Investigating Power
On his way out the door, Scott Walker and GOP cronies mull a lame duck session to manipulate Supreme Court elections for partisan advantage.
The three-day meeting comes as ALEC has shed 113 corporate members, as well as 19 non-profits since 2012, according to the Center for Media and Democracy, a non-profit watch dog group that tracks ALEC. ALEC disputes the timing of those departures.
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“They are taking positions out of the main stream that are uncomfortable for a lot of corporations,” said Arn Pearson, the Center for Media and Democracy’s executive director. “It gets embarrassing for them to [be] associated with those far-right positions.”
The 2016 Trump campaign reportedly paid at least $150,000 to the Daily Caller Foundation to rent its email list, which the campaign used to send fundraising messages in the months leading up to the general election, according to the Center for Media and Democracy. At the same time, Carlson was analyzing the election on Fox News without ever having disclosed this conflict of interest.
“The alarming number of closures raises major red flags about the performance and accountability of charter schools in Michigan and whether that negatively impacts students and taxpayers,” said Arn Pearson, executive director for the Center for Media and Democracy.
AFP [Americans for Prosperity] is a Koch-funded organization whose agenda is in line with other groups — such as Concerned Veterans for America, which is also funded by the Koch brothers — that work against progressive initiatives and protections for labor unions, healthcare reform and any effort to combat climate change, says David Armiak, a researcher for the Center for Media and Democracy, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit watchdog group.
New documents uncovered by the Center for Media and Democracy show that the billionaire Koch brothers have developed detailed personality profiles on 89 percent of the U.S. population; and are using those profiles to launch an unprecedented private propaganda offensive to advance Republican candidates in the 2018 midterms.
The Washington Policy Center, where the opposition speaker Todd Meyers works, has been described by SourceWatch as “a think tank affiliated with organizations in the Koch Network.”
“Schimel’s case against the Affordable Care Act is of significant public interest. Why he would deny the public information about this controversial suit, which may ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, is unknown. But the citizens of the state deserve answers,” said CMD executive director Arn Pearson.
The Wisconsin-based Center for Media and Democracy has issued data showing that since 2000, 491 of 1,091 Florida charter schools have closed their doors. That’s 38 percent, which is 7 points higher than the national average.
In his 2015-’17 budget, Walker eliminated the Wisconsin Idea — a commitment to public service to better society — as part of a bigger assault on the UW System. Caught, he tweeted on Feb. 4, 2015, that it was a “drafting error.” He stood by that lie while both PolitiFact and The New York Times challenged him on it. Then, he was forced in court by the Center for Media and Democracy and The Progressive to reveal documents with the truth: There was no drafting error. The elimination of the UW mission came from Walker.