Podcasts about Senate

Stand Up is a daily podcast. I book,host,edit, post and promote new episodes with brilliant guests every day. Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 740 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous souls Check out StandUpwithPete.com to learn more 18 MINS Following a 20-year career as a corporate public relations executive, Wendell Potter left his position as head of communications for CIGNA, one of the nation's largest health insurers, to show the world the dark inner workings of the insurance industry. Check out his new documentary : American Hospitals: Healing a Broken System He has testified before Senate and House committees, briefed several members of Congress and their staffs, appeared with lawmakers at several press conferences, spoken at more than 100 public forums, and has been the subject of numerous articles in the U.S. and foreign media. His recent book – Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans – is an expose of health insurers and a stark warning that corporate spin is distorting our democracy. Currently a senior analyst at the The Center for Public Integrity, a non-partisan nonprofit that produces original, responsible investigative journalism on issues of public concern, Wendell is also the senior fellow on health care for the Center for Media and Democracy, an independent, non-partisan public interest organization. He speaks out on the need for a fundamental overhaul of the American health care system and on the dangers to American democracy and society of the decline of the media as watchdog, which has contributed to the growing and increasingly unchecked influence of corporate PR. He also serves as a consumer liaison representative for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. 42 MINS Baynard Woods is a writer and journalist based in Baltimore. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Oxford American Magazine, and many other publications. He is coauthor, with Brandon Soderberg, of I Got a Monster: The Rise and Fall of America's Most Corrupt Police Squad. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy and has worked as an educator in a variety of settings. He has written opera libretti for Rhymes with opera and writes and sings with the Barnyard Sharks. Go watch the new film "I got a monster" Check out all things Jon Carroll Follow and Support Pete Coe Pete on YouTube Pete on Twitter Pete On Instagram Pete Personal FB page

The Rich Zeoli Show- Full Episode (03/27/2023): 3:05pm- On Friday, an estimated 8,000 gallons of water-soluble latex finishing solution spilled into Otter Creek in Bucks County, PA—near the Delaware River, where an estimated 58% of Philadelphia gets its water. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia officials said tap water is safe to drink in the city through at least 11:59 p.m. Monday.” Read more here: https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia/live/philadelphia-water-delaware-river-chemical-spill-20230327.html 3:40pm- With city officials concerned about the quality of water throughout Philadelphia, some are concerned about “price-gouging” by grocery stores—charging higher than usual prices for bottled water. In his famous 2004 essay, Stanford Economist Dr. Thomas Sowell writes: “Price controls will not cause new supplies to be rushed in nearly as fast as higher prices will.” Momentary increases in prices will encourage producers, and entrepreneurs in neighboring areas, to rush supplies to the impacted area. You can read Dr. Sowell's essay here: https://www.capitalismmagazine.com/2004/09/price-gouging-in-florida/ 4:05pm- Will abandoning free market principles result in a more egalitarian distribution of a scarce resource? No—it simply devolves into a “first-come-first-served” scenario. Contrarily, modest increases in prices during an emergency result in profit-seeking manufacturers and individuals to rush products to the impacted area. 4:15pm- With wind turbines estimated to be a $31.2 billion industry, no wonder government officials are disinterested in halting construction on a project that may have caused the deaths of over a dozen whales and at least one pod of dolphins along New Jersey beaches. 4:20pm- During his Senate confirmation hearing to become the next head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Phil Washington was unable to answer any of Senator Ted Budd's (R-NC) basic aviation questions. The Biden nominee withdrew his candidacy on Sunday. 4:30pm- Rich takes your calls: one listener points out that in the absence of increased prices, problematic hoarding will take place. PLUS another listener says he would like to be nominated to be next head of the FAA—he has never flown a plane or worked in an airport, but he's nearly as qualified as Phil Washington. 4:45pm- On Monday, “[a] heavily armed woman entered a Christian school in Nashville...and fatally shot three children and three staff members before she was shot and killed by the police”, according to reporting from The New York Times. While speaking with the press, President Joe Biden said that the shooter had two AK-47 rifles—though, that information has not been verified by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. You can read more here: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/03/27/us/nashville-shooting-covenant-school 4:50pm- While speaking with reporters, comedian Adam Sandler defended Chris Rock's controversial stand-up special on Netflix. 5:05pm- The Drive at 5: While speaking with Yahoo! News, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry denied ever “flying private” since working for the Biden Administration—but then immediately explained how he had flown on private planes “one or two” times since 2021. 5:10pm- Speaking with Fox Business, Steve Forbes predicted that President Joe Biden will not run for reelection 2024—citing economic turmoil on the horizon. 5:15pm- “Tiger King” Joe Exotic spoke with Fox News' Lawrence Jones over the weekend—declaring his candidacy for United States President of the United States. He has Henry's vote! 5:35pm- Nashville Police Chief John Drake spoke to reporters about the Monday shooting that occurred at Covenant School which left six people dead, including three children. Chief Drake confirmed that the alleged shooter, who is now deceased, was 28 years old, identified as transgender, and was a former student at the school. 5:50pm- In a story published Friday, National Public Radio (NPR) argued that there is “limited scientific evidence that men have a physical advantage over women in sports.” You can read more about the story here: https://www.nationalreview.com/news/npr-claims-limited-scientific-evidence-men-have-physical-advantage-over-women-in-sports/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=blog-post&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=top-bar-latest&utm_term=fourth 6:05pm- Following Nashville Police Chief John Drake's press briefing, ABC anchor Terry Moran hypothesized that the alleged Covenant School shooter's motivation may be linked to Tennessee legislation banning “gender affirmation” surgeries. Chief Drake suggested that police have unearthed a manifesto created by the shooter. 6:15pm- During her Monday press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated: “How many more children have to be murdered before Republicans in Congress step up and act to pass the assault weapons ban?” 6:35pm- Political grandstanding: progressive district attorneys throughout the country are not prosecuting criminals. 6:50pm- While speaking with Congressman Mark Amodei (R-NV) during a recent House Appropriations Committee hearing, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen claimed that the reason people don't like the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) is because the governmental organization is too small.

The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 2: Will abandoning free market principles result in a more egalitarian distribution of a scarce resource? No—it simply devolves into a “first-come-first-served” scenario. Contrarily, modest increases in prices during an emergency result in profit-seeking manufacturers and individuals to rush products to the impacted area. With wind turbines estimated to be a $31.2 billion industry, no wonder government officials are disinterested in halting construction on a project that may have caused the deaths of over a dozen whales and at least one pod of dolphins along New Jersey beaches. During his Senate confirmation hearing to become the next head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Phil Washington was unable to answer any of Senator Ted Budd's (R-NC) basic aviation questions. The Biden nominee withdrew his candidacy on Sunday. Rich takes your calls: one listener points out that in the absence of increased prices, problematic hoarding will take place. PLUS another listener says he would like to be nominated to be next head of the FAA—he has never flown a plane or worked in an airport, but he's nearly as qualified as Phil Washington. On Monday, “[a] heavily armed woman entered a Christian school in Nashville...and fatally shot three children and three staff members before she was shot and killed by the police”, according to reporting from The New York Times. While speaking with the press, President Joe Biden said that the shooter had two AK-47 rifles—though, that information has not been verified by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. You can read more here: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/03/27/us/nashville-shooting-covenant-school While speaking with reporters, comedian Adam Sandler defended Chris Rock's controversial stand-up special on Netflix.

Preet speaks with Shannon K. O'Neil, the Vice President and Senior Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, about the latest in Mexican politics — the controversial electoral reform legislation, the recent kidnappings of Americans, and the long-standing war with the drug cartels.  Stay Tuned in Brief is presented by CAFE and the Vox Media Podcast Network. Please write to us with your thoughts and questions at letters@cafe.com, or leave a voicemail at 669-247-7338. References & Supplemental Materials: “Mexico's Senate approves controversial electoral reform,” Associated Press, 2/22/23 “Two dead, two alive after Americans kidnapped in Mexico,” BBC, 3/8/23 O'Neil's book, “The Globalization Myth: Why Regions Matter,” CFR For analysis of recent legal news, try the CAFE Insider membership for just $1 for one month: cafe.com/insider. Check out other CAFE shows Now & Then and Up Against the Mob.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The First Amendment prohibits the U.S. government from censoring speech. In this episode, drawing from internal Twitter documents known as “the Twitter files” and Congressional testimony from tech executives, former Twitter employees, and journalists, we examine the shocking formal system of censorship in which government employees are using their influence over private companies to indirectly censor speech in a way that they are clearly prohibited from doing directly. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Support Congressional Dish via Patreon (donations per episode) Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536. Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! View the shownotes on our website at https://congressionaldish.com/cd270-the-twitter-files Background Sources Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes CD224: Social Media Censorship CD141: Terrorist Gifts & The Ministry of Propaganda (2017 NDAA) CD113: CISA is Law The Twitter Files "Capsule Summaries of all Twitter Files Threads to Date, With Links and a Glossary.” Matt Taibbi. Jan 4, 2023. Racket News. Matt Taibbi “The Democrats' Disastrous Miscalculation on Civil Liberties.” Matt Taibbi. Mar 12, 2023. Racket News. “#1940 - Matt Taibbi.” Feb 13, 2023. The Joe Rogan Experience. Hunter Biden Laptop Story “Smoking-gun email reveals how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessman to VP dad.” “13. They did the same to Facebook, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. ‘The FBI basically came to us [and] was like, “Hey... you should be on high alert. We thought that there was a lot of Russian propaganda in 2016 election. There's about to be some kind of dump similar to that”'” [tweet]. Michael Shellenberger [@ShellenbergerMD]. Dec 19, 2022. Twitter. Influence, Propaganda, and Censorship “From the Twitter Files: Pfizer board member Scott Gottlieb secretly pressed Twitter to hide posts challenging his company's massively profitable Covid jabs.” Alex Berenson. Jan 9, 2023. Unreported Truths. “Twitter Aided the Pentagon in Its Covert Online Propaganda Campaign.” Lee Fang. December 20, 2022. The Intercept. “Facebook, Twitter dismantle a U.S. influence campaign about Ukraine.” Aug 24, 2022. The Washington Post. Angus King Takedown Request Spreadsheet Audio Sources Hearing on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, the Twitter Files March 9, 2023 House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government Witnesses: Matt Taibbi, Journalist Michael Shellenberger, Author, Co-founder of the Breakthrough Institute and the California Peace Coalition Clips 17:20 Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH): In the run up to the 2020 Presidential election, FBI Special Agent Elvis Chan, in his deposition in Missouri versus Biden, said that he repeatedly, repeatedly, informed Twitter and other social media platforms of the likelihood of a hack and leak operation in the run up to that Presidential election. He did it even though there was no evidence. In fact, he said in his deposition that we hadn't seen anything, no intrusions, no hack, yet he repeatedly told them something was common. Yoel Ross, Head of Trust and Safety at Twitter, testified that he had had regular meetings with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and other folks regarding election security. During these weekly meetings, federal law enforcement agencies communicated that they expected a hack and leak operation. The expectations of a hack and leak operation were discussed throughout 2020. And he was told they would occur in a period shortly before the 2020 Presidential election, likely in October. And finally, he said "I also learned in these meetings, that there were rumors that a hack and leak operation would involve Hunter Biden." So what did the government tell him? A hack and leak operation was coming. How often did the government tell him this? Repeatedly for a year. When did the government say it was going to happen? October of 2020. And who did the government say it would involve? Hunter Biden. 19:35 Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH): How did they know? Maybe it's because they had the laptop and they had had it for a year. 21:50 Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH): Finally, as if on cue, five days later on October 19, 51 former intel[ligence] officials signed a letter with a now famous sentence "the Biden laptop story has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation." Something that was absolutely false. 25:25 Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI): And the Republicans have brought in two of Elon Musk's public scribes to release cherry-picked, out-of-context emails and screenshots designed to promote his chosen narrative, Elon Musk's chosen narrative, that is now being paroted by the Republicans, because the Republicans think that these witnesses will tell a story that's going to help them out politically. 25:50 Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI): On Tuesday, the majority released an 18 page report claiming to show that the FTC is quote, "harassing" Twitter -- oh my poor Twitter -- including by seeking information about its interactions with individuals before us today. How did the report reach this conclusion? By showing two single paragraphs from a single demand letter, even though the report itself makes clear that there were numerous demand letters with numerous requests, none of which we've been able to see, that are more demand letters and more requests of Twitter. 28:05 Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI): Mr. Chairman, Americans can see through this. Musk is helping you out politically and you're going out of your way to promote and protect him and to praise him for his work. 28:15 Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI): This isn't just a matter of what data was given to these so-called journalists before us now. 31:35 Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI): Mr. Chairman, I'm not exaggerating when I say that you have called before you two witnesses who pose a direct threat to people who oppose them. 32:30 Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI): We know this is because at the first hearing, the Chairman claimed that big government and big tech colluded to shape and mold the narrative and suppress information and censor Americans. This is a false narrative. We're engaging in false narratives here and we are going to tell the truth. 37:35 Michael Shellenberger: I recognize that the law allows Facebook, Twitter, and other private companies to moderate content on their platforms and I support the right of governments to communicate with the public, including to dispute inaccurate information, but government officials have been caught repeatedly pushing social media platforms to censor disfavored users and content. Often these acts of censorship threaten the legal protection social media companies need to exist, Section 230. If government officials are directing or facilitating such censorship, and as one law professor, it raises serious First Amendment questions. It is axiomatic that the government cannot do indirectly what it is prohibited from doing directly. 41:50 Matt Taibbi: My name is Matt Taibbi, I've been a reporter for 30 years and a staunch advocate of the First Amendment. Much of that time was spent at Rolling Stone magazine. Ranking Member Plaskett, I'm not a "so-called" journalist. I've won the National Magazine Award, the I.F Stone Award for Independent Journalism, and I've written 10 books, including four New York Times bestsellers. 45:35 Matt Taibbi: Ordinary Americans are not just being reported to Twitter for deamplification or deplatforming, but to firm's like Pay Pal, digital advertisers like Xandr, and crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe. These companies can and do refuse service to law abiding people and businesses whose only crime is falling afoul of a distant, faceless, unaccountable, algorithmic judge. 44:00 Matt Taibbi: Again, Ranking Member Plaskett, I would note that the evidence of Twitter-government relationship includes lists of tens of thousands of names on both the left and right. The people affected include Trump supporters, but also left leaning sites like Consortium and Truthout, the leftist South American channel TeleSUR, the Yellow Vest movement. That, in fact, is a key point of the Twitter files, that it's neither a left nor right issue. 44:40 Matt Taibbi: We learned Twitter, Facebook, Google and other companies developed a formal system for taking in moderation requests from every corner of government from the FBI, the DHS, the HHS, DOD, the Global Engagement Center at [the Department of] State, even the CIA. For every government agency scanning Twitter, there were perhaps 20 quasi private entities doing the same thing, including Stanford's Election Integrity Partnership, Newsguard, the Global Disinformation Index, and many others, many taxpayer funded. A focus of this fast growing network, as Mike noted, is making lists of people whose opinions beliefs, associations, or sympathies are deemed misinformation, disinformation or malinformation. That last term is just a euphemism for true but inconvenient. Undeniably, the making of such lists is a form of digital McCarthyism. 1:01:00 Matt Taibbi: So, a great example of this is a report that the Global Engagement Center sent to Twitter and to members of the media and other platforms about what they called "the Pillars of Russian Disinformation." Now, part of this report is what you would call, I think you would call, traditional hardcore intelligence gathering where they made a reasoned, evidence baseed case that certain sites were linked to Russian influence or linked to the Russian government. In addition to that, however, they also said that sites that quote, "generate their own momentum," and have opinions that are in line with those accounts are part of a propaganda ecosystem. Now, this is just another word for guilt by association. And this is the problem with the whole idea of trying to identify which accounts are actually the Internet Research Agency and which ones are just people who follow those accounts or retweeted them. Twitter initially did not find more than a handful of IRA accounts. It wasn't until they got into an argument with the Senate Select Intelligence Committee that they came back with a different answer. 1:06:00 Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL): Before you became Elon Musk's handpicked journalists, and pardon the oxymoron, you stated this on Joe Rogan's podcast about being spoon fed information. And I quote, "I think that's true of any kind of journalism," and you'll see it behind me here. "I think that's true of any kind of journalism. Once you start getting handed things, then you've lost. They have you at that point and you got to get out of that habit. You just can't cross that line." Do you still believe what you told Mr. Rogan? Yes or no? Yes or no? Matt Taibbi: Yes. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL): Good. Now, you crossed that line with the Twitter files. Matt Taibbi: No. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL): Elon Musk -- It's my time, please do not interrupt me. Crowd: [laughter] Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL): Elon Musk spoon fed you his cherry-picked information, which you must have suspected promotes a slanted viewpoint, or at the very least generates another right wing conspiracy theory. 1:11:20 Matt Taibbi: That moment on the Joe Rogan show, I was actually recounting a section from Seymour Hersh's book, Reporter, where he described a scene where the CIA gave him a story and he was very uncomfortable. He said that "I, who had always gotten the secrets, was being handed the secrets." Again, I've done lots of whistleblower stories. There's always a balancing test that you make when you're given material, and you're always balancing newsworthiness versus the motives of your sources. In this case, the newsworthiness clearly outweighed any other considerations. I think everybody else who worked on the project agrees. 1:14:45 Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC): Richard Stengel, you know who that is? Matt Taibbi: Yes, he's the former, the first head of the Global Engagement Center. Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC): I want the American people to hear from him for 30 seconds. Richard Stengel: Basically, every country creates their own narrative story. And, you know, my old job at the State Department was what people used to joke as the "chief propagandist" job. We haven't talked about propaganda. Propaganda. I'm not against propaganda. Every country does it, and they have to do it to their own population. 1:24:20 Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH): December 13, the very first letter that the FTC sends to Twitter after the Twitter files, 11 days after the first Twitter file, there have been five of them come out, the FTC's first demand in that first letter after the Twitter files come out is identify all journalists. I'm quoting "identify all journalists and other members of the media" to whom Twitter worked with. You find that scary, Mr. Taibbi, that you got a federal government agency asking a private company who in the press are you talking with? Matt Taibbi: I do find it scary. I think it's none of the government's business which journalists a private company talks to and why. I think every journalist should be concerned about that. And the absence of interest in that issue by my fellow colleagues in the mainstream media is an indication of how low the business has sunk. There was once a real esprit de corps and camaraderie within Media. Whenever one of us was gone after, we all kind of rose to the challenge and supported -- Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH): It used to be, used to be the case. Matt Taibbi: Yeah, that is gone now. 1:28:50 Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI): How many emails did Mr. Musk give you access to? Michael Shellenberger: I mean, we went through thousands of emails. Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI): Did he give you access to all of the emails for the time period in which? Michael Shellenberger: We never had a single, I never had a single request denied. And not only that, but the amount of files that we were given were so voluminous that there was no way that anybody could have gone through them beforehand. And we never found an instance where there was any evidence that anything had been taken out. Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI): Okay. So you would believe that you have probably millions of emails and documents, right? That's correct, would you say? Michael Shellenberger: I don't know if -- I think the number is less than that. Matt Taibbi: Millions sounds too high. Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI): Okay. 100,000? Matt Taibbi: That's probably closer. Michael Shellenberger: Probably, yeah. Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI): So 100,000 that both of you were seeing. 1:37:10 Matt Taibbi: There were a couple of very telling emails that wepublished. One was by a lawyer named [Sasha Cardiel???], where the company was being so overwhelmed by requests from the FBI and in fact they, they gave each other a sort of digital High Five after one batch, saying "that was a monumental undertaking to clear all of these," but she noted that she believed that the FBI was essentially doing word searches keyed to Twitter's Terms of Service, looking for violations of the Terms of Service, specifically so that they could make recommendations along those lines, which we found interesting. 1:48:15 Michael Shellenberger: And we haven't talked about Facebook, but we now know that we have the White House demanding that Facebook take down factual information and Facebook doing that. 1:48:25 Michael Shellenberger: And with Matt [Taibbi]'s thread this morning we saw the government contractors demanding the same thing of Twitter: accurate information, they said, that needed to be taken down in order to advance a narrative. 1:49:55 Matt Taibbi: You know, in conjunction with our own research, there's a foundation, the Foundation for Freedom Online, which, you know, there's a very telling video that they uncovered where the Director of Stanford's Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) talks about how CISA, the DHS agency, didn't have the capability to do election monitoring, and so that they kind of stepped in to "fill the gaps" legally before that capability could be amped up. And what we see in the Twitter files is that Twitter executives did not distinguish between DHS or CISA and this group EIP, for instance, we would see a communication that said, from CISA, escalated by EIP. So they were essentially identical in the eyes of the company. EIP is, by its own data, and this is in reference to what you brought up, Mr. Congressman, according to their own data, they significantly targeted more what they call disinformation on the right than on the left, by a factor I think of about ten to one. And I say that as not a Republican at all, it's just the fact of what we're looking at. So yes, we have come to the realization that this bright line that we imagine that exists between, say the FBI or the DHS, or the GEC and these private companies is illusory and that what's more important is this constellation of kind of quasi private organizations that do this work. 1:52:10 Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): What was the first time that Mr. Musk approached you about writing the Twitter files? Matt Taibbi: Again, Congresswoman that would — Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): I just need a date, sir. Matt Taibbi: But I can't give it to you, unfortunately, because this this is a question of sourcing, and I don't give up... I'm a journalist, I don't reveal my sources. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): It's a question of chronology. Matt Taibbi: No, that's a question of sourcing — Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): Earlier you said that someone had sent you, through the internet, some message about whether or not you would be interested in some information. Matt Taibbi: Yes. And I refer to that person as a source. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): So you're not going to tell us when Musk first approached you? Matt Taibbi: Again, Congresswoman, you're asking me, you're asking a journalist to reveal a source. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): You consider Mr. Musk to be the direct source of all this? Matt Taibbi: No, now you're trying to get me to say that he is the source. I just can't answer — Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): Either he is or he isn't. If you're telling me you can't answer because it's your source, well, then the only logical conclusion is that he is in fact, your source. Matt Taibbi: Well, you're free to conclude that. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): Well, sir, I just don't understand. You can't have it both ways. But let's move on because -- Unknown Representative 1: No, he can. He's a journalist. Unknown Representative 2: He can't, because either Musk is the source and he can't talk about it, or Musk is not the source. And if Musk is not the source, then he can discuss [unintelligible] Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH): No one has yielded, the gentlelady is out of order, you don't get to speak — Multiple speakers: [Crosstalk] Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH): The gentlelady is not recognized...[crosstalk]...he has not said that, what he has said is he's not going to reveal his source. And the fact that Democrats are pressuring him to do so is such a violation of the First Amendment. Multiple speakers: [Crosstalk] Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): I have not yielded time to anybody. I want to reclaim my time. And I would ask the chairman to give me back some of the time because of the interruption. Mr. Chairman, I am asking you, if you will give me the seconds that I lost. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH): We will give you that 10 seconds. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): Thank you. Now let's talk about another item. When you responded to the ranking member, you said that you had free license to look at everything but yet you yourself posted on your...I guess it's kind of like a web page...I don't quite understand what Substack is, but what I can say is that "in exchange for the opportunity to cover a unique and explosive story, I had to agree to certain conditions." What were those conditions? She asked you that question and you said you had none. But you yourself posted that you had conditions? Matt Taibbi: The conditions, as I've explained multiple times -- Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): No sir, you have not explained, you told her in response to her question that you had no conditions. In fact, you used the word licensed, that you were free to look at all of them. All 100,000 emails. Matt Taibbi: The question was posed, was I free to to write about — Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): Sir, did you have any conditions? Matt Taibbi: The condition was that we publish — Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): Sir, did you have any conditions? Yes or no? A simple question. Matt Taibbi: Yes. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): All right. Could you tell us what conditions those were? Matt Taibbi: The conditions were an attribution of sources at Twitter and that we break any news on Twitter. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): But you didn't break it on Twitter. Did you send the file that you released today to Twitter first? Matt Taibbi: Did I send the...actually I did, yes. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): Did you send it to Twitter first? Matt Taibbi: The Twitter files thread? Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): That was one of the conditions? Yes or no, sir. Matt Taibbi: The Twitter files thread actually did come out first. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): But sir, you said earlier that you had to attribute all the sources to Twitter first. What you released today, did you send that to Twitter first? Matt Taibbi: No, no, no, I post I posted it on Twitter Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): First. First, sir, or did you give it to the Chairman of the Committee or the staff of the Committee first? Matt Taibbi: Well, that's not breaking the story, that's giving...I did give — Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): So you gave all the information that you did not give to the Democrats, you gave it to the Republicans first, then you put it on Twitter? Matt Taibbi: Actually, no, the chronology is a little bit confused. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): Well then tell us what the chronology was. Matt Taibbi: I believe the thread came out first. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): Where? Matt Taibbi: On Twitter Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): On Twitter. So then you afterwards gave it to the Republicans, and not the Democrats? Matt Taibbi: Yes, because I'm submitting it for the record as my statement. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): Did you give it to him in advance? Matt Taibbi: I gave it to them today. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): You gave it to them today, but you still have not given anything to the Democrats. Well, I'll move on. 1:57:20 Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): Now in your discussion, in your answer, you also said that you were invited by a friend, Bari Weiss? Michael Shellenberger: My friend, Bari Weiss. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): So this friend works for Twitter, or what is her....? Matt Taibbi: She's a journalist. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): Sir, I didn't ask you a question. I'm now asking Mr. Shellenberger a question. Michael Shellenberger: Yes, ma'am, Bari Weiss is a journalist. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): I'm sorry, sir? Michael Shellenberger: She's a journalist. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): She's a journalist. So you work in concert with her? Michael Shellenberger: Yeah. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): Do you know when she first was contacted by Mr. Musk? Michael Shellenberger: I don't know. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): You don't know. So you're in this as a threesome? 2:00:10 Michael Shellenberger: Reading through the whole sweep of events, I do not know the extent to which the influence operation aimed at "pre-bunking" the Hunter Biden laptop was coordinated. I don't know who all was involved. But what we saw was, you saw Aspen and Stanford, many months before then, saying don't cover the material in the hack and leak without emphasizing the fact that it could be disinformation. Okay, so they're priming journalists to not cover a future hack and leak in a way that journalists have long been trained to in the tradition of the Pentagon Papers, made famous by the Steven Spielberg movie. They were saying [to] cover the fact that it probably came from the Russians. Then you have the former General Counsel to the FBI, Jim Baker, and the former Deputy Chief of Staff to the FBI, both arriving at Twitter in the summer of 2020, which I find, what an interesting coincidence. Then, when the New York Post publishes its first article on October 14, it's Jim Baker who makes the most strenuous argument within Twitter, multiple emails, multiple messages saying this doesn't look real. There's people, there's intelligence experts, saying that this could be Russian disinformation. He is the most strenuous person inside Twitter arguing that it's probably Russian disinformation. The internal evaluation by Yoel Roth, who testified in front of this committee, was that it was what it looked to be, which was that it was not a result of a hack and leak operation. And why did he think that? Because the New York Post had published the FBI subpoena taking the laptop in December of 2019. And they published the agreement that the computer store owner had with Hunter Biden that gave him permission, after he abandoned the laptop, to use it however he wanted. So there really wasn't much doubt about the provenance of that laptop. But you had Jim Baker making a strenuous argument. And then, of course, you get to a few days after the October 14 release, you have the president of the United States echoing what these former intelligence community officials were saying, which is that it looked like a Russian influence operation. So they were claiming that the laptop was made public by the conspiracy theory that somehow the Russians got it. And basically, they convinced Yoel Roth of this wild hack and leak story that somehow the Russians stole it, got the information, gave us the computer, it was bizarre. So you read that chain of events, and it appears as though there is an organized influence operation to pre-bunk.... Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH): Why do you think they could predict the time, the method, and the person? Why could the FBI predict it? Not only did they predict this, they predicted it, so did the Aspen Institute, seemed like everyone was in the know saying, here's what's gonna happen, we can read the future. Why do you think, how do you think they were able to do that? Michael Shellenberger: I think the most important fact to know is that the FBI had that laptop in December 2019. They were also spying on Rudy Giuliani when he got the laptop and when he gave it to the New York Post. Now, maybe the FBI agents who are going to Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook and Twitter executives and warning of a hack and leak, potentially involving Hunter Biden, maybe those guys didn't have anything to do with the guys that had the top. We don't know that. I have to say, as a newcomer to this, as somebody that thought it was Russian disinformation in 2020, everybody I knew thought it was Russian disinformation, I was shocked to see that series of events going on. It looks to me like a deliberate influence operation. I don't have the proof of it, but the circumstantial evidence is pretty disturbing. 2:14:30 Matt Taibbi: We found, just yesterday, a Tweet from the Virality Project at Stanford, which was partnered with a number of government agencies, and Twitter, where they talked explicitly about censoring stories of true vaccine side effects and other true stories that they felt encouraged hesitancy. Now the imp— Unknown Representative: So these were true. Matt Taibbi: Yes. So they use the word truth three times in this email, and what's notable about this is that it reflects the fundamental misunderstanding of this whole disinformation complex, anti-disinformation complex. They believe that ordinary people can't handle difficult truths. And so they think that they need minders to separate out things that are controversial or difficult for them, and that's again, that's totally contrary to what America is all about, I think. 2:17:30 Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY): Of course we all believe in the First Amendment, but the First Amendment applies to government prohibition of speech, not to private companies. 2:33:00 Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY): And even with, Twitter you cannot find actual evidence of any direct government censorship of any lawful speech. 2:33:20 Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH): I'd ask unanimous consent to enter into the record the following email from Clarke Humphrey, Executive Office of the Presidency, White House Office, January 23, 2021. That's the Biden Administration. 4:39am: "Hey folks," this goes to Twitter, "Hey folks, wanted..." they used the term Mr. Goldman just used, "wanted to flag the below Tweet, and I'm wondering if we can get moving on the process for having it removed ASAP." 2:35:40 Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA): He said the First Amendment applies to government censorship of speech and not private companies, but what we're talking about and what the Chairman just illustrated is that what we have here and what your Twitter files show is the Federal government has partnered with private companies to censor and silence the speech of American citizens. 2:29:20 Matt Taibbi: In the first Twitter files, we saw an exchange between Representative Ro Khanna and Vijaya Gadde, where he's trying to explain the basics of speech law in America and she's completely, she seems completely unaware of what, for instance, New York Times v. Sullivan is. There are other cases like Bartnicki v. Vopper, which legalized the publication of stolen material, that's very important for any journalists to know. I think most of these people are tech executives, and they don't know what the law is around speech and around reporting. And in this case, and in 2016, you are dealing with true material. There is no basis to restrict the publication of true material no matter who the sources and how you get it. And journalists have always understood that and this has never been an issue or a controversial issue until very recently. 2:44:40 Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL): Would you agree that there was a black list created in 2021? Michael Shellenberger: Sorry, yes, Jay Bhattacharya, the Stanford Professor, who I don't think anybody considers a fringe epidemiologist, was indeed -- I'm sorry, I couldn't, I didn't piece it together -- he was indeed visibility filtered. Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL): Correct. And so this blacklist that was created, that really was used to de-platform, reduce visibility, create lists internally, where people couldn't even see their profiles, that was used against doctors and scientists who produced information that was contrary to what the CDC was putting out, despite the fact that we now know that what they were publishing had scientific basis and in fact was valid. Michael Shellenberger: Absolutely. And not only that, but these are secret blacklists, so Professor Bhattacharya had no idea he was on it. 43:05 Matt Taibbi: The original promise of the internet was that it might democratize the exchange of information globally. A free internet would overwhelm all attempts to control information flow, its very existence a threat to anti-democratic forms of government everywhere. What we found in the Files was a sweeping effort to reverse that promise and use machine learning and other tools to turn the Internet into an instrument of censorship and social control. Unfortunately, our own government appears to be playing a lead role. We saw the first hints and communications between Twitter executives before the 2020 election, when we read things like "flagged by DHS," or "please see attached report from FBI for potential misinformation." This would be attached to an Excel spreadsheet with a long list of names, whose accounts were often suspended shortly after. #1940 - Matt Taibbi February 13, 2023 The Joe Rogan Experience Clips Matt Taibbi: So this is another topic that is fascinating because it hasn't gotten a ton of press. But if you go back all the way to the early 70s, the CIA and the FBI got in a lot of trouble for various things, the CIA for assassination schemes involving people like Castro, the FBI for, you know, COINTELPRO and other programs, domestic surveillance, and they made changes after Congressional hearings, the Church Committee, that basically said the FBI, from now on, you have to have some kind of reason to be following somebody or investigating somebody, you have to have some kind of criminal predicate and we want you mainly to be investigating cases. But after 9/11 they peeled all this back. There was a series of Attorney General memos that essentially re-fashioned what the FBI does, and now they don't have to be doing crimefighting all the time. Now they can be doing basically 100% intelligence gathering all the time. They can be infiltrating groups for no reason at all, not to build cases, but just to get information. And so that's why they're there. They're in these groups, they're posted up outside of the homes of people they find suspicious, but they're not building cases and they're not investigating crimes. It's sort of like Minority Report there, right? It's pre-crime. Matt Taibbi: We see reports in these files of government agencies sending lists of accounts that are accusing the United States of vaccine corruption. Now, what they're really talking about is pressuring foreign countries to not use generic vaccines. Right. And, you know, that's a liberal issue, that's a progressive issue. The progressives want generic vaccines to be available to poor countries, okay? But, you know, you can use this tool to eliminate speech about that if you want too, right? I think that's what they don't get is that the significance is not who [it's used against], the significance is the tool. What is it capable of doing, right? How easily is it employed, and you know, how often is it used? And they don't focus on that. Joe Rogan: Has anything been surprising to you? Matt Taibbi: A little bit. I think going into it, I thought that the relationship between the security agencies like the FBI and the DHS and companies like Twitter and Facebook, I thought it was a little bit less formal. I thought maybe they had kind of an advisory role. And what we find is that it's not that, it's very formalized. They have a really intense structure that they've worked out over a period of years where they have regular meetings. They have a system where the DHS handles censorship requests that come up from the States and the FBI handles international ones, and they all float all these companies and it's a big bureaucracy. I don't think we expected to see that. Matt Taibbi: I was especially shocked by an email from a staffer for Adam Schiff, the Congressperson, the California Congressman. And they're just outright saying we would like you to suspend the accounts of this journalist and anybody who retweets information about this Committee. You know, I mean, this is a member of Congress. Joe Rogan: Yeah. Matt Taibbi: Right? Most of these people have legal backgrounds. They've got lawyers in the office for sure. And this is the House Intelligence Committee. Protecting Speech from Government Interference and Social Media Bias, Part 1: Twitter's Role in Suppressing the Biden Laptop Story February 8, 2023 House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Witnesses: Vijaya Gadde, Former Chief Legal Officer, Twitter James Baker, Former Deputy General Counsel, Twitter Yoel Roth, Former Global Head of Trust & Safety, Twitter Annika Collier Navaroli, Former Policy Expert for Content Moderation, Twitter Clips 14:50 Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD): What's more, Twitter's editorial decision has been analyzed and debated ad nauseam. Some people think it was the right decision. Some people think it was the wrong decision. But the key point here is that it was Twitter's decision. Twitter is a private media company. In America, private media companies can decide what to publish or how to curate content however they want. If Twitter wants to have nothing but Tweets commenting on New York Post articles run all day, it can do that. If it makes such tweets mentioning New York Post never see the light of day they can do that too. That's what the First Amendment means. 16:05 Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD): Officially Twitter happens to think they got it wrong about that day or two period. In hindsight, Twitter's former CEO Jack Dorsey called it a mistake. This apology might be a statement of regret about the company being overly cautious about the risks of publishing contents and potentially hacked or stolen materials, or it may reflect craven surrender to a right wing pressure campaign. But however you interpreted the apology just makes the premise of this hearing all the more absurd. The professional conspiracy theorists who are heckling and haranguing this private company have already gotten exactly what they want: an apology. What more do they want? And why does the US Congress have to be involved in this nonsense when we have serious work to do for the American people? 26:20 James Baker: The law permits the government to have complex, multifaceted, and long term relationships with the private sector. Law enforcement agencies and companies can engage with each other regarding, for example, compulsory legal process served on companies, criminal activity that companies, the government, or the public identify, such as crimes against children, cybersecurity threats, and terrorism, and instances where companies themselves are victims of crime. When done properly, these interactions can be beneficial to both sides and in the interest of the public. As you Mr. Chairman, Mr. Jordan, and others have proposed, a potential workable way to legislate in this area may be to focus on the actions of federal government agencies and officials with respect to their engagement with the private sector. Congress may be able to limit the nature and scope of those interactions in certain ways, require enhanced transparency and reporting by the executive branch about its engagements, and require higher level approvals within the executive branch prior to such engagements on certain topics, so that you can hold Senate confirmed officials, for example, accountable for those decisions. In any event, if you want to legislate, my recommendation is to focus first on reasonable and effective limitations on government actors. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 31:05 Vijaya Gadde: On October 14, 2020, The New York Post tweeted articles about Hunter Biden's laptop with embedded images that looked like they may have been obtained through hacking. In 2018, we had developed a policy intended to prevent Twitter from becoming a dumping ground for hacked materials. We applied this policy to the New York Post tweets and blocked links to the articles embedding those sorts of materials. At no point to Twitter otherwise prevent tweeting, reporting, discussing or describing the contents of Mr. Biden's laptop. People could and did talk about the contents of the laptop on Twitter or anywhere else, including other much larger platforms, but they were prevented from sharing the primary documents on Twitter. Still, over the course of that day, it became clear that Twitter had not fully appreciated the impact of that policy on free press and others. As Mr. Dorsey testified before Congress on multiple occasions, Twitter changed its policy within 24 hours and admitted its initial action was wrong. This policy revision immediately allowed people to tweet the original articles with the embedded source materials, relying on its long standing practice not to retroactively apply new policies. Twitter informed the New York Post that it could immediately begin tweeting when it deleted the original tweets, which would have freed them to retweet the same content again. The New York Post chose not to delete its original tweets, so Twitter made an exception after two weeks to retroactively apply the new policy to the Post's tweets. In hindsight, Twitter should have reinstated the Post account immediately. 35:35 Yoel Roth: In 2020, Twitter noticed activity related to the laptop that at first glance bore a lot of similarities to the 2016 Russian hack and leak operation targeting the DNC, and we had to decide what to do. And in that moment with limited information, Twitter made a mistake. 36:20 Yoel Roth: It isn't obvious what the right response is to a suspected, but not confirmed, cyber attack by another government on a Presidential Election. I believe Twitter erred in this case because we wanted to avoid repeating the mistakes of 2016. 38:41 Annika Collier Navaroli: I joined Twitter in 2019 and by 2020 I was the most senior expert on Twitter's U.S. Safety Policy Team. My team's mission was to protect free speech and public safety by writing and enforcing content moderation policies around the world. These policies include things like abuse, harassment, hate speech, violence and privacy. 41:20 Annika Collier Navaroli: With January 6 and many other decisions, content moderators like me did the very best that we could. But far too often there are far too few of us and we are being asked to do the impossible. For example, in January 2020 after the US assassinated an Iranian General and the US president decided to justify it on Twitter, management literally instructed me and my team to make sure that World War III did not start on the platform. 1:08:20 Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC): Did the US government ever contact you or anyone at Twitter to censor or moderate certain Tweets, yes or no? Vijaya Gadde: We receive legal demands to remove content from the platform from the US government and governments all around the world. Those are published on a third party website. 1:12:00 Yoel Roth: The number one most influential part of the Russian active measures campaign in 2016 was the hack and leak targeting John Podesta. It would have been foolish not to consider the possibility that they would run that play again. 1:44:45 Yoel Roth: I think one of the key failures that we identified after 2016 was that there was very little information coming from the government and from intelligence services to the private sector. The private sector had the power to remove bots and to take down foreign disinformation campaigns, but we didn't always know where to look without leads supplied by the intelligence community. That was one of the failures highlighted in the Senate Intelligence Committee's report and in the Mueller investigation, and that was one of the things we set out to fix in 2017. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA): On September 8 2019, at 11:11pm, Donald Trump heckled two celebrities on Twitter -- John Legend and his wife Chrissy Teigen -- and referred to them as "the musician John Legend and his filthy mouth wife." Ms. Teigen responded to that email [Tweet] at 12:17am. And according to notes from a conversation with you, Ms. Navaroli's, counsel, your counsel, the White House almost immediately thereafter contacted Twitter to demand the tweet be taken down. Is that accurate? Annika Collier Navaroli: Thank you for the question. In my role, I was not responsible for receiving any sort of request from the government. However, what I was privy to was my supervisors letting us know that we had received something along those lines or something of a request. And in that particular instance, I do remember hearing that we had received a request from the White House to make sure that we evaluated this tweet, and that they wanted it to come down because it was a derogatory statement towards the President. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA): They wanted it to come down. They made that request. Annika Collier Navaroli: To my recollection, yes. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA): I thought that was an inappropriate action by a government official, let alone the White House. But it wasn't Joe Biden, about his son's laptop. It was Donald Trump because he didn't like what Chrissy Teigen had to say about him, is that correct? Annika Collier Navaroli: Yes, that is correct. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA): My, my, my. 1:45:15 Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH): Mr. Roth, were those communication channels useful to Twitter as they work to combat foreign influence operations? Yoel Roth: Absolutely, I would say they were one of the most essential pieces of how Twitter prepared for future elections. 2:42:35 Rep. Becca Balint (D-VA): Ms. Gadde, did anyone from the Biden campaign or the Democratic National Committee direct Twitter to remove or take action against the New York Post story? Vijaya Gadde: No. 4:15:45 Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND): And now we forward to 2020. And earlier you had testified that you were having regular interactions with National Intelligence, Homeland Security and the FBI. Yoel Roth: Yes, I did. Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND): And primarily to deal with foreign interference? Yoel Roth: Primarily, but I would say -- Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND): But you had said earlier your contact with Agent Chang was primarily with foreign interference? Yoel Roth: Yes, that's right. Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND): And these were emails....were there meetings? Yoel Roth: Yes, Twitter met quarterly with the FBI Foreign Interference Task Force and we had those meetings running for a number of years to share information about malign foreign interference. Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND): Agents from Homeland Security or Intelligence, or just primarily the FBI? Yoel Roth: Our primary contacts were with the FBI and in those quarterly meetings, they were, I believe, exclusively with FBI personnel. 4:18:05 Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND): Earlier today you testified that you were following national security experts on Twitter as a reason to take down the New York Post story on Hunter Biden's laptop. Yoel Roth: Yes, sir, I did. Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND): So after 2016, you set up all these teams to deal with Russian interference, foreign interference, you're having regular meetings with the FBI, you have connections with all of these different government agencies, and you didn't reach out to them once? Yoel Roth: Is that question in reference to the day of the New York Post article? Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND): Yeah. Yoel Roth: That's right. We generally did not reach out to the FBI to consult on content moderation decisions, especially where they related to domestic activity. It's not that we wouldn't have liked that information, we certainly would have. It's that I don't believe it would have been appropriate for us to consult with the FBI. Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND): In December of 2020, you did a declaration to the Federal Election Commission that the intelligence community expected a leak and a hack operation involving Hunter Biden. Recently, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that the FBI warned Meta that there was a high effort of Russian propaganda including language specific enough to fit the Hunter Biden laptop security story. You're talking to these people for weeks and months, years prior to this leaking. They have specifically told you in October, that there's going to be a leak potentially involving Hunter Biden's laptop. They legitimately and literally prophesized what happened. And you didn't contact any of them? Yoel Roth: No, sir, I did not. Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND): Did they reach out to you? Yoel Roth: On and around that day, to the best of my recollection, no, they did not. Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND): After the story was taken down and you guys did it, and you personally disagreed with it Ms. Gadde, did you contact them and say is "Hey, is this what you were talking about?" Yoel Roth: If that question was directed to me. No, I did not. Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND): Ms. Gadde, did you talk to anybody from the FBI? Vijaya Gadde: Not to the best of my recollection. Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND): So I guess my question is, what is the point of this program? You have constant communication, they're set up for foreign interference. They've legitimately warned you about this very specific thing. And then all of a sudden, everybody just walks away? 5:18:55 Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM): We are devoting an entire day to this conspiracy theory involving Twitter. Now, the mission of this committee is to root out waste, fraud and abuse and to conduct oversight on behalf of the American people. And if you need any evidence of waste, fraud and abuse, how about the use of this committee's precious time, space and resources to commit to this hearing? 5:58:25 Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO): Back to Mr. Roth, is it true that Twitter whitelisted accounts for the Department of Defense to spread propaganda about its efforts in the Middle East? Did they give you a list of accounts that were fake accounts and asked you to whitelist those accounts? Yoel Roth: That request was made of Twitter. To be clear, when I found out about that activity, I was appalled by it. I undid the action and my team exposed activity originating from the Department of Defense's campaign publicly. We've shared that data with the world and research about it has been published. 6:07:20 Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH): Mr. Roth, I want to go back to your statement in your declaration to the FEC "I learned that a hack and leak operation would involve Hunter Biden," who did you learn that from? Yoel Roth: My recollection is it was mentioned by another technology company in one of our joint meetings, but I don't recall specifically whom. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH): You don't know the person's name? Yoel Roth: I don't even recall what company they worked at. No, this was a long time ago. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH): And you're confident that it was from a tech company, not from someone from the government? Yoel Roth: To the best of my recollection, yes. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH): Did anyone from the government, in these periodic meetings you had, did they ever tell you that a hack and leak operation involving Hunter Biden was coming? Yoel Roth: No. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH): Did Hunter Biden's name come up at all these meetings? Yoel Roth: Yes, his name was raised in those meetings, but not by the government to the best of my recollection. 6:09:30 Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH): Mr. Roth, why were you reluctant, based on what I read in the Twitter files, why were you reluctant to work with the GEC? Yoel Roth: It was my understanding that the GEC, or the Global Engagement Center of the State Department, had previously engaged in at least what some would consider offensive influence operations. Not that they were offensive as in bad, but offensive as in they targeted entities outside of the United States. And on that basis, I felt that it would be inappropriate for Twitter to engage with a part of the State Department that was engaged in active statecraft. We were dedicated to rooting out malign foreign interference no matter who it came from. And if we found that the American government was engaged in malign foreign interference, we'd be addressing that as well. 6:13:50 Rep. James Comer (R-KY): Twitter is a private company, but they enjoy special liability protections, Section 230. They also, according to the Twitter files, receive millions of dollars from the FBI, which is tax dollars, I would assume. And that makes it a concern of the Oversight Committee. Does Section 230's Sweeping Immunity Enable Big Tech Bad Behavior? October 28, 2020 Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Witnesses: Jack Dorsey, [Former] CEO, Twitter Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet and Google Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook [Meta] Clips 2:20:40 Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA): The issue is not that the companies before us today are taking too many posts down. The issue is that they're leaving too many dangerous posts up. In fact, they're amplifying harmful content so that it spreads like wildfire and torches our democracy. 3:15:40 Mark Zuckerberg: Senator, as I testified before, we relied heavily on the FBI, his intelligence and alert status both through their public testimony and private briefings. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): Did the FBI contact you, sir, than your co star? It was false. Mark Zuckerberg: Senator not about that story specifically. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): Why did you throttle it back? Mark Zuckerberg: They alerted us to be on heightened alert around a risk of hack and leak operations around a release and probe of information. Emerging Trends in Online Foreign Influence Operations: Social Media, COVID-19, and Election Security June 18, 2020 Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Watch on YouTube Witnesses: Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Security Policy at Facebook Nick Pickles, Director of Global Public Policy Strategy and Development at Twitter Richard Salgado, Director for Law Enforcement and Information Security at Google 1:40:10 Nathaniel Gleicher: Congressman, the collaboration within industry and with government is much, much better than it was in 2016. I think we have found the FBI, for example, to be forward leaning and ready to share information with us when they see it. We share information with them whenever we see indications of foreign interference targeting our election. The best case study for this was the 2018 midterms, where you saw industry, government and civil society all come together, sharing information to tackle these threats. We had a case on literally the eve of the vote, where the FBI gave us a tip about a network of accounts where they identified subtle links to Russian actors. Were able to investigate those and take action on them within a matter of hours. Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations Music Presented in This Episode Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio)

Why He Got Kicked Off Intel, Trump, etc.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Kari Lake is still fighting to redeem Arizona elections through the court system, but if that fight doesn't succeed, what's ahead? Is she thinking of challenging Kyrsten Sinema and Ruben Gallego in Arizona's oddball three-way 2024 Senate race? Charlie chats with Kari about her future. Plus, Congressman Mike Johnson joins to discuss the House's new investigation into Merrick Garland's Orwellian plan to treat parents like domestic terrorists for opposing CRT and transgenderism in their children's schools.Support the show: http://www.charliekirk.com/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the March 23 edition of the podcast, @BenStein, @JudahFriedman, and @TheRoffDraft discuss why the world is such a dangerous place, what can be done about it, and who can do it. Why? Because, with China cozying up to Russian, valiant Ukrainians dying for their country, and Iran making friends with Saudi Arabia, who knows how much time we have left. All that and why there's no good Chinese food in southern California on the latest edition of #TheWorldAccordingtoBenStein

Episode summary: New data shows that the soil of East Palestine contains dioxin levels hundreds of times greater than the exposure threshold that constitutes a serious cancer risk. SoFi CEO Anthony Noto on suing over student-loan payment pause: "I'm also protecting our shareholders." National Republicans are looking for Senate candidates who are filthy rich. Republican Congressman proudly admits he doesn't know the difference between abortion & plan B. Fox producer says she was set up in Dominion case: Abby Grossberg said in a pair of lawsuits that the effort to place blame on her and Maria Bartiromo, the Fox Business host, was rooted in rampant misogyny and discrimination at the company.HOSTS: Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian)SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ http://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturksFACEBOOK: ☞ http://www.facebook.com/theyoungturksTWITTER: ☞ http://www.twitter.com/theyoungturksINSTAGRAM: ☞ http://www.instagram.com/theyoungturksTIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks

In this episode, guest host Danielle D'Souza Gill discusses the parallel between the Democrat Party and authoritarian regimes. She also unpacks the details of Trump's case and interviews Tara Reade, a former Senate aide who recently hinted at a possible Congressional investigation into her sexual harassment allegations against Joe Biden. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's an EmMajority Report Thursday! She hosts Natalia Mehlman-Petrzela, professor of history at The New School, to discuss her recent book Fit Nation: The Gains And Pains Of America's Exercise Obsession. Then she is joined by Daniel Finn, features editor at Jacobin, to discuss his recent piece "Britain's Power Elite Has Defeated Its Challengers by Creating a Political Wasteland". Emma first runs through updates on another Fed interest rate increase, a Federal appeals judge ruling against Trump, Biden shutting down the White House's COVID response team, the Senate voting to keep the AUMF, the Chicago Teachers' union backing Brandon Johnson, and various updates on far-right challenges to democracy and Queer life, before parsing through Bernie Sanders' confrontation with Moderna over their planned vaccine price gauge. Natalia Mehlman-Petrzela then joins as she and Emma dive right into the history of America's fitness obsession and the complicated push and pull between progress with self-expression and corporations capitalizing on developing misogynist and capitalist expectations. First, Mehlman-Petrzela looks to the legacy of Jack LaLanne, the first Fifties fitness guru, and how his programs served to start a shift from seeing fitness as an ego-driven hobby to a fundamental aspect of self-improvement and health with broad consensus. After parsing through LaLanne's particular marketing to suburban housewives, Natalia and Emma tackle the development of the fitness industry not around communal ideas of public health, but hyper-individualized concepts of self-improvement that nestled somewhere between labor and leisure, and how this saw success across the political spectrum, before wrapping up the interview with the impact of the 2008 financial crisis, fitness' full transformation into a consumptive industry, and the hyper-atomization that we've seen since develop over the last few years. Daniel Finn and Emma then parse through his recent piece responding to the Economist's dubbing of a new era of British politics as a new “Great Moderation,” which attempts to paint the active expulsion of the left wing from politics as a return to a politics of managerial competence after a period of populist demagoguery. Parsing through this, Finn tackles the very-much-still-relevant presence of the populist far-right in British politics and why that is seen as valuable to the center-right establishment, before he and Emma step back to assess how the British establishment was able to expunge the left wing of the labor party from mainstream politics. They first look to the material foundation of the 2008 financial crisis that was met with a decade of British austerity which completely crippled the working class, also exploring the two challenges it faced: one in the form of Scottish independence led by Nicola Sturgeon and the other in the emergence of a Labour movement led by Jeremy Corbyn. Wrapping up the interview, Finn walks Emma through the process through which the British establishment, bolstered by the mainstream press, was able to fearmonger over wedge-issue culture wars, taking a single element of a popular platform (trans rights for Sturgeon and pro-Palestine support for Corbyn) and painting it as a broad strokes undemocratic attack on a minority group. And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Brandon Sutton and Matt Binder as they talk with Brian from Flagstaff about gun buyback's potential in the US, also watching Russell Brand rep the Rumble brand, and the recent TikTok congressional hearing. Alena from VA on the coverage of Marianne Williamson, Charlie Kirk and Chaya Raichik use TikTok to connect the transphobic and anti-Chinese moral panics, and we get the previews of Sam's appearance on the PBD podcast, plus, your calls and IMs!   Check out Natalia's book here: https://nataliapetrzela.com/books/fit-nation/   Check out Daniel's piece here: https://jacobin.com/2023/03/britain-power-elite-political-wasteland-corbyn-sturgeon-starmer-media Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com: https://fans.fm/majority/join Subscribe to the ESVN YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/esvnshow Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! http://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: http://majority.fm/app Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattBinder @MattLech @BF1nn @BradKAlsop Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Subscribe to Brandon's show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/ Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com/ The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

In another delay in New York's probe into former President Donald Trump, the grand jury is on standby for a possible decision Thursday, with a clear divide in reactions between Republicans in the House and Senate. Legacy PAC founder Jared Craig joins us to assess the latest developments in the unprecedented case, and what this potential Trump indictment would do for an already deeply divided nation. The Federal Reserve forges ahead with its interest rate hikes despite recent bank failures. How might that affect the banking sector and the lives of everyday Americans? House Republicans say the FBI misused counter-terrorism resources against Americans. A new report explores the actions taken against parents attending school board meetings. Rep. Pete Stauber (R-Minn.) joins to discuss H.R. 1, a new bill prioritized by Republicans seeking to unleash America's natural resources and ensure energy independence. The Department of Health and Human Services is planning to overhaul the organ transplant system. The current system is plagued by long wait lists that leave many Americans frustrated, prompting them to go to communist China for transplants, a country notorious for organ harvesting from religious prisoners of conscience. ⭕️ Watch in-depth videos based on Truth & Tradition at Epoch TV

It's just barely springtime in an off year, but there's been loads of election news lately, so co-hosts David Nir and David Beard have a super-sized roundup on this week's episode of The Downballot. The Davids recap the first round of voting in the race for Jacksonville mayor (which saw Democrats do unusually well) and the collapse of an effort to recall New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell before turning to big batch of 2024 updates.On tap for the Senate: The GOP's desperate effort to compete with Democratic fundraising enthusiasm by recruiting self-funders; why Republicans are afraid the guy who succeeded John Boehner in Congress will try to challenge Sherrod Brown; and how Democrats' plans to clear the field in Michigan may not succeed. Plus developments in the battle for New Hampshire's governorship, a key House seat in Wisconsin, and the saga of Tennessee's answer to George Santos.Transcript to come.

Fellas break down the race for the White House, discuss the latest media efforts to cover for Dems, and debate options for protection from mountain lion attacks. Montana Senator Steve Daines joins the progrum to talk about the 2024 Senate map.

Join Jim and Greg as they welcome a new Associated Press poll showing Americans can clearly see President Biden's weak performance on the economy and his overall job performance. They also groan as the CEO of TikTok tries to dodge questions about whether the app is spying on users and TikTok's connection to the Chinese Communist Party. Plus, they hammer the Democrats for glibly opposing the effort to crack down on TikTok after agreeing to ban it on government devices last year. Finally, they break down Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's strategy of cozying up to the right in advance of a likely 2024 re-election bid.Please visit our great sponsors:Liver Health https://checkyourliver.com/martiniFor a free presentation on the warning signs of fatty liver and how Liver Health can help check out CheckYourLiver.com/MARTINI

Join Jim and Greg as they welcome a new Associated Press poll showing Americans can clearly see President Biden’s weak performance on the economy and his overall job performance. They also groan as the CEO of TikTok tries to dodge questions about whether the app is spying on users and TikTok’s connection to the Chinese […]

Episode Notes We are back after a week off from Spring Break to bring you up to date on all the news in Hernando. We start with this week's aldermen meeting- where the redistricting for the next 7 years has been completed- followed by news of a candidate dropping out a Senate race. We then tell you why you may not be driving a Tesla bought in MS anytime soon, and why you have a few more days to file your taxes this year. Derick then summarizes the banking issues, and give you the bad news that the cost to borrower just went up (again). We end our show with Shoutouts, catch up on all the Spring Sports, and remind you why it is important to find a Church. Please subscribe where you listen and on Apple iTunes, and please follow us on Facebook at UTW Podcast; on Instagram at UTW Podcast; on Twitter @UTWpod; or contact us at underthewatertowerinfo@gmail.com. Help us to continue strong into the Spring by giving us that 5-star review on iTunes and we will be happy to give you a shoutout on air. Please listen to the latest episode of our Brother Podcast OBpod here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ob-pod/id1552315835   Finally, visit and support our sponsors: Team Couch of Burch Realty Desoto Family Dental Care Mobyl Car and Van Rental Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-11f99c for 40% off for 4 months, and support Under the Water Tower.

The King flies solo, covering the news of the week. Is Trump actually going to be indicted or was he just trying to set-up Meatball Ron DeSanctimonius? Why won’t San Francisco pay reparations to its Asian residents? Why the Senate should reject Biden’s Labor Secretary nominee Julie Su, and the Putin-Xi bromance vs. Joe Biden’s […]

Of the three branches of our federal government, Congress is by far the most dysfunctional and stagnated. Yet, it is also the most variable. Let's vote good and knowledgeable people into our House and Senate! Together, we can tackle the issues of excessive spending, inside corruption, and laziness.

Arizona GOP moving variety of conspiracy-fueled voter suppression bills | Bill authorizing universal youth mental health screenings at school is moving in Colorado legislature | New Colorado GOP chair is a fringe character, prominent conservatives announce they're leaving the Party | VP Harris announces Biden Administration disbursement of $200 million in wildfire preparedness and mitigation funds | Billy Idol in DenverSong playsIntro by hostWelcome to High Country - politics in the American West. My name is Sean Diller; regular listeners might know me from Heartland Pod's Talking Politics, every Monday.Support this show and all the work in the Heartland POD universe by going to heartlandpod.com and clicking the link for Patreon, or go to Patreon.com/HeartlandPod to sign up. Membership starts at $1/month, with even more extra shows and special access at the higher levels. No matter the level you choose, your membership helps us create these independent shows as we work together to change the conversation.Alright! Let's get into it: ARIZONA MIRROR:Conspiracy theories still dominate Arizona Senate Elections CommitteeBY: JOE DUHOWNIK/COURTHOUSE NEWS SERVICE - MARCH 21, 2023 4:18 PMNearly a month after Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes released documents further disproving claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, Senate Republicans continue to make the same claims in the election committee.The most recent tantrum came during testimony regarding HB2415, which would remove people from the active early voting mailing list if they go a full year without participating in an election. Republicans said it's a way to declutter the list.Opponents argued that the bill would only disenfranchise voters, as many only vote in presidential elections every four years, and could be removed from the mail ballot list without knowing it.“Conspiracy theories” also came up again later in the committee meeting, this time in regard to HB2591, which would prohibit voters from using ballot drop boxes outside the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and would require that drop boxes be inside or attached to county buildings and be under 24/7 video surveillance. Bill sponsor Gail Griffin, a Republican state representative from Tucson, said she's seen video of “people with boxes coming and dumping ballots,” though she maintained that “2,000 Mules” - a propaganda film about imagined “ballot mules” stuffing ballots in the 2020 election. The fantasy about ballot mules is a cornerstone of the bigger fantasy that Joe Biden stole the 2020 election, even though he won by 3 full percentage points and 7 million votes.Democrats said restricting the times when voters can drop off ballots will make it harder for some to cast their vote. Republicans' only response was that those folks would need to use one of the less accessible options that remain if they want to vote. Cool. The Republican-dominated committee supported five more measures they say will increase election integrity. Republican state Representative Austin Smith sponsored HB2552 to preemptively prohibit ranked choice voting in Arizona. A companion bill already passed through the Senate in February.Jodi Liggett, a lobbyist representing the Arizona League of Women Voters, said more than 60% of Arizona voters support ranked choice voting, which is used in Maine, Alaska, and multiple cities like New York and San Francisco.“There should be no reason to preemptively silence the voice of your own constituents,” she told the committee.The committee ended with discussion on HB2613, which would require that all vote recording tabulation machines be 100% sourced from and built in the U.S. in response to fantasies about foreign tampering of voting machines in the 2020 election - where Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden by 3 full percentage points and 7 million legally cast votes. Jen Marson, representing the Arizona Association of Counties, said the machines used now are already manufactured in the U.S., but some parts, like plastics and electronics, are sourced from other countries.The bill's GOP sponsor said he doesn't know that U.S. companies have the capacity to completely home-grow the voting machines, but “if there is a need, I do believe that the American engineering mindset would step up.”For my part - I'll just say his point makes absolutely no sense.This article was first published by Courthouse News Service and is republished under their terms of use.UCLA HEALTHSuicide rate highest among teens and young adultsMarch 15, 2022By Sandy CohenNote: This article was updated Feb. 23, 2023.Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among people age 15 to 24 in the U.S. Nearly 20% of high school students report serious thoughts of suicide and 9% have made an attempt to take their lives, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.Recent weeks have brought heartbreaking examples of this trend, including the March 1 death of Stanford soccer captain Katie Meyer, 22; and Ohio State football player Harry Miller's revelations that he attempted suicide, shared his struggles with his coach and got help. Miller announced his medical retirement from football on March 10 in a Twitter post that's been shared more than 10,000 times.“This is not an issue reserved for the far and away,” wrote Miller. “It is in our homes. It is in our conversations. It is in the people we love.”Carl Fleisher, MD, who specializes in adolescent and child psychiatry at Boston Child Study Center in Los Angeles said “Teenagers and young adults have had rising rates of suicide compared to 10 or 15 years ago, Young people are particularly vulnerable to suicide. The things that make them vulnerable are where they stand socially and where they stand developmentally.”Developmentally, their judgment and decision-making abilities are still coming online. The prefrontal cortex — the brain's executive control center — doesn't fully develop until one's mid-20s.That makes young people more impulsive "They're not going to weigh risks and consequences in quite the same way older folks will.”Socially, teens and young adults don't have the same connections older adults do. Someone who is married, has a long-term partner or has children or grandchildren is in a different place socially than someone who is just coming into their own, living with roommates or alone.The isolation of the pandemic exacerbated social disconnection even more.So it's good to hear that a bill that would make it easier… Colorado Newsline article followsCOLORADO NEWSLINE:BY: SARA WILSON - MARCH 20, 2023 2:54 PM…  for schools to provide mental health assessments, and connect students to therapy, passed the Colorado House of Representatives on Monday.House Bill 23-1003 would allow public schools to participate in a voluntary mental health screening program for sixth through twelfth graders and refer them to treatment if needed, primarily through the state's existing free youth therapy program, called I Matter.Bill sponsor Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, a Commerce City Democrat, said she was motivated to run the legislation after alarming statistics from the Colorado Healthy Kids Survey that showed nearly 40% of Colorado youth reported feeling depressed for at least two straight weeks.“That's a pretty significant indicator for severe depression,” she said. “I wanted to come up with a way for kids to learn about therapy and access to therapy through screenings in school. We have the I Matter program, so we have somewhere kids can go for help.”In a post-pandemic environment in which Children's Hospital Colorado declared a state of emergency for youth mental health, Michaelson Jenet said screening can be a powerful preventative tool for students under profound pressures.Parents could opt their child out of the assessment, but students 12 years and older would be able to participate even if their parents don't want them to.Under the program, if the provider finds that a student could benefit from treatment, their parents will be notified and given information about the I Matter program, which has provided free therapy services to over 5,500 Colorado youth since it launched in October 2021.If the assessment provider finds that a student is in crisis — at-risk for attempting suicide, physical self-harm or harming others, for example — the school would follow its crisis response protocol.The Colorado Health Institute endorsed the concept of universal mental health screenings in schools in a report published earlier this month.The report authors wrote “Schools are uniquely positioned to help address this (mental health) crisis by meeting youth where they already spend most of their day. Screening all students for social and emotional needs strengthens prevention, detection, and early intervention.”Organizations including the National Association of School Psychologists, the National Research Council, the Institute of Medicine, the Healthy Schools Campaign, Mental Health America also recommend screening all students.Republicans in the House opposed the bill on the grounds that a program where students could participate even if parents opt out violates parental rights. Most of the floor debate centered on whether 12 years old is too young for students to decide whether to undergo a mental health assessment. Existing Colorado law allows minors 12 years and older to seek therapy without their parent or guardian's consent.Democrats hold healthy majorities in both the House and Senate this session.The legislation now heads to the Senate, where it is sponsored by Democratic Sen. Lisa Cutter of Littleton.COLORADO SUN: and on the other side of the aisle: The new chair of Colorado's GOP says people concerned he will end all hope of Republicans winning here, should “relax”.Jesse Paul and Sandra Fish3:20 AM MDT on Mar 16, 2023Dave Williams' election as Colorado GOP chair has prompted prominent Republicans to announce they are leaving the party and heightened the possibility that unaffiliated Coloradans, who make up nearly half of the state's electorate, could be shut out of the GOP's future primaries.Mandy Connell, a conservative talk radio host, tweeted her exit from the GOP on Saturday just after the election denier and former state representative was chosen to lead Republicans for the next two years.Connell told The Colorado Sun, “I hoped the Republican Party could move beyond Donald Trump and looking backwards at the 2020 election. With the election of Dave Williams for the Colorado chairmanship, it is apparent that they are not ready to do that. And I am.”The GOP has steadily lost registered voters in Colorado over the past two decades, a slide that accelerated after Trump took office. The share of registered Republicans declined to 24.2% in January from 31.1% in January 2016. There are no statewide elected Republicans, and the party is in a big minority in the legislature and in the congressional delegation following a disappointing 2022 election cycle that only saw the GOP lose more political power.Some in the party fear Williams, who beat six other chair candidates, may lead to further decline. Dick Wadhams, who was Colorado GOP chair from 2007 to 2011 and now works as a Republican political consultant, worries the “party will have no credibility” if Williams pursues the agenda he campaigned for chair on.Williams says his detractors should “relax.”“I can understand why some people are concerned, especially because of the fearmongering of Dick Wadhams,” Williams said. “But the truth is I'm only here to go attack Democrats, and if they can't get behind that then I'm not sure what else is going to unite us.”Williams, who vowed to be a “wartime” leader of the Colorado GOP, was a divisive figure during his time in the state legislature - and last year he lost a primary challenge to Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn by just shy of 20 points.Williams was elected chair by the Colorado GOP's state central committee, which is made up of about 400 people. During the event Saturday in Loveland, Williams focused his message on defending Donald Trump and preventing unaffiliated voters from participating in GOP primary elections, something Colorado voters approved in 2016. Ari Armstrong, a columnist for Complete Colorado, tweeted that he is leaving the party. “Colorado GOP leaders have made abundantly clear that theirs is the party of conspiracy mongering and petty bigotry,” he said. “The state party is not serious about winning elections or helping to guide policy. Enough.”Denver Post columnist Krista Kafer also hinted on Twitter at a switch: “I think I'll be doing the same (as) Mandy Connell. When I rejoined the party I had hoped it was changing. It is in other states but not here. The lunatic fringe is ascendant.” and speaking of the lunatic fringeCOLORADO NEWSLINE:Feds to send nearly $200 million to help communities prepare for wildfiresBY: JACOB FISCHLER - MARCH 21, 2023 4:30 AM     Vice President Kamala Harris and other administration officials said Monday that the Biden administration will send $197 million from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law to help communities prepare for wildfires this summer.The funding represents the first round of a new $1 billion Community Wildfire Defense Grant program authorized under the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill that President Joe Biden signed in 2021. Grants in the first year of the program would be available for more than 100 projects in 22 states, according to a White House fact sheet.The funding is meant to help communities prepare for wildfires, which Harris said was preferable to responding to fires already wreaking havoc.“The best time to fight a fire is before it starts,” she said on a Monday call with reporters.The funding announced Monday can be used to write or update wildfire preparedness plans or on other mitigation efforts, such as clearing highly flammable brush.Among the largest grants was a $9.9 million disbursement to the Grant Soil and Water Conservation District in eastern Oregon to clear hazardous fuels from evacuation routes on county roads.The New Mexico nonprofit Cimarron Watershed Alliance also received $8 million to create defensible space around homes and fuel breaks designed to stop a fire's spread.Archuleta County, Colorado, will receive $1.1 million to remove hazardous fuels over 600 wooded acres.Gila County AZ will receive $341,000 for evacuation planning and clearing flammable brush around buildings Communities in Alaska, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota, Wiscons, North Carolina and Georgia will also receive grants.A full list of grants announced Monday is available here.The Vice President said the remaining roughly $800 million will be released over the next four years.Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said “This is an initial round of funding - a critical down payment.”The Forest Service, which is part of the Agriculture Department, judged grant applications on three criteria: communities that have experienced a severe disaster, are at high risk of a wildfire and are low income. All grants announced Monday met at least two of the three criteria and most met all three, he said.Wildfires have become more destructive in recent decades for a variety of reasons, including hotter and drier weather because of climate change, as well as increased development in areas at high risk of fire.CONCERT PICK OF THE WEEK: You might know him from the movie “Big” - it's Billy Idol! Mission Ballroom in Denver on Tuesday April 4th at 8pm - that's election night and that's also a kickass venue to see rock and roll giant like Billy. Information at billyidol.net - and don't use .com because there is no redirect.Welp, that's it for me! From Denver I'm Sean Diller. Original reporting for the stories in today's show comes from the Arizona Mirror, Colorado Newsline, Courthouse News Service, UCLA Health, Colorado Sun, and Denver's Westword.Thank you for listening! See you next time.

The debt limit and the banking crisis. The Senate vs. the House on Trump. It's Fed day.  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's headlines: As of this recording on Tuesday night, Donald Trump has not been arrested, despite his claims that he would be yesterday morning. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced that he would direct House committees to investigate the Manhattan DA's potential prosecution of Donald Trump. Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made a surprise visit to Kyiv Ukraine to meet with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. A bill in Florida has advanced in the state Senate that's meant to crack down on illegal immigration. Finally for today, a hospital in Idaho announced that they are ceasing all labor and delivery services as a result of doctor shortages and the political climate. Resources/Articles mentioned this episode: Reuters: New York City braces for Trump indictment after ex-president urges protests TPM: Manhattan DA Responds To House GOP Letter: ‘We Will Not Be Intimidated' Atlanta Journal: Trump's lawyers move to quash Ga. special grand jury report Politico: McCarthy calls for House investigations as Republicans slam potential Trump indictment AP News: Japan's PM offers Ukraine support as China's Xi backs Russia CBS: Florida Senate panel backs immigration crackdown plan CBS: Idaho hospital to stop labor and delivery services citing "political climate" and doctor shortages Host: Sami Sage Morning Announcements is produced by Sami Sage alongside Amanda Duberman and Bridget Schwartz Original Music and Editing by Brandon Lee Bjornson

"Our progress has been part of the living history of America," President Jimmy Carter declared in a 1979 speech. "America is a nation of progress, of moving forward," Senator Chuck Grassley stated in 2022 on the Senate floor. "The story of America is a story of progress and resilience, of always moving forward, of never, ever giving up. It's a story unique among all nations," President Joe Biden announced in his 2023 State of the Union. For decades - even centuries - policymakers, and media on their behalf, have employed some variation on the same rhetorical theme: the United States is a nation of progress, especially so-called "racial progress." Though our Great Experiment has been imperfect, we're told, it's constantly improving, steadily and automatically forging ahead toward its ideal state. Yes, we've been home to the violent oppression of untold sums of people, but look how far we've come! There have objectively been political gains for all groups historically and currently denied basic rights in the U.S. This is obvious. But the trajectory is far from linear, raising the question: How far have "we" really come? Are people, especially Black, Latino, and Native people, less likely to suffer through poverty than any time before now? Are police and prisons any less violent? To what extent have U.S. law and policymaking really evolved? On this episode, we dissect the liberal assertion that social, particularly racial, progress in the U.S. is inevitable, that there's this comforting "arc" of history bending towards justice. We examine how this idea came to be, who gets to define the metrics of "progress," and why it's dangerous to advance the tidy Vaseline-lens narrative that societal improvement is part of some preordained future. Our guest is Dr. Julian M. Rucker.

The King flies solo, covering the news of the week. Is Trump actually going to be indicted or was he just trying to set-up Meatball Ron DeSanctimonius? Why won't San Francisco pay reparations to its Asian residents? Why the Senate should reject Biden's Labor Secretary nominee Julie Su, and the Putin-Xi bromance vs. Joe Biden's poetry slam. Subscribe to the King of Stuff Spotify playlist featuring picks from the show. This week's track is “Mermaid in a Manhole” by Airiel. (See them live!) For video versions of the interviews, subscribe to Jon's YouTube or Rumble channel! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Markets tumbled into the close as investors weighed Fed Chair Jerome Powell's comments at the press conference after the Fed hiked interest rates 25 basis points. At the same time, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testified to a Senate committee that there were no plans for broad increases in deposit insurance. Former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Jason Furman and Evercore's Roger Altman reacted to the Fed's move while Quadratic Capital's Nancy Davis and Jefferies' David Zervos digested the market sell off. Plus, Zelman & Associates' Alan Ratner on KB Home earnings and Brad Slingerlend, NZS Capital Co-Founder, on trading tech after the Fed. 

The public will soon gain access to intelligence on the potential origins of the pandemic after President Joe Biden just signed a bill to declassify the details. This follows rare, unanimous bipartisan votes in both the House and Senate. At the center of the debate is the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Did the virus leak from the lab, was it man-made, or did it jump through animal hosts? ⭕️ Watch in-depth videos based on Truth & Tradition at Epoch TV

On today's Daily Signal Top News, we break down: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis thinks he would beat President Joe Biden if he ran against him in 2024. Manhattan DA's office cancels grand jury meetingNewsmax is back on DirecTV after the two struck a new multiyear deal. DirecTV dropped the conservative outlet back in January. The CEO of Moderna, Stephane Bancel, testified before the Senate earlier today.Former Vice President Mike Pence called for “common sense” reforms to Social Security and MedicareRelevant LinksDeSantis Says If He Ran in 2024, He Would Beat Biden: https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/03/22/ron-desantis-says-if-he-ran-in-2024-he-would-beat-joe-biden/Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcastsSign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Former Atlanta Braves and Parkview baseball player Jeff Francoeur is set to return for his sixth season as a lead analyst for Bally Sports' Atlanta Braves broadcasts. Francoeur will be joined by former Braves infielder and Duluth grad Nick Green who will cover pre and post-game shows. Legendary former Braves pitcher and Baseball Hall of Famer Tom Glavine also plans to join Bally broadcasts this season after stepping away in 2022. A total of 11 broadcasters will provide coverage for Bally, which will air 149 Atlanta games this season. The first Braves broadcast on Bally Sports will be Opening Day, March 30, as the Braves take on the Washington Nationals. The Georgia House of Representatives has voted in favor of a bill proposing a new system for compensating wrongfully convicted individuals. The legislation, sponsored by Representative Scott Holcomb, would create a panel of experts in the criminal justice system to determine whether a wrongful conviction had occurred and if compensation was warranted. The Claims Advisory Board would then make recommendations to the chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court for inclusion in the state budget. Awards under the new system would range from $50,000 to $100,000 for each year of wrongful incarceration, depending on the panel's decision. The House passed similar legislation last year, also sponsored by Holcomb, but it died in the Senate. This year's bill is pending before the Senate Appropriations Committee but has yet to get a hearing. Buford's boys and girls track and field teams swept the championships at Saturday's Gulf Shores Invitational in Gulf Shores, Alabama. The Wolves won the 19-team boys meet with 128 points to finish ahead of the 107 from runner-up Pace from Florida while the girls team won with 128.5. Foley from Alabama was second in the girls meet at 91.5. Buford got girls event wins from Jaci Wright, Dominique Brown,  the 4,000 distance medley relay, the 3,200 relay, the 400 relay and the 1,600 relay. The Wolves got boys victories from Jayden Ivaniciuc , Devin Williams, Ervin Pearson, the 400 relay and the 1,600 relay. Monique Lee and Amy Lazic have been appointed as new principals for the North Metro Academy of Performing Arts and Oakland Meadow School, respectively. Lee has worked in education since 1997 and has been with Gwinnett County Public Schools since 2007. She replaces Rodriguez Johnson. Lazic has been with GCPS since 2005 and has worked as a speech language specialist and pathologist before that. She replaces retired Oakland Meadow School principal Sara Clifford. Lee earned her bachelor's degree in biology from Georgia Southern University, her master's degree in educational administration from Jackson State University, and a specialist degree in educational leadership from Argosy University. Lazic earned her bachelor's degree in speech pathology and audiology from Stockton University, her master's degree in speech language pathology from Kean University, and a specialist degree in educational leadership from the University of West Georgia. With less than two weeks left in the Georgia General Assembly session, Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones is providing anxious lawmakers with a calming presence. Jones supports a $2,000 pay raise for state employees and a property tax rebate from Georgia's budget surplus. He also supports a sports betting measure and a school vouchers bill, though the latter is criticized by Democrats. Sports betting — after appearing to have died prior to the all-important “Crossover Day” deadline earlier this month– may have gained new life this week when it was tacked onto an unrelated bill about soap box derbies. Jones said he thought it was wise for the legislature to consider sports betting apart from other gambling measures. Jones contends that sports betting proceeds could help increase state revenues for the HOPE scholarship and help pay for expanded offerings such as scholarships for technical schools and early childhood learning. A strong road midweek starting performance has earned Georgia Gwinnett College sophomore right hander Ben Harris honors as the Continental Athletic Conference Baseball Pitcher of the Week. Harris won his second straight start by matching a career high with seven innings and 11 strikeouts in a key road win against Middle Georgia State University last Tuesday. The right hander did not allow an earned run in the outing. The Crystal Lake, Illinois, native scattered six hits and helped toss six consecutive scoreless frames starting in the second inning. He helped the Grizzlies rally from an early 3-2 deficit, with those runs being unearned, to grab the lead in the fifth inning. Harris has a 4-0 record this season after starting six games and completing 31.2 innings. He has thrown 48 strikeouts while allowing just 11 walks and eight earned runs.   Maria Moreno joins us to talk about the Nature of Color exhibit at Fernbank.      As we get closer to the start of the 2023 Masters, Times-Journal Incorporated sports editor John Bednarowski joins the show continue to take us on a tour of Augusta National presented by Ingles. 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