Day: June 24, 2024

Columbia College dean Josef Sorett, under fire for his role in a texting scandal that landed three of his fellow administrators on leave, has support from at least one prominent Columbia faculty member: Gil Hochberg, a Hebrew professor who chairs the school’s Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies department.

In a Sunday post shared to her private Instagram account, Hochberg linked to the Washington Free Beacon‘s June 12 report exposing vitriolic text messages sent between Sorett and his colleagues amid a panel on campus anti-Semitism. Hochberg rallied behind Sorett, calling him a “dear friend” whose critics are part of a new “MckArthy [sic] Era.”

“I hope no one is taking a photo of my screen as I post this. I mean, how can this be real?????” Hochberg wrote in the post, which was obtained by the Free Beacon. “Josef Sorett dear friend. We will not be quite [sic] about this!”

Hochberg’s defense of Sorett came just days after Columbia placed three administrators on leave as the school investigates the texting scandal. Those administrators—Vice Dean Susan Chang-Kim, Associate Dean for Student and Family Support Matthew Patashnick, and Dean of Undergraduate Student Life Cristen Kromm—were captured along with Sorett exchanging dismissive text messages while listening to a panel on the eruption of anti-Semitism on Columbia’s campus.

At one point, Kromm used vomit emojis—”“—to reference an op-ed from a Columbia rabbi. Chang-Kim, meanwhile, texted Sorett to say the panel was “difficult to listen to but I’m trying to keep an open mind to learn about this point of view,” to which Sorett responded, “Yup.” Sorett also sent a text mocking Columbia’s top Hillel official.

In her post, Hochberg took no issue with those texts. She did, however, raise concerns about the way they came to light, expressing bewilderment that an audience member took photos of Chang-Kim’s phone as the vice dean sent the texts. Hochberg also adopted Kromm’s fondness for emojis, including one in her post—”“—that showed an exploding head.

Hochberg, who declined to comment, conducts research on the “intersections among psychoanalysis, postcolonial theory, nationalism, gender and sexuality,” according to her faculty bio. In addition to her role as chairwoman of Columbia’s Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department, Hochberg serves on the executive committee of the school’s Center of Palestine Studies.

The Columbia professor has a long history of disparaging the Jewish state. In April, she argued that Germany “should pay reparation[s] to Palestinians,” saying that such a move would mark the “first step towards building a just democratice [sic] society in Palestine/Israel” and “take care of the guilt.” A week later, she posted a picture praising former Columbia professor Rashid Khalidi, who blamed Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israeli “settler colonialism” and “apartheid.”

More recently, on June 13, Hochberg accused Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “his gangsters” of being “children killers” and “psychopathic monsters.”

“Netanyahu and his gangsters MUST be stopped or the bloodshed will never stop,” she wrote. “MONSTERS.”

Unlike his colleagues, Sorett has not been placed on leave over his role in the texting scandal—in fact, the dean informed his fellow administrators of the disciplinary move last week, according to a Columbia spokesman. Sorett did not acknowledge his role in the scandal until Friday, when he sent an email to Columbia’s Board of Visitors.

“I deeply regret my role in these text exchanges and the impact they have had on our community,” he wrote in the email, which was obtained by the Free Beacon. “I am cooperating fully with the University’s investigation of these matters. I am committed to learning from this situation and to the work of confronting antisemitism, discrimination and hate at Columbia.”

Sorett sent that message just hours after the Free Beacon visited his residence to ask him about his involvement in the text exchanges. Sorett, who in 2020 called to defund New York City police by $1 billion, responded by calling the police.

Columbia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Friday, a university official said Sorett “will be recused from all matters relating to the investigation while continuing to serve as dean of the College.”

The post ‘MckArthy [sic] Era’: Columbia Middle Eastern Studies Chair Decries Free Beacon Report on Deans’ Anti-Semitic Text Exchanges appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Each time the Department of Energy (DOE) finalized regulations targeting popular home appliances—including stoves, clothes washers, refrigerators, and water heaters—over the last several months, the agency included a similar line in the announcement: The new rules were crafted with the help of recommendations from a “wide range of stakeholders.”

According to the DOE, the stakeholders included industry partners and consumer advocacy organizations. A Washington Free Beacon review, however, shows 7 out of the 10 stakeholders whose recommendations DOE consulted are climate activist groups or left-leaning consumer groups. Those groups collectively boast substantial financial backing from grantmaking nonprofits that regularly funnel money to a wide range of progressive social and environmental initiatives.

Among the stakeholders are the Consumer Federation of America, Appliance Standards Awareness Project, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Earthjustice, National Consumer Law Center, National Resources Defense Council, and Consumer Reports. Those groups have received millions of dollars from nonprofits such as the Bloomberg Family Foundation, TomKat Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, and Schmidt Family Foundation.

The revelation sheds light on how DOE ultimately welcomed the influence of far-left climate-focused interest groups while finalizing key government rulemakings, which, taken together, may cost Americans thousands of dollars when purchasing new appliances. And it appears to contradict any assertion that the regulations are the product of negotiations involving stakeholders across the ideological spectrum.

“If the agency is going to rely on these far-left groups, who have never met a regulation they didn’t like, the results are going to be obvious. And that’s what we are seeing,” Ben Lieberman, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told the Free Beacon. “The reality of these negotiations is that the true interests of consumers never have a seat at the table.”

“These groups—they are really far, far left and are pushing a larger agenda that sacrifices consumers, rather than helping consumers, and I would include the so-called consumer groups. This is an anti-energy and climate change agenda that comes at the expense of consumers,” he continued.

In four recent regulatory announcements—targeting residential refrigerators in December, stovetops in January, clothes washers and dryers in February, and dishwashers in early April—DOE cited the same joint recommendation assembled by stakeholders in September 2023.

Then, in a fifth announcement, in April, DOE finalized standards for residential water heaters, which it said “align with” a separate 2022 agreement put forward by a similar coalition.

In each of the announcements, the agency said forcing manufacturers to only sell more efficient products would lead to substantial long-term consumer savings and massive emissions reductions. Activists have increasingly set their sights on the residential sector, which, together with the commercial sector, produces roughly 31 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to EPA data.

“DOE’s robust rulemaking process provides multiple avenues for stakeholder engagement, including data sharing, public meetings, and comment submittals on DOE’s methods, policy proposals, analytics, and results,” a DOE spokesman said in a statement. “DOE welcomes input and feedback from all stakeholders. As part of our process, DOE also considers stakeholder consensus agreements and negotiated rulemakings for consideration.”

Both stakeholder coalitions, meanwhile, were led by the Consumer Federation of America and Appliance Standards Awareness Project, two groups with a long history of advocating for stringent appliance regulations and aggressive federal climate policies.

For example, according to its website, the Consumer Federation of America has for years pushed higher energy efficiency standards for new appliances and even joined a lawsuit against the Trump administration accusing it of not acting quick enough to update such standards. And, at the state level, the group has backed similar proposals, such as moves to outlaw fluorescent light bulbs in Massachusetts and Maine, and a bill broadly cracking down on appliances in Connecticut.

The Consumer Federation of America, whose members include eco groups like the Center for Environmental Health and the Environmental Working Group, has further called for electric vehicle mandates, stricter fuel economy rules to incentivize greater electric vehicle sales, and called on Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to take actions “transforming the U.S. energy system” shortly after she was confirmed to the position.

Additionally, the Appliance Standards Awareness Project (ASAP) states on its website that it “advocates for appliance, equipment, and lighting standards that cut planet-warming emissions and other air pollution.” The group, the website continues, focuses on federal rulemakings, congressional advocacy, litigation, and state actions to push stricter appliance regulations.

ASAP, though, is housed at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) and was founded by ACEEE, the Alliance to Save Energy, the Energy Foundation, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Those groups have all been some of the nation’s leading financial and vocal supporters of left-wing climate policies.

“Top consumer and environmental advocates came together with manufacturers to recommend efficiency levels that will save families money and even improve the performance of many of these products,” ASAP executive director Andrew deLaski, told the Free Beacon in a statement, when asked about his organization’s recommendations to DOE.

But Daniel Simmons, who led DOE’s energy efficiency office during the Trump administration, expressed concern that DOE appears to have discarded the voices of regular everyday consumers when putting together its recent energy efficiency standards alongside the stakeholders it cited.

“None of the consumer groups that the department cites really have a focus on the upfront costs of appliances or the utility of appliances,” Simmons said in an interview. “They are much more concerned about, say, the cost of the appliance over time, which is important, but if you cannot afford to buy an energy-efficient appliance because of the upfront cost, it really doesn’t matter how efficient it is over time.”

“We need to trust consumers, we need to trust people to make good choices because I think people do make good choices for what they want, what they can afford, and what they are looking for,” added Simmons. “I get frustrated when people’s options get limited by federal well-intentioned regulations.”

In addition to the Consumer Federation of America and ASAP, the stakeholder recommendations that DOE consulted were joined by ACEEE, Earthjustice, National Consumer Law Center, NRDC, Consumer Reports, Alliance for Water Efficiency, and Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance.

In a statement, Consumer Reports said it is an independent, nonprofit organization that is not influenced by corporations and foundations. It added that it aims to inform government decisions and provide input on appliance standards “that can save people a lot of money on their utility bills.” The other organizations didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Altogether, the groups have received tens of millions of dollars from pass-through nonprofits, many of which are overseen by left-wing billionaires, such as Michael Bloomberg, Tom Steyer, Hansjorg Wyss, and Eric Schmidt, according to an Institute for Energy Research database of tax filings spanning more than a decade.

The data show that, between 2008 and 2018, the groups have received nearly $163 million from such pass-through organizations. The dataset doesn’t include tax filings from 2019-2022, the most recent years with publicly available tax information.

According to the data, the Bloomberg Family Foundation has given at least $5.83 million to the NRDC, Steyer’s TomKat Foundation has given another $3 million to the NRDC, the Wyss Foundation has given $2.2 million total to the NRDC and Earthjustice, and the Schmidt Family Foundation has given $5.5 million to the NRDC and Earthjustice.

A spokeswoman for the Wyss Foundation noted in a statement its most recent grants to the NRDC and Earthjustice came in 2014, and were directed to support those groups’ public lands advocacy.

The MacArthur Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, and William Penn Foundation have separately funneled tens of millions of dollars more to ACEEE, NRDC, Earthjustice, and the National Consumer Law Center.

“These groups are entirely focused on energy efficiency and damned to the rest of it,” said Alliance for Consumers executive director O.H. Skinner.

“It’s really offensive to watch them tell consumers that these choices should be forced on them and that energy efficiency is the only consideration,” Skinner continued. “In one set of agencies, these activists are pushing to ban products in the name of energy efficiency—squeeze dishwashers, squeeze gas stoves. Then, on the other hand, you have agencies that are aggressively pushing energy agendas that are going to drive up the price of electricity.”

One other group that joined the stakeholder recommendations was the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM), a group that represents makers of home appliances.

While AHAM has pushed back on many of the Biden administration’s actions on appliances, it said it joined the coalition to allow companies to continue manufacturing their products.

“AHAM worked with other groups—energy, consumer and state entities—to present a joint recommendation to DOE on an entire package of product standards, rather than addressing each separately, because it allows industry to keep delivering high performing, fully-featured and affordable products to homes across the country,” AHAM spokeswoman Jill Notini said.

The post Biden DOE Outsourcing Home Appliance Regulations to Left-Wing Green Groups appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Prominent Democratic donors and strategists fear presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump’s recent fundraising surge has created “a real problem for Democrats,” according to a Sunday report by Politico.

In May, Trump outraised Biden by roughly $56 million, wiping the president’s long-held cash advantage. In the first 24 hours following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts for concealing hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, Trump and the RNC raised a combined $52.8 million.

“You would think a guy who’s convicted of crimes would be nowhere, but he’s everywhere financially,” longtime Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf told Politico. “That is a real problem for Democrats.”

Recent swing-state polling showing Trump with sustained leads over Joe Biden has sent similar shock waves through the president’s campaign. A June 17 poll showed Trump with a near 20-point lead over Biden in Iowa, including a double-digit lead among independent and unaffiliated voters.

“There was a strategy of raising all this money on the front end so we could have this huge edge,” one anonymous Biden donor told Politico. “I have no other word for it other than ‘depression’ among Biden supporters.”

Biden and Trump are set to debate on CNN this Thursday in Atlanta, the first time the two will go head-to-head in a televised debate since October 2020. On July 11, just four days prior to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Trump will be sentenced following his Manhattan hush money conviction.

The post ‘A Real Problem’: Top Biden Donors Sound the Alarm Over Trump’s Fundraising Surge appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Three Pennsylvania state representatives on Sen. Bob Casey’s “Latinos for Casey” coalition are pushing a bill to prohibit police and universities in the Keystone State from cooperating with federal immigration agencies—the kind of “sanctuary” policies the Pennsylvania Democrat insists he opposes.

State Reps. Danilo Burgos and Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz, who co-chair the Casey coalition, and Rep. Jose Giral, a coalition member, proposed a bill last year that “prohibits” law enforcement agencies and universities from honoring requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hand over illegal aliens or from cooperating in immigration-related investigations. What’s more, the Police and Community Safety Act calls for penalties against noncompliant universities, including the “withholding of state funding.”

That proposal could raise questions for Casey, who faces a punishing reelection campaign that could determine which party controls the Senate. Casey called himself an “ally” of the coalition in an announcement of its launch and pledged to “deliver inclusive economic and workforce development, healthcare, and education” for the Latino community.

Federal prosecutors have singled out Philadelphia’s sanctuary policies as a “direct threat to public safety.” The most notorious case involves Juan Ramon-Vasquez, a Honduran national who repeatedly raped a young child after Philadelphia police released him from jail in 2014, in defiance of a federal request to hand him over for deportation.

Casey has claimed to oppose the sanctuary policies the coalition leaders are now pushing in the Pennsylvania House. His campaign said earlier this year he “doesn’t support sanctuary cities” and believes that “all jurisdictions must cooperate with [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and law enforcement at all levels.”

Casey’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment about his alliance with pro-sanctuary lawmakers. But he has voted before against legislation that would cut federal spending for cities and counties that refuse to cooperate with immigration agencies. And he voted in 2016 against strengthening criminal penalties against illegal aliens with multiple illegal entries into the United States.

Burgos, the “Latinos for Casey” co-chairman, has pushed other controversial immigration policies as head of the Pennsylvania House Latino Caucus. In November 2021, Burgos led a protest that blocked traffic outside Casey’s Philadelphia office, calling for citizenship for 11 million illegal aliens living in the United States. Organizers ended the protest after Casey agreed to meet with them to discuss the issue.

In December, Burgos celebrated that Pennsylvania companies employ illegal aliens, a violation of federal law, claiming that Pennsylvania does not “have a labor force that wants to be in [labor-intensive] jobs.”

“It is the best-kept secret in the Commonwealth that we hire a lot of undocumented people but we don’t want to acknowledge their existence,” Burgos said. “And that’s part of why we formed our caucus, to fight for those that cannot defend themselves.”

The post Bob Casey’s Hand-Picked Surrogates Push ‘Sanctuary’ Policies Casey Claims To Oppose appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

California governor Gavin Newsom (D.) and Democratic leaders earmarked $12 million in taxpayer funds over the next budget year to launch race reparations for black residents, according to their latest budget agreement.

The cash would support proposed programs that are still moving through the legislature but are expected to pass given their support from the Democratic supermajority. These bills include subsidized property taxes for eligible black residents and a mandatory preference for black applicants who apply to state licensing bodies for work permits. Legislators also want to create a permanent state bureaucracy called the California American Freedman Affairs Agency to dole out all future reparations.

This proposal comes as polling shows Californians oppose cash reparations, while state leaders work to keep the promise of reparations alive through a slate of proposals and programs. The earmark is part of state leaders’ latest spending compromise for the next fiscal year as they try to close a $47 billion budget hole.

The budget proposal drew accolades from the black legislators behind the state’s various reparations proposals. Assemblywoman Lori Wilson (D.) told the Sacramento Bee it shows that “our leadership and the governor recognize the obligation to those impacted by slavery.”

Meanwhile, the legislature is weighing a package of 15 bills all tied to the promise of reparations. Legal experts have questioned the legality of the two most contentious proposals—subsidizing thousands of dollars in property taxes and fast-tracking professional licenses for black Californians—as potentially violating constitutional guarantees of equal treatment of citizens regardless of race and last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ban on affirmative action.

Other measures include a proposed constitutional amendment to ban prison labor in the state and a bill to siphon off a percentage of budget reserves in perpetuity to fund any future reparations plans.

The Democrats’ spending plan which contains the $12 million for reparations totals nearly $298 billion, which is still nearly double what it was 10 years ago.

Newsom and Democratic legislators first teased black race reparations in 2020 when they created a first-in-the-nation commission to research and propose payments and policies to boost black Californians who are descended from slaves.

Task force members recommended up to $1.2 million in direct payments for every eligible black resident but failed to garner support from Newsom and black lawmakers—and from Californians themselves, the majority of whom oppose cash reparations. The commission spent two years and $2.5 million in taxpayer funds to write an 1,100-page set of recommendations.

The post California Democrats Propose $12 Million for Reparations Plan in Latest Budget Proposal appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.