Who Funds that?

In this episode: Last week, the Pulitzer Prizes announced that the prize for Commentary was awarded to Nikole Hannah-Jones, the architect of the New York Times’s highly controversial and factually suspect “1619 Project,” a nominally historical exercise to re-center the origins of the United States on the first importation of enslaved Africans to Virginia. Today, I’m joined by my Capital Research C...

In this episode: You’ve heard of the Green New Deal, that radical, socialist makeover of the American economy proposed by the hardline wing of the environmentalist movement. More than a few people—including this podcast, last week—have noted that the economy envisioned by the Green New Dealers resembles the economy of…right now, in the middle of government-ordered shutdowns of all forms of normal...

In this episode, supporters of the Green New Deal praise the destitution inflicted by the government response to the pandemic coronavirus, government worker unions and state-government-interest advocates try to use the crisis to shore up already-broken state finances, and we debunk a supposed “prudential conservative case” for the power of Big Labor. Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of ch...

In this episode: You’ve undoubtedly heard the name George Soros, but what do you actually know about the man and his philosophy? Today, I’m joined by my Capital Research Center colleague Shane Devine, who read and reviewed the left-progressive billionaire’s philosophical and political testament, In Defense of Open Society. Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewa...

In this episode, a radical-left pressure group calls for the government to censor the government, labor union activists allege shenanigans in the succession to head the United Auto Workers amid its ongoing corruption scandal, and Big Labor and its congressional allies take aim at one of the few things making the ongoing pandemic lockdowns tolerable: Independent contracting work. Subscribe to the p...

In this episode, we discuss the ways in which progressive legislators have gone out of their way to not let the coronavirus crisis go to waste, first by going on a wild spending spree, purchasing political ads knocking the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic. But also by inserting legislative wish-list items into the coronavirus relief bills, efforts that could pave the way for voter f...

Hello, I’m Sarah Lee and this is the InfluenceWatch Podcast. In this episode: SCOTUS considers and abortion case that has the backing of some strange bedfellows, and that has caused the Senate minority leader to issue what could only be called a threat; principled conservatives are revealed to be less principled and less conservative than they claim; and union fan Cenk Uygur loves collective barga...

In this episode, the National Labor Relations Board hands a major setback to the SEIU’s $180 million corporate campaign to unionize restaurants, local officials and free-market groups push back against California’s “gag rule” against discussing government workers’ Janus rights, and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upholds the Trump administration’s rule withholding federal family planning funds fr...

Last year, the hard-left—pressure groups like the Sunrise Movement, politicians like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and labor unions like the Service Employees International Union—presented the “Green New Deal,” a package of radical environmentalist policy demands that ranged (according to an “FAQ” document that the Green New Dealers denounced and memory-holed shortly after its release...

In this episode: Democrats announce a $50 million campaign to take control of drawing legislative district boundaries, the Pennsylvania Legislature considers legislation to enforce the Supreme Court’s Janus decision and government worker rights, and the Labor Department promulgates a rule to increase transparency of government worker unions. Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at:...

In this episode, the Iowa Democratic Party’s reliance on a Democratic-establishment-connected political vendor results in vote-counting-chaos, the House of Representatives prepares to affirm its loyalty to the will of Organized Labor, and San Francisco lefties fight over campaign finance disclosure. Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewatch.fireside.fm/ • Faceb...

Ten years ago this month, the Supreme Court handed down a controversial decision with bearing on influence and politics: Citizens United v. FEC. As liberal activists push ever harder to “overturn” the decision, I’m joined this week by Scott Blackburn, Research Director of the Institute For Free Speech, who recently authored a brief “Citizens United After 10 Years: More Speech, Better Democracy” la...

In this episode, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports continuing decline in Big Labor’s ranks, radical-left author Naomi Klein admits that the Green New Deal is about making your life worse, and as pro-lifers March for Life we consider the possible ramifications of Planned Parenthood losing public funding. Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewatch.fireside.fm...

In this episode, the Department of Labor takes deregulatory action to undo a key Obama administration favor to its supporters in Big Labor, center-right scholar of philanthropy Bill Schambra offers an explanation for Americans’ declining trust in nonprofits that satisfies Ockham’s Razor, and we remember the eminent British Conservative philosopher Sir Roger Scruton, who passed away this week. Subs...

In this episode, a union with close ties to top left-wing Senators targets the technology industry for an organizing campaign; our colleagues at Dangerous Documentaries take aim at the late, probably-Communist, and terribly influential historian-author Howard Zinn; and we remember Gertrude Himmelfarb, historian of Victorian-era philanthropy, who passed away before the New Year. Subscribe to the po...

We’re starting off the New Year by taking one last look back at the old year, thanks to the “2019 Philanthropy Awards” published by Inside Philanthropy, a left-of-center news and commentary source on institutional funders. While listeners will likely be familiar with Inside Philanthropy’s “Philanthropist of the Year”—billionaire investor and founder of the Open Society Foundations George Soros—the...

In this episode, a lawsuit alleges that United Auto Workers leadership was prepared to sell out its membership as a result of kickbacks from Fiat Chrysler, my colleague Ken Braun exposes the taxpayer-funded “labor centers” that use public university resources for political organizing and policy advocacy, and “progressives” offer tax benefits to rich blue-staters and drivers of electric cars that s...

In this episode, we look behind the curtain of a massive “dark money” entity that funds left-of-center advocacy, the National Education Association’s annual report illustrates the teachers union’s massive left-wing political involvement, and we issue a caution to those pushing to restrain business from being business. Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://influencewatch.f...

In this, our 100th episode, we look back at five major stories that have crisscrossed our first 100 episodes: Corruption at the United Auto Workers labor union, the secretive “dark money” network of Arabella Advisors, the numerous times environmentalists campaigned to make life more unpleasant, the chaos at the top of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the introduction of legislation to do Big L...

In this episode, the ongoing United Auto Workers corruption scandal deepens as the union desperately seeks to avoid a federal takeover, FedEx’s leadership has it out with the New York Times’s reporting on its involvement with the 2017 tax reform bill, and Politico comes oh-so-close to figuring out what’s going on at Arabella Advisors. *Next episode will release December 6th in observance of Thanks...

In this episode, we bring the story of the United Auto Workers’ presidential cabin allegedly built with non-union labor full circle, dig into the history of left-wing movements like Students for a Democratic Society, and debunk some “reform conservative” mythmaking about “worker centers” and other so-called “alt-labor” organizations. Subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice at: https://...

In this episode, more developments in the United Auto Workers corruption scandal should illustrate cautions for conservatives courting Big Labor, Twitter announces a controversial proposal to restrict political advocacy on its service, and we dig into the world of professional corporate pandering to left-progressivism under the label “corporate social responsibility.” Subscribe to the podcast on y...

In this episode, a federal worker union president takes a leave of absence after 10 people alleged he sexually harassed union employees, we look at the how the Annie E. Casey Foundation drifted toward the hard left, and Senator Mike Lee of Utah calls for treating the American Bar Association like a normal left-of-center interest group in the judicial nomination process. Subscribe to the podcast on...

In this episode, Chicago Teachers Union members extend their strike while UAW members continue striking as they vote on the proposed GM contract, the government secures a guilty plea from an operator of a deceptive “Scam PAC,” and the “social welfare” arm of George Soros’s advocacy-philanthropic network spends eye-popping amounts lobbying the federal government. Subscribe to the podcast on your pl...

In this episode, radical environmentalists think shutting down the London Underground is somehow a good idea, Demand Justice demonstrates that its idea of “justice” is just liberal politics, and we provide an update on major labor news, as UAW and GM reach a tentative deal, the Chicago Teachers Union strikes again, and the unions push for their wish list in Congress. Subscribe to the podcast on yo...