InfluenceWatch Podcast

Episode 81: Justice Ginsburg Rejects Court Packing

July 25th, 2019  |  6 mins 18 secs

anti-israel, bds, capitol, congress, court packing, dark money, demand justice, environmentalist, extremist, glue, israel, justice, liberal, rbg, ruth bader ginsburg, supreme court

Members of an extremist environmentalist faction glue themselves to basement doors in the Capitol complex, Congress slaps down the anti-Israel “boycott divestment and sanctions” campaign, and the liberal hero of the Supreme Court swats down the policy proposals of a liberal “dark money” advocacy group.

Episode 80: The Left’s “Dark Money” Coordinator

July 12th, 2019  |  11 mins 17 secs

bagman, dark money, donors, funding, influence, left, left-wing, liberal, major institutions, money, philanthropy, public policy, research

In this Episode: Joining the show this week is Capital Research Center Investigative Researcher Hayden Ludwig, who spends his time studying the liberal networks funneling money from major institutions and big donors into left-wing politics and policy. This week he released a new piece at capitalresearch.org with a deep-dive into NEO Philanthropy, a liberal “pass through” funding group.

Episode 79: Anarchists Attack in Portland

July 3rd, 2019  |  8 mins 10 secs

andy ngo, anonymous speech, anti-fascist, antifa, attack, beating, black bloc, census, citizenship, citizenship question, court, debate, free speech, journalist, new jersey, portland, protest, violence

Black bloc anarchists attack a journalist in Portland, the Census citizenship question debate gets confused, and advocacy groups left, right, and center take on a Constitutionally dubious New Jersey law targeting anonymous speech.

Episode 78: Gerrymandering Myth Debunked

June 27th, 2019  |  17 mins 44 secs

appointments, congress, congressional maps, democrat, districts, gerrymandering, myth, nonjusticiable, partisan, political, proportional representation, representatives, republican, state, supreme court

Today, the Supreme Court decided a pair of cases concerning “partisan gerrymandering,” holding that Congressional redistricting is an inherently political process and therefore a “nonjusticiable political question”—meaning (mostly liberal) challengers to (for now, mostly Republican-drawn) congressional maps will not be able to claim they are “too partisan” (whatever that means) in federal court.

Episode 77: Autoworkers Reject Union

June 21st, 2019  |  7 mins 23 secs

administration, conservative, constitution, cross, environmentalists, establishment, left, liberal, libertarian, obama, religion, supreme court, tennessee, uaw, volkswagen, ww1

Workers #resist the United Auto Workers in Tennessee, environmentalists lament changes to an aggressive Obama administration rule, and the Supreme Court affirms that a World War One memorial cross does not constitute an “establishment of religion.”

Episode 76: The Left's Push for Court Packing

June 13th, 2019  |  6 mins 18 secs

In this episode: the activist arm of the judicial left prepares an all-out attack on a core American political norm, a left-wing billionaire pledges $500 million to support environmentalist campaigns against coal and natural gas, and the trade war heats up with possible Chinese retaliation in products over which they have a near-monopoly.

Episode 75: Eugenics: American Philanthropy’s Greatest Achievement?

June 6th, 2019  |  9 mins 42 secs

activist, alaska, conservative, d.c., environmental, eugenics, left, lobbyist, natural resources, philanthropy, population control, right

D.C. lobbyist-funded environmental activists denounce the influence of D.C. lobbyists on natural resources policy in Alaska, a left-wing outlet acknowledges the abuses of Big Progressive Philanthropy’s Population Control crusade of the mid-to-late 20th Century, and the highlights from a debate on the past and future of the two-billion-plus-dollar world of right-of-center advocacy philanthropy.

Episode 74: Union Sexual Harassment Hypocrisy

May 23rd, 2019  |  8 mins 31 secs

board member, cap, center for american progress, conservative, conspiracy, election, establishment, georgia, gubernational, liberal, lobby, mcdonalds, metoo, seiu, sexual harassment, thinktank, union

The SEIU and its allies hit McDonald’s for sexual harassment while one of SEIU’s most powerful local unions looks set to promote an officer accused of sexual harassment, a board member of the establishment liberal think tank Center for American Progress continues to promote conspiracy theories about the 2018 midterm elections, and the Washington Post is shocked, shocked to find a conservative activist conducting conservative advocacy.

Episode 73: Major Union Embraces Communism

May 16th, 2019  |  9 mins 46 secs

administration, afl-cio, big labor, boycott, capitulated, communism, conviction, defense attorney, democrats, harvard, labor law, law, liberal, marxists, privileges, reforms, repeal and replace, republicans, right to work, right-to-work, sex abuse, strike, strikes, student, taft-hartley, truman, union, uprising, veto, weinstein, winter of discontent

The AFL-CIO breaks with its history and speaks in support of Marxists, Democrats push to expand union privileges for forced dues and expanded mass strikes, and Harvard ousts a criminal defense attorney from a deanship for working as a criminal defense attorney.

Episode 72: Chicago’s Crazy Civil Asset Forfeiture Laws

May 2nd, 2019  |  9 mins 36 secs

chicago, civil asset, conservative, democratic, forfeiture, laws. socialist, left, libertarian, maduro, nicolas maduro, opposition, politicians, property rights, right, supreme court, taxes, venezuela

Clashes break out between the socialist regime of Nicolas Maduro and supporters of Venezuela’s democratic opposition, a controversial Chicago program is challenged in court for violating property rights, and politicians propose a plan to hike taxes to pay off their consultants.

Episode 71: An Ideological Battle of Words

April 25th, 2019  |  7 mins 23 secs

bankrupt, battle, census, citizenship, citizenship question, crisis, entitlements, framing, funding, ideological, medicaid, medicare, phrasing, political, supreme court, wording

The entitlements crisis deepens, the Supreme Court hears arguments on adding a question on citizenship status to the U.S. Census, and ideological sides battle over what to call their issues.

Episode 70: Massive Dark Money Network Exposed

April 18th, 2019  |  8 mins 41 secs

advocacy, arabella, arabella advisors, astroturf, conservative, dark money, dc, exposed, fake, grassroots, judicial nominations, kavanaugh, left, massive, network, obamacare, report, special report

We have a very special episode this week, as we go in depth into a report released in Washington this week. Today’s guest is Capital Research Center Investigative Researcher Hayden Ludwig who wrote “Big Money in Dark Shadow,” a deep dive into the dark money network surrounding the Liberal philanthropic consultancy Arabella Advisers.

Episode 69: The Left-Wing Game Plan Before 2020

April 11th, 2019  |  9 mins 36 secs

2020, ceo, corruption, election, funnel, general election, left-wing, liberal, pew, pew charitable trusts, progressive, scandal, tennessee, union

A liberal donor collective outlines its plans to funnel hundreds of millions into building left-wing infrastructure in advance of the 2020 general election; Rebecca Rimel, CEO of the major progressive foundation the Pew Charitable Trusts, steps down; and a union mired in a national corruption scandal takes aim at Tennessee, again.

Episode 68: Unions and Progressives Outspend and Still Lose

April 4th, 2019  |  7 mins 37 secs

advocacy, bloomingdales, choke, conservative, controversial, dues, judicial race, major, managed, outspend, progressive, progressives, racecar, swampland, trade package, unions, wisconsin

Unions and progressives outspend conservatives in a Wisconsin judicial race only to choke it away, one Swampland operative has two advocacy groups with differing views on a major managed trade package, and we look at some of the more amusing and more controversial uses that unions found for their members’ dues money in 2018.

Episode 67: Who Wants to Ditch the Electoral College?

March 28th, 2019  |  8 mins 46 secs

afscme, bill, billionaire, democrats, electoral college, electors, fake news, false, far-left, first lady, forced dues, hate groups, irpe, janus, jussie smollett, justice alito, major backers, michelle obama, moris dees, official time, omnishambles, oregon house, popular vote, release time, right to work, right-of-center, right-wing, soros foundation, southern poverty law center, splc, state-level, teachers union, trump, trump supporter, union, union organizer, washington state, watchdog

More wheels fall off at the SPLC, we tell the story of the money behind the effort to ditch the Electoral College, and the ramifications of the Janus decision securing government workers’ rights not to support unions they oppose continue to be determined.

Episode 66: Southern Poverty Law Center Splits With Founder

March 21st, 2019  |  9 mins 27 secs

2000, 2016, aclu, al gore, america, articles of confederation, ballots, bank, campaign, defund, democrat, election, electoral college, federal, first amendment, framers, george w. bush, hr 1, hr-1, legislation, liberal, liberals, majority, political, political speech, republican, southern poverty law center, splc, states, unconstitutional, voting

The far-left’s self-appointed arbiter of “hate groups” ousts its longtime leader, the SEIU’s bank launches a campaign to de-fund the social-conservative right, and Democrats and their allies take aim at the delicate balance of power between America’s federal states and the national electorate.