Cuomo Denies Involvement in Attacks on NRA, Says Trump is Afraid of the Gun Group

Ben Sellers
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‘I also have blonde hair, blue eyes and a little button nose. Can you see it, John, my little button nose?’

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) After New York’s state Attorney General Letitia James launched a partisan investigation into the finances of the National Rifle Association, Gov. Andrew Cuomo attempted to distance himself from it on Tuesday.

However, Cuomo—who acknowledged having his own vendetta against the powerful gun-rights group—nonetheless jumped at the opportunity to lob cheap shots at both President Donald Trump and the NRA.

“[T]he President of the United States, for all his bluster, is afraid of the NRA. It is that simple,” Cuomo told CNN‘s “New Day” host John Berman, who replaced the governor’s brother, Chris, on the leftist network’s morning show when the latter received his own prime-time program last May.

“We know it is that simple,” Cuomo continued. “The NRA has been a strong political force for many, many years. They’re threatening. They have money. They mobilize people.”

James’s investigation into the NRA’s finances followed the surprise departure of NRA President Oliver North on Saturday. North, who assumed the role last year, accused longtime NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre of charging some $200,0000 in personal expenses to a vendor.

Trump—a firm NRA supporter who became the first president since Ronald Reagan to address the group’s annual convention in 2017, and returned last week to address it’s most recent one—issued a statement criticizing the New York investigation as being politically motivated.

“The NRA is under siege by Cuomo and the New York State Attorney General, who are illegally using the state’s legal apparatus to take down and destroy the very important organization and others,” Trump said, according to CNN. “It must get its act together quickly, stop the internal fighting and get back to greatness fast.”

Cuomo responded by denying that he had any role in the launching of the investigation, while also taking a backhanded slap at the Mueller Report, which recently debunked longstanding claims of collusion between Trump and Russia.

Democrats have claimed—although with little evidence—that despite what some call an unprecedented level of transparency in the report’s release, U.S. Attorney General William Barr felt pressured by the White House to exonerate Trump.

“[W]e don’t use the criminal justice apparatus to play politics.” swiped Cuomo. “It is separate, Mr. President. You have the Justice Department, which acts independently to enforce the laws, and you don’t politicize the justice system, Mr. President—news flash.”

However, Cuomo admitted to being at “loggerheads” with the NRA, both over a specific insurance policy for concealed-carry permit holders that the governor targeted last year, and more generally due to his diverging political views.

“I’ve been at loggerheads with the NRA for more than a year,” he said. “I’ve been at loggerheads with the NRA for about 20 years, for very good reasons. I believe the NRA is counterproductive, not just to the people of this country, but also for legal gun owners. I don’t think they serve gun owners well. They haven’t been constructive. They have been a destructive force in this country for everyone involved.”

Cuomo also touched on a high-profile dispute with Trump about federal tax reforms that raised taxes for many wealthy New Yorkers by capping state and local deductions.

The governor denied that the rate increases fell on his shoulders. In response to the president’s claim that he failed to fight hard enough in the tax debate, Cuomo reiterated an earlier claim that Trump was a liar. “Yeah, well, I also have blonde hair, blue eyes and a little button nose,” he said. “Can you see it, John, my little button nose? Again, the President is divorced from facts.”

The president’s tax overhaul, rather, amounted to “pure politics,” Cuomo griped.

“Fifteen states had their taxes effectively raised by the [state and local tax] deduction …  All Democratic states. It’s all politics all the time with him. There is no policy.”

Democrats Blasted for Rejecting Visits to Border; Willful Blindness to Crisis

Ben Sellers
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‘Democrats in Congress won’t help solve the problem because they do not even recognize that a crisis exists…’

Illegals cross underneath an area of fencing and barbed wire in the Yuma, Ariz., sector of the southern border. / IMAGE: Customs and Border Patrol, 12 News via Youtube

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Five GOP congressmen who witnessed the crisis at the US–Mexico Border called on their Democratic counterparts to quit living in denial.

Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Sean Duffy of Wisconsin, John Joyce of Pennsylvania and Duncan Hunter of California recently visited the Yuma borderline in Biggs’s home state.

On Friday, they published a recap of what they encountered via the Fox News website.

Their firsthand report of seeing scores of Guatemalan nationals apprehended, overcrowded detention centers and cartels keeping lookouts reaffirmed the charges long made by the White House and Department of Homeland Security.

Contrary to Democrats’ claims that they are supporting a humanitarian mission, the congressmen said the political inaction and loose enforcement of immigration laws was, in fact, contributing to immigrants’ anguish as parents were sold into servitude by organized crime syndicates.

The children, said the congressmen, were then held captive, to be “rented” out to border-crossing illegals in a bid—often successful—to exploit the loopholes in asylum laws that would lead to a quick release.

“The inhumanity is caused by judicial activists who have limited the executive branch from enforcing our immigration laws,” the congressmen said.

While the laws based on the Bill Clinton-era Flores settlement require that children (and their accompanying guardians) be held no longer than 20 days, the overcrowding and lack of family detention centers often means they are released far sooner, usually about three days.

“President Trump has declared an emergency on the border. He is right,” said the congressmen. “We catch, at most, one-third of people illegally crossing into the U.S., and one-tenth of the drugs.”

But even as the top priority is securing the border, the Republicans said their political adversaries continued to ignore the problem altogether.

“Unfortunately, Democrats in Congress won’t help solve the problem because they do not even recognize that a crisis exists,” said the congressmen.

That isn’t for lack of effort on the part of border-security advocates, who say many Democrats have rebuffed their open invitations to arrange a visit.

Shortly after the government ended its shutdown in January, a group of Border Patrol wives in Texas’s Rio Grande area saw their online call to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., go unanswered.

“”You don’t need to bring any security detail,” wrote would-be organizer Jill Demanski on Facebook. “Our husbands/boyfriends/fiances/wives/significant others are actually very good at their jobs, thank goodness! And since you see no threat here, I’m sure you can just make a quick flight down here alone.”

A day later, a rancher in Pelosi’s home state of California re-extended an invitation, which he said he had initially offered more than four years prior, for the left-wing party leader to visit.

Freshman
Rep. Chip Roy surveying the cartel paths in the Rio Grande Valley / PHOTO: @RepChipRoy via Twitter

Shortly thereafter, Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy made an “unannounced” border trip to see some of the trouble areas in the Rio Grande Valley, which he live-tweeted in early February, inviting supporters to use the hashtag #PelosiDoesntCare and others.

More recently, in early April, Art del Cueto, vice president of the Border Patrol Council, issued an open invitation to Democrats to visit after three Texas-based Democrats—including presidential hopeful Julian Castro—attacked Trump’s policies and called for open borders.

“I haven’t seen any of them down here working with us, I haven’t seen any of them down here asking to speak to any of us,” del Cueto said.

It is no surprise, of course, that Democrats are eager to avoid the bad optics. If they were to witness the lawlessness being described, they would have to acknowledge the crisis.

On the other hand, by going to a safe and secure section, as CNN‘s Jim Acosta attempted to do in early January, they risk even greater political peril in potentially encountering their greatest nemesis: an effective border wall.

While Acosta’s trip was widely mocked for helping to prove Trump’s point, a follow-up visit from Acosta’s network colleague Chris Cuomo in early April to the same area—near McAllen, Texas—showed a far different story as Cuomo visited one of the over-run detention centers.

Trump to 49ers’ Conservative Top Pick Bosa: ‘Always Stay True to Yourself’

Ben Sellers
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‘It was just a specific thing that happened and me as a young kid a thought popping in my head and boom, decided to tweet it out…’

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) President Donald Trump on Saturday tweeted his support to newly drafted San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa after the former OSU standout and outspoken conservative faced social-media backlash with his second-overall selection.

The president’s congratulatory tweet expressed confidence in Bosa’s being embraced by the team, despite San Francisco’s reputation for being notoriously liberal, and he encouraged the player not to let the leftist echo chamber defeat him.

Some social-media commenters noted the fact that the team had driven out quarterback Colin Kaepernick three years ago—a move that Trump weighed in on as the Nike pitchman’s kneeing controversy drew to a media frenzy during the 2017 season.

Bosa, then 21, issued a now-deleted tweet calling Kaepernick a “clown” in August 2016.

Facing an abysmal record, the team benched Kaepernick partway through the 2016 season due to a decline in play-making.

After the second-stringer walked away from a contract renewal that spring, the 49ers, under new head coach Kyle Shanahan, made clear they would not beg him to return.

Instead, they ultimately invested in Tom Brady‘s understudy, Jimmy Garoppolo, as their likely franchise call-signaler of the future.

Kaepernick, who received no interest from other teams while a free agent, filed a discrimination lawsuit against the NFL, which the two parties recently settled for an undisclosed amount.

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Nick Bosa / IMAGE: VIP TV via Twitter

As projections gave strong indications that Bosa would go second in the draft to Heisman-winning multisport phenom Kyler Murray, Bosa began scrubbing Twitter of  his more “insensitive” posts.

According to left-leaning sports network ESPN, Bosa expressed his contrition about the 2016 Kaepernick tweet on Friday at his introductory news conference.

Bosa said the tweet was never intended to attack the social-justice movement that the quarterback was trying to call attention to by taking a knee during the national anthem.

“It’s not like I’m saying his stance and what he was doing, that’s not what I was calling or talking about at all,” Bosa said.

“It was just a specific thing that happened and me as a young kid a thought popping in my head and boom, decided to tweet it out. Bad decision. I respect what he’s done. If it empowers anybody then he’s doing a good thing. So, I apologize for that.”

Whether Bosa can sufficiently appease his 49ers teammates and fan base to overcome the criticisms has yet to be seen.

As the NFL has struggled to hold players accountable in the past for serious criminal offenses—such as domestic abuse—and has openly endorsed radical left-wing politics in its financial support of the Players Coalition, many conservative fans already have abandoned the league.

But even race-baiting ex-ESPN commentator Jemele Hill was forced to backpedal on a tweet she made referring to Bosa as a “white nationalist” when other users rallied to his defense.

Left-Coast Libs React Predictably to 49ers’ Trump-Loving Draft Pick

Ben Sellers
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‘From a racism resistor to a racist troll. Helluva ride, Niners Nation…’

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Some unhinged Bay Area leftists reacted as expected to the second-overall draft selection of Trump-supporting defensive end Nick Bosa by the San Francisco 49ers.

Disgraced ex-ESPN commentator and professional race-baiter Jemele Hill led the charge, calling the former Ohio State standout a white nationalist while maintaining that he was otherwise a worthy pick.

Others on Twitter echoed the sentiments, with SFGate compiling several of the reactions.

Some—including Hill—said they planned to switch their allegiances to one of the two Los Angeles NFL teams, the Chargers or the Rams. (The nearby Oakland Raiders are slated to move next year to Las Vegas).

Many connected the decision with the team’s benching of quarterback-turned-social-activist Colin Kaepernick in 2016.

Anticipating the controversy after mock-drafts saw him going to San Francisco with the second pick, Bosa previously deleted tweets espousing right-wing positions, but a Twitter site called Resist Programming archived some of offending clips and screenshots.

For his part, Bosa acknowledged that some of his past statements had been insensitive and said he had learned a lot over the past few months of scrutiny.

Despite all the attacks on Bosa, many football fans and Trump fans also rushed to defend him.

Hill suggested on Twitter that she had received a lot of push-back for her criticisms, responding to a few of the tweets.

Two ‘Silent Sam’ Vandals Found Guilty, Receive a Day in Jail

Ben Sellers
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‘There’s no place in a civilized society for citizens to take the law into their own hands…’

Silent Sam
Silent Sam/IMAGE: ABC 11 via Youtube

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Four of the alleged vandals charged in the toppling of the University of North Carolina’s Silent Sam statue went to court Thursday.

Two of them—Raul Jimenez, 27, and Shawn Birchfield–Fin, 30—were found guilty on misdemeanor counts of of injury to real property, defacing a monument and disorderly conduct.

Jimenez and Birchfield–Fin each were given a sentence of 24 hours in jail, 250 hours of community service and a $500 fine plus court costs.

Two other alleged perpetrators, Lauren Aucoin and Jonathan Fuller, had their charges dismissed after Judge Lunsford Long was unable to identify them in video footage of the Aug. 20, 2018 destruction of the Confederate monument, which was erected in 1913.

A fifth individual charged in the monument’s destruction, Margarita Sitterson, will be tried separately on May 9, according to Triad City Beat.

Long rejected a defense that felling the monument constituted a “public necessity” and condemned the mob mentality in his sentencing.

“There’s no place in a civilized society for citizens to take the law into their own hands,” Long said. “… They fed off of each other, and they did something a large part of society would never do.”

He said the assailants were contributing to the toxic culture that they purported to be railing against.

“There have to be consequences for those actions—the damaged property, for the inflamed situation in our culture right now. This is part of it—not the cause of it, but it’s part of it.”

Acknowledging the politically charged nature of the case, Long also tried to offer a parallel situation if right-wing radicals were to take matters into their own hands at the US–Mexico Border amid an ongoing illegal immigration crisis.

“By that logic [public necessity] the vigilantes at the border can detain people based on the harm they perceive them doing,” he noted.

The case follows several others in which students present at the scene were charged with counts such as disorderly conduct and inciting a riot for related incidents during the protest—attended by an estimated 250 people.

While a number of those participants have either had charges dismissed or been found not guilty, WSOC reported that 11 others have been convicted thus far.

Graduate student Maya Little was found guilty in October of a separate April 30 incident, believed to have prompted the August protest, in which she poured blood and ink on the Silent Sam statue, but she was not sentenced for it.

Little was back in court last month—along with several others— for allegedly attempting to push down a barricade and assault a government official during a Dec. 9 demonstration, which was in response to a UNC board’s decision—later reversed—to return the statue to campus. Little was found not guilty on those counts.

Jimenez, who some reports said was one of the protest organizers, was previously charged in the toppling of another Confederate statue in nearby Durham, but was found not guilty.

Birchfield–Finn was charged again on Thursday for carrying a 3.4-inch pocket knife through courthouse security.

The two guilty protestors have said they plan to appeal.

In addressing the court after his sentencing, Jimenez remained defiant and unrepentant, reported Triad City Beat, offering a vaguely menacing promise to keep fighting and to hold the court system “accountable” for the guilty verdict.

“We intend to keep fighting these charges, just as we continue to fight white supremacy, all across North Carolina,” he said.

“We’re disappointed, yes we are, in the way that the judicial system treated us today. It did not treat us fairly, and we will hold them accountable for that. And we look forward to contributing to this movement as well.”

Soros-Backed PAC Meddling in DC-Area Prosecutor Races

Ben Sellers
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‘I would say that out-of-state money that wants to control the outcome of a local election is disturbing…’

Soros Makes Massive Investments on Fossil Fuels
George Soros/photo by Niccolò Caranti (CC)

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Two progressive county prosecutors defending their seats in the exurbs of Washington, D.C., have found themselves the unwitting victims of a George Soros-driven dark-money campaign to replace them with even more radical left-wing law-enforcers.

The Soros-backed Virginia Justice and Public Safety PAC gave substantial contributions to primary challengers in the commonwealth’s attorney races in Northern Virginia’s Arlington and Fairfax counties, reported The Washington Post.

In Arlington, candidate Parisa Tafti received $139,000 from the PAC; in Fairfax, candidate Steve Descano received $146,000.

The in-kind contributions—used for polling, mailings and other campaign services—well eclipsed the total amounts raised by the current incumbents, said the Post.

Commonwealth’s attorneys Theo Stamos and Raymond F. Morrogh denounced their primary opponents for taking money from a political interest outside Virginia.

“I would say that out-of-state money that wants to control the outcome of a local election is disturbing,” Stamos told the Post.

“This is a community that values local civic engagement and local experience. No amount of special interest money will make up for those deficiencies.”

As the increasingly extremist Democratic Party pushes fringe positions on everything from open-borders to gerrymandering and Census counts to felon voting rights and lowering the voting age to abolishing the Electoral College, there are two common themes:

  • The first is that each involves a blatant ploy to entrench leftist political dominance and ensure permanent Democratic majorities while undermining many of the traditional processes and institutions that sustain the democracy.
  • The second is that it does not take scratching the surface very deeply to see the hand of Hungarian-born billionaire investor Soros guiding many of those initiatives.

Even so, some of Soros’s most nefarious operations remain shrouded in the shadows—among them, his efforts to influence local prosecutor races in cities nationwide.

The Post said that Soros-aligned PACs had contributed to “reformist” prosecutor candidates in major cities including Philadelphia, Chicago, Houston.

The impact of just how much weight prosecutorial discretion can have was brought to light recently in the highly controversial decision by Chicago’s Kim Foxx to drop charges against actor Jussie Smollett after his racially-charged hate-crime hoax cost the city millions to investigate.

TOP CHICAGO COP: Smollett Was Dissatisfied w/ 'Empire' Salary; 'Pissed Everybody Off' 1
Jussie Smollett/IMAGE: ABC News via YouTube

Foxx, who had claimed to recuse herself from the case, dismissed Smollett’s 16 felony counts following the intervention of Tina Tchen, the former chief of staff for Michelle Obama.

Likewise, the two Northern Virginia candidates are markedly farther to the Left than the veteran incumbents, said the Post.

Their professed positions include pledges to end prosecutions for marijuana possession, and to compensate for racial disparities in other low-level drug and driving offenses. They also have said they would forgo death penalty prosecutions.

“I have the support of virtually every grassroots activist organization that supports reform in our community in addition to the support of a wide array of individuals who understand the need for change in our local criminal justice system,” Tafti said in a statement to the Post. “I welcome the support of any organization that believes in my campaign.”

In addition to the Soros support, Tafti and Descano also got help from the political efforts of the NFL‘s radical Players Coalition, which has made criminal justice and racial issues some of its major focuses.

Although the football group does not plan to endorse or contribute to any of the candidates in the race, the two challengers benefited from exposure at a Fairfax town hall hosted by Philadelphia Eagles player Chris Long.

Activists Demand Officials Remove Name ‘Dixie’ from Local Fair

Ben Sellers
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‘Dixie does represent the Southern states that fought to hold on to slavery…’

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Over the past two years, partisan radicals in North Carolina have aggressively attacked the state’s Civil War monuments and prominently felled several historic statues.

Now they have a new target in their Orwellian campaign of historical revisionism: the word “Dixie.”

Under pressure from a group of local activists, the city of Winston–Salem announced Wednesday that it would be initiating the process to change the name of a popular annual fair that uses the “D-word.”

According to the Winston–Salem Journal, less than a month after the forced removal of a Confederate statue in the city’s downtown area—a popular tourist destination, known for its historical emphasis—activists led by Sir Walter Mack Jr., pastor of the Union Baptist Church, swarmed a city council meeting to demand the region’s 137-year-old fair change its name.

“Dixie does represent the Southern states that fought to hold on to slavery,” said Mack, who claimed to have researched the word in 1988 and to have boycotted the fair for the past two decades.

The activist group said it is connected with a local ecclesiastical-based organization, Love Out Loud, which has ties to prominent companies including Wells Fargo and Northwestern Mutual.

Although past partnerships have involved many noble and charitable undertakings, the 11-year-old nonprofit now appears to have been ensnared in politically motivated virtue-signaling of the worst kind.

The radical call for the name change at the April 9 meeting received little resistance from council members, though the city officials emphasized the need for additional public comment. They are currently accepting suggestions for the new name via an online survey.

Councilor John Larson called it “a fascinating opportunity to rebrand ourselves,” reported the Journal. 

“We do need to have a thorough understanding of the history,” Larson said. “We have a fair committee involved in branding and marketing. Maybe they should bring a recommendation back to this board.”

However, some of those connected with the fair’s planning committee expressed shock over the unorthodox resolution being directed by the city, which normally would have required a committee vote.

The fair’s public relations manager, Rachel Lough, lamented that political forces had devised a solution in search of a problem, according to local NBC affiliate WXII.

The Dixie Classic Fair in Winston–Salem, NC / IMAGE: eMarketWiz via Youtube

“The Dixie Classic Fair is really all about bringing the community together … [W]e’re all about getting everyone together and being happy and celebrating how great we are,” Lough said.

“People have their own opinions on everything, but to us ‘Dixie’ came from over 50 years ago … [I]t just celebrates how great of an agricultural community we have here,” she added.

The Journal said that the Dixie Classic Fair has been the name of the festival since 1956, when it was changed from the Forsyth County Fair in order to emphasize a broader reach beyond the local region. The annual event began in the 1880s as the Wheat and Cattle Fair.

Five years ago, the city officially changed the name of its fairgrounds from the Dixie Classic Fairgrounds to the Winston–Salem Fairgrounds, though one local man launched a petition to change them back, the Journal said.

Although accounts vary, the etymology of the word “Dixie” is commonly attributed to the printing of 10-dollar bank notes in New Orleans prior to the Civil War. The currency used the French word dix, leading to Louisiana being referred to as “Dixie Land.”

The word “Dixie” later became associated more broadly with the Confederate states, most prominently in the eponymous song written by Ohio-born Daniel Decatur Emmett. The song—said to be a favorite of Abraham Lincoln’s—was later used by minstrel shows that relied on racist tropes like blackface to depict negative stereotypes.

The now-controversial fair will run from Oct. 4-13 assuming no further protests. The name change, currently under debate, would take effect next year, according to a press release issued by the city.

Corrupt UN Refugee Org Trying to Forcibly Rewrite American Asylum Laws

Ben Sellers
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‘Their active participation in our refugee program is a threat to our sovereignty, an obfuscation in our screening process, and a serious detriment to our refugee program…’

Caravan Migrants Demand Entry into America, an End to Deportation, and Reparations
IMAGE: The Daily Mail via Youtube

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) An immigration watchdog organization says the United Nations High Commission for Refugees is increasingly inserting itself into Central American migration issues—and the United States is letting it.

The research from the Immigration Reform Law Institute follows closely on the heels of an NBC News report that corrupt UNHCR officials had sold resettlement recommendations to the highest bidder in five African and Middle Eastern countries.

IRLI said the U.N. agency has dispatched more than 45 staffers to Mexico in an effort to force the United States to comply with its globalist resettlement agenda under the guise of humanitarian relief.

It is demanding that the U.S. accept asylum-seekers’ claims for reasons such as drug and gang violence, corruption, poverty and exclusion—even though none are considered a valid basis for asylum under U.S. law.

According to a press release from IRLI, UNHCR spokesman Charlie Yaxley called President Donald Trump’s threat to close off the southern border unacceptable.

“We wish to reiterate and underline that any individuals within that group that are fleeing persecution and violence, they need to be given access to the territory,” Yaxley said, “and they need to be allowed to exercise their fundamental rights to seek asylum and have access to refugee status determination procedures.”

Current U.N. Secretary–General António Guterres has openly stated his objective to expand the definition of asylum to include not only those being actively persecuted, but also “victims” of war and other types of violence, as well as natural disasters, and even climate-change.

He proposed creating a new category of refugee eligibility under the recently established Nansen Initiative.

Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI said the idea that the Trump administration would yield its sovereignty by capitulating to the U.N.’s agenda was a troubling prospect.

“Think about this, the United States is paying the UNHCR to screen and refer migrants for resettlement in the United States, who don’t meet the U.S. legal definition of a refugee, and then try to mandate how many migrants we should allow into our country,” Wilcox said.

Although turmoil has surrounded the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to evaluate the flood of claims given limited resources, the UNHCR’s supposed help would likely make things worse, he added.

“There are no legal requirements nor any advantages to allow the UNHCR to continue to make refugee status determinations or play any role in processing and screening applicants desiring to resettle in the United States,” Wilcox said.

“Their active participation in our refugee program is a threat to our sovereignty, an obfuscation in our screening process, and a serious detriment to our refugee program.”

REPORT: Gov’t Wastes Billions Propping Up Biodiesel Fuel Industry

Ben Sellers
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‘We are subsidizing something that already happened absent the subsidy…’

Media Fake News: Economic Growth Isn't Fueled By Soybean Exports
Photo by UnitedSoybeanBoard (CC)

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) A report released by a tax-reform advocacy group said the federal government propped up the dubiously efficient biodiesel fuel industry with $12 billion in subsidies over the past decade.

Taxpayers for Common Sense noted in the report, titled “Biodiesel Bonanza,” that the biggest offender, the biodiesel tax credit, has since expired but that some lawmakers were trying to resurrect it and even apply it retroactively.

Corn, soy, palm and and other crops cultivated as renewable energy sources may also pose potential environmental and health consequences, said a statement accompanying the report’s release.

Among the issues they create are greater land-use demands that result in habitat loss, water pollution, water treatment costs and a detrimental effect on public health.

“With more than half of US biodiesel sourced from virgin soy this massive tax credit not only negatively impacts taxpayers, it also harms food production and the environment,” said TCS president Ryan Alexander.

“At the end of the day, biodiesel subsidies distort energy markets, raise fuel prices and waste taxpayer dollars, and do little to promote long-term sustainable energy policy,” she said.

Nonetheless, following an extensive lobbying campaign by biodiesel backers, the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committees may take up a proposal to renew the subsidy when Congress reconvenes from its spring recess, TCS said.

“It is no surprise lawmakers are pushing expensive plans to extend the biodiesel tax credit backwards and forwards,” it said. “Industry boosters have been heavily lobbying for months.”

One proposal, TCS said, would cost taxpayers $19 billion by extending the credit retroactively for 2018 and continuing it for the next five years.

Alexander said such a retroactive extension for an agricultural enterprise defied logic since there is no way to retroactively change last year’s crop production.

“[W]e are subsidizing something that already happened absent the subsidy,” she said.

TCS also accused the biodiesel producers of playing political games with their past production numbers, drastically boosting their crop in three years when they knew they would benefit from the subsidy, then leveling off in subsequent years.

“[A]fter more than ten years of lavish taxpayer support, it’s time for the biodiesel industry to stand on its own two feet,” Alexander said.

Big Labor Political Spending Topped $2B for 2018 Election Cycle

Ben Sellers
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2018 midterm election spending increased by $300M over 2016 general election….

Photo by K. Kendall

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) In spite of—or perhaps because of—a landmark Supreme Court ruling that cut into their involuntary base of dues-paying members, labor unions doubled down during the 2017-18 election cycle, spending more than $2 billion, according to an analysis of government records.

The National Institute for Labor Relations Research compared filings from the Labor Department, Federal Election Commission and Internal Revenue Service to determine that Big Labor had bet heavily on the 2018 midterms—even after the devastating legal decision.

Last June, the high court’s landmark Janus v. AFSCME decision determined that public-sector employees could not be forced to pay dues to unions whose political activities they opposed.

The ruling threatened to purge possibly millions of members from their ranks—and even more from their coffers. However, many cases have arisen of unions actively resisting the law by setting narrow withdrawal windows or simply refusing to comply.

In some cases, state legislatures have even jumped on board to pitch alarming legislative workarounds to the federal mandate.

The NILRR determined that of the $2 billion invested in lobbying and electioneering activities during the most recent election cycle, more than $1.3 billion came directly from general treasury funds that were paid by union-member dues, often forcibly imposed on non-members.

But the group said that its spending figure was likely a conservative estimate.

“On balance, then, the aggregate $2 billion in political and lobbying expenditures by labor union[s] since the 2018 election cycle reported here is likely an understatement because NILRR chose to mostly ignore the $500 million of union contributions, gifts, and grants that are heavily misclassified,” it said in a release.

Shockingly, the $2 billion reflected an increase of at least $300 million over the 2016 presidential race, when the union rolls were not in jeopardy. However, the amount of general treasury funding did not increase between the two election cycles.

Union contributions historically have gone almost exclusively to Democrats, and the most recent cycle was no exception, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The top 20 recipients of 2018 campaign donations from unions were all Democrats.

Unfortunately for the unions, several of their biggest “investments” in the U.S. Senate were for naught.

Public-sector unions‘ top three campaign cash recipients—Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Bill Nelson of Florida and Claire McCaskill of Missouri—all were voted out of office.

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