InfluenceWatch Podcast
The podcast where we go beneath the surface to reveal the web of connected influence, money, and motivation driving the news.
We found 10 episodes of InfluenceWatch Podcast with the tag “society”.
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Episode 142: California Proposing a Major Tax Hike
October 23rd, 2020 | 22 mins 11 secs
california, conservative, culture, economy, law, left, liberal, libertarian, politics, progressive, prop 13, prop 15, right, ronald reagan, society, tax hike, taxes, voters, voting, woke
In this episode: For over forty years, residential and commercial property taxes in the State of California have been limited by a law known as “Proposition 13,” passed by voters in response to skyrocketing tax bills from steadily increasing property-value assessments. But while California—which hasn’t had a Republican “trifecta” control of its government since Ronald Reagan was governor—was never the blood-red state of partisan Republican memory, changes in its dominant industries (less gritty defense manufacturing, more “woke” information technology), an exodos of its middle classes in response to skyrocketing housing costs, and international immigration patterns that select for the most socialist-leaning immigrants (compare the voting patterns of Hispanics in California with Hispanics in Florida), liberals see an opportunity to break the dead hand of Howard Jarvis with 2020 Proposition 15, a measure to repeal the limitations on commercial property tax. Joining us to discuss the ballot measure, the special interests behind it, and the possible effects the measure could have on California is Capital Research Center’s Research Specialist, Robert Stilson.
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Episode 141: Big Money Politics (with guest Joe Schoffstall)
October 16th, 2020 | 14 mins 51 secs
2020, arabella, conservative, culture, dark money, dc, economics, funding, left, liberal, libertarian, politics, progressive, right, society, washington, writer
In this episode: We talk about the Capital Research Center’s new report on Arabella Advisors, The Shadow Over America, which details a little-known $635 million “dark money” network and is a follow-on to our report from last year, Big Money in Dark Shadows, that initially charted the massive Arabella empire. Joining us today is the report’s author, CRC’s Hayden Ludwig, and another expert on Arabella and the activist Left in general, Joe Schoffstall, a writer for the Washington Free Beacon.
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Episode 140: The Russia Collusion Archive (with guest Ken Braun)
October 9th, 2020 | 27 mins 23 secs
2016, conservative, election, fbi, hoax, investigation, journalism, justice department, left, liberal, libertarian, mass media, media, politics, progressive, right, robret mueller, russia, russia collusion, russiagate, society, trump
In this episode: For two years former FBI Director Robert Mueller, acting as a Justice Department special prosecutor, conducted an investigation to determine if “individuals related to the Trump campaign are witting of or coordinating activities with the government of Russia related to the 2016 presidential election.” Despite breathless media speculation about the inevitable forthcoming proof of “Russian collusion,” none arrived. Joining us today is CRC’s Ken Braun, to discuss his work collecting and digging through the many key figures, breathless speculators, and clueless G-men for CRC’s Trump/Russia Hoax Archive. We will discuss background to the archive, some of the highlights of it, some of the highlights from it, and take-aways about the Russia investigation and what it tells us about federal law enforcement.
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Episode 138: The 2020 Dark Money Influencer They Won’t Tell You About
September 25th, 2020 | 29 mins 50 secs
big labor, conservative, culture, dark money, election, fox news, ginsburg, healthcare, justice, labor, left, liberal, libertarian, nonprofit, politics, progressive, project, right, society, supreme court, unions
In this episode: We sit down to hash out some of the issues of the day as they relate to the research and work CRC is currently engaged in.
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Episode 137: Shadow Over America (with guest Kevin Mooney)
September 18th, 2020 | 13 mins 43 secs
conservative, culture, dark money, funding, left, liberal, libertarian, nonprofit, philanthropy, politics, progressive, right, society
In this episode: Hayden Ludwig, an investigative researcher at the Capital Research Center fills in for Mike Watson. With us today is Kevin Mooney, a reporter for the Daily Signal and the Commonwealth Foundation in Pennsylvania. We’ll be discussing CRC’s new report, The Shadow Over America: Arabella Advisors’ $635 Million Empire, pulling back the curtain on a vast web of liberal “dark money” influencing the 2020 election—right here in Washington, DC.
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Episode 136: Ford Foundation and The Radical Left (with guest Sloan Rachmuth!)
September 11th, 2020 | 20 mins 36 secs
blm, conservative, culture, ford, foundations, left, liberal, libertarian, progressive, protests, right, riots, society, violence
In this episode: In recent weeks we have covered the actions of Big Philanthropy, and for most of the modern history of philanthropy there has been no bigger force than the Ford Foundation. Today, we are joined by Sloan Rachmuth, Executive Director of Pen and Shield Media, to discuss the foundation’s recent activities supporting the rise of the radical Left, the history of the Ford Foundation, and what ought to be done about Big Philanthropy.
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Episode 134: Big Philanthropy and the Professional Left
August 27th, 2020 | 27 mins 17 secs
advocacy, conservative, culture, foundations, giving, jerry falwell, left, liberal, libertarian, logistics, nonprofit, philanthropy, politics, progressive, research, resources, right, society, steve banning, strategy
In this episode: They say that in warfare, amateurs talk strategy while professionals talk logistics. With that in mind, I’m joined by Mike Hartmann, Capital Research Center Senior Fellow and Director of CRC’s Center for Strategic Giving to talk advocacy logistics, specifically the multi-billion-dollar world of private foundations that sustains much of the Professional Left, the position of the Right in advocacy resources and the effects of the falls of Steve Bannon and Jerry Falwell on those resources, and what is to be done about the advantages Big Philanthropy gives the professional Left.
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Episode 133: The MSNBC “Cheesecake” Republicans
August 21st, 2020 | 27 mins 14 secs
american, conservative, culture, democrat, democratic, left, liberal, libertarian, lincoln project, political parties, politics, progressive, republican, right, russia, russia hoax, russia investigation, society, state, super pac, trump
This week I’m joined by my colleague Sarah Lee to discuss how recent developments in the investigation of the Trump-Russia investigators illustrates the problems with the administrative state, ask how American political parties might work to improve the quality of their nominees and what they stand to gain from doing so, and investigate the Lincoln Project, a Democratic SuperPAC with pretentions of being more than that.
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Episode 130: Exploiting COVID-19
July 31st, 2020 | 27 mins 1 sec
2020, big labor, california, cares act, congress, conservative, coronavirus, covid-19, culture, election, left, liberal, libertarian, pandemic, politics, progressive, right, society, union, vote by mail, vote-by-mail
In this episode: With the world upside down, we are trying something new this week. Sarah Lee, Communications and External Relations Director at CRC, interviews this podcast’s regular host Michael Watson on the coronavirus lockdown and what we can expect in the future. We discuss school closures, union power grabs and more!
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Episode 127: Slay the Dragon: Redistricting Myth
July 10th, 2020 | 21 mins 18 secs
conservative, culture, democrat, film, gerrymandering, grassroots, left, liberal, libertarian, michigan, movie, political, politics, progressive, redistricting, republican, research, right, society
In this episode: The message of the film Slay the Dragon is simple, straightforward, and honest: A grassroots movement of Michigander “Voters Not Politicians” outspent by an incalculable margin won a huge victory to defeat evil Republican plots to ensure minority rule. However, that third epithet—honest—cannot be supported by the tangled web of myths, misinformation, and political ignorance that Slay the Dragon puts before viewers. Today, I’m joined by Capital Research Center’s resident Michigander, my colleague Ken Braun, who wrote a four-part series detailing the myths and flaws of the film for Capital Research Dot Org.