local populations. Chiang Kai-Shek's political reform “70% political, 30% military” also helped incorporate many disenfranchised Chinese, taking their support away from the Reds. The NRA also adopted a methodical, patient approach to tackle the Reds. The NRA quickly found out the Reds did not have the necessary weaponry to take out their concrete blockhouses, thus a war of attrition was on the table. Electing for a long campaign rather than a short one severely hurt the Reds who were incapable of conducting prolonged operations. The NRA also had learnt from the Red's usage of diversionary and feint attacks, not falling for them this time around. There was also obviously their NRA enormous advantage in numbers, they did toss nearly a million men at the Soviets. On the other side the Red Army suffered from numerous internal problems. The Red Army had undergone numerous measures to reform and professionalize the army, under the leadership of the 28 bolsheviks whom dominated the Central Committee. The mass recruitment efforts were directly primarily on uneducated peasants who required intensive training. Meanwhile the offensive strategy was decimating Red Army forces, many new recruits were tossed straight into the front lines without any training. The lack of training and political guidance, accompanied with low morale led to mass desertions. By the end of the fifth encirclement campaign the Red Army could not generate the proper forces to fill its demand and simply kept tossing more and more untrained peasants into the lines, degrading the combat effectiveness. The arrival of the Twenty-eight Bolsheviks in the CCP led to significant changes in the overall military strategy of the Red Army. Much of the new leadership's perspectives were shaped by Stalinist Soviet ideology, which markedly contrasted with the views of both Li Lisan and Mao Zedong, particularly in relation to Mao Zedong's approach, which was influenced by political considerations. These ideological differences also resulted in a substantial gap in military tactics. Nevertheless, both the Bolsheviks and Mao shared a similar stance on the expansion and training of the Red Army, emphasizing the vital importance of political training in building a robust party army. Ultimately, the CCP believed that the success of the Red Army hinged on the professionalization of the force, ensuring unity of command, a shared understanding of the mission, and an enhanced capacity to execute that mission. The primary advocate for the professionalization strategy of the Red Army was the Soviet Union. Stalin's interest in the Red Army was driven by both external and internal factors. The Soviet Union viewed an imminent threat from both Japan and Germany. Japan, a longstanding adversary of Russia, had expanded its presence in China, particularly following the 1932 occupation of Manchuria, which posed a direct risk to Russia's southern flank and national security. The Soviets believed that a large, professional Red Army, loyal to the Soviet Union, would serve as a formidable defense against Japanese aggression, and later, German threats. Additionally, the Soviets resumed discussions with the Nationalist government after years of silence to help ensure the security of their Chinese flank. For Stalin, the struggle for control over the CCP was intertwined with a broader power struggle within the Soviet Union against Trotsky. His internal conflicts with Trotsky solidified his communist ideology, resulting in a stringent approach within the COMINTERN and the new CCP. Through the COMINTERN and Bolsheviks, Stalin aimed to consolidate his power by eliminating Trotskyists in China. These internal Soviet political dynamics ultimately influenced the choice of Chinese political and military strategies, which had detrimental effects on the Red Army. At first glance, the policies of the Twenty-eight Bolsheviks closely resembled those of Li Lisan. Both groups viewed the urban proletariat as the central force in the communist revolution. They shared the conviction that merging the revolutionary spirit of the proletariat with modern strategies would empower the Red Army to achieve victory. Additionally, they felt that the conditions were ripe for revolution to spread into urban areas, emphasizing the necessity for the Red Army to engage in the cities to support students and workers involved in the movement. Wang Ming even remarked that although the 1930 assault on Changsha was a mistake, he did not see this failure as evidence against the soundness of the strategy of targeting urban centers. Upon closer inspection, the distinctions between the two factions were quite pronounced. Disputes between them arose early on; in June 1930, Li Lisan criticized Wang Ming, Bo Gu, and two other group members for opposing his plans. However, their differences ran deeper than mere political conflict. Ideologically, the Bolsheviks challenged Li Lisan's characterization of the bourgeoisie. In Wang Ming's The Two Lines, he asserted that all "capitalist bourgeois reformers were counterrevolutionary." This broadened the definition to encompass wealthy and middle-class peasants, who became targets during land reform efforts. Additionally, their strategies for confronting urban centers differed significantly. The factions also had contrasting views on the role of the Red Army: Li Lisan believed it should support urban proletariat uprisings to capture the cities, while the Bolsheviks regarded it as the primary force for seizing the metropolis. The distinctions between Mao Zedong and the 28 Bolsheviks were significant. Unlike Mao Zedong, the Bolshevik-led CCP rejected any form of alliance, insisting on the defeat of both the Nationalists and the Japanese. In their view, both groups were imperialists and posed equal threats to the Soviet Union and the communist movement. During the Mukden Incident, many nationalists and communists sought to forge a united front against Japanese aggression. However, the CCP opposed this, advocating for the overthrow of what they considered the agent of imperialism—the KMT.  The Bolsheviks also held a strong opposition to Maoist military strategies. They believed that an incorrect guerrilla warfare approach had infiltrated the Red Army, epitomized by the "lure the enemy in deep" tactic. Wang Ming likened this strategy to a form of "retreat" or "escape." The Bolsheviks advocated for the significant expansion and professionalization of the Red Army, aiming to move away from a peasant mentality. With a larger force, the Red Army could adopt an offensive stance, employing Soviet tactics to capture urban centers and extend Soviet influence. While guerrilla warfare was not entirely dismissed, it was relegated to local militias in rear and flank areas. In contrast, Mao had a more practical perspective on the capabilities of Red Army soldiers. He recognized that the Red Army lacked the technology necessary for conventional warfare. Moreover, Mao believed that achieving victory was not the sole priority; sustainability after victory and ensuring that the gains outweighed the losses were also crucial considerations. In hindsight, the positional warfare and offensive tactics advocated by Otto Braun and the students proved to be ineffective against the NRA. However, at the time, it is understandable why this approach was favored over Mao Zedongs strategy of "luring the enemy deep." This new offensive military strategy was predicated on the belief that the Red Army was strong and capable of launching attacks against the NRA. Although this assessment may have been overstated, the victories achieved during the Extermination Campaigns did boost the morale of the Red Army. Furthermore, their later success in resisting the Fourth Extermination Campaign reinforced the capabilities of the Communist military forces. This offensive strategy also marked a departure from the tactic of conceding territory, which had always posed challenges for the local population. The CCP garnered more support for its strategy by asserting that the Red Army was now strong enough to defend their territory and confront the enemy directly, allowing locals to remain in their homes. This simple shift fostered greater support for their cause. Conversely, Mao Zedong had a keen understanding of local conditions and recognized the detrimental effects of Bolshevik policies on land redistribution. The Bolshevik approach increased the burden on a larger portion of the local populace and threatened the fragile support necessary for waging a "people's war." Mao Zedong and his followers also aimed to delay and hinder large recruitment efforts, arguing that expansion would be an unnecessary distraction for locals who were already busy with agricultural work. Moreover, the Bolshevik offensive strategy was more conventional compared to Mao Zedongs concept of mobile warfare. At that time, Mao Zedongs approach of "luring the enemy deep" and other mobile warfare tactics were revolutionary in China and faced considerable criticism and skepticism. Even after the significant defeat of the Li Lisan line, the ability of the Bolsheviks and Otto Braun to revive a similar strategy two years later demonstrated the ongoing support for a more conventional military approach. In its new strategy, the Red Army blended traditional and modern tactics to engage the enemy. On the one hand, it maintained its reliance on established strengths in intelligence gathering and deception to outmaneuver the NRA. However, with the introduction of the Twenty-eight Bolsheviks and Otto Braun, the Red Army transitioned from a mobile defense approach to employing “short, swift thrusts” as offensive tactics against the NRA blockhouses during the Fifth Extermination Campaign. The Red Army also capitalized on advantages gained from previous campaigns. Improvements in signal intelligence, particularly through increased collection of wireless communications and the creation of training schools, enabled the Red Army to closely monitor NRA movements during the Fourth Extermination Campaign. Additionally, the Red Army integrated tactical intelligence into its operations, using plain-clothed soldiers and deploying double agents within KMT units to gather intelligence and disrupt them. The thoroughness of the Red Army's intelligence collection was a notable strength. For instance, an intelligence report on the KMT's Seventy-ninth NRA Division analyzed the background and motivations of its soldiers, revealing that many hailed from the same area as their commander, which fostered strong loyalties. This insight made the unit a less appealing target for subversion, given the traditional Confucian emphasis on hierarchical loyalty. The Red Army continued to execute feints and deceptive operations throughout its campaigns. The Eleventh Red Army effectively served as the main effort on two occasions. Moreover, the Red Army sent misleading communications to confuse NRA forces. For instance, while near Huangpi, NRA scouts “intercepted” a message claiming that the Red Army's main forces were positioned in Nanchang, prompting the division units to lower their guard in the city, only to be ambushed. The biggest change to Red Army tactics was the introduction of what Otto Braun described as “short, swift thrusts,” while Lin Biao defined this tactic as “sudden, rapid raids launched against the enemy who emerges from their blockhouses to advance the fortification line by a short distance, specifically between 2½ to 5 kilometers or even less. These thrusts aim to eliminate the main enemy forces before they can solidify their position. Although the tactics appeared straightforward, significant differences emerged in their application, particularly between Braun's theoretical approach and Lin Biao's practical execution. Firstly, the ultimate objectives of the tactics differed greatly. Braun's approach was part of a broader strategy aimed at safeguarding Soviet territory. Rather than seeking a decisive victory over the numerically superior NRA forces, the Red Army focused on defending territory and achieving small tactical victories that could translate into operational and strategic advantages. In contrast, Lin Biao viewed this tactic as a means to “annihilate the enemy or secure victory in the entire battle.”His emphasis was on defeating the enemy and achieving a decisive victory. Secondly, Braun promoted a more methodical strategy, where the Red Army would establish strong points with small clusters of fortifications. These areas provided defensive protection against artillery and air assaults, creating conditions conducive for the Red Army to launch rapid attacks on the NRA when they were away from their blockhouses. During an attack, Braun suggested that the Red Army should first fix the NRA in its rear, flank, or even front, followed by a strike aimed at weakening the enemy to disrupt its forces. Conversely, Lin Biao had a different perspective on the assault, prioritizing mobility and movement for the Red Army during these thrusts. The Red Army's primary defense relied on secrecy, moving quietly to occupy high ground while only establishing makeshift defensive structures for air and artillery protection. When the enemy entered their territory, the Red Army would encircle their forces, cutting off their retreat and swiftly attacking their flanks before they could construct fortifications. He advocated for the pursuit, believing it was the most effective way to convert a tactical victory into operational or strategic success. In contrast, Lin Biao rejected the idea of pursuit, reasoning that if his tactics were executed effectively, the enemy would have no escape route, making a pursuit unnecessary. These differing views on tactics underscored the challenges of translating theoretical military concepts into practical application. Otto Braun's offensive strategy stemmed from his experiences and understanding of Western military traditions. When applied to the Chinese battlefield, Lin Biao adapted his own experiences to formulate his interpretation of “short, swift thrusts,” which incorporated several of Mao's tactical principles. Given the circumstances of the Red Army, Lin Biao aimed for a quick, decisive victory, steering clear of prolonged battles with the NRA. He utilized intelligence and terrain—particularly through reconnaissance—to gain an advantage over the enemy. His strategy prioritized focusing on the enemy rather than merely securing territory, enabling his unit to engage in battle on favorable ground. While the localization of “short, swift thrusts” did not provide the Red Army with the decisive edge needed to overcome the NRA, it illustrated how the Red Army continued to adapt concepts to local conditions to achieve success in combat. Between 1932 and 1934, the Red Army reached its maximum size and level of professionalism, only to be outmatched by a stronger NRA force. With the rise of the Twenty-eight Bolsheviks, the Red Army adopted a more aggressive, offensive strategy. Although this approach would later be deemed a mistake, it initiated a series of reforms that enhanced the Red Army's professionalism. During this period, the Red Army nearly doubled its strength to six army corps. To promote uniformity and centralize command, all Red Army units, including local militia groups, were standardized. Additionally, the Red Army founded the Red Academy and the Red Army War College, alongside specialized schools to train and develop its officers. These reforms contributed to the Red Army's success in the Fourth Extermination Campaign against the NRA and facilitated the expansion of Soviet influence into four provinces. However, following their defeat, the NRA adapted and developed a more effective strategy against the Red Army. Lacking the necessary heavy weapons and supplies, the Red Army could not prevent the systematic encirclement of the Jiangxi Soviet during the Fifth Extermination Campaign. In order to survive the Red Army would have to embark on arguably one of the most important historic moments of the CCP's history, it was a notably very long march. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The 28 Bolsheviks wrestled control over the CCP and this had rather dramatic consequences. For one, Mao Zedong's strategies were thrown to the wind as full on offensive strategies took the center stage. In the face of the most intense NRA encirclement campaign as of yet, the CCP crumbled and would now have to march to away trying to survive.

Tony talks more about Jack Smith dropping the January 6th charges against Donald Trump. Tony also talks about Scott Jenning's comments on CNN about X being ideologically balanced and Jim Geraghty talking about censorship and being disagreeable.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

5pm: Matt Markovich - Cathy Moore's makes her case for Seattle Capital Gains Tax // Chris Reykdal’s reelection proves that ideologically “failing up” is the law of the land in Washington // Letters

Trade is under tremendous threat from both major political parties in the United States and their presidential candidates. In this episode, Mark Thornton discusses his new paper, "Ludwig von Mises on Trade, Human Development, and Human Progress," explains how Mises examined trade holistically and integrated it into a powerful social theory. Ideologically, the commitment to free trade must be understood and sustained in order for us to continue to receive the benefits of trade in the international division of labor.Download Dr. Thornton's paper, "Ludwig von Mises on Trade, Human Development, and Human Progress" at Mises.org/MI_78_AOrder a free paperback copy of Murray Rothbard's What Has Government Done to Our Money? at Mises.org/IssuesFree.Follow Minor Issues at Mises.org/MinorIssues.

David Bailey is the owner of Bitcoin Magazine. Ideologically, he is a Bitcoin maximalist who wants everything to happen on Bitcoin and get traded for BTC. During this episode, we also mint a special ordinal... which you can buy for 3.125 BTC!

An audiobook taster of James's new book So You've Been Ideologically Discredited PLUS an invitation for all our listeners, to the book launch at the Stapleton Tavern, Finsbury Park, Monday April 15th/7pm.

Tune in here for this Monday edition of the Vince Coakley Radio Program! Vince starts the show by talking about where Charlotte recently ranked in a study about the "most moved to," big cities in the country + what is contributing to that growth. Then we share a story about a Kentucky woman who won a lottery jackpot of $90,000 and what she's going to do since she won.  Later we dive into the report about South Carolina finding nearly $2 billion in a bank account with mysterious origins and unknown purpose + how the state is going about trying to identify where the money came from and what it is intended for before Vince explains why he thinks that the Republican party is "ideologically dead." In the second half of the program Vince talks about where he was at the end of last week before giving another update on the situation in Haiti.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

#Israel: What drives the antisemitism of the young and ideologically educated? Peter Berkowitz, Hoover Institution. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2024/03/17/the_public_interest_fellowship_in_israel_150657.html#2 undated Jerusalem

The Heartland POD for Friday, February 23, 2024A flyover from this weeks top heartland stories including:Primary voting is underway in Texas | Kansas Medicaid expansion update | Illinois Gov J.B. Pritzker lays out priorities as a progressive pragmatist | Missouri Democrats filibuster ballot candy | KS Gov Laura Kelly's veto will stand Primary voting is underway in Texashttps://www.texastribune.org/2024/02/21/julie-johnson-brian-williams-congressional-district-32-colin-allred/BY SEJAL GOVINDARAOFEB. 21, 2024WASHINGTON — In 2018, Rep. Colin Allred flipped Texas' 32nd Congressional District, turning the Dallas-based district into a blue stronghold. Now, as the Democrat vies to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a crowded field of 10 Democrats is lining up to replace him.Dr. Brian Williams, a trauma surgeon, and State Rep. Julie Johnson, of Farmers Branch, are leading the field in the Democratic primary with their fundraising efforts, each amassing about a million dollars in campaign donations since their campaigns were registered at the beginning of last summer.Ideologically, Williams and Johnson are aligned. They both rank health care a top priority if elected, and have touted their ability to work across the aisle.Johnson, a trial lawyer in her third term in the state House rode the 2019 blue wave to unseat hardline conservative incumbent Matt Rinaldi, by 13 points. Rinaldi now chairs the state GOP. In her three terms, at least 40 of the bills Johnson has co-authored or joint-authored have been signed into law.As a Democrat in the Republican-dominated state Legislature, Johnson has played a lot of defense trying to kill bills she and other progressives deem harmful. Johnson, who is gay, said she and other members of the House's LGBTQ caucus have had success in killing anti-LGBTQ bills by mastering the rules of procedure and “being better at the rules than the other side.” In 2019, she took down a House version of the so-called “Save Chick-fil-A bill” on a rule technicality. The bill was a response to a San Antonio airport kicking out the fast food restaurant over criticism of its religiously affiliated donations to anti-LGBTQ groups. It was revived in another bill and passed into law.If elected, Johnson would be the first openly LGBTQ member of Congress from a Southern state. She's drawn notable endorsements from Beto O'Rourke, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, EMILY's List, Equality PAC, and several labor unions.Matt Angle, director of Lone Star Project, a Texas group that works to boost Democrats, said Johnson is the frontrunner in the race, but Williams is a formidable challenger.“Make no mistake about it though,” Angle said. “Julie Johnson has a voter base within the district not only from her old district, but also just from years of being an active Democratic activist and a donor and really a couple of just outstanding terms in the legislature.”While he may be new to the Texas political arena, Williams is no stranger to the halls of Congress.Williams was a health policy adviser to U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy — who endorsed him — to help pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022 – the farthest reaching gun safety legislation in decades. The legislation, crafted in the aftermath of the shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo New York, allocated millions of dollars to expand mental health resources, strengthens background checks and tightens the boyfriend loophole. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn was a lead negotiator on the bill with Murphy, and Williams worked closely with Cornyn's office. In his role as a health policy advisor for Murphy, he worked across the aisle with Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana on mental health legislation.Williams also worked with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California to pass federal health care legislation related to pandemic preparedness and reducing health care costs.Williams said his experience as a trauma surgeon — operating on victims of gun violence and women experiencing reproductive health emergencies — has fueled his priorities to fight for gun restrictions and increase access to abortions and other womens' health. Williams added his perspective as a Black doctor seeing racial disparities in health care will resonate with the district's diverse constituency, given that the district is now a majority-minority district with a 37% Hispanic or Latino population, 22% Black population and 8% Asian population.“They're excited that there's someone that looks like them that can represent them in Congress,” Williams said in an interview.As Allred opted to stay neutral in the race to succeed him – Williams said he had pursued his endorsement while Johnson said she had not – the tension between Johnson and Williams has been heating up.Williams has publicly criticized Johnson for a vote she took that would have made some changes and tweaks to the state's Alternatives to Abortions program, which provides information about resources to women seeking the procedure.“I draw contrast between myself and Representative Johnson about how I am the better candidate,” Williams said.Johnson, who is endorsed by Planned Parenthood, said Williams misrepresented the vote, which she said she cast to bring the already-funded program under the scope of the Health and Human Services Commission so it could be subject to public transparency. Her campaign published a fact-check on her website, likening Williams' misrepresentation of her record to “Trumpian-style, false attacks.”Planned Parenthood was critical of the legislation.Johnson said women's health is also a priority for her, and she stands by her record.“Texas leads the nation of uninsured folks, and in maternal mortality, and in infant mortality. Obviously, we're leading the nation in an attack on women's freedom for women's reproductive health, and I've been a champion of a lot of these issues,” she said.Other candidates vying for the open seat in the March 5 primary include businessman Raja Chaudhry, tech entrepreneur Alex Cornwallis, former Dallas City Councilman and real estate broker Kevin Felder and attorney Callie Butcher, who would be the first openly transgender member of Congress if elected.If no candidate gets a majority of the vote, there will be a runoff in May. The winner of the Democratic primary will face off against the winner of the Republican primary in November but is likely to win given that the district is solidly blue.And, from Dallas we go to Houston whereAfter bruising loss in Houston mayoral race, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee faces her toughest reelection yetJackson Lee faces off against Amanda Edwards, her most formidable congressional opponent in three decades.https://www.texastribune.org/2024/02/19/sheila-jackson-lee-amanda-edwards-democratic-primary-houston/BY SEJAL GOVINDARAOFEB. 19, 2024In 1994, Sheila Jackson Lee, then a 44-year-old Houston city councilwoman, unseated four-term U.S. Rep. Craig Washington in the Democratic primary, securing a seat she'd come to hold for the next 30 years.This March, former Houston City Councilwoman Amanda Edwards, 42, is hoping to replicate that political upset as she faces off against Jackson Lee in the Democratic primary for Congressional District 18.Jackson Lee, who did not respond to requests for an interview, has only drawn four primary challengers over her 14-term career, all of whom she defeated by landslide margins.She's a household name in her Houston-based district, known for her frequent visibility at constituent graduations, funerals and baby showers.But last year she ran for Houston mayor against then-state Sen. John Whitmire. It was a bruising primary — unfamiliar territory for Jackson Lee — and her campaign was roiled with negative media after audio of her berating her congressional staffers was leaked. She ended up losing the race by 30 points and then immediately announced she was running for reelection to the U.S. House.Amanda Edwards, a former intern in Jackson Lee's office, initially announced she was running for Houston mayor until the congresswoman threw her hat in the ring. At that point, Edwards pivoted — endorsing Jackson Lee as mayor and beginning her own bid for Congress.By the time Jackson Lee announced she was running for her House seat again, Edwards had already gained momentum. In the fourth quarter of last year, Edwards outraised the congresswoman 10 to 1 — $272,000 to Jackson Lee's $23,000.Mark Jones, Baker Institute fellow in political science at Rice University said, “This could be the year that Congresswoman Jackson Lee loses. And given that as a safe, Democratic, seat whoever wins the primary will be headed to Washington in January of 2025”Jackson Lee holds a narrow lead in primary polls, while 16% of voters remain undecided. Edwards, a native Houstonian, said her commitment to public service is propelled by her father's battle with cancer when she was a teenager, where she learned firsthand about the cracks in the health care system and how “policy could be a matter of life and death.” She served as an at-large Houston City Council member from 2016 to 2020, where she represented a constituency of more than 2 million people.In her race to beat Jackson Lee, Edwards has garnered some notable endorsements including the Harris County Young Democrats, and the Harris County chapter of the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats – both of which endorsed Jackson Lee in past races.The Harris County Young Democrats rescinded its endorsement of Jackson Lee in the mayoral race — citing a “zero tolerance policy” for staff abuse.Lenard Polk, Harris County chapter president of the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats, said Jackson Lee's leaked audio tape controversy also factored into the committee's decision to not endorse her. On the recording Jackson Lee berates a staffer for not having a document she was looking for and calls two of her staffers “Goddamn big-ass children, fuckin' idiots who serve no Goddamn purpose.”He said endorsement committee members were still “quite upset” over the tape and it “wasn't a good look” for Jackson Lee. The leaked tape fueled discourse about Jackson Lee's reputation as an unkind boss on Capitol Hill – she regularly makes Washingtonian Magazine's worst of Congress list and her office has high turnover rates.Polk added that voters felt abandoned by Jackson Lee, who jumped into the mayor's race without endorsing someone to take her place, only to file for reelection a day after losing.Jackson Lee's battle to retain her seat is made tougher by 2021 redistricting, because the 18th district now includes more young white professionals who do not have the same level of loyalty to her as longtime district residents.But despite any damage she may have incurred from her mayoral run, Jackson Lee remains a powerful political force in her district.County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, who is backing Jackson Lee, said he doesn't know anyone in local politics with her “energy level,” and that Jackson Lee has secured meaningful federal grants for her district – most recently $20.5 million to Harris County Public Health Department's Uplift Harris Guaranteed Income Pilot project. He also said she has a reputation for being a reliably progressive voice in Congress.Jackson Lee has a long list of powerful endorsements from House Democratic leaders like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Minority Whip Katherine Clarke. She's backed by Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and other members of Texas' Washington delegation including Democratic Reps. Lizzie Fletcher of Houston, Lloyd Doggett of Austin, Henry Cuellar of Laredo and Joaquin Castro of San Antonio.Ellis said Jackson Lee may not be a strong fundraiser but she will benefit from her incumbency advantage.Linda Bell-Robinson, a Houston Democratic precinct chair, said she is fighting for Jackson Lee to retain her seat because seniority in Congress is important and Edwards would be learning the ropes as a freshman if elected.“We need fighters,” she said. “We don't need people trying to learn how to fight on the battlefield. We need people who are already fighting and know how to fight their fight.SEAN: Super interesting race. For my part, I don't have any problem with members of Congress being extremely tough to work for. I have problems with lying, fraud, criminal activity, and squishy voting records. Congresswoman Jackson Lee has 100% ratings from Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and AFL-CIO. She has a 95% rating from League of Conservation VotersNew estimate predicts Medicaid expansion would serve 152K at no cost to stateA $509M federal incentive would help offset state cost for first eight yearsBY: SHERMAN SMITH - FEBRUARY 22, 2024 4:22 PMhttps://kansasreflector.com/2024/02/22/new-estimate-predicts-medicaid-expansion-would-serve-152k-at-no-cost-to-state/TOPEKA — The Kansas Health Institute on Thursday unveiled its analysis of Gov. Laura Kelly's proposal to expand Medicaid, predicting 152,000 Kansans would enroll in the first year with no additional cost to the state government.The Democratic governor has made passage of Medicaid expansion a top legislative priority this year, following her statewide campaign to promote the policy last fall. But Republican leadership in the Legislature opposes the policy and has blocked hearings on Medicaid expansion for four years.Kansas is one of just 10 states that still haven't expanded Medicaid since President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act in 2010.The state-run version of Medicaid, called KanCare, provides health care services to low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities. Currently, those who earn less than 38% of the federal poverty level are eligible. For a family of four, the annual income limit is $11,400.Under the ACA, also known as Obamacare, the federal government offers to cover 90% of the cost of Medicaid services in exchange for expanding eligibility to 138% of the federal poverty rate. The annual income threshold for a family of four would be $41,400.Kelly's proposal includes a work requirement with exceptions for full-time students, veterans, caregivers, people with partial disabilities, and former foster kids. Her plan also would add a new surcharge for hospitals.KHI predicts the change in income eligibility would result in 151,898 people enrolling in KanCare — 106,450 adults and 45,448 children. Those numbers include 68,236 adults and 16,377 children who are currently uninsured.About 68.9% of the adults are already working at least part-time, according to the KHI analysis. Of the remaining 31.1% KHI determined 19.1% of the unemployed adults have a disability, 16.1% are students and 3.8% are veterans.KHI calculated the cost to the state for expanding Medicaid over the first eight years would be fully offset — mostly because of a $509 million incentive included in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Other savings would come from the federal government picking up more of the tab on existing services, as well as the new surcharge on hospitals. The Kansas Sunflower Foundation on Thursday released findings from surveys that found 68% of Kansas voters, including 51% of Republicans and 83% of small business owners support Medicaid expansion.Steve Baccus, an Ottawa County farmer and former president of Kansas Farm Bureau, said in a news release that expanding Medicaid was about “investing in the well-being of our communities.”Baccus said “Our rural communities are often struggling to keep Main Street open and to continue to offer the necessary services to the surrounding agricultural enterprises. A community that can offer a total health care package has an advantage in maintaining a viable town.”The findings are consistent with a Fort Hays State University poll that was released in October.With budget proposal and fiery address, Pritzker paints himself as progressive pragmatistThursday, February 22, 2024Governor's spending plan advances progressive-backed policies in tight fiscal landscapeBy HANNAH MEISELCapitol News Illinoishmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.comhttps://capitolnewsillinois.com/NEWS/with-budget-proposal-and-fiery-address-pritzker-paints-himself-as-progressive-pragmatistSPRINGFIELD – In delivering his annual State of the State and budget address on Wednesday, Gov. JB Pritzker cast his administration as both progressive and pragmatic – a balance he's worked to strike as his national profile has grown.Some elements of the governor's proposed spending plan, like using $10 million in state funds to eliminate $1 billion worth of Illinoisans' medical debt, are hardline progressive ideas. Others, including a goal to achieve “universal preschool” by 2027, fit in with a more traditional liberal platform.But Pritzker has also defined his success in traditional economic terms, putting particular stock into how New York City-based credit ratings agencies view Illinois' finances, while also positioning Illinois as a hub for emerging technologies like electric vehicles and quantum computing. As Illinois faces an influx of migrants from the southern U.S. border Pritzker has leaned into a leadership style that prioritizes progressive ideals while projecting an image of fiscal responsibility.As he outlined a proposal to add $182 Million toward the state's migrant response, Gov. Pritzker said, “We didn't ask for this manufactured crisis, But we must deal with it all the same.”“Children, pregnant women, and the elderly have been sent here in the dead of night, left far from our designated welcome centers, in freezing temperatures, wearing flip flops and T-shirts,” Pritzker said. “Think about that the next time a politician from Texas wants to lecture you about being a good Christian.”The governor was met with big applause from Democrats in laying out his proposed “Healthcare Consumer Access and Protection Act,” which would, in part, ban “prior authorization” requirements for mental health treatment.Pritzker characterized the practice of prior authorization as a way for insurance companies to deny the care that doctors have prescribed.Pritzker is also proposing spending $10 million in state funds to buy Illinoisans' past-due medical debt that's been sent to collections. Partnering with national nonprofit RIP Medical Debt, which buys debt for pennies on the dollar on the same market that collections agencies purchase the rights to the debts, the governor said Illinois could “relieve nearly $1 billion in medical debt for the first cohort of 340,000 Illinoisans.”The governor spent time noting two key places he said Illinois fails its Black citizens:  maternal mortality and disproportionate rates of homelessness. To combat Black maternal mortality rates, Pritzker proposed helping more community-based reproductive health centers to open, citing Illinois' first freestanding nonprofit birthing center in Berwyn as a model.He said, “Black women in our state are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women.” Pritzker proposed spending an additional $50 million on the state's “Home Illinois” program launched in 2021, in part to “attack the root causes of housing insecurity for Black Illinoisans.” He cited a statistic that Black people make up 61 percent of Illinois' homeless population despite only being 14 percent of the state's general population.Additionally, the governor proposed a $1 million pilot program for free diapers for low-income families, as well as a $5 million increased investment in an existing home visit program “for our most vulnerable families” with babies in their first year.His budget also includes $12 million to create a child tax credit for families with children under three with incomes below a certain threshold. Among the successes Pritzker pointed to, perhaps the most salient is his claim that Illinois' new “Smart Start” early childhood program – proposed last year in the governor's second inaugural address – had exceeded its first-year goals.The program aimed to create 5,000 new preschool seats last year, but ended up creating 5,823, Pritzker said – a 15 percent overperformance. “As a result, right now we have over 82,000 publicly-funded preschool classroom seats – the highest number in our state's history. Staying on the Smart Start plan, we will achieve universal preschool by 2027.”Echoing his 2022 election-year call for a temporary pause on the state's 1 percent tax on groceries, Pritzker on Wednesday proposed nixing the grocery tax altogether.He said “It's one more regressive tax we just don't need. If it reduces inflation for families from 4 percent to 3 percent, even if it only puts a few hundred bucks back in families' pockets, it's the right thing to do.”Even while proposing a series of progressive expenditures, the governor also sought to cast himself as a pragmatist when it comes to state finances. The state has seen strong revenue performances in the past few years, But in November, the governor's own economic forecasting office predicted a nearly $900 million deficit in the fiscal year that begins July 1.“Our FY25 budget proposal makes some hard choices,” Pritzker said Wednesday. “I wish we had big surpluses to work with this year to take on every one of the very real challenges we face.”Illinois' once-paltry “rainy day” fund now has $2 billion socked away, the governor noted, and the state has paid off high-interest debt during his five years in office.To mitigate Illinois' previously projected deficit, Pritzker is proposing to more than double the tax rate paid by sportsbooks on profits – a change that would bring in an estimated $200 million annually. He also proposed extending an existing cap on operating losses that businesses can claim on taxes, which could help generate more than $500 million, the governor's office claims.Another revenue generator proposed by the governor: raising $101 million by capping a sales tax credit retailers are allowed to claim. But business groups on Wednesday signaled they'd put up a fight. In his first few months in office in 2019, Pritzker used his fresh political capital to muscle a $15 minimum wage ramp through the legislature – a long-fought-for progressive policy goal – followed closely by a trip to New York City to meet with executives at the influential big three credit ratings agencies.When Pritzker took office, Illinois' credit ratings were hovering around “junk” status after a two-year budget impasse under his predecessor, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner. And though Illinois suffered a final credit downgrade in the early months of COVID, the state has since received nine upgrades.The governor on Wednesday held those upgrades in high regard, saying“My one line in the sand is that I will only sign a budget that is responsibly balanced and that does not diminish or derail the improving credit standing we have achieved for the last five years,”Andrew Adams contributed.Missouri Senate Dems Hold The Line In Ballot Fighthttps://missouriindependent.com/2024/02/20/democrat-filibuster-forces-removal-of-ballot-candy-from-senate-initiative-petition-bill/BY: RUDI KELLER - FEBRUARY 20, 2024 5:15 PM     A Democratic filibuster that stretched more than 20 hours ended this week when Senate Republicans stripped provisions critics derided as “ballot candy” from a proposal to make it harder to pass constitutional amendments proposed by initiative petitions.Ballot candy refers to language designed to trick voters - into thinking the initiative is about ensuring only citizens vote, for instance - when that's totally irrelevant to the question voters are deciding.By an 18-12 vote, with nine Republicans and nine Democrats forming the majority, language that stated non-citizens could not vote on constitutional amendments was removed, as were sections barring foreign governments and political parties from taking sides in Missouri ballot measures.The Senate then, by a voice vote, gave first-round approval to the bill that would require both a statewide majority and a majority vote in five of the state's eight congressional districts to pass future constitutional amendments.The proposal would alter the way Missourians have approved constitutional changes since the first statewide vote on a constitution in 1846.Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo of Independence, a Democrat, said, “All we're asking for is a fair fight. And the Republicans know if it's a fair fight, they lose, which is why they have to pump it full of ballot candy and mislead voters.”Meanwhile, the House spent much of Tuesday morning debating legislation that would make changes to the signature gathering process for initiative petition campaigns.Among numerous provisions, the bill would require signatures be recorded using black or dark ink and that signature gatherers be citizens of the United States, residents of Missouri or physically present in Missouri for at least 30 consecutive days prior to the collection of signatures.Its most sweeping provision grants new authority to the secretary of state and attorney general to review initiative and referendum petitions for compliance with the Missouri Constitution.The effort to make it harder to get on the ballot and harder to pass a constitutional amendment has been a GOP priority for several years. In the past two election cycles, voters have expanded Medicaid coverage and legalized recreational marijuana, circumventing the GOP majority that opposed both. The push to raise the threshold on amendments proposed by initiative has taken on a new urgency for Republicans as abortion-rights supporters move ahead with a signature campaign to make this year's ballot.The results on abortion amendments in other states has Missouri abortion foes anxious about whether they can defend the state's almost total ban in a statewide election. Voters in Ohio last year rejected an effort to increase the majority needed to pass constitutional amendments before voting 57% in favor of abortion rights. And in 2022, Kansas voters defeated an attempt to restrict abortion rights by a landslide vote.Gov. Kelly Keep Kansas GOP In Linehttps://kansasreflector.com/2024/02/20/kansas-house-republicans-fail-to-override-governors-veto-on-massive-tax-reform-bill/Kansas House Republicans fail to override governor's veto on massive tax reform billBY: TIM CARPENTER - FEBRUARY 20, 2024 12:41 PM     TOPEKA — The Republican-led Kansas House failed Tuesday to override Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly ‘s veto of a tax reform bill anchored by implementation of a single, flat state income tax rate of 5.25% in addition to elimination of the state sales tax on groceries and creation of a tax exemption for all Social Security income.The GOP holds supermajorities in the House and Senate, but there was skepticism that both chambers could muster two-thirds majorities necessary to rebuke Kelly given opposition among conservative and moderate Republicans to parts of the three-year, $1.6 billion tax cut favoring the state's most wealthy. Kelly said the decision of House members to sustain her veto was a win for working-class Kansans who would have seen “little relief under this irresponsible flat tax experiment.” The Legislature should move ahead with her proposal for reducing $1 billion in taxes over three years.The governor said “I urge legislators to work together to cut taxes in a way that continues our economic growth and maintains our solid fiscal foundation while benefitting all Kansans, not just those at the top,”.Rep. Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita, said the cost of the tax reform bill could reach $600 million annually when fully implemented, and the plan didn't do enough for the middle class in Kansas. He said a married couple earning $42,000 to $75,000 per year would only see an income tax reduction of about 75 cents.Rep. Trevor Jacobs of Fort Scott was among Republicans who opposed overriding Kelly's veto. He said the flat tax would force the state's working class to carry a larger burden of the state tax load. And the 2024 Legislature had sufficient time to develop an alternative that provided tax relief to all Kansans rather than just a select few.Good thinking! See it's not just Democrats who think KS Gov Laura Kelly knows what she's doing. Welp, that's it for me! From Denver I'm Sean Diller. Stories in today's show appeared first in the Missouri Independent, Kansas Reflector, Texas Tribune, and Capitol News Illinois. Thanks for listening, see you next time.  @TheHeartlandPOD on Twitter and ThreadsCo-HostsAdam Sommer @Adam_Sommer85 (Twitter) @adam_sommer85 (Post)Rachel Parker @msraitchetp (Post) Sean Diller (no social)The Heartland Collective - Sign Up Today!JOIN PATREON FOR MORE - AND JOIN OUR SOCIAL NETWORK!“Change The Conversation”Outro Song: “The World Is On Fire” by American Aquarium http://www.americanaquarium.com/

The Heartland POD for Friday, February 23, 2024A flyover from this weeks top heartland stories including:Primary voting is underway in Texas | Kansas Medicaid expansion update | Illinois Gov J.B. Pritzker lays out priorities as a progressive pragmatist | Missouri Democrats filibuster ballot candy | KS Gov Laura Kelly's veto will stand Primary voting is underway in Texashttps://www.texastribune.org/2024/02/21/julie-johnson-brian-williams-congressional-district-32-colin-allred/BY SEJAL GOVINDARAOFEB. 21, 2024WASHINGTON — In 2018, Rep. Colin Allred flipped Texas' 32nd Congressional District, turning the Dallas-based district into a blue stronghold. Now, as the Democrat vies to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a crowded field of 10 Democrats is lining up to replace him.Dr. Brian Williams, a trauma surgeon, and State Rep. Julie Johnson, of Farmers Branch, are leading the field in the Democratic primary with their fundraising efforts, each amassing about a million dollars in campaign donations since their campaigns were registered at the beginning of last summer.Ideologically, Williams and Johnson are aligned. They both rank health care a top priority if elected, and have touted their ability to work across the aisle.Johnson, a trial lawyer in her third term in the state House rode the 2019 blue wave to unseat hardline conservative incumbent Matt Rinaldi, by 13 points. Rinaldi now chairs the state GOP. In her three terms, at least 40 of the bills Johnson has co-authored or joint-authored have been signed into law.As a Democrat in the Republican-dominated state Legislature, Johnson has played a lot of defense trying to kill bills she and other progressives deem harmful. Johnson, who is gay, said she and other members of the House's LGBTQ caucus have had success in killing anti-LGBTQ bills by mastering the rules of procedure and “being better at the rules than the other side.” In 2019, she took down a House version of the so-called “Save Chick-fil-A bill” on a rule technicality. The bill was a response to a San Antonio airport kicking out the fast food restaurant over criticism of its religiously affiliated donations to anti-LGBTQ groups. It was revived in another bill and passed into law.If elected, Johnson would be the first openly LGBTQ member of Congress from a Southern state. She's drawn notable endorsements from Beto O'Rourke, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, EMILY's List, Equality PAC, and several labor unions.Matt Angle, director of Lone Star Project, a Texas group that works to boost Democrats, said Johnson is the frontrunner in the race, but Williams is a formidable challenger.“Make no mistake about it though,” Angle said. “Julie Johnson has a voter base within the district not only from her old district, but also just from years of being an active Democratic activist and a donor and really a couple of just outstanding terms in the legislature.”While he may be new to the Texas political arena, Williams is no stranger to the halls of Congress.Williams was a health policy adviser to U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy — who endorsed him — to help pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022 – the farthest reaching gun safety legislation in decades. The legislation, crafted in the aftermath of the shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo New York, allocated millions of dollars to expand mental health resources, strengthens background checks and tightens the boyfriend loophole. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn was a lead negotiator on the bill with Murphy, and Williams worked closely with Cornyn's office. In his role as a health policy advisor for Murphy, he worked across the aisle with Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana on mental health legislation.Williams also worked with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California to pass federal health care legislation related to pandemic preparedness and reducing health care costs.Williams said his experience as a trauma surgeon — operating on victims of gun violence and women experiencing reproductive health emergencies — has fueled his priorities to fight for gun restrictions and increase access to abortions and other womens' health. Williams added his perspective as a Black doctor seeing racial disparities in health care will resonate with the district's diverse constituency, given that the district is now a majority-minority district with a 37% Hispanic or Latino population, 22% Black population and 8% Asian population.“They're excited that there's someone that looks like them that can represent them in Congress,” Williams said in an interview.As Allred opted to stay neutral in the race to succeed him – Williams said he had pursued his endorsement while Johnson said she had not – the tension between Johnson and Williams has been heating up.Williams has publicly criticized Johnson for a vote she took that would have made some changes and tweaks to the state's Alternatives to Abortions program, which provides information about resources to women seeking the procedure.“I draw contrast between myself and Representative Johnson about how I am the better candidate,” Williams said.Johnson, who is endorsed by Planned Parenthood, said Williams misrepresented the vote, which she said she cast to bring the already-funded program under the scope of the Health and Human Services Commission so it could be subject to public transparency. Her campaign published a fact-check on her website, likening Williams' misrepresentation of her record to “Trumpian-style, false attacks.”Planned Parenthood was critical of the legislation.Johnson said women's health is also a priority for her, and she stands by her record.“Texas leads the nation of uninsured folks, and in maternal mortality, and in infant mortality. Obviously, we're leading the nation in an attack on women's freedom for women's reproductive health, and I've been a champion of a lot of these issues,” she said.Other candidates vying for the open seat in the March 5 primary include businessman Raja Chaudhry, tech entrepreneur Alex Cornwallis, former Dallas City Councilman and real estate broker Kevin Felder and attorney Callie Butcher, who would be the first openly transgender member of Congress if elected.If no candidate gets a majority of the vote, there will be a runoff in May. The winner of the Democratic primary will face off against the winner of the Republican primary in November but is likely to win given that the district is solidly blue.And, from Dallas we go to Houston whereAfter bruising loss in Houston mayoral race, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee faces her toughest reelection yetJackson Lee faces off against Amanda Edwards, her most formidable congressional opponent in three decades.https://www.texastribune.org/2024/02/19/sheila-jackson-lee-amanda-edwards-democratic-primary-houston/BY SEJAL GOVINDARAOFEB. 19, 2024In 1994, Sheila Jackson Lee, then a 44-year-old Houston city councilwoman, unseated four-term U.S. Rep. Craig Washington in the Democratic primary, securing a seat she'd come to hold for the next 30 years.This March, former Houston City Councilwoman Amanda Edwards, 42, is hoping to replicate that political upset as she faces off against Jackson Lee in the Democratic primary for Congressional District 18.Jackson Lee, who did not respond to requests for an interview, has only drawn four primary challengers over her 14-term career, all of whom she defeated by landslide margins.She's a household name in her Houston-based district, known for her frequent visibility at constituent graduations, funerals and baby showers.But last year she ran for Houston mayor against then-state Sen. John Whitmire. It was a bruising primary — unfamiliar territory for Jackson Lee — and her campaign was roiled with negative media after audio of her berating her congressional staffers was leaked. She ended up losing the race by 30 points and then immediately announced she was running for reelection to the U.S. House.Amanda Edwards, a former intern in Jackson Lee's office, initially announced she was running for Houston mayor until the congresswoman threw her hat in the ring. At that point, Edwards pivoted — endorsing Jackson Lee as mayor and beginning her own bid for Congress.By the time Jackson Lee announced she was running for her House seat again, Edwards had already gained momentum. In the fourth quarter of last year, Edwards outraised the congresswoman 10 to 1 — $272,000 to Jackson Lee's $23,000.Mark Jones, Baker Institute fellow in political science at Rice University said, “This could be the year that Congresswoman Jackson Lee loses. And given that as a safe, Democratic, seat whoever wins the primary will be headed to Washington in January of 2025”Jackson Lee holds a narrow lead in primary polls, while 16% of voters remain undecided. Edwards, a native Houstonian, said her commitment to public service is propelled by her father's battle with cancer when she was a teenager, where she learned firsthand about the cracks in the health care system and how “policy could be a matter of life and death.” She served as an at-large Houston City Council member from 2016 to 2020, where she represented a constituency of more than 2 million people.In her race to beat Jackson Lee, Edwards has garnered some notable endorsements including the Harris County Young Democrats, and the Harris County chapter of the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats – both of which endorsed Jackson Lee in past races.The Harris County Young Democrats rescinded its endorsement of Jackson Lee in the mayoral race — citing a “zero tolerance policy” for staff abuse.Lenard Polk, Harris County chapter president of the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats, said Jackson Lee's leaked audio tape controversy also factored into the committee's decision to not endorse her. On the recording Jackson Lee berates a staffer for not having a document she was looking for and calls two of her staffers “Goddamn big-ass children, fuckin' idiots who serve no Goddamn purpose.”He said endorsement committee members were still “quite upset” over the tape and it “wasn't a good look” for Jackson Lee. The leaked tape fueled discourse about Jackson Lee's reputation as an unkind boss on Capitol Hill – she regularly makes Washingtonian Magazine's worst of Congress list and her office has high turnover rates.Polk added that voters felt abandoned by Jackson Lee, who jumped into the mayor's race without endorsing someone to take her place, only to file for reelection a day after losing.Jackson Lee's battle to retain her seat is made tougher by 2021 redistricting, because the 18th district now includes more young white professionals who do not have the same level of loyalty to her as longtime district residents.But despite any damage she may have incurred from her mayoral run, Jackson Lee remains a powerful political force in her district.County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, who is backing Jackson Lee, said he doesn't know anyone in local politics with her “energy level,” and that Jackson Lee has secured meaningful federal grants for her district – most recently $20.5 million to Harris County Public Health Department's Uplift Harris Guaranteed Income Pilot project. He also said she has a reputation for being a reliably progressive voice in Congress.Jackson Lee has a long list of powerful endorsements from House Democratic leaders like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Minority Whip Katherine Clarke. She's backed by Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and other members of Texas' Washington delegation including Democratic Reps. Lizzie Fletcher of Houston, Lloyd Doggett of Austin, Henry Cuellar of Laredo and Joaquin Castro of San Antonio.Ellis said Jackson Lee may not be a strong fundraiser but she will benefit from her incumbency advantage.Linda Bell-Robinson, a Houston Democratic precinct chair, said she is fighting for Jackson Lee to retain her seat because seniority in Congress is important and Edwards would be learning the ropes as a freshman if elected.“We need fighters,” she said. “We don't need people trying to learn how to fight on the battlefield. We need people who are already fighting and know how to fight their fight.SEAN: Super interesting race. For my part, I don't have any problem with members of Congress being extremely tough to work for. I have problems with lying, fraud, criminal activity, and squishy voting records. Congresswoman Jackson Lee has 100% ratings from Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and AFL-CIO. She has a 95% rating from League of Conservation VotersNew estimate predicts Medicaid expansion would serve 152K at no cost to stateA $509M federal incentive would help offset state cost for first eight yearsBY: SHERMAN SMITH - FEBRUARY 22, 2024 4:22 PMhttps://kansasreflector.com/2024/02/22/new-estimate-predicts-medicaid-expansion-would-serve-152k-at-no-cost-to-state/TOPEKA — The Kansas Health Institute on Thursday unveiled its analysis of Gov. Laura Kelly's proposal to expand Medicaid, predicting 152,000 Kansans would enroll in the first year with no additional cost to the state government.The Democratic governor has made passage of Medicaid expansion a top legislative priority this year, following her statewide campaign to promote the policy last fall. But Republican leadership in the Legislature opposes the policy and has blocked hearings on Medicaid expansion for four years.Kansas is one of just 10 states that still haven't expanded Medicaid since President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act in 2010.The state-run version of Medicaid, called KanCare, provides health care services to low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities. Currently, those who earn less than 38% of the federal poverty level are eligible. For a family of four, the annual income limit is $11,400.Under the ACA, also known as Obamacare, the federal government offers to cover 90% of the cost of Medicaid services in exchange for expanding eligibility to 138% of the federal poverty rate. The annual income threshold for a family of four would be $41,400.Kelly's proposal includes a work requirement with exceptions for full-time students, veterans, caregivers, people with partial disabilities, and former foster kids. Her plan also would add a new surcharge for hospitals.KHI predicts the change in income eligibility would result in 151,898 people enrolling in KanCare — 106,450 adults and 45,448 children. Those numbers include 68,236 adults and 16,377 children who are currently uninsured.About 68.9% of the adults are already working at least part-time, according to the KHI analysis. Of the remaining 31.1% KHI determined 19.1% of the unemployed adults have a disability, 16.1% are students and 3.8% are veterans.KHI calculated the cost to the state for expanding Medicaid over the first eight years would be fully offset — mostly because of a $509 million incentive included in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Other savings would come from the federal government picking up more of the tab on existing services, as well as the new surcharge on hospitals. The Kansas Sunflower Foundation on Thursday released findings from surveys that found 68% of Kansas voters, including 51% of Republicans and 83% of small business owners support Medicaid expansion.Steve Baccus, an Ottawa County farmer and former president of Kansas Farm Bureau, said in a news release that expanding Medicaid was about “investing in the well-being of our communities.”Baccus said “Our rural communities are often struggling to keep Main Street open and to continue to offer the necessary services to the surrounding agricultural enterprises. A community that can offer a total health care package has an advantage in maintaining a viable town.”The findings are consistent with a Fort Hays State University poll that was released in October.With budget proposal and fiery address, Pritzker paints himself as progressive pragmatistThursday, February 22, 2024Governor's spending plan advances progressive-backed policies in tight fiscal landscapeBy HANNAH MEISELCapitol News Illinoishmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.comhttps://capitolnewsillinois.com/NEWS/with-budget-proposal-and-fiery-address-pritzker-paints-himself-as-progressive-pragmatistSPRINGFIELD – In delivering his annual State of the State and budget address on Wednesday, Gov. JB Pritzker cast his administration as both progressive and pragmatic – a balance he's worked to strike as his national profile has grown.Some elements of the governor's proposed spending plan, like using $10 million in state funds to eliminate $1 billion worth of Illinoisans' medical debt, are hardline progressive ideas. Others, including a goal to achieve “universal preschool” by 2027, fit in with a more traditional liberal platform.But Pritzker has also defined his success in traditional economic terms, putting particular stock into how New York City-based credit ratings agencies view Illinois' finances, while also positioning Illinois as a hub for emerging technologies like electric vehicles and quantum computing. As Illinois faces an influx of migrants from the southern U.S. border Pritzker has leaned into a leadership style that prioritizes progressive ideals while projecting an image of fiscal responsibility.As he outlined a proposal to add $182 Million toward the state's migrant response, Gov. Pritzker said, “We didn't ask for this manufactured crisis, But we must deal with it all the same.”“Children, pregnant women, and the elderly have been sent here in the dead of night, left far from our designated welcome centers, in freezing temperatures, wearing flip flops and T-shirts,” Pritzker said. “Think about that the next time a politician from Texas wants to lecture you about being a good Christian.”The governor was met with big applause from Democrats in laying out his proposed “Healthcare Consumer Access and Protection Act,” which would, in part, ban “prior authorization” requirements for mental health treatment.Pritzker characterized the practice of prior authorization as a way for insurance companies to deny the care that doctors have prescribed.Pritzker is also proposing spending $10 million in state funds to buy Illinoisans' past-due medical debt that's been sent to collections. Partnering with national nonprofit RIP Medical Debt, which buys debt for pennies on the dollar on the same market that collections agencies purchase the rights to the debts, the governor said Illinois could “relieve nearly $1 billion in medical debt for the first cohort of 340,000 Illinoisans.”The governor spent time noting two key places he said Illinois fails its Black citizens:  maternal mortality and disproportionate rates of homelessness. To combat Black maternal mortality rates, Pritzker proposed helping more community-based reproductive health centers to open, citing Illinois' first freestanding nonprofit birthing center in Berwyn as a model.He said, “Black women in our state are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women.” Pritzker proposed spending an additional $50 million on the state's “Home Illinois” program launched in 2021, in part to “attack the root causes of housing insecurity for Black Illinoisans.” He cited a statistic that Black people make up 61 percent of Illinois' homeless population despite only being 14 percent of the state's general population.Additionally, the governor proposed a $1 million pilot program for free diapers for low-income families, as well as a $5 million increased investment in an existing home visit program “for our most vulnerable families” with babies in their first year.His budget also includes $12 million to create a child tax credit for families with children under three with incomes below a certain threshold. Among the successes Pritzker pointed to, perhaps the most salient is his claim that Illinois' new “Smart Start” early childhood program – proposed last year in the governor's second inaugural address – had exceeded its first-year goals.The program aimed to create 5,000 new preschool seats last year, but ended up creating 5,823, Pritzker said – a 15 percent overperformance. “As a result, right now we have over 82,000 publicly-funded preschool classroom seats – the highest number in our state's history. Staying on the Smart Start plan, we will achieve universal preschool by 2027.”Echoing his 2022 election-year call for a temporary pause on the state's 1 percent tax on groceries, Pritzker on Wednesday proposed nixing the grocery tax altogether.He said “It's one more regressive tax we just don't need. If it reduces inflation for families from 4 percent to 3 percent, even if it only puts a few hundred bucks back in families' pockets, it's the right thing to do.”Even while proposing a series of progressive expenditures, the governor also sought to cast himself as a pragmatist when it comes to state finances. The state has seen strong revenue performances in the past few years, But in November, the governor's own economic forecasting office predicted a nearly $900 million deficit in the fiscal year that begins July 1.“Our FY25 budget proposal makes some hard choices,” Pritzker said Wednesday. “I wish we had big surpluses to work with this year to take on every one of the very real challenges we face.”Illinois' once-paltry “rainy day” fund now has $2 billion socked away, the governor noted, and the state has paid off high-interest debt during his five years in office.To mitigate Illinois' previously projected deficit, Pritzker is proposing to more than double the tax rate paid by sportsbooks on profits – a change that would bring in an estimated $200 million annually. He also proposed extending an existing cap on operating losses that businesses can claim on taxes, which could help generate more than $500 million, the governor's office claims.Another revenue generator proposed by the governor: raising $101 million by capping a sales tax credit retailers are allowed to claim. But business groups on Wednesday signaled they'd put up a fight. In his first few months in office in 2019, Pritzker used his fresh political capital to muscle a $15 minimum wage ramp through the legislature – a long-fought-for progressive policy goal – followed closely by a trip to New York City to meet with executives at the influential big three credit ratings agencies.When Pritzker took office, Illinois' credit ratings were hovering around “junk” status after a two-year budget impasse under his predecessor, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner. And though Illinois suffered a final credit downgrade in the early months of COVID, the state has since received nine upgrades.The governor on Wednesday held those upgrades in high regard, saying“My one line in the sand is that I will only sign a budget that is responsibly balanced and that does not diminish or derail the improving credit standing we have achieved for the last five years,”Andrew Adams contributed.Missouri Senate Dems Hold The Line In Ballot Fighthttps://missouriindependent.com/2024/02/20/democrat-filibuster-forces-removal-of-ballot-candy-from-senate-initiative-petition-bill/BY: RUDI KELLER - FEBRUARY 20, 2024 5:15 PM     A Democratic filibuster that stretched more than 20 hours ended this week when Senate Republicans stripped provisions critics derided as “ballot candy” from a proposal to make it harder to pass constitutional amendments proposed by initiative petitions.Ballot candy refers to language designed to trick voters - into thinking the initiative is about ensuring only citizens vote, for instance - when that's totally irrelevant to the question voters are deciding.By an 18-12 vote, with nine Republicans and nine Democrats forming the majority, language that stated non-citizens could not vote on constitutional amendments was removed, as were sections barring foreign governments and political parties from taking sides in Missouri ballot measures.The Senate then, by a voice vote, gave first-round approval to the bill that would require both a statewide majority and a majority vote in five of the state's eight congressional districts to pass future constitutional amendments.The proposal would alter the way Missourians have approved constitutional changes since the first statewide vote on a constitution in 1846.Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo of Independence, a Democrat, said, “All we're asking for is a fair fight. And the Republicans know if it's a fair fight, they lose, which is why they have to pump it full of ballot candy and mislead voters.”Meanwhile, the House spent much of Tuesday morning debating legislation that would make changes to the signature gathering process for initiative petition campaigns.Among numerous provisions, the bill would require signatures be recorded using black or dark ink and that signature gatherers be citizens of the United States, residents of Missouri or physically present in Missouri for at least 30 consecutive days prior to the collection of signatures.Its most sweeping provision grants new authority to the secretary of state and attorney general to review initiative and referendum petitions for compliance with the Missouri Constitution.The effort to make it harder to get on the ballot and harder to pass a constitutional amendment has been a GOP priority for several years. In the past two election cycles, voters have expanded Medicaid coverage and legalized recreational marijuana, circumventing the GOP majority that opposed both. The push to raise the threshold on amendments proposed by initiative has taken on a new urgency for Republicans as abortion-rights supporters move ahead with a signature campaign to make this year's ballot.The results on abortion amendments in other states has Missouri abortion foes anxious about whether they can defend the state's almost total ban in a statewide election. Voters in Ohio last year rejected an effort to increase the majority needed to pass constitutional amendments before voting 57% in favor of abortion rights. And in 2022, Kansas voters defeated an attempt to restrict abortion rights by a landslide vote.Gov. Kelly Keep Kansas GOP In Linehttps://kansasreflector.com/2024/02/20/kansas-house-republicans-fail-to-override-governors-veto-on-massive-tax-reform-bill/Kansas House Republicans fail to override governor's veto on massive tax reform billBY: TIM CARPENTER - FEBRUARY 20, 2024 12:41 PM     TOPEKA — The Republican-led Kansas House failed Tuesday to override Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly ‘s veto of a tax reform bill anchored by implementation of a single, flat state income tax rate of 5.25% in addition to elimination of the state sales tax on groceries and creation of a tax exemption for all Social Security income.The GOP holds supermajorities in the House and Senate, but there was skepticism that both chambers could muster two-thirds majorities necessary to rebuke Kelly given opposition among conservative and moderate Republicans to parts of the three-year, $1.6 billion tax cut favoring the state's most wealthy. Kelly said the decision of House members to sustain her veto was a win for working-class Kansans who would have seen “little relief under this irresponsible flat tax experiment.” The Legislature should move ahead with her proposal for reducing $1 billion in taxes over three years.The governor said “I urge legislators to work together to cut taxes in a way that continues our economic growth and maintains our solid fiscal foundation while benefitting all Kansans, not just those at the top,”.Rep. Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita, said the cost of the tax reform bill could reach $600 million annually when fully implemented, and the plan didn't do enough for the middle class in Kansas. He said a married couple earning $42,000 to $75,000 per year would only see an income tax reduction of about 75 cents.Rep. Trevor Jacobs of Fort Scott was among Republicans who opposed overriding Kelly's veto. He said the flat tax would force the state's working class to carry a larger burden of the state tax load. And the 2024 Legislature had sufficient time to develop an alternative that provided tax relief to all Kansans rather than just a select few.Good thinking! See it's not just Democrats who think KS Gov Laura Kelly knows what she's doing. Welp, that's it for me! From Denver I'm Sean Diller. Stories in today's show appeared first in the Missouri Independent, Kansas Reflector, Texas Tribune, and Capitol News Illinois. Thanks for listening, see you next time.  @TheHeartlandPOD on Twitter and ThreadsCo-HostsAdam Sommer @Adam_Sommer85 (Twitter) @adam_sommer85 (Post)Rachel Parker @msraitchetp (Post) Sean Diller (no social)The Heartland Collective - Sign Up Today!JOIN PATREON FOR MORE - AND JOIN OUR SOCIAL NETWORK!“Change The Conversation”Outro Song: “The World Is On Fire” by American Aquarium http://www.americanaquarium.com/

Some of Chomsky's notable works on Amazon: Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media – https://amzn.to/3Q9N6zv Who Rules the World? – https://amzn.to/3UkA0BU On Palestine – https://amzn.to/4aZrH3N All of Noam Chomsky's books – https://amzn.to/444Te1C Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you which will help fund current and future projects that I believe you'll love. Thanks for your support. __________________________________________________ Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He is a laureate professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona and an institute professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Among the most cited living authors, Chomsky has written more than 150 books on topics such as linguistics, war, and politics. Ideologically, he aligns with anarcho-syndicalism and libertarian socialism. Born to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants in Philadelphia, Chomsky developed an early interest in anarchism from alternative bookstores in New York City. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania. During his postgraduate work in the Harvard Society of Fellows, Chomsky developed the theory of transformational grammar for which he earned his doctorate in 1955. That year he began teaching at MIT, and in 1957 emerged as a significant figure in linguistics with his landmark work Syntactic Structures, which played a major role in remodeling the study of language. From 1958 to 1959 Chomsky was a National Science Foundation fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. He created or co-created the universal grammar theory, the generative grammar theory, the Chomsky hierarchy, and the minimalist program. Chomsky also played a pivotal role in the decline of linguistic behaviorism, and was particularly critical of the work of B. F. Skinner. An outspoken opponent of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which he saw as an act of American imperialism, in 1967 Chomsky rose to national attention for his anti-war essay "The Responsibility of Intellectuals". Becoming associated with the New Left, he was arrested multiple times for his activism and placed on President Richard Nixon's list of political opponents. While expanding his work in linguistics over subsequent decades, he also became involved in the linguistics wars. In collaboration with Edward S. Herman, Chomsky later articulated the propaganda model of media criticism in Manufacturing Consent, and worked to expose the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. His defense of unconditional freedom of speech, including that of Holocaust denial, generated significant controversy in the Faurisson affair of the 1980s. Chomsky's commentary on the Cambodian genocide also generated controversy. Since retiring from active teaching at MIT, he has continued his vocal political activism, including opposing the 2003 invasion of Iraq and supporting the Occupy movement. An anti-Zionist, Chomsky considers Israel's treatment of Palestinians to be worse than South African-style apartheid, and criticizes U.S. support for Israel. Chomsky is widely recognized as having helped to spark the cognitive revolution in the human sciences, contributing to the development of a new cognitivistic framework for the study of language and the mind. Chomsky remains a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy, contemporary capitalism, U.S. involvement and Israel's role in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and mass media. __________________________________________________ Buy me a coffee Audio source Noam Chomsky - Wikipedia Internet Archive --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theunadulteratedintellect/support

Did you know that the large Satmar Hasidic group, and the tiny Naturei Karta group, hold very different views about anti-zionism? Ideologically, the two agree up to a point. They both are anti-zionist until the Messiah comes, and both see Zionism as a secular movement. But Satmar is not the group that is seen on Iranian TV and running around with some pretty disturbing anti-semitic groups. In this segment, I go into the difference a little bit. For several reasons, including resource constraints, I have decided not to develop this segment into video. So for now I am only sharing it in podcast audio form.

This week, Mike and Elizabeth talk about research linking ideology to our habits of attention and memory, including our interpretation of cues related to social status and behaviors.  The episode was recorded before Harvard's president resigned, but our discussion is relevant to the ongoing controversy about her path to leadership and short lived tenure as president.  The conversation was inspired by a popular online opinion piece proposing that “pathological kindness” (the author's term, not ours!) leads individuals to act in ways that are ultimately unproductive or socially harmful.   Institute for Liberal Values Podcast notes: Waldfogel, H. B., Sheehy-Skeffington, J., Hauser, O. P., Ho, A. K., & Kteily, N. S. (2021). Ideology selectively shapes attention to inequality. PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118(14). https://doi-org.libserv-prd.bridgew.edu/10.1073/pnas.2023985118 https://unherd.com/2023/10/the-tyranny-of-pathological-kindness/

#GAZA:   Houthis are risk-takers., ideologically driven. Michael Knights is the Jill and Jay Bernstein Fellow at The Washington Institute, specializing in the military and security affairs of Iraq, Iran, and the Gulf states. He is a co-founder of the Militia Spotlight platform, which offers in-depth analysis of developments related to the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria. Malcolm Hoenlein @Conf_of_pres @mhoenlein1 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/27/us-navy-thwarts-attempted-seizure-of-israel-linked-cargo-ship https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-775848 https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/iranian-escalation-iraq-and-syria-implications-and-us-options 1962 Sanaa

Martin 'Bomber' Bradbury joins us to talk about voting strategically versus voting ideologically. We might also bounce off Bomber the latest Performance Ratings for Luxon and Hipkins and maybe even look at what the government is focused on +++++++++++++++ Come support the work we're doing by becoming a Patron of ⁠#BHN⁠ ⁠https://www.patreon.com/BigHairyNews⁠ Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/BigHairyNews Follow us on Twitter. @patbrittenden @Chewie_NZ

In this episode of The P.A.S. Report Podcast, Professor Nick Giordano dons his detective hat to crack the case of the scandalous “White House cocaine gate.” It's a real whodunnit. Is it the sneaky Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen or the mischievous Secretary of State Tony Blinken? Or could it possibly be the President himself? This is a whodunnit. But hold on tight, because this wild mystery unravels a more significant problem: our institutions are like a bunch of wannabe magicians, constantly pulling cover-ups out of their hats as they try to “fundamentally transform the United States of America.”   More Information If you enjoyed this episode and found it useful, please give The P.A.S. Report Podcast a 5-star rating and take 30 seconds to write a review. Make sure to hit the follow button so you never miss an episode. Please share this episode on social media and with your family and friends. Support The P.A.S. Report Podcast by Visiting Our Advertisers Stock up on all your survival needs and visit 4Patriots. 4Patriots champions freedom and self-reliance. Use code PAS to get 10% off your order. Protect your money from the out-of-control Washington D.C. spending. Visit Goldco today to get the Gold IRA Kit Americans are using to protect their retirement savings. Goldco is offering up to $10,000 in bonus silver when opening a qualified IRA account, just for being a P.A.S. Report listener. Visit Goldco at https://goldco.com/pasreport Don't forget to visit https://pasreport.com. *PA Strategies, LLC. may earn advertising revenue or a small commission for promoting products or when you make a purchase through any affiliate links on this website and within this post.

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer and Sam Weaver discuss Ron DeSantis' push to ideologically transform Florida colleges, and evaluate its potential to bring about greater freedom in the realm of education. While some of DeSantis' actions should be evaluated as positive, there are ominous signs that they could also entrench further state control of education. Among the topics covered: The toxic monoculture in American higher education; The need for a separation of education and state; Using the “Fairness Doctrine” to reverse state control in education; Aspects of DeSantis' proposal that could help introduce ideological diversity; How DeSantis' proposals could entrench a different kind of ideological monoculture; What arguing for freedom in education requires. Mentioned in this podcast and relevant to the discussion is Ayn Rand's essay “Fairness Doctrine for Education” in Philosophy: Who Needs It. The podcast was recorded on February 17, 2023. Listen to the discussion below. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. Podcast audio:

Katharine Birbalsingh CBE is a British teacher and education reformer who is the founder and head teacher of Michaela Community School, a free school established in 2014 in Wembley Park, London. Ideologically, she identifies as a small-c conservative. Fr Alex is the vicar St Matthew's Burnley, and is the author of a brand new book entitled 'Our Daily Bread Argos To The Altar. A Priest's Story which be ordered here, Our Daily Bread: From Argos to the Altar – a Priest's Story eBook : Frost, Father Alex, Campbell, Alastair: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store or follow him on Twitter @alexdjfrost

Alliance for Market Solutions executive director Alex Flint on Speaker Kevin McCarthy recognizing the need for the GOP to change the party's ideology on climate change. Listen to the entire episode: https://republicen.org/podcast!

On this episode of “The Federalist Radio Hour,” Ginny Gentles, director of the Education Freedom Center at the Independent Women's Forum, joins Federalist Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky to discuss the breakdown of educational and medical institutions thanks to radical gender ideology and evaluate what parents should do when their children are inevitably faced with woke dogma.

On this episode of “The Federalist Radio Hour,” Ginny Gentles, director of the Education Freedom Center at the Independent Women's Forum, joins Federalist Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky to discuss the breakdown of educational and medical institutions thanks to radical gender ideology and evaluate what parents should do when their children are inevitably faced with woke dogma.

My name is Miķelis Baštiks and this is Asketic Podcast where we talk about design and branding. This time we're here with brand strategist Edgars Pētersons and we will discuss why it's important to create one clear association with a brand and why Latvian companies need to be more shameless in order to achieve global success.There are trends, cultural characteristics, timeless things that are fundamental truths in most countries of the Western world. Then there are micro-cultural, local cultural characteristics. When you create a brand platform, can you rely on these fundamental things or do you have to focus more on micro-trends in the local context?The thing that differs from country to country or even from region to region in bigger countries is the sense of humour. If you attempt to define your brand's form of expression as funny and humorous, it can quickly go very wrong. I was once working on a Baltic campaign. In Latvia, everyone found it funny, but no one got the joke in Lithuania. That's one aspect you should be careful with. A reference to the brand's origin is a thing that works, for Europe in general. Declaring you're from Europe provides you with a mark of quality. Then there are certain individual associations for each country. Scandinavian design, German quality etc. An opinion in regards to Latvia and the Baltic region is slowly forming in certain markets, namely, that people, ingredients, processes here are closer to nature, ecological. Foreign businesses associate us with being innovative with wood. That's still an amorphous association. It depends on the category. As I recently discussed with students, there are categories where you have to maintain an artificially high pricing. If you buy sparkling wine for 8 euros, you won't associate it with something good. The same goes for design. I had a discussion with Edgars Zvirgzdiņš, it was around ten years ago. I said to him, look, there are so many ugly signboards on Čaka Street. We could ask designers to lend their hand and remake them. In response he asked me if I believe their usual customers would continue to shop in there. I didn't think so. There are people who would much rather spend that same money at the market, even though you could find those items for a lesser price at fast fashion stores, where the quality is the same, but the stores, the design and communication looks too good, therefore it gives a signal of being too expensive and not being meant for me. The trend that always works is empathy. If you find something current, important, interesting and attractive for your audience, then you have to signal that same thing.Seth Godin has said the same thing as you. He has a saying, “You can't be seen until you learn to see”. There's that same empathy.In various workshops, I've shown a bottle with no label or instructions, and then I ask them what it is and they interpret it. And then I show a bottle of “Absolut” with no label, and everyone knows what it is. The brand is in your head, it's what you think about it. You reflect on this brand, based on what knowledge you have, therefore, in order to create a successful brand, you have to find the points of contact, namely, the person's knowledge, associations, and have to try to find ways of connecting to them. The person perceives this brand, based on something they intuitively know, understand and are conscious of, and not based on some new information you provide.You take the matrix that they understand and change only so little that it's something new, instead of making something completely different.I believe that striving for originality as an end in itself is a self-sabotage in the creative industries. Creativity quite often can mean taking an existing cliché and adding something interesting or turning it around. For example, if you have such consumer product as potato chips and you create an extremely ascetic design for it, with Sans Serif font and all the rest, while targeting teens or even kids, then my hypothesis is that it won't be seen as an affordable consumer product. It will sit lonely on the shelf, while all the other products with flashy packages with 3D designs will sell out.Wouldn't it seem that teenagers are looking for something opposite to the mainstream?Let's not dissect this particular example too much. The needs and perceptions of the young people are changing, of course. Many teens are focusing more on health and sustainability and are much more responsible than their previous generations. We once did a study on environmental issues and the youth. Ideologically everything is fine, but when it clashes with economical issues, namely, how much what costs, then it is what it is.When it comes to teenagers, it's interesting to think about the balance between wanting to belong to a group and signal with certain brands and also wanting to be different from the previous generation. How can one manoeuvre among this fragility of wanting to belong and to be different at the same time? How can you create the perfect brand and design for this?The smaller markets often face the biggest challenge. You might belong to a global movement or sub-culture, but you actually represent only about 10 people in Latvia. Let's say you're a brand that operates only regionally in Latvia and targets the youth, but these young people might be divided into countless sub-cultures, which can be reached by global businesses due to their global scale, thus justifying a worthwhile investment, since these groups amount to hundreds, thousands and millions of people, however, for a local brand, operating only Latvia, this group might represent only a few tens or few hundreds of people, so you have to find the arithmetic average. Then you also have to consider your ability to stand out, to be challenging and different.You touched upon market research. Do you think it's worth it for a new start-up brand to invest a few thousand euros in market research? How else can you get qualitative data, so that you're not just basing everything on intuition?You have to think about research on several levels. We always begin cooperation with a client with the interview round. Many clients afterwards have called it their corporate psychotherapy. We identify the key persons within the company, their functions. By that I mean anyone from the owner to, as it was in case of “Virši”, the station manager or employees. In one-on-one setting or in groups of three or four we discuss the main issues in 90-minute interviews. From company's archaeology, their origins, up to their future ambitions and outlook towards their consumers. That itself is research. We don't associate it with research, because there's no research authority with 120 slides, tables and graphs, but it's research. It's essential in order to get to know this business, this brand, this company and this market. Based on that, you often realize what information you're missing and what additional research you require. Then you also have plenty of publicly available information from various sectors, sectoral associations publish various reports and studies locally and globally. Various consultation companies, like McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, also provide publicly available information. The public sector carries out a lot of research, various ministries, European organizations etc., so you can find a lot of public information. You also can't dismiss your personal observations. The next question is whether you require personalized research, whether you need to purchase a secondary study that's already been completed. You have to assess it from the economic perspective. If you purchase an additional study for a bigger or smaller sum of money and become 5-10% more sure, so that you're 85% sure, instead of 75% sure, will these 10% be worth it? Not only in marketing, but also in investment and product development, you have to take into consideration the unknown. There's a risk premium that you have to pay. When you launch a new product, you can be 80% or 90% sure of its success, but then the unlikely 10% scenario happens and it doesn't succeed. The same applies to brands and identities. It's the question of how much you're willing to pay and whether it's worth it to pay. It's one thing if you're 95-100% sure, but another, as my lecturer once told me, there's such phenomenon as analysis paralysis. You sit there as a consultant or a client, there's a study after study, and then suddenly you're unable to make any decision, because you have too much information and you can't choose which direction to take. In various industries, whether it's beauty, underwear or something else, you can see plenty of brands, where you can sense that people like us, who understand how to create a cool brand and what the current trends are, have decided to create an underwear line. We too would be quite good at that. But that's a marketing project, and you have to wonder whether such project will continue existing in five, ten or fifteen years, because, if you're really burning for that category, that product, and go through the process with it, then probably “yes”, but if it's a classic marketing approach of “exploring an unoccupied market niche, doing everything by the book and seeing it succeed”, will you as a person who manages the brand still feel motivated and fully invested in that project in a year, two, three, four years?In a way, yes. On the other hand, almost every global celebrity has their own brand, even several. Kim now has a cosmetics line with an excellent design, she has several brands. MrBeast has chocolate. The Rock has energy drinks. Basically, every celebrity now has several brands. It even might be easier to create a successful brand, if you're a recognizable person and you find a manufacturer and create a brand, then if you're a manufacturer who has to create something from ground up.You should view these celebrities as corporations like “Procter & Gamble”, “Unilever” and all others. Here you have a recognizable brand, competence or means to keep adding new products to the product portfolio. You will most likely succeed, since you have the name that you lead with. And in their case, some things from the portfolio will die off within a year, something new will appear, it will be very fluid. Just like with corporations. You launch a new product line, it succeeds – great, it doesn't –you kill it. Remember, “Madara” had a drink line. There obviously was a hypothesis that the brand is strong enough and has suitable associations in order to introduce a new category, but the market said “no”. It went back to cosmetics. It's similar for the celebrities. Maybe it's obvious for MrBeast to offer chocolate. Maybe he will enter a new product category and get burnt.I believe that the audience of all these public personalities is very specific and that they have the same outlook through the content this person creates, so it's easier to position the new brand, since the audience is clear and already gathered in one place. While, if you're a chocolate manufacturer, you have to build the audience from zero. You have to find it first, you have to know how to approach it, how to gain respect within this group. It's much more difficult than when you already have an audience, few million followers on Instagram. You can just provide them anything they need. In the end, the audience is more important than the product. If you have audience, you can offer it anything.Yes, but there's one difference. If you're an organization and an institution, you're an organism that's already a group with employees, teams, decision-makers etc. This group also attracts like-minded people, hopefully. Each organization has its own rituals, its founding story etc. It's more immune to sudden changes in a positive way and represents a more predictable direction. Then you have this individual, a personality cult, where you have built everything upon yourself and your activities. Regardless of whether it's your public persona or it's really you. If we look at recent events, where something happens to your persona, in your head or in regards to your opinions, you change your beliefs or suddenly spill something that you've kept within you, some antisemitic remarks or something else. Then there's the question of whether your audience will follow the marasmus you begin to produce or it won't. And then one day you see someone like Ye or Kanye West go from a billionaire to someone who brands, product categories and audience turns away from.But is the audience really turning away?In this specific case, it's too early to tell. But there has been precedent, like the classic example of Nike and Tiger Woods.Time will tell, but my intuition tells me that the audience is putting more trust in the individual than the corporations. If you ask me, I think that the audience that surrounds this individual will most likely stand by this individual than by some corporation.Actually, people are the ones we put our trust in regardless of whether we talk about corporations or influencers. If you sense that there's a team standing behind the influencer or the persona, creating its content, but this influencer is just a talking mouth that you don't believe in, then people will turn away sooner or later. If you have a corporation with a strong leader or a founder who is open and talks with the audience, and you can see him and empathise with him, then you will trust the corporation. And, even you don't see the faces representing the corporation, but will sense its humanity and that there's a team behind it, let's say, you experience a positive interaction at the client service. I recently ordered a bicycle helmet, and I received an order confirmation with the text “somebody's going to look sharp soon”. That's an automated order confirmation with pre-generated text, but the way it was formulated textually and visually made me think that this company is cool. It raised the brand value and its credibility. So to answer the question of whether we trust the corporations or the influencers more, I have to say we trust the people, and there are people behind corporations as well. After talking with many companies, I've realized the missed opportunity of showcasing all the behind-the-scenes processes, the team, the people standing behind the product and the brand. In the modern world, where we talk about content marketing, there is content that can improve this damned search engine marketing, which is a mechanical, algorithmical process. By adding stories about employees, it not only cultivates human empathy, but also provides content that gives you an advantage in the digital environment.When you start a new business, you often begin with your product and who you will sell it to. In the context of our conversation, if you already have an audience, it's much easier to find a product that will sell, because you already closely feel your audience. If you're now starting a new company, shouldn't you start by growing your audience, by showing the backstage processes, and then this process might even lead you elsewhere. Instead of creating a product and knocking on every door, looking for someone who will finally buy it.There is a channel within brand identity creation that hasn't received enough credit, namely, sales channel and sales strategy. These personalities on YouTube and elsewhere, they already have a communication and sales channel on Instagram or elsewhere. They're able to lead the audience to their website, which is also their sales channel, with on click. When a start-up company requests a market strategy or identity, I always ask for their sales strategy, their sales channels, distribution models. There's a difference between being in a low-priced shop and a premium department store. Between only distributing through your online store and a third-party online store etc., because it also defines your audience and followers. It also defines how you have to look visually, your context. Companies need to have a more complex and technical approach to growing the audience. You have to consider the products, the team, your story, distribution channels, sales channels, communication etc. It's clear that the initial investments for a corporation or a start-up will be higher than if you already have a persona. You can't forget that this ready persona has invested its time, money and resources in creating oneself.If a start-up had limited time and budget, what three things should this start-up attempt to do as a minimum? What would provide the highest return value?It should start by defining four things that it's good at. What are the reasons we should trust you. Then you mirror these things by naming the benefits they provide to the end consumer, who should already be defined. That's from the business side of things. Secondly, you should define the brand's tonality and personality. That establishes how you behave and look in the market. There are practical things you define together with the design partners, namely, that we represent this specific colour or that these forms dominate in our design. It's important, especially in this digital age. If you have a signature colour and if you can make people associate you with this colour, then it's as simple as showing it in a banner, and people already know who's approaching them. Firstly, the competences, what you do plus how they translate into benefits. Secondly, all these communications, tonality and things that make you recognizable. Thirdly, no one has dismissed the thing called mission or vision, or brand promise. You should state in at least one or two sentences the direction you're taking, be it ideological or philosophical. It not only helps with external audiences, but also internally. It will establish the company's culture, for example, if we think about product development – what categories will or won't suit you. Here I don't mean that this mission, vision or brand promise has to be anything related to saving the world, because nowadays I find it to be extremely exaggerated. There's too much attention on the fact that brands spend a fraction of their profits to benefit environmental or social issues. They take a stand regarding certain ideology. I think it's totally okay, if you as a company just aim to create a good product. Let's say, I want to create a tasty lemonade of superb quality and, while making this lemonade, I don't want to save dolphins. I just want a tasty lemonade that people enjoy. It goes without saying that in the production process you shouldn't pollute the local river, you should pay all taxes and avoid corruption. Not all companies need to make that their central message, your overriding goal may also be that you want to live a good life, not that you want to right the wrong in this world.There are times when you want to develop a good product with good intentions, but, by speaking honestly and directly, you do more damage than those who don't care, but who are able to smoothly apply these self-praising statements with no scruples, even though their raw materials are questionable or their source is unknown, but you do the so-called “greenwashing”, where you put up all these statements, and the vast majority of people will not go into details and will instantly decide that these products are the same or that this one is even better since it states all these things. But you, by being honest and having good intentions, let others surpass you with their marketing. What should you do in this case?I would always like to hope that the good guy will win in the long-term.But, considering the performance marketing taking place on social media, where people hammer out limited offers, “click fast to get 3 for the cost of 1”, should you do that or rather build a proper brand in the long-term. I'd like to believe it would be better, but will it?When it comes to performance marketing, these tools become increasingly expensive, price per conversion becomes higher and higher. People with deeper pockets will most often outtrump you in performance marketing or by buying the best place on the store's shelf, or by price dumping etc. Your only hope is to create a proper story, a good product and to slowly grow a loyal audience in the long-term. The most successful marketing tool is word-of-mouth marketing, but that's a long-term process. If you're a start-up or a niche company, it's very important to land the right audience, which will remain loyal to you and will bring you forward, based on your resonance potential. Here we see the big problem in Latvia, this small market. If you, with your correct, decent approach, wish to remain that way, but the vast majority of the audience is price-sensitive and will buy 3-for-2 items, despite the fact that the statements about these products are bullshit, because they will feel like they've bought an equal item due to marketing, then you have to understand whether you a) have to keep up, by compromising your values and changing your setup, your category and your position, or b) have to make peace with the niche that you occupy in Latvia and accept that you won't grow any bigger. You might need to find new product categories in order to reach new people or secure the existing audience. Or c) you have to reach outside of the borders of Latvia, where, as we discussed, what is a small number in Latvia, can amount to a huge absolute number globally, since 1% of Riga audience is not the same as 1% of the audience of London or Stockholm.But then you have to reconsider if your values that work here, being local, home-made and natural, are of value to someone outside our borders. You have to be able to find a different brand story.Maybe. I've been involved in “Madara Cosmetics” to some extent, and I think there's a combination of general values and brand-story elements that are true in all markets. For example, organic raw materials, responsible and ethical production etc. This growing industry and consumer's understanding that cosmetics should be organic. And then there's the exotic element that lets you stand out, for example, a special design element that has a local characteristic, certain shapes, portrayal of landscapes, which isn't Scandinavian or European, but signals the Baltics. In this case, many locals here don't appreciate or realize that you shouldn't be ashamed of the cultural, visual and ideological references to our nation. They can actually help us be great and stand out on the European background. Ukraine has been a current topic, and you can see that they heavily reference, in political and other contexts, even in Eurovision, things that are specific to their culture, ornaments, Kazakhs, nature, sunflowers, and it makes them interesting and unique. I don't mean we all have to become provincial and reproduce artisan markets, but the history and cultural references, visual references can be a huge source for interpretation and can make us interesting and different in the context of Europe. Regarding the global brand-story, it doesn't matter whether those are cosmetics, financial services, food products or something else, if we as humans can use it here, then others should be able to use it at a product level. There's a uniting functional and emotional need that this product solves. The next level of how we stand out can be found here locally, in our country or our people.The big question is what the local brands are missing that keeps them from finding their place globally, from being heard.This too is a story about the long-term and the masses. I think they lack confidence and shamelessness in a positive sense. Instead of denying and copying something that's only a global trend you have to able to create trends yourself or use the current global trends in your own unique way. If you do it alone, you might look weird, but if it's represented by one, two, three, four, five, ten Latvian brands whose ambition is to conquer not only Latvia and the Baltics, but a wider region, then it creates a movement. It also encourages other brands. Latvian brands are often characterized by modesty and certain compliance, and excessive flexibility in response to external factors, therefore it's refreshing to meet the managers of “Printful”, “Madara” and other similar companies that have reached the next level, but at the same time have maintained the local presence, by developing infrastructure in a certain city or by supporting social initiatives here, in Latvia.You've been working on two studies for two years, about the marketing environment mood in Latvia and about the future trends. Can you provide insight into what you've discovered within these studies? What is the mood like in Latvia and the Baltics? What should we pay attention to in the next year?We have just completed the survey of the marketing environment in Latvia, where we surveyed the people responsible for marketing on the clients' side. We asked several questions, the report will be published soon. The overall question is whether the positivity has decreased or the pessimism has increased when compared to the previous year in regards to how you see the next 12 months for your company. What's interesting, the response to the decrease in positivity or increase in pessimism isn't to freeze and wait it out or to freeze, cut marketing resources and wait, but to react flexibly to what happens. The previous priorities of where to invest and what competences to develop are expressed in research, product analysis, seeking new audiences and export markets. There's no sense of doom, which I felt in 2008 or 2009. Maybe all the marketing and business conferences, saying that there are opportunities within a crisis, have worked, or it's a business truth that companies have realized, namely, that we have to be flexible in the face of potential recession and inflation in order to react appropriately. And we can find value there as well, by creating new types of products, new variations, by conquering new markets with design and marketing, by approaching new audiences. That's one big characteristic found in this survey. There are a lot of specific trends which can be found on social media. When we summarized this year's trends at the beginning of this year, I found it interesting that now, after a pandemic, during times of war, when everything seems bad and everyone should be glum and sad, things are the opposite. People are looking for positivity, brightness and colourfulness. It doesn't mean you're throwing a feast in a time of plague, it's just a natural human reaction and some sort of protest and fight against the large, grey authority. If we look at history, at the late 60s, 70s, oil crisis, the Vietnam War, stagnation within the Soviet Union, the Afghan War. What did simultaneously happen in pop-culture? Hippies, tie-dye art, disco. To summarize what the marketing managers themselves are saying, yes, we know we're going to face a challenge, but we're ready to fight and actively work on increasing value.

"MEP: ‘Ideologically driven' EU packaging law endangers food value chain This article is part of our special report Unwrapping the EU's packaging law proposal. An ideologically driven EU packaging law based on rigid targets could end up endangering the food packaging and the food system value chain" "--START AD- #TheMummichogblogOfMalta Amazon Top and Flash Deals(Affiliate Link - You will support our translations if you purchase through the following link) - https://amzn.to/3CqsdJH Compare all the top travel sites in just one search to find the best hotel deals at HotelsCombined - awarded world's best hotel price comparison site. (Affiliate Link - You will support our translations if you purchase through the following link) - https://www.hotelscombined.com/?a_aid=20558 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."""" #Jesus #Catholic. Smooth Radio Malta is Malta's number one digital radio station, playing Your Relaxing Favourites - Smooth provides a ‘clutter free' mix, appealing to a core 35-59 audience offering soft adult contemporary classics. We operate a playlist of popular tracks which is updated on a regular basis. https://smooth.com.mt/listen/ Follow on Telegram: https://t.me/themummichogblogdotcom END AD---" ", Finnish MEP Elsi Katainen told EURACTIV in an interview. An overhaul of the EU packaging and packaging waste directive (PPWD), the main EU-level instrument dealing with how food packaging is placed on the market and requirements for its end-of-life, is due 30 November. But a leaked draft of the proposal has been met with consternation by stakeholders, including the liberal lawmaker. “I am concerned that the Commission is pushing forward a regulation that is not necessarily based on evidence and is driven by ideology,” she told EURACTIV. The MEP particularly took umbrage with the fact that the draft proposal places too strong an emphasis on reusable packaging, despite the fact this is “robust evidence and data available that reusable packaging is not the best option in all settings,” such as in quick service restaurants. For Katainen, the ideology against the use of biomass in recyclable products is “hard to understand” given that EU forests are sustainably managed, which the MEP defined as meaning forests are “grow[ing] more than they are harvested”. As such, there is a risk that the new legislation may in fact increase the amount of plastic packaging in the EU market, she said. In this way, the leaked proposal seems “contrary to the long-standing goal of the EU's Green Deal agenda,” she said, stressing the need for the circular economy to be front and centre of the proposal. EU's draft reuse targets for packaging meets barrage of criticism from industry A leaked draft of the EU's new packaging law, seen by EURACTIV, has caused uproar among the industry, which says it risks undermining years of efforts and billions of euros worth of investments into recycling. Food value chain ‘at risk' Some of the targets in the draft include 30% of reusable packaging for cold and hot beverages by 2030 and 95% by 2040, as well as 20% of takeaway ready-prepared food by 2030 and 75% by 2040 According to the MEP, an ill-conceived proposal based on rigid targets could have far-reaching consequences for the agri-food chain. “By unrealistic thresholds, the Commission will put food packaging and the food system value chain at risk,” she warned, stressing the need for “more concreteness” about the role of packaging in food security. Instead, the Commission should take a more holistic approach to the food systems value chain, including food packaging, she said, stressing its crucial role in ensuring food safety and food availability. Food packaging has also a role in preventing food waste which, for the MEP, is not given enough attention. Stressing that as much as a third of all food goes to waste, she said that food packaging can “help reduce food w

The Jafa brings you Paul Hester comedy gold and Chicago memories. Dublin 1992: tall trees, world where you live, in the lowlands, dr livingston. Chicago 2004: six months in a leaky boat, a life between us.You can significantly support the continuation of the 240 podcast for a donation of just a couple dollars per month. This goes directly towards covering the podcast hosting fees. Big thank yous if you are in a position to help. Head over here to: http://patreon.com/240neilfinn

That's right - the legend Noam Chomsky joins Inside the War Room to talk about the decline of America, China, Russia, and the Middle East. Links from the show:The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of US PowerNoam's booksSubscribe to the newsletterConnect with RyanAbout my guest:Avram Noam Chomsky (/ˈnoʊm ˈtʃɒmski/; born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, logician, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes described as "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy, and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He has spent more than half a century at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he is Institute Professor Emeritus, and is the author of over 100 books on topics such as linguistics, war, politics, and mass media. Ideologically, he aligns with anarcho-syndicalism and libertarian socialism. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dispatchesfromthewarroom.substack.com

In this episode Dennis discusses the issues surrounding abortion and the Roe v. Wade leak. He discusses why pro-choice and pro-life people disagree and presents the idea that the disagreement arises not so much over legal rulings but because of foundational disagreements that the two sides have. Any legal rulings that come down the pike will be reflective of those foundational beliefs and there will be disagreements over whichever way the Courts decide to go. Will the country divide over this issue? The sad reality is that we actually are already divided. Ideologically we live in two different countries that hold different self-evident truths about what it means to be created, what constitutes life, and the unalienable valuable attributed to that life. Unless we can agree on those issues we will never resolve the pro-life/pro-choice debate. If you have any questions or comments that you'd like Dennis to address you can shoot him an email to dennissutherby@infaith.orgSubscribe to the "Faith in Focus" substack by following the link here to get articles directly to your inboxAnd if you'd like to support his ministry with InFaith you can text the word "discipleship" to 41444 or head over to https://infaith.org/dennis-sutherby and give there. Support the show

Parents, grandparents and Christian leaders must understand how morally and intellectually unmoored activists are corrupting our children. Many of these activists are teaching our children in our government schools. They propagandize in many ways, including through literature, direct instruction, and demagoguery. They propagate highly controversial beliefs without telling young students that the “explanations” are controversial, disputed, pagan-based, and devoid of scientific support. Read more...

Parents, grandparents and Christian leaders must understand how morally and intellectually unmoored activists are corrupting our children. Many of these activists are teaching our children in our government schools. They propagandize in many ways, including through literature, direct instruction, and demagoguery. They propagate highly controversial beliefs without telling young students that the “explanations” are controversial, disputed, pagan-based, and devoid of scientific support. Read more...

Post Cab defence/traffic light announcements. The prime minister told Louisa Wall she wouldn't be in her Cabinet. Foreign Affairs select committee wanting to hear from the Russian ambassador. Political editor Barry Soper joined Andrew Dickens. LISTEN ABOVE 

In this episode, Dalia Mogahed, Director of Research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, talks about the report “Measuring the Legal and Media Responses to Ideologically Motivated Violence in the US.” She uncovers the results of this report, which reveals that perceived Muslim perpetrators of ideologically motivated crimes are treated differently by the media and by law enforcement, leading to vastly different sentences. The discussion also delves into the implications of these differences for American Muslims and for the larger community and proposes some strategies to guard against these disparities. This interview was conducted by MuBANY Director, Maryam Jazini.

This week on MOATS: The Podcast Bonus Episode This week's guest is Director of The Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, Vijay Prashad on the death anniversary of Professor Patrice Lumumba Patrice Émery Lumumba was a Congolese politician and independence leader who served as the first prime minister of the independent Democratic Republic of the Congo from June until September 1960. He played a significant role in the transformation of the Congo from a colony of Belgium into an independent republic. Ideologically an African nationalist and pan-Africanist, he led the Congolese National Movement (MNC) party from 1958 until he was assassinated. The Mother of all Talk Shows" is broadcast live every Sunday 7pm GMT on Youtube and Sputnik Radio. MOATS is the open university of the airwaves to millions of people all over the world @moatstv @vijayprashad This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

German Ambassador Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau believed that Germany and the Soviet Union were locked together in a Schicksalgemienshaft, or “community of fate.” The interaction of these two nations, Brockdorff-Rantzau thought, would decide the course of history, in Europe and beyond. Anyone familiar with the history of German-Soviet relations in the twentieth century might be inclined to agree with the ambassador's assessment; though they might find his use of the word “community,” with all its positive connotations, somewhat out of place. For if the Germans and Soviets built any community at all, the evidence suggests it was not built on mutual respect and cooperation. Rather it was built on hate—vicious, unbridled, unrelenting hate. Hate, however, can unite as powerfully as it divides. Ideologically, politically, culturally, economically, and socially, the Germans and the Soviets were diametrically opposed. But for a brief period during the interwar years, their mutual hatred of the post-First World War order overcame their mutual distrust to bring these two powers together in an uncharacteristic, but highly consequential, economic, technologic, and military partnership. Formalized with the signing of the Treaty of Ropallo in April 1922, this uneasy alliance saw the Soviet Union provide a safe haven for German rearmament in return for German investment, trade, and military assistance. German officers, businessmen, industrialists, and engineers relocated to secret sites throughout the Soviet Union to work on the design of tanks and aircraft, develop new chemical weapons capabilities, and train a new generation of German military leaders away from the prying eyes of the Allied powers. Simultaneously, Soviet officers learned the art of war from their German counterparts, while their country acquired the industrial base, manufacturing expertise, and military hardware it believed necessary to advancing the Communist cause. Understanding the grave significance of that exchange is the object of military historian Ian Ona Johnson's recent work, Faustian Bargain: The Soviet-German Partnership and the Origins of the Second World War (Oxford University Press, 2021). The Ropallo relationship, Johnson convincingly argues, can explain not only the outbreak of the Second World War, but also its conduct, especially on the Eastern Front. Germany's rapid rearmament, the Nazification of the Reichswar, the Soviet military purges of the 1930s, and even British and French appeasement, Johnson maintains, can all trace their roots to the Ropallo era. Without the Soviet Union's assistance, Germany would not have been able to so easily violate the Versailles treaty; nor would the German military have been able to so rapidly rearm. Close contact between German officers and the Soviet regime, Johnson observes, radicalized many in the Reichswar's upper echelons, driving them into the open embrace of the National Socialists. Contact between these two groups also troubled Stalin, who feared Red Army officers were becoming contaminated by German ideology and culture. That fear, Johnson contends, resulted in the disastrous Red Army purges of 1936. And, Johnson argues, had the Germany Army not stolen a technological night march on the British and the French, appeasement may not have been as attractive a posture. Without Ropallo, Hitler's early advances may have been more forcefully checked. Faustian Bargain is an insightful, incisive, exhaustively researched, and incredibly accessible look at a critical period in the lead up to the Second World War. Johnson provides a fresh lens through which to examine the most important questions surrounding the war, its origins, and its conduct. In doing so, Johnson reminds us that the story of the Second World War is in fact, as Brockdorff-Rantzau might have stated, the story of the the complex relationships built by an international “community of fate.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

State Sen. Dawn Euer (D-Newport) is the guest this week on Political Rountable. Joining me on the panel this week are URI emeritus professor of political science Maureen Moakey and Antonia Ayres-Brown, Newport reporter for The Public's Radio. Here's is an edited transcript of our conversation. Donnis: Let's start with the unveiling this week of […]

An edited excerpt from this week's Temple Talks follows below. Rabbi Zimmerman:So you talk about your work in DC, and I know that one of the interactions we've had over the years is a conversation about Reverend Barber's work and the Poor People's Campaign. In so many ways, people bifurcate what happens inside the synagogue or the church—the prayer that happens there—and the work on the street. I think something that Reverend Barber does so beautifully is say, no, no, no! They are one and the same; they are extensions of each other. And so I'm wondering how you, both theologically and practically, see that work that you had in DC and that you now have as a minster inside churches?Rev. Davis:I was a congressional staffer for fifteen years. I worked for three different members. The funny thing is you can't get away from the way you were raised. My folks lived in a world where it was about service, and giving, and taking care of people. I tell people all the time, there's two things that I always remember. First, I remember when people would come to the door, and it was grownup talk so I didn't care what they were talking about, but on occasion, what my mother would do, was go into the kitchen, and start going through the pantry and filling up bags and giving people stuff. And that was just fine, until she started giving away my peanut butter too!And secondly, I'd hear stuff from my father like, come and help me, we're going to pick up a bed and carry it to someone who needs it. And these were things that went on all the time. It wasn't until I started working in politics, that I started to make the connections of how public policy was affected so much of that. And that some of the things that were happening around social services, some of the worst outcomes, where you just wonder why it's not working, it was that it was intentionally done through public policy. That was the really shocking experience, where I would see politicians who would make it harder for people to access things because they didn't like the program. Ideologically they were opposed to it, so they would use public policy to get the outcomes they want, and then point out the program and say “it's not working” or “poverty programs don't work.”And that was the real learning experience when I was a staffer. And then I thought, OK, I'm going to use my skill to try to get at that. And I got into strategy: how to drive public policy, how to advise members of Congress, how to do it so we can get what we want out of it. As I got more into it, unfortunately, I did get a little cynical. But when I started to explore faith, one of the things that I found was a great freedom in what I saw in the biblical witness. The prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah, boy did they fill me with a lot of energy. And I said, maybe where I could do something, especially with the knowledge I have of how it's done, is I could speak with a prophetic edge instead of a pragmatic edge. I had to learn over time that as a preacher, as a clergyperson, as a public theologian, I don't have to be pragmatic. I get to say and name truths vividly. And so there was a moment there where it was real uncomfortable. How do I move from this place of political strategy, ideology, working rooms and compromise, and all off that, and then get to this place.I had to figure out my identity. There was a moment there, when I was in those two worlds and I wasn't quite comfortable.What I love about Reverend Barber, and what really hits me where I'm most excited, is that I don't have to compartmentalize it. I do get to name the truth and say it out loud. And then I can also say, I know what it takes to get it done.I'll give you one other story. I do a lot of work with Bishop Yvette Flunder, who does a lot of work with queer Black people of faith, and regarding HIV/AIDS in Oakland, California. I was doing some work on HIV and I was talking to her about some of my frustrations. What she made me see was that I'd gotten into a policy room and I was getting back into the way I used to operate as a congressional staffer. And she said something that really brought me back to myself. She said, you're also a minister, and called minister. So sometimes you need to bring that into the room with you. So yes, there are times when I can go back to the best of that strategic engagement with it, but boy I love getting up and saying “Thus saith, the Lord,” to just remind people, that there's something bigger than the pragmatism that got you into the room.   ****************Welcome to Temple Talks, a new podcast from Temple Israel in Minneapolis, where Jewish wisdom meets our ever-changing world. Join us as we talk with our favorite partners and thought leaders, from around town and around the world. We hope these talks will inspire you, challenge you, and give us all new ideas about Judaism, religious life, and social justice. Join us for services, learning, and community at TempleIsrael.com.

This story is part of "Every 30 Seconds," a collaborative public media reporting project tracing the young Latino electorate leading up to the 2020 presidential election and beyond.Izcan Ordaz voted for the first time in Texas' Democratic primary on March 3, or Super Tuesday. As an 18-year-old high school senior, he was excited for this milestone in his young life. That was just before the US became an epicenter in the coronavirus pandemic. The election issues Ordaz was most concerned about were the cost of college and student loans. Now, he said, the US economy and job insecurity are at the top of his mind. Meanwhile, his other high school milestones, like prom and graduation, have been postponed until coronavirus restrictions are lifted. As the November presidential election nears, Ordaz said he's paying more attention to what candidates do and say on the economy. “I know if layoffs continue to escalate, if unemployment applicants continue to rise, then it could really start to reflect what is being done. And people are going to want to see what's being taken care of,” said Ordaz, whose father is an immigrant from Mexico. Democratic Party leaders in Texas say the Latino vote is an important voting bloc, one that could help make the state less red. Nearly 40% of Texas' population is Latino, and about one in three eligible voters is Latino. The majority tend to vote Democratic, but the Republican-led state still sees higher levels of Latino support during elections compared to other parts of the country. In the 2018 midterm elections, 42% of Latinos voted for Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.Related: Every 30 seconds, a young Latino in the US turns 18. Their votes count more than ever.Unlike many other young Latinos who flocked to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ordaz said he wasn't sold on the man often affectionately called “Tío Bernie.” Sanders recently dropped out of the race for the Democratic Party presidential nominee and has endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden.Ordaz said Texas conservatism has influenced him. He describes himself as more of a centrist and said his parents are more liberal than he is: They were Bernie Sanders supporters.  Izcan Ordaz, middle, alongside his mother, Xochitl Ortiz, right, and father, Simon Ordaz. Credit: Courtesy of Izcan Ordaz The family lives in Keller, a suburb of Fort Worth known for good schools and good neighborhoods. The average household income is more than $145,000. Ordaz said growing up in a middle-class home and going to school alongside conservative classmates influenced his political views. “Ideologically, some of the socialism things that he [Sanders] embraces, I just understand that America is just still more individualist, and so some of these ideas are really not going to fly with a lot of the more moderate thinkers.”Related: In Texas, youth groups hope to turn the state purple in NovemberOrdaz said he liked Democratic candidate Mike Bloomberg at first, because he thought Bloomberg could compete against President Donald Trump as a successful billionaire businessman. But Ordaz said Bloomberg's decision to enter late in the presidential race hurt him, and he thought the candidate didn't have the support he needed to win the Democratic nomination.So he voted for Biden in the Texas primary. When it comes to Trump, though, Ordaz and his parents agree: They don't want to see him re-elected. Simon Ordaz, Izcan Ordaz's father, said Trump's rhetoric on immigration has been hard on him. “It's been very difficult, and definitely politics and race is a main topic,” Simon Ordaz said. “Obviously, I'm a citizen of the US, but I'm also an immigrant from Mexico and very proud of that culture.”Izcan Ordaz's mother, Xochitl Ortiz, who was born in Chicago, said most immigrants who come to the US are seeking a better life for themselves and their families.“To see immigrants being portrayed in such a negative way is just really — I think it's un-American, first of all. But it's also very hurtful for people who are here, who are immigrants.”Xochitl Ortiz, mother of Izcan Ordaz“To see immigrants being portrayed in such a negative way is just really — I think it's un-American, first of all. But it's also very hurtful for people who are here, who are immigrants,” she said. Even though immigration is an important issue to him and his parents, Ordaz said he's now much more worried about COVID-19's impact on the economy. For now, like most high school students across the country, Ordaz is trying to adjust to doing schoolwork from home amid a pandemic. He connects with teachers via the online video-conferencing app Zoom. He's turned his bedroom into his classroom. But it hasn't been an easy transition. “Overall, I think it's been pretty hard to study and to try to learn something,” he said. “It might just be mixed with, like, a little bit of senioritis that I'm already feeling, but I think the loss of schedule and the loss of routine has really made it hard for a lot of students to stay on top of the work.” As he waits to learn if prom and graduation will take place this year, Ordaz said he was looking forward to performing a song he co-wrote with a friend at prom. The song, called “Friday Night Lights,” is an ode to their high school years. “That would be really unfortunate, you know, if I wasn't able to do that [perform], because that was kind of like a dream that we had,” he said. “But obviously with no prom, there's no possibility for that.” 

I had a feeling this day was coming... well, it was yesterday, actually, that Bernie Sanders ended his campaign. Logically, it was the right thing to do. Ideologically and righteously, not so much. I'm still grappling with my feelings about it, and will explain why I went ballistic on my former colleague who called in to the show yesterday, before dealing with today's news. And, or course, it's Thursday, so Howie Klein will explain why he will not vote for Joe Biden. Nothing is simple any more...

Still don't believe sexual anarchists are coming for the hearts and minds of the nation's children? Well, check out this just-released book published by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin books, and geared toward children 10 and older: Middle School's a Drag, You Better Werk Harder!, a book the publishers describe as a “hilarious, heartfelt story,” “full of laughs, sass, and hijinks” that “shows that with a little effort and a lot of love, anything is possible.” Sounds amazing, doesn't it? Well, if you caught the allusion to “twerking” in the title, you may be a little less sanguine about children reading this hilarious, heartfelt story about love and possibility. For those who don't know, “twerking”—as defined by the online Merriam-Webster Dictionary—is “sexually suggestive dancing characterized by rapid, repeated hip thrusts and shaking of the buttocks especially while squatting.” Read more...

Why You Shouldn't Be Safe, Ideologically: Wise Words From Van Jones: Van Jones U Chicago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zms3EqGbFOk&t=153sCoddling of the American Mind: https://amzn.to/2wpPUCT FOLLOW AUXORO (Insta): https://www.instagram.com/auxoro/FOLLOW AUXORO (FB): https://www.facebook.com/auxoromag/FOLLOW AUXORO (Twitter): https://twitter.com/AuxoromagSUPPORT AUXORO ON PATREON (Thank You): https://www.patreon.com/auxoroSUPPORT AUXORO ON PAYPAL (Thank You): paypal.me/zacharygrossfeld1SUPPORT AUXORO ON VENMO (Thank You): @Zachary-Ross-4AUXORO NEWSLETTER: https://www.auxoro.com/theaux=AUXORO MERCH: https://www.auxoro.com/store=WEBSITE/BLOG: https://www.auxoro.com/AUXORO PODCAST: https://linktr.ee/auxoro

Open main menu Wikipedia Search Winston Churchill Read in another language Download PDF Watch Edit "Churchill" redirects here. For other uses, see Churchill (disambiguation) and Winston Churchill (disambiguation). This British person's barrelled surname is Spencer-Churchill, but they are known by the surname Churchill. Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British politician, army officer, and writer. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, when he led Britain to victory in the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill represented five constituencies during his career as a Member of Parliament (MP). Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, for most of his career he was a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955, but from 1904 to 1924 was a member of the Liberal Party. The Right Honourable Sir Winston Churchill KG OM CH TD DL FRS RA Churchill wearing a suit, standing and holding a chair The Roaring Lion, an iconic portrait by Yousuf Karsh, taken at the Canadian Parliament, December 1941 Prime Minister of the United Kingdom In office 26 October 1951 – 5 April 1955 Monarch George VI Elizabeth II Deputy Anthony Eden Preceded by Clement Attlee Succeeded by Anthony Eden In office 10 May 1940 – 26 July 1945 Monarch George VI Deputy Clement Attlee (1942–1945) Preceded by Neville Chamberlain Succeeded by Clement Attlee Leadership positions Leader of the Opposition In office 26 July 1945 – 26 October 1951 Monarch George VI Prime Minister Clement Attlee Preceded by Clement Attlee Succeeded by Clement Attlee Leader of the Conservative Party In office 9 November 1940 – 6 April 1955 Preceded by Neville Chamberlain Succeeded by Anthony Eden Ministerial offices 1939–1952 Minister of Defence In office 28 October 1951 – 1 March 1952 Preceded by Manny Shinwell Succeeded by The Earl Alexander of Tunis In office 10 May 1940 – 26 July 1945 Preceded by The Lord Chatfield (Coordination of Defence) Succeeded by Clement Attlee First Lord of the Admiralty In office 3 September 1939 – 11 May 1940 Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain Preceded by The Earl Stanhope Succeeded by A. V. Alexander Ministerial offices 1908–1929 Chancellor of the Exchequer In office 6 November 1924 – 4 June 1929 Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin Preceded by Philip Snowden Succeeded by Philip Snowden Secretary of State for the Colonies In office 13 February 1921 – 19 October 1922 Prime Minister David Lloyd George Preceded by The Viscount Milner Succeeded by The Duke of Devonshire Secretary of State for Air In office 10 January 1919 – 13 February 1921 Prime Minister David Lloyd George Preceded by William Weir Succeeded by Frederick Guest Secretary of State for War In office 10 January 1919 – 13 February 1921 Prime Minister David Lloyd George Preceded by The Viscount Milner Succeeded by Laming Worthington-Evans Minister of Munitions In office 17 July 1917 – 10 January 1919 Prime Minister David Lloyd George Preceded by Christopher Addison Succeeded by Andrew Weir Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster In office 25 May 1915 – 25 November 1915 Prime Minister H. H. Asquith Preceded by Edwin Montagu Succeeded by Herbert Samuel First Lord of the Admiralty In office 24 October 1911 – 25 May 1915 Prime Minister H. H. Asquith Preceded by Reginald McKenna Succeeded by Arthur Balfour Secretary of State for the Home Department In office 19 February 1910 – 24 October 1911 Prime Minister H. H. Asquith Preceded by Herbert Gladstone Succeeded by Reginald McKenna President of the Board of Trade In office 12 April 1908 – 14 February 1910 Prime Minister H. H. Asquith Preceded by David Lloyd George Succeeded by Sydney Buxton Parliamentary offices Member of Parliament for Woodford In office 5 July 1945 – 15 October 1964 Preceded by Con

Reflecting on his fifty-year effort to steer the Grand Old Party toward black voters, Memphis power broker George W. Lee declared, "Somebody had to stay in the Republican Party and fight." As Joshua D. Farrington, Instructor in African & African-American Studies at Eastern Kentucky University, recounts in Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016), Lee was one of many black Republican leaders who remained loyal after the New Deal inspired black voters to switch their allegiance from the "party of Lincoln" to the Democrats. Ideologically and demographically diverse, the ranks of twentieth-century black Republicans included Southern patronage dispensers like Lee and Robert Church, Northern critics of corrupt Democratic urban machines like Jackie Robinson and Archibald Carey, civil rights agitators like Grant Reynolds and T. R. M. Howard, elected politicians like U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke and Kentucky state legislator Charles W. Anderson, black nationalists like Floyd McKissick and Nathan Wright, and scores of grassroots organizers from Atlanta to Los Angeles. Black Republicans believed that a two-party system in which both parties were forced to compete for the African American vote was the best way to obtain stronger civil rights legislation. Though they were often pushed to the sidelines by their party's white leadership, their continuous and vocal inner-party dissent helped moderate the GOP's message and platform through the 1970s. And though often excluded from traditional narratives of U.S. politics, black Republicans left an indelible mark on the history of their party, the civil rights movement, and twentieth-century political development. Farrington marshals an impressive amount of archival material at the national, state, and municipal levels in the South, Midwest, and West, as well as in the better-known Northeast, to open up new avenues in African American political history. Ryan Tripp is part-time and full-time adjunct history faculty for Los Medanos Community College as well as the College of Online and Continuing Education at Southern New Hampshire University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. ONH (17 August #1887 – 10 June 1940) was a #Jamaican-born political activist, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal #Negro Improvement Association and #African Communities League (UNIA-ACL). Ideologically a black nationalist and Pan-Africanist, his ideas came to be known as #Garveyism. #Garvey was born to a moderately prosperous Afro-Jamaican family in Saint Ann's Bay, Colony of #Jamaica and apprenticed into the print trade as a teenager. Working in #Kingston, he became involved in trade unionism before working briefly in Costa Rica, Panama, and #England. Returning to Jamaica, he founded UNIA in 1914. In 1916, he moved to the #UnitedStates and established a UNIA branch in #Harlem. Emphasizing unity between Africans and the #African diaspora, he campaigned for an end to #European colonial rule across the continent, Message from the grave #MarcusMosiahGarvey-jr 17th August #1887-10th  June #1940

Are we too late to turn back the decline of the world we know and love? We certainly hope not. Today we dive into the dark side of culture to see what distractions await us if we don't manifest enough meaning in our lives.  This one gets pretty heated, and is probably NSFW. As usual, our opinions are our own, and any hyperbolic vitriol is for entertainment purposes.   Today's topics include: Politically Correct Culture, “erasing” or re-writing history, the oppressive lens. Polarization and Projection. The shallow, destructive, and deceitful aspects of our own culture. The lack of appreciation for what came before us, and what was built for us. Absent fathers and a focus on toxic masculinity. Ideologically infused and supremely hollow education. The Marxist focus on the oppressor vs. the oppressed. The Nihilism that results from a rigged game, and the meaningless pursuits it generates. Our own lack of self awareness / unsortedness. A lack of care for our future self. For Nihilists, life and morals mean nothing.

Health and wellness news is getting stranger and stranger as humanity is thrust into a dystopian future. Changes that beggar belief are occurring right before our eyes. Scientists are arrested for doing science. Rogue researchers are creating genetically modified babies. Big Business is hellbent on poisoning the food supply. Big Pharma is permitted to kill and maim at will with their biological products. Ideologically possessed nutjobs are supported in convincing children that they were born...