Daily Archives: October 3, 2021

A new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation reveals that over half of Republicans (55 percent) believe immigrants and tourists are responsible for current pandemic conditions in the U.S., a much larger proportion than the 32 percent of Republicans who attribute high infection rates to the unvaccinated or to the 28 percent who cite the publics failure to wear masks or maintain social distancing. That pervasive belief that immigrants are to blame for Americas public health crisis suggests that classic scapegoating tactics have led to a dangerous mainstreaming of extremism.

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Classic scapegoating tactics have led to a dangerous mainstreaming of extremism.

There is no evidence that migrants are responsible for the surge in Covid-19 infections in the U.S. or even at the southern border. Across the U.S., Covid outbreaks have consistently been worse in regions and communities with no mask mandates or with low vaccination rates. The delta variant along with three other Covid-19 variants monitored by public health officials circulated in the United States before it was detected in Central America.

These facts havent stopped Republican leaders and conservative commentators from linking reports of migrants at the southern border to the spread of Covid-19. In March, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott accused the Biden administration of releasing immigrants in South Texas that have been exposing Texans to Covid. In August, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis claimed that no elected official is doing more to enable the transmission of Covid in America than Joe Biden with his open borders policies. That same month, former President Donald Trump issued a statement warning that thousands of Covid-positive migrants had passed through Texas without noting that migrants who test positive are quarantined.

Blaming immigrants for the spread of Covid-19 is a lazy but effective tactic that packs a double punch of disinformation. It falsely places the blame for Covids spread on immigrants rather than where it belongs: on a lack of adherence to evidence-based preventative practices such as vaccinations and masks. At the same time, it stokes resistance to perceived liberal immigration policies by focusing on the threat of disease, infestation and infection, by voicing dehumanizing ideas about purity and contamination and by suggesting that immigrants pose an existential threat to Americans.

This is a dangerous game that mainstreams and normalizes extremist ideas. Blaming immigrants for spreading contagious disease is a popular far-right extremist tactic that has been used for generations to both exploit and stoke xenophobic and nativist sentiments and has been used throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

When such propaganda is spread not only on fringe internet platforms, but also by elected officials whom residents trust as the source of their facts and information, it becomes even more dangerous. Such hateful speech can also incite violence. People dont commit or condone violence against out-groups spontaneously, as Harvards Dangerous Speech project explains: They must first be taught to see other people as pests, vermin, aliens, or threats.

Blaming immigrants is a strategic frame that intertwines anti-elite, pro-nationalist and anti-immigrant discourse all at once. Liberal elites and their lenient immigration laws become the real bogeyman, and those laws must be countered with restrictive immigration policies that will protect people here from the dangerous and destructive force of immigration.

Such hateful speech can incite violence.

We should all be concerned about how anti-immigrant sentiment is being used to deflect attention away from ineffective state and regional public health policies, to discourage people from accepting the science about masks and vaccines and to encourage them to blame others for Covids spread. In linking immigration with the spread of Covid-19, Republicans seek to garner support for stricter immigration laws and persuade voters that the Biden administration is ineffective and dangerous to their health and safety.

But these tactics, which encourage the public to see immigrants as threatening, also lay the groundwork for extremist groups to advocate for violent solutions to address that threat as we have already seen in far-right terrorist attacks across the country and around the globe.

The Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was a clear illustration of the serious threat that propaganda and disinformation pose to our democracy. With a clear majority of Republicans now believing false claims about immigrants role in spreading Covid while simultaneously rejecting public health evidence that would reduce their chances of getting sick it is equally clear that the danger from propaganda is not just to our democracy itself, but to the health and well-being of the people living in it.

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Republicans blaming Covid on immigrants threatens public health and our democracy - MSNBC

When Time magazines Feb.18, 2013 cover featured then-41-year-old Sen. Marco RubioMarco Antonio RubioWhat happened to Marco Rubio, Time mag's 'Republican Savior' of 2013? Florida senators rebuke Mexican president for receiving Cuban, Venezuelan leaders Milley defends calls, says he 'knew' Trump didn't intend to attack China MORE (R-Fla.), the declarative headline read: The Republican Savior: How Marco Rubio became the new voice of the GOP.

That headline with a photo showcasing Rubios boyish yet statesman-like look cast him as the Republican Party leader for a new generation. Moreover, Rubios name was phonetically linked to rising-young-star while he led the GOPs charge on immigration reform.

Strategists and pundits discussed whether Rubio was the partys Hispanic answer to President ObamaBarack Hussein ObamaThe Memo: Progressives exult in new-found power Photos of the Week: Congressional Baseball Game, ashen trees and a beach horse Judge questions private enforcement of Texas abortion law MORE. After all, the same week Rubio appeared on Times cover, he gave the Republican response to the State of the Union address. (Mostly remembered for his ill-timed gulp of water followed by ridicule.)

Fast forward eight years to last weeks Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey, in which Rubios new voice and Republican Savior monikers have not aged well. At age 50, he languishes at the bottom of his partys 2024 presidential prospects list supported by just 3 percent of Republican voters.

So, what happened to Marco Rubio, the GOPs new leader for the next generation?

No slouch by any standard, he is a respected senior senator from the nations third most populous state and known for foreign policy expertise. In 2022, he will vie for his third term and likely will prevail against Rep. Val DemingsValdez (Val) Venita DemingsWhat happened to Marco Rubio, Time mag's 'Republican Savior' of 2013? Democrats face bleak outlook in Florida Democratic donors hesitant on wading into Florida midterm fights MORE but only after a tough, expensive fight. How expensive? In June, a FOX News headline read: Rubio-Demings 2022 showdown could become most expensive Senate race ever. That means Democrats think Rubio is beatable, and in politics, perception is reality.

What contributed to his downfall? One argument is that Rubio peaked too early and prematurely reacted to media hype. Then in 2015 beginning in the fourth year of his first six-year term Rubio contracted a severe case of Potomac Fever, a contagious yet common Senate disease. The fever deluded him into thinking he could be Obamas successor.

Predictably, Rubio struggled throughout the 2016 primary season and dropped out on March 15, after winning only 27 percent of Florida primary voters compared to 46 percent for Donald Trump.

Rubios embarrassing and career-altering campaign never gained traction. It was plagued by bad political timing and conflict with Trump, who effectively reduced Rubio to Little Marco permanently popping his Republican Savior balloon.

Humiliated by his presidential run, on March 17, 2016, Rubio declared,Im not running for re-election to the Senate. Nevertheless, two days before the June 24 deadline, he filed for reelection, saying, I changed my mind.

Ironically one of the five primary candidates fighting for Rubios then-open seat was a little-known, young, two-term congressman from the Daytona Beach area named Ron DeSantisRon DeSantisWhat happened to Marco Rubio, Time mag's 'Republican Savior' of 2013? Noem denies conservative site's report on affair with Lewandowski: 'A disgusting lie' Florida bars state agencies from assisting with Biden immigration policies MORE. He promptly went back to his 6th District and won reelection but whet his appetite for statewide office.

In November 2016, Rubio retained his Senate seat with only 52 percent of the vote against a lackluster Democrat named Patrick MurphyPatrick Erin MurphyWhat happened to Marco Rubio, Time mag's 'Republican Savior' of 2013? Oklahoma AG requests Supreme Court review landmark tribal decision Equilibrium Presented by NextEra Energy Flaming shipwreck wreaks havoc on annual sea turtle migration MORE. Trump, at the top of the ticket, won the state by only 1.2 percentage points.

As we head into the 2022 election cycle, Rubio has carved out a lane of national and Senate respectability. But the early momentum from his 2013 glory days is lost because the Republican Party and Tea Party wing that first elected him in 2010 has radically changed. Rubio belongs to the Trumplican Party now but is not considered a true MAGA-hat-wearing believer.

Politically speaking, the two-term senator is smothered by Gov. DeSantis, who is smothered by former President TrumpDonald TrumpBiden's Red Queen justice:How he destroyed both the investigation and the reputation of border agents Trump asks judge to force Twitter to lift ban Trump teases Schumer about occasional Ocasio-Cortez challenge MORE. Loyalty to Trump is the only standard that seems to matter. And Trumplicans, especially those in Florida, know the difference between true believers and those who pretend because they have no choice.

Rubios last chapter hasnt been written. Born in 1971, he could be a factor in presidential cycles for at least two more decades. Rubio could be perceived as a moderate, compromise candidate when the Trump era ends. Moreover, serving for decades, he could become a lion of the Senate even majority leader someday.

Then perhaps when Rubio is in his late 60s, some young GOP presidential candidate might pluck him from the Senate and choose him to be his running mate adding gravitas and foreign policy experience to a national winning ticket.

In the end, Rubio is a man of great faith who often tweets Bible verses. And this once so-called Republican Savior knows that His Savior was humiliated and defeated by his people, but ultimately resurrected.

Myra Adams writes about politics and religion for numerous publications. She is a RealClearPolitics contributorand served on the creative team of two GOP presidential campaigns in 2004 and 2008. Follow her on Twitter @MyraKAdams.

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What happened to Marco Rubio, Time mag's 'Republican Savior' of 2013? | TheHill - The Hill

Rep. Kevin McCarthy has been clawing his way upward by embracing Trump, distancing himself from Trump, and trying to embrace him again. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

This week was a big anniversary for Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican minority leader, but one hed rather forget. For the rest of us, however, the events six years ago are worth recalling to understand just who McCarthy is, what hes so desperate to become and why hes doing the craven things he does to realize his dream.

On Sept. 28, 2015, Republicans controlled Congress. McCarthy, then the House majority leader, announced a bid to become the speaker. He was favored to succeed Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio, who was resigning rather than be ousted by party hard-liners contemptuous that he wasnt enough of a battler against President Obama. McCarthy vowed to be that brawler. But a day later, live on Fox News, the congressman from Bakersfield committed a rare bit of truth-telling.

Foxs Sean Hannity had badgered him: What had Republicans achieved under his and Boehners leadership? After minutes of testy back-and-forth, McCarthy finally had an answer to satisfy the conservative host. Not about some law to make the country a better place. Instead McCarthy boasted that polls showed House Republicans had succeeded in undermining Hillary Clinton, the likely 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, by their prolonged investigation of Islamic militants attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, which killed four Americans in 2012 when she was secretary of State:

Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping."

McCarthy pleased Hannity, but in saying the quiet part out loud hed confirmed Democrats contention that the Benghazi probe was purely partisan; the Clinton campaign rushed out a video ad of McCarthys gaffe. Republicans questioned his political smarts, and a faction of House right-wingers endorsed a rival for speaker. On Oct. 8, McCarthy abandoned his candidacy.

The episode reflected the essence of McCarthy an ambitious partisan rather than a constructive, substantive legislator. After election to the California State Assembly in 2002 and to Congress in 2006, he immediately moved in Sacramento and Washington to climb the partys leadership ladders. Much like his Republican Senate counterpart, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, McCarthy is what the late Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona used to describe as a party over country politician.

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McConnell has said hes 100% focused on blocking President Bidens agenda, but lately McCarthy has been working to top him. McCarthy is mobilizing House Republicans against the bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed in the Senate with support from 19 Republicans, including McConnell.

Both men are leading Republicans to oppose an essential but unpopular increase in the nations debt limit, despite bipartisan responsibility for that debt. Theyre demanding that Democrats alone authorize the Treasury to keep borrowing to pay the nations bills and avert a catastrophic U.S. default in mid-October; they falsely suggest the increase is needed to cover Democrats multitrillion-dollar spending plans, which arent law yet and would be spread over a decade if enacted. The government must borrow to cover existing obligations and to offset federal revenue lost to Republicans tax cuts.

McCarthys humiliation in 2015 only slowed his drive to become speaker. With Republicans favored to win a majority in next years midterm election, his ambition dictates every move. Hes virtually measuring the draperies for the suite belonging to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). Yes, thats the one briefly occupied, and vandalized, by the pro-Trump insurrectionists whom some House Republicans now describe as mere tourists, even patriots.

They get little or no reproach from McCarthy. Hes determined not to offend former President Trump or the MAGA base between now and November 2022. He needs their support, first to elect a Republican majority and then to back him for speaker. After all, the far right is no longer a wing of the party, as it was in 2015. It is the party: Trumps party.

McCarthy is blowing to the MAGA winds now, but the human weather vane went kerflooey for a time after Jan. 6. Hed previously echoed Trumps election-fraud lies. Even after the Capitol siege, he led House Republicans in voting against certifying electoral votes from two pro-Biden states. McCarthys longtime boss and Republican predecessor in Congress, former Rep. Bill Thomas, went on local TV to scorch his erstwhile protege for supporting, nurturing, the lies of the president just to advance his political career.

McCarthy opposed Trumps impeachment a week later. But amid a backlash from party donors to the presidents incitement of the mob, he blamed Trump for the attack and called for his censure. Then came the MAGA blowback. McCarthy rushed to Florida. "Kevin came down to kiss my ass and wants my help to win the House back," Trump said later, according to Bob Woodward and Robert Costas new book, Peril.

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, ousted from McCarthys Republican leadership circle for condemning Trump, called McCarthys pilgrimage to Florida unforgivable.

I would be deeply ashamed of myself, she said Sunday on CBS 60 Minutes. I dont know how you explain that to your children.

The explanation is simple: Its McCarthys dream to be speaker, even at the cost of his political soul and the nations democratic well-being.

Yet its his nightmare to be reliant on a man who returns no ones loyalty, and who no longer thinks of McCarthy as loyal my Kevin. McCarthy can bend the knee all he wants. Trump stands ready to kick him to the curb.

@jackiekcalmes

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Continued here:

Calmes: McCarthy, the Republican 'leader' so desperately trying to be a follower - Yahoo News

In the coming months over the horizon, individual Republicans are going to be in a position to help determine the course of the GOP.

INDIANAPOLIS Hail to the victors, the undefeated among us: Frank OBannon, Julia and Andr Carson, Dan Coats, Mitch Daniels, Robert Orr, Lee Hamilton, Todd Young, Bob Knights 1976 Hoosiers, champions all in politics and sports.

In their time, they didnt face the permanence of defeat and whether to accept such a fate.

There are other modern statesmen and women who have experienced the bitterness of defeat: Richard Lugar, Evan and Birch Bayh, Doc Bowen, Andy Jacobs Jr., Bill Hudnut, Steve Goldsmith, Dan Quayle, Joe Kernan, John Gregg and Pete Buttigieg. With their defeats, they accepted their fates in varying degrees of humility and grace. There are those like Mike Pence, John Brademas and Phil Sharp who would come back from the stings of multiple defeats to achieve the winners circle, the winning TV chyron.

In the coming weeks and months, Hoosier Republicans are going to face a choice: Whether to be willing to accept the fate designated by hundreds of thousands, if not millions of voters, or whether to sign on to the corrupt motives, cudgels and bargains of the autocratic former president Donald Trump, who lives by Roy Cohns credo of never accepting a defeat; of simply proclaiming victory in the face of empirical results and evidence.

The fate of the republic, the fragile American experience in democracy, may be hanging in the balance of these individual yet collective choices. If Americans no longer accept the legitimacy of victory and the verdict of defeat, the American democracy will wane and, perhaps, collapse.

Growing up in Indiana, a Hoosier schoolboy was taught, Winners never cheat, and cheaters never win. In this context, the notion of a sore loser was implicit: They were never celebrated, instead, derided and cast away.

Each Memorial Day, a Hoosier schoolboy would be riveted to Paul Page on the radio, calling the Indianapolis 500. Many of us had the Walter Mitty experience, imagining his joining the milk-splattered podium revisited by four-time champions A.J. Foyt, Al Unser, Rick Mears and Helio Castroneves. There may have been tears from vanquished Scott Goodyear or Marco Andretti or after mili-second defeats, but they accepted their fates, perhaps while realizing it was as close to victory as they would get. Perhaps there would be a tear shed in Gasoline Alley, but they never whined.

Indiana has a rich champion culture, beginning with Notre Dames Knute Rockne and extending through the decades of titlists: Jerry Sloan of the University of Evansville; Allen Bradfield at Vincennes University; Branch McCracken, Bob Knight, Doc Counsilman and Jerry Yeagley at old IU; Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine, Lou Holtz and Muffet McGraw at Notre Dame; Carolyn Peck at Purdue; Slick Leonard with the Pacers and Lin Dunn with the Fever; Tony Dungy with the Colts; and Tony Hinkle at Butler.

In 2016, there was a merging of sports and politics as Trump barnstormed the state with Coaches Gene Keady, Holtz and Knight (who took credit for convincing the Manhattan billionaire to seek the White House).

President Trumps White House tenure was, to say the least, tumultuous. He openly feuded with Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and ended his term by goading an insurrectionist mob at the U.S. Capitol to hang Mike Pence on Jan. 6.

Coats authored a Sept. 17, 2020, New York Times op-ed in which the former Indiana senator laid out the stakes: Voters face the question of whether the American democratic experiment, one of the boldest political innovations in human history, will survive. Our democracys enemies, foreign and domestic, want us to concede in advance that our voting systems are faulty or fraudulent; that sinister conspiracies have distorted the political will of the people."

Washington Post columnist Robert Kagan wrote in an op-ed last week, Our constitutional crisis is already here. Kagan writes, Trump and his Republican allies are actively preparing to ensure his victory by whatever means necessary. Trumps charges of fraud in the 2020 election are now primarily aimed at establishing the predicate to challenge future election results that do not go his way."

According to analysis by The Atlantics Adam Serwer, 1. Trump tried to pressure secretaries of state to not certify; 2. tried to pressure state legislatures to overturn the results. 3. tried to get the courts to overturn the results. 4. tried to pressure Mike Pence to overturn the results. 5. When all else failed, Trump tried to get a mob to overturn the results.

Since Jan. 6, there have been 11 states that have changed laws that will allow partisan committees to determine the acceptance of election results, as opposed to the various secretary of states including Republicans in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Arizona - who made the correct calls in 2020.

In the coming months over the horizon, individual Republicans are going to be in a position to help determine the course of the GOP and the future of the American democracy. According to filmmaker Ken Burns, in the American experience, "There are three great crises before this: The Civil War, the Depression, and World War II. This is equal to it."

Is it now alls fair in love and war? Or should it be more of its how you play the game? About how you accept the results without blaming someone else and whining or changing the rules.

The fate of the republic hangs in the balance.

The columnist is publisher of Howey Politics Indiana atwww.howeypolitics.com. Find Howey on Facebook and Twitter @hwypol.

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HOWEY: Individual Republicans hold the fate of the republic - WTHR

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) The big field of Republicans running for governor of Pennsylvania is increasingly unsettled, with more candidates joining it, few leading party figures picking favorites and persistent talk that one of the most senior state Republican lawmakers may run.

Perhaps the most-asked question among Republican lawmakers, donors and strategists is whether Jake Corman, the state Senates president pro tempore, will declare his candidacy for governor.

In a brief interview in a Capitol corridor, Corman would not say whether he is considering running, or if it had crossed his mind.

Its crossed my mind that we need a good candidate, someone who can win, Corman said.

Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Centre. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, file)AP

But Corman, 57, the son of a state senator and whose district includes Penn States main campus in Happy Valley, suggested that, even if he does decide to run, he wont talk about it until after the municipal election on Nov. 2.

Well start talking about 2022 after the election, Corman said.

Corman may be waiting, but in the space of a few weeks three more candidates, all from suburban Philadelphia, have said they are running.

One, Guy Ciarrocchi, who just stepped down as president and CEO of the Chester County Chamber of Business and Industry, said the big Republican primary field did not dissuade him from joining it.

Thats because, he said, nobody was talking about what we are all talking about at our kitchen tables, which is reopening businesses after the pandemic-related shutdowns and keeping them open.

The latest to enter is Dave White, who runs a large plumbing and HVAC firm in Delaware County and is a former county councilman who lost reelection in 2017. He has strong connections to blue-collar labor unions, is a third-generation union steamfitter and employs union steamfitters, plumbers and sheet metal workers.

White, who has helped marshal building-trades union support for Republican candidates behind the scenes, said he has traveled the state to meet party figures and is putting $2 million of his own money into the race.

He is also expected to have support from prominent party donors and fundraisers from southeastern Pennsylvania.

He said he will make a formal announcement in the near future.

At the outset, he is framing himself as the blue-collar candidate in the race, a champion of working families and an outsider who is not afraid to take on the system.

Meanwhile, state Sen. Dan Laughlin, R-Erie, also said this week that he plans to declare his candidacy soon.

Laughlin, who in March had said he was considering running, may be the most centrist candidate.

He has expressed support for raising the minimum wage and legalizing marijuana, and is bucking party orthodoxy not to mention practically every other candidate for governor in bluntly scorning former President Donald Trumps baseless claims about a rigged election.

On the Democratic side, two-term state Attorney General Josh Shapiro has said he will run, and his presumed candidacy has thus far cleared the field of rivals. While he hasnt formally declared his candidacy, he may soon, in mid-October.

Pa. Attorney General Josh Shapiro.Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com, file

Shapiro told attendees at a fundraiser Monday in Philadelphia that he could have more to say about his candidacy in the next couple weeks, his campaign confirmed.

The Republican field is double-digits deep, and includes Lou Barletta, a former Hazleton mayor and four-term member of Congress who was the Republican nominee in his 2018 loss to Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey.

Nobody has nailed down a critical mass of support and, with such a big and growing field just a few months before the state GOPs winter meeting, its hard to see the party giving an endorsement, said Arnold McClure, the Republican Party chair from Huntingdon County.

McClure sees no favorite in the race, and few party leaders picking favorites.

Its way too early, McClure said. We feel there are too many people running, even though many of them are real good candidates. The governors nomination is up for grabs.

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Republican nomination for Pa. governor is up for grabs with several candidates, no favorite - PennLive

Imam Mohamed Herbert of the Islamic Society of Tulsa, the city's only mosque, whose congregation is preparing to aid in resettling the 850 Afghan refugees bound for the city. Chris Polansky /Public Radio Tulsa hide caption

Imam Mohamed Herbert of the Islamic Society of Tulsa, the city's only mosque, whose congregation is preparing to aid in resettling the 850 Afghan refugees bound for the city.

In a cavernous warehouse in Tulsa, Okla., Kathy Clarke is digging through a big produce crate filled with bedsheets, keeping a tally on a clipboard.

"They're bringing in a bunch of stuff and then we're sorting through it," Clarke says. "Right now, we're doing twin sheets and counting them as we put them in there."

The warehouse is normally where Catholic Charities of Eastern Oklahoma stages donations for its food pantry. Today, though, Clarke is one of dozens of volunteers surrounded by donated mattresses, vacuum cleaners, shower curtains anything a family might need to completely start over.

Clarke, a recently retired college administrator, says she was drawn to volunteer with Catholic Charities for the first time after seeing news reports of what the refugees had gone through to escape their home country.

"I hope that whoever sleeps on these sheets has a good life," she says, becoming emotional. "I do. They deserve it."

Catholic Charities is the sole refugee resettlement agency in Oklahoma, and they're gearing up for the arrival of around 1,800 Afghans in the days and weeks to come. That's the third most in the country, after only California (5,255) and Texas (4,481). Tulsa alone is set to take in 850, more than most states.

Preparing for the refugees' arrival has fallen largely on the shoulders of the city's faith leaders. On a residential block a few miles from the warehouse, First United Methodist Church lead pastor Jessica Moffatt unlocks the front door to one of six houses her congregation is fixing up and leasing to the Afghans at no cost.

Donated items are sorted in a warehouse for incoming families. Chris Polansky/Public Radio Tulsa hide caption

"We just talk all the time about being aware of opportunities to provide what I call 'holy hospitality' to anyone who comes our way," she says.

The city's spiritual leaders from various denominations and faiths are in agreement about helping the Afghans, she says.

"And there's not a lot we can say that we all agree on," she says.

Mohamed Herbert, imam at the Islamic Society of Tulsa, politely disagrees.

"I've seen that a lot in Tulsa," says the leader the of city's only mosque, which draws roughly 2,000 worshippers weekly.

"Of course this is not to say we don't have problems, everybody's got problems," says Herbert, a Baltimore native who moved to Tulsa two years ago after graduating seminary in Dallas. "But from my own unique personal experience, I've seen nothing but, you know, people just opening their hearts and their hands to anyone that's new."

Public sentiment in Oklahoma seems to mirror recent NPR/Ipsos polling that finds most Americans support resettling the Afghans. But there is some loud dissent.

In multiple Facebook videos, Oklahoma Republican Party Chairman John Bennett says the party does not consider the refugees to be welcome in the state.

"Oklahomans, I encourage you to call and email the governor, call and email your legislators, and tell them: Do not allow Afghan refugees into Oklahoma," Bennett says.

A spokesperson for conservative Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt says in a statement that he "welcomes Afghans fleeing the terrorist Taliban regime to come to Oklahoma and live in the freedom we hold so dearly."

Tulsa's Republican Mayor G.T. Bynum also says he's eager to welcome the Afghans.

"I don't think the state Republican Party is speaking on behalf of most Republicans I talk to, and certainly not the elected officials," Bynum says.

The mayor has asked the city to redirect furniture bound for surplus auction to furnish refugees' new homes, and has arranged for the local transit agency to provide them with free bus passes. Bynum has even signed up for volunteer shifts himself.

"My hope is that these refugees who are coming to our city, that's what they recognize about their new home, is that this is a city where we help each other out, whether you've lived here your whole life or you just got off the plane from Afghanistan," Bynum says.

Deacon Kevin Sartorius, the local Catholic Charities CEO, says all the refugees will be greeted at Tulsa International Airport by an interfaith welcoming committee wearing shirts reading "WELCOME!" in English as well as Dari and Pashto, Afghanistan's two most-spoken languages.

"I know that if my great-grandparents, who came over from Germany, had someone waiting for them with a shirt in German that said "Willkommen," I think they would have been happy and it would have put a smile on their face," Sartorius says. "So let's hope we can do the same thing for these people."

Back at the mosque, Imam Herbert says volunteers there will be cooking halal meals and simply helping their new neighbors adjust to life in the U.S.

"You know, they're coming from a different culture, a different way of life. You know, where do you go to get your food? Where do you go to get your clothes, you know? They're coming from Afghanistan there isn't Walmart in Afghanistan," Herbert says.

Herbert says he hopes the refugees feel just as welcome in Oklahoma as he has.

He'll know soon if that wish comes true. The very first refugee touched down on Friday, with hundreds set to follow in the days and weeks to come.

Originally posted here:

Oklahoma Welcomes Afghan Refugees, Even If The State Republican Party Disagrees - NPR

A Republican redistricting operative whose clandestine work helped drag Wisconsin into a legal morass last decade appears to now be on the payroll of the Texas Legislature as lawmakers work to redraw maps that will determine the distribution of political power for years to come.

The operative, Adam Foltz, was part of the team that helped craft Wisconsins legislative maps after Republicans took control of that state Legislature in 2010. Foltz played a key role in a tight-lipped and questionable redrawing process that shut out Democrats and drew the condemnation of federal judges who described it as needlessly secret, according to court records.

Foltz may now be playing a behind-the-scenes role in Texas. The Capitols internal staff directory, to which The Texas Tribune obtained access, shows Foltz is working for the House Redistricting Committee. His office and phone number in that directory match those of the committees staff office in the Capitol basement, but at least one Democrat on the committee said they had not been advised of his involvement. Foltz has not been a visible part of the committee's public-facing work.

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Though Foltz is assigned to the House Redistricting Committee, state employment records show that Foltz is actually on the payroll of the Texas Legislative Council, a nonpartisan state agency that supports the Legislature in drafting and analyzing proposed legislation and manages the internal mapping tool lawmakers use to redraw political maps. During the redistricting process, the council also plays a crucial role in providing demographic and election results for lawmakers proposed maps.

Records show Foltz was hired by the agency under the title of legislative professional on May 17 at a $120,000 annual salary. But Kimberly Shields, the council's assistant executive director, said in an email that Foltz reports to state Rep. Todd Hunter, the Corpus Christi Republican who chairs the redistricting committee.

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"While Mr. Foltz is on the legislative council payroll, he is considered an employee of the House Redistricting Committee, and his hiring and duties are entirely within the purview of Chairman Hunter," Shields said in an email. "The council provides support on request to the house and senate in many situations, including occasionally covering the salary of a staff member. We don't have any other committee employees on our payroll."

Hunter did not respond to questions about Foltzs involvement in the mapping process.

The work of redistricting is never easy, but I am fully committed to a fair process and I look forward to working with my fellow members of this committee on the task at hand, Hunter said in a February statement when he was first appointed to chair the committee by House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont.

A request for comment to the staff email assigned to Foltz also went unanswered. A spokesperson for Phelan declined to comment and referred questions to Hunter.

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Texas lawmakers are currently in session in Austin to redraw the states legislative and congressional maps to reflect a decades worth of population growth. The census showed people of color were behind 95% of the state's growth since 2010 about 4 million new residents with Hispanic Texans responsible for half of that growth.

The redistricting process has always been complex and contentious in Texas, requiring repeated federal intervention to protect Hispanic and Black voters. In each of the last four redistricting cycles, either a federal court or the U.S. Department of Justice determined that Texas did not comply with federal protections for those voters. This years effort will mark the first time in decades that Texas lawmakers Republicans are again in full control of the process will be allowed to redraw maps without the federal supervision that prevented states with discriminatory track records from enacting new maps until they were reviewed to ensure they didnt pull back on the voting rights of people of color.

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Foltzs involvement in Wisconsins 2011 redistricting was shrouded in controversy. He was hired as a staff member for the Speaker of the Assembly to help redraw the states maps following the 2010 census. Though he was an aide to the speaker, Foltz and another staffer worked out of a law firm that was also brought on to help with the process.

He held meetings there under what a federal court called a cloak of secrecy with every Republican member of the State Assembly but no Democrats who were each required to sign confidentiality agreements that bound them from discussing what was said. Despite Republican efforts to keep them secret, documents released during the litigation over the maps Foltz helped draw showed that he was also asked to help witnesses prepare their public testimony in support of them.

A federal court that considered the states maps eventually found violations of the Voting Rights Act in two assembly districts where map drawers improperly diluted the vote of Latinos. In that ruling, the court said the drafting of the maps was needlessly secret, regrettably excluding input from the overwhelming majority of Wisconsin citizens.

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As the case dragged on over legal squabbles about emails Republicans had not initially turned over, the court criticized the secretive process in which Foltz was involved while he worked on the maps from the offices of the private law firm.

"Without a doubt, the Legislature made a conscious choice to involve private lawyers in what gives every appearance of an attempt albeit poorly disguised to cloak the private machinations of Wisconsin's Republican legislators in the shroud of attorney-client privilege, the court said in a 2012 ruling. What could have indeed should have been accomplished publicly instead took place in private, in an all but shameful attempt to hide the redistricting process from public scrutiny."

The 2021 Texas Tribune Festival, the weeklong celebration of politics and policy featuring big names and bold ideas, wrapped on Sept. 25, but theres still time to tune in. Explore dozens of free, on-demand events before midnight Thursday, Sept. 30, at tribfest.org.

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Correction, Sept. 29, 2021: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of the Texas Legislative Councils assistant executive director. She is Kimberly Shields, not Kimberley Shields.

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Texas appears to be paying a secretive Republican political operative $120,000 annually to work behind the scenes on redistricting - KPRC...

Ailan Evans

After only three months at the helm of the Federal Trade Commission, Lina Khan is disturbing many top Republicans, who say shes turned the agency into a partisan weapon.

The 32-year-old Yale alum,confirmedin June with significant bipartisan support, has pushed to expand the role of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as well as empower her own office, withdrawing key guidelines on competition and mergers, pushing to expand rulemaking authority and overseeing antitrust litigation against Facebook, all while curbing the flow of information to the agencys staff and even fellow commissioners.

Khans actions have earned her thebackingof several top Democrats, but some Republicans say Khans reforms are little more than a partisan power grab.

Shes abandoned long-standing bipartisan practices and made it clear she will use the FTC to advance President Bidens agenda in the name of economic inequality and socialism, Rep. Jim Jordan, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, told the Daily Caller News Foundation, describing her tenure as chair as radical and partisan.

Sen. Mike Lee, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committees antitrust subcommittee, echoed Jordans thoughts in a Julyletterto Khan. Lee pointed to the diminished role of Republican commissioners in antitrust enforcement and characterized Khans actions as a progressive putsch to consolidate power and burden American businesses.

Republican FTC commissioners Noah Phillips and Christine Wilson have voiced similar concerns, accusing Khan of attempting to cut them out of important decisions and restricting their access to information.

Intestimonybefore the Senate on Tuesday, Wilson said Khan was tearing down the FTCs rich bipartisan tradition and damaging the agencys reputation. WilsonallegedKhan was keeping her in the dark in certain merger review cases, saying she had to ask the companies she was reviewing for documents related to the merger review process because internal FTC sources would not provide them.

The commissioners have also taken issue with Khans mid-Septemberwithdrawalof the 2020 Vertical Merger Guidelines, which were designed to provide clarity to businesses seeking to acquire other non-competing businesses in the same industry, without proposing a replacement. Phillips and Wilson called the withdrawal a continuation of the disturbing trend of pulling the rug out under from honest businesses in a dissenting statement.

The Republicans accused Khan of favoring unchecked regulatory power over guidance, characterizing the withdrawal of the guidelines as a way for Khan to force businesses seeking vertical mergers to subject themselves to her discretionary authority. Phillips and Wilson also highlighted the conspicuous absence of public input in Khans decisions.

The Republicans rebuke echoed earliercriticismof Khan for jettisoning bipartisan Obama-era guidelines on unfair competition in July and offering only a promise of future rules in their place. The discarded guidelines provided clarity to businesses on how the FTC would enforce antitrust law, Phillips and Wilson argued, who worried their absence could have a chilling effect on the economy.

Consumers will lose the benefits of competition, and honest businesses will lose clarity regarding the boundaries of lawful conduct, the commissioners wrote.

There have also beenreportsthat the FTC, when investigating mergers, is requesting companies provide information on how the merger will affect issues such as ESG goals, unionization, and equity.

Darren Tucker, a lawyer for antitrust law practice Vinson & Elkins LLP, shed light on this practice in an open commission meeting on Sept. 15, saying FTC staff had requested information on these concerns but had not communicated how it would affect the merger review process, leaving the outside world guessing as to the role they play in agency decision making.

Antitrust law firms said they were seeing an uptick in requests for information on the aforementioned concerns,Law360reported, and Tucker told the publication that requests for this information were unusual and nontraditional.

When reached for comment by the DCNF, an FTC spokesperson declined to provide details on how information related to ESG goals, equity concerns, and unionization would be used to determine whether a merger was lawful.

The FTC should be providing regulatory clarity, enforce the law as written and promote markets that consumers need to work for them, Jonathan Wilcox, spokesman for Rep. Darrell Issa, told the DCNF. Instead, Ms. Khan has adopted an ideologically partisan agenda that seeks to control the private sector and routinely oversteps any authority granted from the Congress.

Former FTC acting Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, a Democrat, has repeatedly and publiclylobbiedfor the FTC to consider equity concerns when enforcing antitrust law,tweetingin September 2020 that antitrust can and should be antiracist.

Antitrust law itself can be used to promote racial inclusion and equity, Slaughtersaidat an antitrust conference in November 2020.

Khan has not publicly addressed how information on equity concerns will affect merger reviews, butissueda memo last week promising to take a holistic approach to identifying harms when enforcing antitrust and consumer protection laws.

More recently, Khan has reportedly looked intocraftingdata privacy protections absent any federal data law, a move publicly condemned as imprudent and overreaching by Phillips, along with Republicans Sen. Roger Wicker and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, in anop-edWednesday.

Inevitably, the commissioners would favor certain business models over others, triggering massive penalties against practices they personally disfavor, the Republicans wrote. Attempting to rewrite privacy law by executive fiat would be a blatant overreach that would almost certainly invite legal challenges.

Yet top Senate Democrats have expressed support for the move; Sens. Richard Blumenthal, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and six other lawmakers sent aletterto Khan in mid-September urging her to begin a rulemaking process on data privacy regulations. Democrats have alsobackeda proposal handing the FTC $1 billion to create a privacy protection bureau.

While Republican politicians have constituted the majority of Khans critics, she is ruffling feathers among rank-and-file FTC employees as well, with several recruiters and law firms reporting an unprecedented exodus of FTC lawyers since the start of Khans tenure, according to a Julyreviewby The National Law Journal. Many employees feel disrespected and ignored by Khans isolated managerial style,Politicoreported last week, and say their input is not being considered in agency decisions.

Khan also imposed a moratorium on FTC staff appearances at public events,Politicoreported in early July, citing financial considerations.

The Federal Trade Commission did not respond to requests for an interview with Chairwoman Lina Khan.

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