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Author: John Hanno
Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Bogan High School. Worked in Alaska after the earthquake. Joined U.S. Army at 17. Sergeant, B Battery, 3rd Battalion, 84th Artillery, 7th Army. Member of 12 different unions, including 4 different locals of the I.B.E.W. Worked for fortune 50, 100 and 200 companies as an industrial electrician, electrical/electronic technician.
A captured Russian prison inmate-turned-soldier said the Wagner Group’s paramilitary trained him for 3 weeks and didn’t expect him to survive the Ukrainian assault
Kenneth Niemeyer – March 5, 2023
Visitors wearing military camouflage stand at the entrance of the ‘PMC Wagner Centre’, which is associated with businessman and founder of the Wagner private military group Yevgeny Prigozhin, during the official opening of the office block during National Unity Day, in St. Petersburg, Russia, Friday, Nov. 4, 2022.Associated Press
A man trained by Russia’s Wagner Group said he didn’t expect to survive his first mission, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The man told the outlet he was a prisoner with convictions for murder and robbery.
The Wagner Group earlier this month said it ended the practice of recruiting prisoners.
A 48-year-old Russian inmate turned soldier told The Wall Street Journal that the Wagner Group only gave him three weeks of training and didn’t expect him to survive his first mission.
The unidentified man, who was captured by Ukrainian soldiers in March, told the Journal he was only trained in one skill — how to crawl in a forest, which indicated to him that he was not expected to survive for very long on the battlefield.
The Wagner Group, a powerful Russian paramilitary group, caused global controversy for offering convicted prisoners in Russia freedom for fighting against Ukraine. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the group and a longtime ally to Russian President Vladimir Putin, confirmed earlier this month in a Telegram statement that the organization has since stopped recruiting prisoners after fewer continued signing up to participate.
The man, who the outlet reported had convictions for robbery, drug offenses, and murder, said on January 29, two squads of six convicts were ordered to assault a Ukrainian outpost in Bakhmut, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The city of Bakhmut in Eastern Ukraine has been the site of some of the most deadly fighting in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. A retired US Marine estimated that the average life expectancy of a soldier on the front lines in eastern Ukraine is around four hours.
Only four of the men were “combat fit” by the end of the night while the rest were dead or injured, the outlet reported. The man was given permission to pull back the following morning due to injuries to his arm, he told the Journal.
“Two machine guns were blazing at us, people were being torn to bits, but they kept telling us: keep crawling ahead and dig in. It was just plain dumb,” the man told the outlet.
The man said that soldiers who were injured still had to be allowed by superiors to withdraw, according to the Journal.
“If you don’t push ahead and do what you’re told, you simply get nullified,” he said, according to the outlet. “Everyone knows that.”
“Nullified” is a Wagner term for being executed on the spot, the Journal reported.
A doctor declared the man fit to serve again, and he was sent back to the front lines in Bakhmut where he saw hundreds of dead Wagner troops, he said, according to the outlet.
“We would just stack up all the corpses in one place and leave them there, there was no time to deal with them,” he said.
The man said Wagner did not provide his detail with food, so the troops had to scavenge for their meals, and he was captured by Ukrainian forces after he stumbled into an outpost while lost, the Journal reported.
DeSantis, GOP lawmakers ready for Culture Wars 2.0 as Florida Legislature convenes
Lawrence Mower – March 5, 2023
Daniel A. Varela/dvarela@miamiherald.com
When Florida lawmakers met for their annual legislative session last year, they championed bills that led to months of headlines for Gov. Ron DeSantis about sexual orientation,abortion, immigration, voting and the teaching of the nation’s racial history.
For this year’s legislative session, which begins Tuesday, DeSantis has a preview: “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Emboldened by an overwhelming reelection victory margin and the most compliant Legislature in recent memory, DeSantis is pushing lawmakers to pass the legislation conservatives have been wanting for years.
Lawmakers are preparing to advance bills sought by DeSantis that would require private companies to check their employees’ immigration status. They’re eyeing sweeping changes to limit lawsuits against businesses. They could do away with requiring permits to carry a concealed weapon. More abortion restrictions might be on tap, too, when the 60-day legislative session officially kicks off.
It’s an agenda that’s expected to give DeSantis months of headlines — and springboard his anticipated 2024 presidential run. Some of the bills could help shore up his conservative bona fides against fellow Floridian Donald Trump, who has already announced he’s running to take back the White House, and to further endear him to deep-pocketed donors.
“I’ve never seen a governor in my lifetime with this much absolute control of the agenda in Tallahassee as Ron DeSantis,” said lobbyist Brian Ballard, who has been involved in Florida’s legislative sessions since 1986 and supports the governor.
DeSantis is coy about his presidential ambitions, but legislative leaders are prepared to pass a bill allowing him to run without having to resign. Political observers believe he’ll enter the race after the session ends in May.
Already, DeSantis is promising “the most productive session we’ve had,” aided by his 19-point reelection victory.
And the Republican super-majority Legislature has signaled that it’s along for the ride. Lawmakers in his own party have appeared reluctant to challenge him.
The goal over the next two months, according to House and Senate leaders: Get DeSantis’ priorities “across the finish line.”
The legislation — which included the Parental Rights in Education bill that critics called “don’t say gay” — led to months of headlines in conservative and mainstream media that helped cast DeSantis as the most viable alternative to Trump in a presidential GOP primary.
This year, DeSantis and lawmakers are looking to continue the trend — and check off several bills that failed to get traction in previous years.
The governor and lawmakers are also looking to limit liberal influences in schools and state government. A bill has been filed to end university diversity programs and courses, and lawmakers are preparing bills to prevent state pension investments that are “woke.” Legislators are also considering laws governing gender-affirming care for minors.
And when lawmakers craft their budget for the next fiscal year, it’s likely to include DeSantis’ requests for $12 million more to continue the program that sent migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. DeSantis also wants a tripling of the size of his Office of Election Crimes and Security, from 15 to 42 positions. And in a dig at President Joe Biden after an official in his administration suggested a ban on gas stoves, DeSantis wants to adopt a permanent tax break for anyone who buys one.
Perhaps his most ambitious proposal is another attempt to make good on his 2018 campaign promise requiring private employers to use the federal online system E-Verify to check that employees have entered the country legally.
In 2020, DeSantis caved after resistance from the business community and legislative leaders; he quietly signed a watered-down version of the bill into law. Late last month, he announced he would try again.
That’s one of several items on some Florida Republicans’ wish lists. Others include:
▪ An expansion of school vouchers to all school-aged children in the state, the culmination of two decades of education reforms;
▪ A measure allowing Floridians to carry concealed weapons without first seeking a permit and receiving training;
▪ Tort reform legislation long sought by the state’s business associations;
▪ A bill making it easier to sue media outlets for defamation, an idea DeSantis’ office pitched last year but that no lawmakers sponsored.
“Now we have super majorities in the Legislature,” DeSantis said. “We have, I think, a strong mandate to be able to implement the policies that we ran on.”
A changed Legislature under DeSantis
If DeSantis has a chance to pass those bills, it’s during this legislative session.
The culture in Tallahassee is far different than it was when Republicans took control more than 20 years ago. Gone are the days when Republicans publicly debated ideas. Today, floor debate among House members is time-limited, and bills are often released in their finished form following backroom deals with Republican leaders. Committee chairpersons could block leadership bills they didn’t like. Today, they’re expected to play along.
In years past, lawmakers would push back hard against the governor, such as in 2013, when they refused to carry out then-Gov. Rick Scott’s plan to expand Medicaid coverage to more than 1 million Floridians.
Today is a different story.
Much as DeSantis has exerted control over schools, school boards, Disney, high school athletics, universities and the state police, DeSantis has thrown his weight around with the Legislature over the last four years.
He’s called them into special legislative sessions six times in 20 months. Once was to pass DeSantis’ new congressional redistricting maps after he vetoed maps proposed by legislators. It was the first time in recent memory that a governor proposed his own maps.
He endorsed Republican Senate candidates during contested primary races last year, something past governors considered an intrusion into the business of legislative leaders. In one race, he supported the opponent of incoming Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples. The move was considered to undermine only the third woman to be Senate president in the state’s history.
He’s also shown little regard for the priorities of past House speakers and Senate presidents. In June, he vetoed the top priorities of the then-House speaker and Senate president, joking about the cuts while both men flanked him on stage.
DeSantis is aware of his influence over state lawmakers, according to his book “The Courage to be Free,” released last week. In one part, he writes that his ability to veto specific projects in the state budget gave him “a source of leverage … to wield against the Legislature.”
Legislative leaders say they’re aligned
The state’s legislative leaders in 2023, Passidomo and House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, consider themselves ideologically aligned with the governor.
“We have a very, very similar philosophical view of things on really every issue,” Renner said in November.
Republicans have two-thirds super-majorities in the Legislature, an advantage that allows them to further limit Democratic opposition on bills. The last two Republican legislators willing to publicly criticize their leaders’ agendas left office last year. Multiple moderate House Republicans decided not to run again last year.
DeSantis’ sway over the Legislature has not gone unnoticed.
When Luis Valdes, the Florida director for Gun Owners of America, spoke to lawmakers last month, he was upset that legislators weren’t allowing gun owners to openly carry firearms. He concluded that it must be because DeSantis didn’t want it.
“If he tells the Legislature to jump, they ask, ‘How high?’ ” he said.
Former lawmakers and observers have noticed the shift in Tallahassee.
Former Republican lawmaker Mike Fasano laments that legislators don’t exercise the power they used to have. But Fasano, who supports DeSantis, said the governor’s popularity makes it risky to go against him.
“A Republican in the Legislature, I’m sure, is aware of that,” Fasano said.
The Democrats’ lament
Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book, D-Plantation, who grew up in the legislative process thanks to her father, a big-time Tallahassee lobbyist, said the changes in the Legislature are obvious.
“This is not the same Florida Senate, Florida House, as it was when the titans were here,” Book said.
DeSantis’ culture wars have overshadowed more practical problems in Florida, such as the high costs of rent and auto and homeowners insurance, said House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa.
Passidomo has proposed broad legislation to create more affordable housing, but the governor has not endorsed the bill.
Driskell said Floridians want a pragmatist, not a populist, as governor.
“This governor has never seemed to care to know the difference.”
Tampa Bay Times political editor Emily L. Mahoney contributed to this report.
Manafort, US government settle civil case for $3.15 million
March 5, 2023
FILE- Paul Manafort, center, arrives at court in New York on June 27, 2019. Manafort, the former chairman of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, has agreed to pay $3.15 million to settle a civil case filed by the Justice Department over undeclared foreign bank accounts. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Paul Manafort, the former chairman of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, has agreed to pay $3.15 million to settle a civil case filed by the Justice Department over undeclared foreign bank accounts.
When the civil case was filed in April 2022, prosecutors alleged that Manafort had failed to disclose more than 20 offshore bank accounts he ordered opened in the United Kingdom, Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The government sought an order for Manafort to pay fines, penalties and interest, alleging he had failed to file federal tax documents detailing the accounts and failed to disclose the money on his income tax returns. The government said false tax returns were filed from 2006-2015 and that the Treasury Department had notified Manafort of the fines and assessment in July 2020.
The settlement was detailed in court documents filed Feb. 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Manafort faced criminal charges as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation into Trump’s associates. A jury convicted him in 2018 of eight financial crimes, including several related to his political consulting work in Ukraine, but the judge hearing the case declared a mistrial on 10 other counts when jurors could not reach a verdict.
Manafort was sentenced to more than seven years in prison. Trump pardoned his former campaign chairman in the final weeks of his presidency.
Manafort’s ties to Ukraine led to his ouster from Trump’s campaign in August 2016, less than a month after Trump accepted the Republican nomination.
Fox libel defense at odds with top GOP presidential foes
David Bauder – March 5, 2023
FILE – Images of Fox News personalities, from left, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Maria Bartiromo, Stuart Varney, Neil Cavuto and Charles Payne appear outside News Corporation headquarters in New York on July 31, 2021. In defending itself against a massive defamation lawsuit over how Fox covered false claims surrounding the 2020 presidential election, the network is relying on a 1964 Supreme Court ruling that makes it difficult to successfully sue media organizations for libel. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2023, March 4, 2023, at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md. A $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News for its coverage of false claims surrounding the 2020 presidential election isn’t the only thing putting pressure on the standard for U.S. libel law. Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have argued for weakening the libel standard that has protected media organizations for more than half a century. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks as he announces a proposal for Digital Bill of Rights, Feb. 15, 2023, at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Fla. DeSantis last month urged the Supreme Court to revisit libel laws, saying they are used to smear politicians and discourage people from running for office. A bill being considered in the Florida legislature would significantly weaken standards in the state. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File) Dominion Voting ballot-counting machines are shown at a Torrance County warehouse during election equipment testing with local candidates and partisan officers in Estancia, N.M., Sept. 29, 2022. In its $1.6 billion lawsuit, voting machine maker Dominion Voting Systems argues that Fox repeatedly aired allegations that the company helped rig the general election against Trump despite many at the news organization privately believing the claims were false. Fox says the law allows it to air such charges if they are newsworthy. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton, File)President Donald Trump speaks during a FOX News Channel town hall at the Scranton Cultural Center, March 5, 2020, in Scranton, Pa. A $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News for its coverage of false claims surrounding the 2020 presidential election isn’t the only thing putting pressure on the standard for U.S. libel law. Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have argued for weakening the libel standard that has protected media organizations for more than half a century. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Fox News is on an unlikely collision course with two leading contenders for the Republican presidential nomination over the rights of journalists.
In defending itself against a massive defamation lawsuit over how it covered false claims surrounding the 2020 presidential election, the network is relying on a nearly 60-year-old Supreme Court ruling that makes it difficult to successfully sue media organizations for libel.
Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, two favorites of many Fox News viewers, have advocated for the court to revisit the standard, which is considered the foundational case in American defamation law.
“It is ironic that Fox is relying on a landmark case that was designed to help the news media play the watchdog role in a democracy and is under attack by Gov. DeSantis, Donald Trump and other figures who have been untethered in their attacks on journalists as enemies of the people,” said Jane Hall, a communication professor at American University.
Eye-catching evidence has emerged from court filings in recent weeks revealing a split screen between what Fox was portraying to its viewers about the false claims of election fraud and what hosts and executives were saying about them behind the scenes. “Sydney Powell is lying,” Fox News host Tucker Carlson said in a text to a producer, referencing one of the attorneys pushing the claims for Trump.
In an email a few weeks after the 2020 election, Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch described a news conference featuring Powell and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, another attorney who pushed the election lies: “Really crazy stuff. And damaging.”
Aside from the revelations about Fox’s inner workings, the outcome could have broad implications for media organizations because of how they and the courts have come to rely on the libel law Fox is using as a shield.
In its $1.6 billion lawsuit, voting machine maker Dominion Voting Systems argues that Fox repeatedly aired allegations that the company helped rig the general election against Trump despite many at the news organization privately believing the claims were false.
Fox says the law allows it to air such claims if they are newsworthy.
In a 1964 decision in a case involving The New York Times, the U.S. Supreme Court greatly limited the ability of public officials to sue for defamation. It ruled that news outlets are protected against a libel judgment unless it can be proven that they published with “actual malice” — knowing that something was false or acting with a “reckless disregard” to whether it was true or not.
In one example of how the law was applied, editors at the Times acknowledged last year that an editorial mistakenly linked former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s rhetoric to an Arizona mass shooting. Palin lost her libel suit because she couldn’t prove the newspaper erred without concern for the truth.
Some advocates for free speech worry that the Dominion-Fox lawsuit ultimately could give a conservative Supreme Court a chance to revisit the standard set in the case, known as New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. While the case has been among the court’s most durable precedents, the newly empowered conservative majority has indicated a willingness to challenge what had been considered settled law — as it did last year in overturning abortion rights.
Two Supreme Court justices, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, have publicly expressed interest in giving the precedent another look.
In dissenting from a 2021 decision not to take up a libel case, Gorsuch wrote that what began in 1964 as a decision to tolerate occasional errors to allow robust reporting “has evolved into an ironclad subsidy for the publication of falsehoods by any means and on a scale previously unimaginable.” He said the modern media landscape is much different today, and suggested it was less careful.
“My wish is that the parties would settle and this case would go away,” said Jane Kirtley, director of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and the Law at the University of Minnesota. “I don’t see any good coming out of it.”
A perceived strength in Dominion’s case also worries some supporters of the press.
Dominion says Fox was, in effect, torn between the truth that Joe Biden legitimately won the race and pleasing viewers who wanted to believe Trump’s lies. In depositions released last week, Murdoch argued that Fox as a network did not endorse the claims, but that some of its commentators — Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, Jeanine Pirro and Sean Hannity — at times did.
Murdoch was among several at Fox to say privately they didn’t believe the claims made by Trump and his allies that widespread fraud cost him reelection. In his deposition, Murdoch said he could have prevented guests who were spouting conspiracies from going on the air, but didn’t.
“One of the defenses is that even false speech about public figures is protected so long as it is believed by the speaker,” First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams said. “But no one at Fox appears ready to say that he or she did believe the assertions … and there now appears to be substantial evidence that no one there at Fox did so. It’s a major blow.”
Fox’s entire prime-time lineup privately disparaged Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, according to court papers. Laura Ingraham, in a text to Carlson, called her a “nut.” In a deposition, Hannity said he did not believe her theories “for one second.” Nevertheless, Powell was interviewed on Fox 11 times between Nov. 8 and Dec. 10, 2020, according to court papers.
Dominion’s lawyers say Fox is arguing that it has no legal responsibility for broadcasting even the most horrible allegations, knowing they are false, as long as they are deemed newsworthy.
Fox said Dominion is presenting an extreme view of defamation, one in which the network had a duty not to report the allegations but to suppress them or denounce them as false.
“Under Dominion’s approach, if the president falsely accused the vice president of plotting to assassinate him, the press would be liable for reporting the newsworthy allegations so long as someone in the newsroom thought it was ludicrous,” Fox lawyers said in court papers.
“Such a rule would stop the media in its tracks,” Fox said.
There’s a high bar for proving libel — and that’s deliberate, First Amendment attorney Lee Levine said. Dominion has to show that a reasonable audience could conclude that someone at Fox was making these allegations, not just the interview subjects, he said.
Still, Levine said, Dominion has the strongest defamation case he’s seen in 40 years of being involved in the topic.
George Freeman, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center, said Fox should cite a lesser-known “neutral reportage” standard that dates back to a court case from the 1970s. It holds that news organizations should not be discouraged from reporting something newsworthy even if there are serious doubts about the truth, as long as that information comes from responsible and prominent sources.
But the U.S. Supreme Court has not weighed in on that argument, and a number of lower courts have rejected it. It’s also not clear that the defense would be legally applicable in the Dominion case against Fox.
There is sentiment in Republican circles that the Sullivan standard goes too far in protecting news organizations.
DeSantis last month urged the Supreme Court to revisit libel laws, saying they are used to smear politicians and discourage people from running for office. A bill being considered in the Florida Legislature would significantly weaken standards in the state. Trump said last year that the court should consider his own defamation lawsuit against CNN a “perfect vehicle” for revisiting precedents.
Some media law advocates that the University of Minnesota’s Kirtley has talked to privately, people who are usually eager to support the press in libel cases, are queasy about publicly backing Fox in the voting machine lawsuit.
Many see the case as a surrogate to hold Fox and Trump supporters accountable for what happened after the 2020 election, she said.
“I don’t think a libel suit is the vehicle to deal with this, and you have to think about what damage could be done to libel law if Dominion wins,” she said.
Texas GOP votes to censure Rep. Tony Gonzales over support on gun, same-sex legislation
Caroline Vakil – March 4, 2023
The Republican Party of Texas voted on Saturday to censure Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) over his stance on several pieces of legislation, including his support on a bipartisan gun law passed last year and federal same-sex marriage protection legislation.
In a 57-5 vote within the Texas GOP’s State Republican Executive Committee, the state party censured the Texas House Republican. Only one member abstained.
In the state party’s resolution to censure Gonzalez, the Texas GOP cited his support over the Respect for Marriage Act, which was signed late last year and requires both that same-sex marriages be recognized at the federal level and that, if they happened in states were they are legal, they be recognized in all other states.
The censure also criticized him for being the only Republican in January to vote against a House rules package over concerns of possible cuts to the defense budget in addition to supporting bipartisan gun legislation passed in the wake of several high-profile shootings, including at Uvalde, Texas, which Gonzales represents.
“The Republican Party of Texas officially censured Representative Tony Gonzales today, imposing the full set of penalties allowed by the rules, for lack of fidelity to Republican principles and priorities,” the Texas GOP said in a press release.
A campaign spokesman for the congressman hit back at the state Republican Party in a statement, suggesting Gonzales was representing his constituents through his work.
“Today, like every day, Congressman Tony Gonzales went to work on behalf of the people of TX-23. He talked to veterans, visited with Border Patrol agents, and met constituents in a county he flipped from blue to red,” the campaign spokesman said. “The Republican Party of Texas would be wise to follow his lead and do some actual work.”
Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, center, accompanied by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Calif., left, and House Republican Conference chair Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., right, speaks at a news conference on the steps of the Capitol in Washington, July 29, 2021. Gonzales was censured Saturday, March 4, 2023, in a rare move by his state party over votes that included supporting new gun safety laws after the Uvalde school shooting in his district. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File) Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, is seen before the flag-draped casket bearing the remains of Hershel W. “Woody” Williams lies in honor in the U.S. Capitol, July 14, 2022, in Washington. Gonzales was censured Saturday, March 4, 2023, in a rare move by his state party over votes that included supporting new gun safety laws after the Uvalde school shooting in his district. (Tom Williams/Pool photo via AP, File)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Republican U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas was censured Saturday in a rare move by his state party over votes that included supporting new gun safety laws after the Uvalde school shooting in his district.
The Republican Party of Texas voted 57-5 with one abstention, underlining how the two-term congressman’s willingness to break with conservatives on key issues during his short time in office has caused GOP activists and some colleagues to bristle.
That independent streak includes opposing a sweeping House GOP immigration proposal over the U.S.-Mexico border, which includes a large portion of his South Texas district. He has also voted to defend same-sex marriage and was an outright “no” against a House rules package after Republican leader Kevin McCarthy became speaker.
Gonzales was defiant before the vote and did not attend the meeting of Texas GOP leaders and activists in Austin.
“We’ll see how that goes,” he told reporters in San Antonio on Thursday.
Gonzales spent the day working, according to Sarah Young, his spokesperson.
“He talked to veterans, visited with Border Patrol agents, and met constituents,” Young said in a statement. “The Republican Party of Texas would be wise to follow his lead and do some actual work.”
The vote followed an hourlong, closed-door executive session in which party members were allowed to debate the resolution.
There were no public comments by members before or after the executive session, and the vote was held about one minute after the meeting resumed, followed by applause and cheers from committee members.
In practical terms, a censure allows the state party to come off the sidelines if Gonzales runs again in 2024 and to spend money to remind primary voters about the rebuke. Passage of a censure required a three-fifths majority, or 39 votes of the State Republican Executive Committee, according to committee Chair Matt Rinaldi.
More than a dozen county GOP clubs in Gonzales’ district had already approved local censure resolutions.
Gonzales cruised through his GOP primary and easily won reelection last year in his heavily Hispanic congressional district. He first won in 2020 to fill an open seat left by Republican Will Hurd — who also didn’t shy from breaking with the GOP, and whose aides say is now considering a run for president.
The censure illustrates the intraparty fights that still flare in America’s biggest red state even as Republicans celebrate 20 years of having full control of the Texas Legislature and every statewide office.
Last year, former Texas GOP Chairman Allen West stepped down from the job to mount a faint primary challenge against Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The state party in 2018 also censured a former moderate Texas House speaker who opposed bathroom restrictions for transgender people.
Culture warrior Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, is laying the groundwork for a 2024 presidential bid. That includes a new manifesto against the way corporate America tries to navigate shifting attitudes on race, gender, climate change, and other issues pitting those who want power against those who have it.
DeSantis has been waging a very public war with the Walt Disney Company (DIS) that now looks like a template for a broader crusade against companies practicing “woke capitalism,” as DeSantis and other conservatives put it.
“The left has pressured big corporations like Disney to use their enormous power to advance woke political ends,” DeSantis writes in his new book, “The Courage to be Free,” which The Wall Street Journal excerpted on March 1. “There is little upside for big companies to take positions on contentious political issues.”
Republicans fed up with former President Donald Trump’s antics think DeSantis could be their nominee in 2024. His book became an instant bestseller, and DeSantis won reelection to the governor’s mansion last year in a rout, establishing strong momentum should he run for president. He’s also a military veteran with a Harvard law degree who’s only 44 and could bring the generational power shift many voters crave.
But DeSantis is badly misreading corporate America and, by extension, the convulsive societal forces CEOs are grappling with. The CEOs that DeSantis dings aren’t craven tools of the left or rudderless weather vanes. Big brand-name companies sometimes have no choice but to take a stand on controversial issues, because large blocs of their customers and employees want them to. They mess up sometimes, but as an alternative, staying silent or doing nothing is often worse.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)
‘The target was purely political’
The Disney flap arose over a 2022 Florida law that limited what schools can teach young kids about sex and gender issues. Opponents dubbed the measure the “Don’t say gay” law and pressured Florida companies to lobby against it. Disney initially took no stance that angered some Disney employees, who staged walkouts and other types of protests. The CEO at the time, Bob Chapek, then apologized for the company’s silence and said Disney would work to overturn the bill.
That angered DeSantis, who worked with the state legislature to revoke a special self-governing status Disney has enjoyed near its Disney World theme park since 1967. Instead of managing its own municipal affairs, Disney will now have to answer to a five-person board staffed with DeSantis allies. DeSantis characterizes the move as the long overdue end of a corporate boondoggle, yet it reeks of political retribution.
“People ask us: Was there any merit behind this? Was Disney deficient?” says David Kotok, chairman of investing firm Cumberland Advisors, which is based in Sarasota. “When we do the research, there is no merit financially or in a business context for the attack on Disney. Disney is a huge employer, a model citizen, it attracts huge economic interests to Florida. Why attack a model corporate citizen? The target was purely political.”
DeSantis argues that small cadres of “loud and militant” liberals are driving companies like Disney to embrace radical issues most Americans disagree with. He extends this to ESG investing and has taken new steps to prohibit any consideration of environmental, social, and governmental factors for the investors managing Florida’s pension money.
This is another area where DeSantis goes awry: by dismissing substantial shifts in public opinion on hot-button issues as mere manipulation by liberal activists. Those shifts are much deeper. The Florida education bill, for instance, is pushback against new efforts to normalize LGBTQ representation in public education. A company such as Disney needs to think not just about its employees, but about customers, suppliers, partners, and everybody else it does business with.
Visitors pose for photos with the cartoon character Tigger during the Lunar New Year celebrations at Disney’s California Adventure Park in Anaheim, the United States, on Jan. 21, 2022. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua via Getty Images)
If Disney’s customer base reflects the overall population, then around 7% of them identify as LGBTQ. More than that, public attitudes are clearly liberalizing over time. More than 71% of Americans, for instance, think same-sex marriage should be valid, according to Gallup polling, up from just 27% in 1996.
As society evolves, companies need to update their policies to keep up. That’s not “wokeism” — it’s sensible business. And it’s inevitable that there will be uncomfortable moments when cultures clash and companies get tangled in fights they’d rather avoid because they end up alienating somebody.
Members of the National Rifle Association, for instance, tried to boycott Delta Air Lines a few years ago when it ended an NRA discount in the aftermath of a mass shooting. The flap blew over. Most of the time, the best way for a company to navigate cultural minefields is to take a principled stand that will endure the test of time. You can’t please everybody, yet people respect resolve.
‘Make America Florida’?
Republicans in general are testing the war on “woke capitalism” as a bedrock theme of their 2024 electoral efforts. While the terms “woke” and “antiwoke” are vague, so-called ESG investing is a more tangible target because some adherents call for disinvesting in fossil-fuel companies and others with a big carbon footprint or other demerits.
Guess who obsesses about the coveted 18-to-34 demographic? Consumer companies that want to capture young spenders as they’re forming their values, and make them customers for life. This is a much more powerful motivator for companies than any political agenda, liberal or otherwise. Ambitious politicians aiming for a long career might even learn something from successful companies that align with the values of people they aim to convert into customers.
The last chapter of DeSantis’s book is titled, “Make America Florida.” That’s pretty clever. It’s a variation on Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” that’s meant to highlight Florida’s booming economic growth and a lifestyle that has made the Sunshine State a top target for relocators. You may hear that in 2024 as a DeSantis campaign slogan.
New College of Florida student Fatima Ismatulla speaks during a rally at the New College of Florida, where students staged a walkout from the public liberal arts college to protest against a proposed wide-reaching legislation that would ban gender studies majors and diversity programs at Florida universities, in Sarasota, Florida, U.S. February 28, 2023. REUTERS/Octavio Jones
But how many Americans want to be Florida-fied? Probably a lot fewer than DeSantis thinks. Even some Florida Republicans don’t love DeSantis’s war on business. Billionaire Ken Griffin is a DeSantis supporter who moved both his hedge fund Citadel and his market making firm Citadel Securities from Chicago to Miami last year. He agrees with the “don’t say gay” legislation, but he objects to DeSantis’s heavy-handed tactics against Disney.
“I don’t appreciate Governor DeSantis going after Disney’s tax status,” Griffin said last year. “It can be portrayed, or feel, or look like retaliation.”
Swing voters crucial to winning national elections don’t seem especially interested in wokeism, either for or against it. In focus groups with swing voters in DeSantis’s own state, research firm Engagious mostly evoked yawns on the topic of wokeism, with some respondents interpreting DeSantis’s attacks on business as his own effort to rouse extremists on the right.
“He has clearly tapped into sentiment on the right that is profound,” says Rich Thau, president of Engagious. “But it doesn’t seem to have much traction with swing voters.”
DeSantis may also be undermining the type of support Republicans typically get from businesspeople who favor low taxes and gentle regulation.
“I have Republican friends who are disillusioned with what’s happening in Florida,” says Kotok of Cumberland Advisors. “I’m worried on the business side because I know businesses that are reexamining their investments in Florida and looking at other locations because they don’t like what they see here.”
Maybe DeSantis’s Florida should be a little more like the rest of America.
Clarification: This post was updated to mention both Citadel and Citadel Securities.
Norfolk Southern train derails in Springfield, Ohio
Faris Tanyos – March 4, 2023
Nearby residents have been asked to shelter in place after a Norfolk Southern train derailed near a highway in the Springfield, Ohio, area on Saturday.
Norfolk Southern confirmed in a statement to CBS News that 20 cars of a 212-car train derailed. The railway company said there were no hazardous materials aboard the train, and there were no reported injuries.
Residents within 1,000 feet of the derailment were asked to shelter-in-place out of an “abundance of caution,” the Clark County Emergency Management Agency reported. The derailment occurred near State Route 41.
A Norfolk Southern train which derailed in Springfield, Ohio. March 4, 2023. / Credit: Jon Shawhan/Twitter
On Feb. 3, a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials derailed in a fiery crash in East Palestine, Ohio. Of the 38 cars that derailed, about 10 contained hazardous materials. Hundreds of residents were evacuated, and crews later conducted a controlled release of toxic chemicals, including vinyl chloride, because of the risk that the derailment could cause an explosion.
State and federal officials have faced significant criticism over their response to the East Palestine incident, with local residents concerned that the contamination to the area could pose significant long-term health risks.
The Environmental Protection Agency has so far said that air quality levels remain at safe levels. However, on Thursday the EPA said that it had ordered Norfolk Southern to conduct dioxin tests at the site of the derailment, and if those dioxin levels were found to be at unsafe levels, it would order an immediate cleanup.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who was also criticized for not visiting East Palestine until three weeks after the derailment, tweeted Saturday night that he had been briefed by Federal Railroad Administration staff about the Springfield derailment and had also spoken to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on the incident.
“No hazardous material release has been reported, but we will continue to monitor closely and FRA personnel are en route,” Buttigieg said.
Springfield is located about 200 miles southwest of East Palestine.
A regiment of drafted Russian soldiers who made video plea to Putin to stop them being ‘slaughtered’ are now mostly dead, report says
Alia Shoaib – March 4, 2023
This photograph taken on September 11, 2022, shows a Ukranian soldier standing atop an abandoned Russian tank near a village on the outskirts of Izyum, Kharkiv Region, eastern Ukraine, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty Images
Drafted Russian soldiers made a video appeal to Vladimir Putin for help.
They feared they would be “slaughtered” and criticized their commanders’ “lawless and criminal orders.”
Most of the soldiers in the regiment have died in Donetsk since recording the video, a report says.
Almost an entire regiment of mobilized Russian troops have reportedly died after they recorded a video appeal to President Vladimir Putin saying they were being sent “to be slaughtered” in Ukraine.
The soldiers from Russia’s Irkutsk region in Siberia said they were “illegally” placed under the command of Russian-backed separatists in Donetsk and asked for Putin’s help dealing with their “lawless and criminal orders,” according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
“Please help,” the soldiers say in the video while in their uniforms with their faces covered. “There is nowhere else to turn.”
Relatives of two of the soldiers told reporters that nearly the entire regiment was destroyed between February 28 to March 1 after they were sent to storm Ukrainian fortifications near occupied Donetsk, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Siberian branch reported.
Some of the troops are wounded but the rest have died and are marked as “missing,” the outlet said.
In the video, which was published by Telegram channel of the Siberian news outlet Lyudi Baikala on February 25, the soldiers directly ask Putin for help.
The draftees said they were sent to the Donbas region in Ukraine and put into assault units within a day and ordered to attack the city of Avdiivka without any support, heavy weapons, or preparation, according to the Russian outlet Meduza.
“Command told us directly that we are expendable and that the only chance we have of returning home is getting injured,” the soldiers say in the video, per Meduza.
They further claimed that commanders from the Donetsk People’s Republic, the unrecognized breakaway republic formed by Russian-backed separatists, would fire machine guns at troops who refused to join the assault units.
The video was the soldiers’ third such appeal, according to the Russian outlet The Insider. The outlet said the men were from Regiment 1439, second battalion. A Russian battalion’s strength ranges from 250 to 950 soldiers and officers.
The Russian Governor of Irkutsk, Igor Kobzev, said on Telegram that he had asked the military prosecutor’s office to look into the video message and added that draftees would be sent to a different place in the future.
Putin ordered the partial mobilization of the country’s military reservists in September, which sparked anti-war protests and thousands of fighting-age men fleeing the country.
Alia Shoaib – March 4, 2023
This photograph taken on September 11, 2022, shows a Ukranian soldier standing atop an abandoned Russian tank near a village on the outskirts of Izyum, Kharkiv Region, eastern Ukraine, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty Images
Drafted Russian soldiers made a video appeal to Vladimir Putin for help.
They feared they would be “slaughtered” and criticized their commanders’ “lawless and criminal orders.”
Most of the soldiers in the regiment have died in Donetsk since recording the video, a report says.
Almost an entire regiment of mobilized Russian troops have reportedly died after they recorded a video appeal to President Vladimir Putin saying they were being sent “to be slaughtered” in Ukraine.
The soldiers from Russia’s Irkutsk region in Siberia said they were “illegally” placed under the command of Russian-backed separatists in Donetsk and asked for Putin’s help dealing with their “lawless and criminal orders,” according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
“Please help,” the soldiers say in the video while in their uniforms with their faces covered. “There is nowhere else to turn.”
Relatives of two of the soldiers told reporters that nearly the entire regiment was destroyed between February 28 to March 1 after they were sent to storm Ukrainian fortifications near occupied Donetsk, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Siberian branch reported.
Some of the troops are wounded but the rest have died and are marked as “missing,” the outlet said.
In the video, which was published by Telegram channel of the Siberian news outlet Lyudi Baikala on February 25, the soldiers directly ask Putin for help.
The draftees said they were sent to the Donbas region in Ukraine and put into assault units within a day and ordered to attack the city of Avdiivka without any support, heavy weapons, or preparation, according to the Russian outlet Meduza.
“Command told us directly that we are expendable and that the only chance we have of returning home is getting injured,” the soldiers say in the video, per Meduza.
They further claimed that commanders from the Donetsk People’s Republic, the unrecognized breakaway republic formed by Russian-backed separatists, would fire machine guns at troops who refused to join the assault units.
The video was the soldiers’ third such appeal, according to the Russian outlet The Insider. The outlet said the men were from Regiment 1439, second battalion. A Russian battalion’s strength ranges from 250 to 950 soldiers and officers.
The Russian Governor of Irkutsk, Igor Kobzev, said on Telegram that he had asked the military prosecutor’s office to look into the video message and added that draftees would be sent to a different place in the future.
Putin ordered the partial mobilization of the country’s military reservists in September, which sparked anti-war protests and thousands of fighting-age men fleeing the country.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) listens during a House judiciary subcommittee hearing on the weaponization of the federal government, at the Capitol in Washington on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)
WASHINGTON — House Republicans have spent months promising to use their majority to uncover an insidious bias against conservatives on the part of the federal government, vowing to produce a roster of brave whistleblowers who would come forward to provide damning evidence of abuses aimed at the right.
But the first three witnesses to testify privately before the new Republican-led House committee investigating the “weaponization” of the federal government have offered little firsthand knowledge of any wrongdoing or violation of the law, according to Democrats on the panel who have listened to their accounts. Instead, the trio appears to be a group of aggrieved former FBI officials who have trafficked in right-wing conspiracy theories, including about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol, and received financial support from a top ally of former President Donald Trump.
The roster of witnesses, whose interviews and statements are detailed in a 316-page report compiled by Democrats that was obtained by The New York Times, suggests that Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the chair of the panel, has relied on people who do not meet the definition of a whistleblower and who have engaged in partisan conduct that calls into question their credibility. And it raises questions about whether Republicans, who have said that investigating the Biden administration is a top goal, will be able to deliver on their ambitious plans to uncover misdeeds at the highest levels.
“Each endorses an alarming series of conspiracy theories related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, the COVID vaccine, and the validity of the 2020 election,” Democrats wrote in the heavily footnoted report, which cites scores of statements made by the witnesses. “One has called repeatedly for the dismantling of the FBI. Another suggested that it would be better for Americans to die than to have any kind of domestic intelligence program.”
The report also notes that the men are tied to far-right Republican operatives and former Trump administration officials who have an interest in promoting false claims about the Jan. 6 attack and the Biden administration while working to defend Trump, who is seeking a second term.
The document centers on three men who have been interviewed by the panel’s investigators: George Hill, a retired FBI supervisory intelligence analyst from the bureau’s Boston field office; Stephen Friend, a former special agent who worked in the Daytona Beach, Florida, office; and Garret O’Boyle, a special agent from the field office in Wichita, Kansas, who has been suspended.
Other potential witnesses for the new subcommittee are FBI employees who were disciplined for attending protests on Jan. 6, 2021, according to Jordan.
Friend, who resigned from the FBI, is part of a group of former agents who were placed on leave and called themselves “the suspendables.” In a letter sent last year to Christopher Wray, the FBI director, the group claimed that the bureau had discriminated against conservative-leaning agents.
Hill has claimed on Twitter that the Jan. 6 attack was a “set up,” and that there was “a larger #Democrat plan using their enforcement arm, the #FBI.” He also described the FBI as “the Brown Shirt enforcers of the @DNC,” making an apparent reference to Nazi storm troopers to describe the federal law enforcement agency and its relationship to the Democratic National Committee.
O’Boyle and Friend both testified that they had received financial support from Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist and former high-ranking official in the former president’s administration. Friend said Patel sent him $5,000 almost immediately after they connected in November 2022 and that Patel has helped to promote Friend’s forthcoming book on social media.
In a statement, Patel declined to confirm that he has provided financial support to the witnesses but suggested that his organization has been focused on helping FBI employees facing retaliation for speaking out publicly.
“Whistleblowers who provide credible information exposing government waste, fraud, and abuse serve a critical role for constitutional oversight,” he said.
Democrats said they produced their report after they learned that Republicans on the committee were planning to leak material from the transcribed interviews. It was written by Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, and Delegate Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands, the top Democrat on the weaponization subcommittee.
Russell Dye, a spokesperson for Jordan, said that Democrats were misrepresenting the testimony gathered to smear public servants who had come forward to expose wrongdoing.
“It is beyond disappointing, but sadly not surprising, that Democrats would leak cherry-picked excerpts of testimony to attack the brave whistleblowers who risked their careers to speak out on abuses at the Justice Department and FBI,” Dye said. “These same Democrats vowed to fight our oversight ‘tooth and nail,’ and they are willing to undermine the work of the Congress to achieve their partisan goals.”
The Democratic report includes excerpts from depositions and evidence of conspiratorial social media posts.
It also details the ties between Trump’s inner circle and the witnesses. For instance, Patel found Friend his next job, working as a fellow on domestic intelligence and security services with the Center for Renewing America, which is run by Russ Vought. The center is largely funded by the Conservative Partnership Institute, which is run by Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, and former Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina.
“Based on this evidence, committee Democrats conclude that there is a strong likelihood that Kash Patel is encouraging the witnesses to continue pursuing their meritless claims, and in fact is using them to help propel his vendetta against the FBI, Justice Department, and Biden administration on behalf of himself and President Trump,” the report says.
Republicans argue they received useful information from the men for their investigation. For instance, Hill told the subcommittee the FBI regularly conducted nationwide calls involving all 56 field offices after Jan. 6. Hill described the calls as “bordering on hysterical,” according to excerpts from transcripts reviewed by the Times.
Friend has been celebrated in conservative circles, with right-wing pundits seizing on his accusations as evidence of wrongdoing at the FBI. But those claims did not appear to hold up during his testimony.
Friend has said he refused to take part in a SWAT raid of a Jan. 6 suspect facing misdemeanor charges, which at the time he called an “excessive use of force,” to which he was a “conscientious objector.” The suspect, Tyler Bensch, was accused of being a member of a right-wing militia group connected to the Three Percenter movement. Documents in Bensch’s case indicate that on Jan. 6, 2021, he posted a video of himself outside the Capitol wearing body armor and a gas mask and carrying an AR-15-style rifle.
Under questioning, the committee said that Friend “confirmed that ownership of a firearm, even without any additional factors, in fact would be enough of a factor on its own to justify deploying a SWAT team in an arrest.”
Friend also testified about being asked to surveil a person attending a school board meeting, touching on a claim promoted by Republicans that the government mistreated conservative parents. But according to the report, Friend conceded during his interview that the man being tracked was a Three Percenter who was under counterterrorism investigation. He was later arrested with Bensch and three other individuals.
Friend also engaged with Russian propaganda outlets while he was an FBI employee, the report noted, including being quoted extensively in an article in Sputnik headlined “Under Biden Federal Agencies Turned Into Instrument of Intimidation, FBI Whistleblower Says,” and appearing for an interview with Russia Today.
The report cast doubt on the relevance of the witnesses’ accounts. Democrats wrote that nothing in O’Boyle’s testimony “suggests misconduct at the FBI” and that Hill had “made multiple claims about the FBI’s handling of criminal investigations into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, despite having very little personal involvement in those investigations.”
The report also said that Hill had embraced a conspiracy theory that an Arizona man named Ray Epps was a federal informant who helped to instigate the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Prominent Republicans — including Trump — have widely promoted the claim, which Epps denies and the House Jan. 6 committee determined to be unfounded.
The witnesses also embraced the language and views of the right wing on other matters. At one point during his testimony, the report said, O’Boyle compared coronavirus vaccine mandates to a Polish reserve police unit during World War II that began as a group of “just normal people,” but ultimately “were basically engaging in genocide just like the rest of the Nazi regime.”
