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Big Tech’s harmful censorship of Republican candidates

Big Tech in America has gone woke, and America sees it. From selective censorship of conservative viewpoints to policies that prop up the far-left’s agenda, these corporations have become the newest arm of the Democrat Party. With online platforms becoming increasingly central to the daily lives of many Americans, Silicon Valley companies have gained massive power to shape our politics, culture, and our elections. 

Central to successful political campaigns is a candidate’s ability to convey their ideas to the public. Since the arrival of radio and TV, politicians have leveraged these channels of mass communication to engage, persuade and mobilize. In the past decade, the Internet has been revolutionary in creating avenues to contact voters and supporters—in fact, digital platforms have become one of the top ways to reach more than 70 percent of all Americans. 

As more and more campaigns across party lines use digital tools for fundraising and communicating directly to voters, they’ve become essential to political success. It also raises serious scrutiny on how the political bias of unaccountable Big Tech companies, who control these platforms, could dramatically impact election outcomes.  

A new, nonpartisan study from researchers at North Carolina State University has unmistakably exposed Big Tech’s most egregious attempt to tilt the scale toward left-wing candidates. Ahead of the 2020 elections, the researchers found that Gmail, the most used email platform in the world, was a whopping seven times more likely to send conservative candidates’ emails to a spam folder than it was to send left-wing candidates’ emails to that unwanted destination.  

By making it more difficult for right-of-center candidates to convey their message to voters, Gmail’s political bias dramatically hurt Republican candidates while benefiting their Democrat counterparts. This is unacceptable. 

Gmail’s bias against conservative candidates is not the only example of unfairness. The payment processor Stripe cancelled campaign contributions to candidates that took positions of which they disapproved. GoFundMe suspended fundraising for the Canadian Freedom Truckers in January. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s Peer To Peer text messaging campaign in the summer prior to the 2020 election. 

Republican campaigns have tried to sound the alarm when unexplainable issues with sending emails to supporters and potential voters happen or when large numbers of email addresses mysteriously will not work or end up in spam boxes, but to no avail.  

This biased email process amounts to a massive corporate contribution to Democrat candidates and a de facto tax on Republicans candidates that are spending more resources to make up for the lost communication. The impact of email bias could be equivalent to hundreds of millions of dollars in lost fundraising, not to mention Get Out the Vote (GOTV) and other political communications that impact tens of millions of potential voters. 

The significant swing to one side of the political aisle is alarming, and it should shock all of the election watchdogs. 

It’s time we turn an eye to the power of Big Tech as much as we did when radio and TV altered elections. As these gatekeepers decide what views and voices Americans hear or don’t hear, they influence our elections. When they favor one party’s candidate, it’s not only an unfair disadvantage for the opponent, it’s a disservice to American voters. Blocking delivery of one campaign’s fundraising emails or GOTV messages can change the outcome in competitive races.  

Electronic communication has an unprecedented impact on political discourse. Minimizing bias throughout the entire communications framework is important to restoring trust in the election process. It is something that we can no longer allow to happen with no repercussions. Candidates and voters on both sides of the aisle should have the confidence to know that the Big Tech gatekeepers are not blocking their access to information and voters.  

Steve Daines is the junior senator from Montana. 

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US cites ‘genuine possibility’ of North Korea missile, nuclear test during Biden trip

The Biden administration is preparing for the possibility that North Korea will conduct a missile or nuclear test near or during President Biden’s visit to the region.  

 White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Wednesday that U.S. intelligence suggests that such tests before, during, or after Biden’s upcoming Asia trip are a “genuine possibility.” 

“Our intelligence does reflect the genuine possibility that there will be either a further missile test, including long-range missile test, or a nuclear test or, frankly, both in the days leading into, on or after the president’s trip to the region,” Sullivan said.  

“We are preparing for all contingencies, including the possibility that such a provocation would occur while we are in Korea or in Japan,” he added.  

Sullivan said U.S. officials are coordinating with allies in the region and indicated the issue came up during his call earlier Wednesday with his Chinese counterpart, China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi. 

Biden is scheduled to leave for the Asia trip on Thursday. He’ll first visit South Korea, where he will meet with newly-elected President Yoon Seok-youl, and then Japan, where he will meet with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Biden is also scheduled to participate in a meeting of the Quad alliance, which includes the U.S., Japan, Australia and India. 

Sullivan did not provide further detail on the intelligence assessment about the threat from North Korea, which has conducted several ballistic missile tests in recent months. The most recent test-launch was reported on May 4.  

North Korea has not conducted a nuclear test in five years.  

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As US men’s and women’s soccer teams reach equal pay agreement, other sports lag far behind in pay parity

In a historic first, the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) on Wednesday announced it had reached a pay equity agreement with the men’s and women’s soccer teams, making it the first American national governing body to promise to pay its male and female athletes equally.

The USSF in a statement said it had reached two new collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) with the national unions of both the men’s and women’s teams. Each team will now receive “identical compensation” for all competitions – including the FIFA World Cup – and are guaranteed the same commercial revenue-sharing mechanism, according to the agreements, which run through 2028.

“This is a truly historic moment. These agreements have changed the game forever here in the United States and have the potential to change the game around the world,” U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone said Wednesday in a statement.

The agreements also have the potential to bring about massive changes in other women’s sports across the nation – most of which have massive gender wage gaps.

Basketball

According to an Adelphi University analysis of average player compensation, the average male professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA) made roughly $8.3 million in 2019, while their female counterparts in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) made an average of just over $75,000 that year.

Like most spaces, basketball’s gender pay gap is widest at the top. This year, Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry made more than $40 million, while Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi – the highest-paid player in the WNBA this year, according to Statista – made just over $228,000.

For the 2021-22 season, the minimum salary for NBA players was just north of $925,000.

Baseball

According to the Adelphi analysis, athletes for the National Pro Fastpitch League (NPF) in 2019 made $6,000, while professional Major League Baseball (MLB) players earned, on average, more than $4 million.

Golf

Last year, a BBC study into prize money in sport found that golf had one of the highest gender pay gaps in all of professional athletics. In all three of golf’s traditional mixed Majors – The Open, U.S. Open and PGA Championship – men’s first place prizes were higher than women’s by more than $1 million.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Women’s Open Golf Tournament announced an effort to shrink that gap by increasing its purse to $10 million, nearly doubling last year’s $5.5 million award. The tournament has pledged to raise the prize fund to 12 million over the next five years.

Even so, the gender pay gap between male and female golfers remains enormously large. In 2021, U.S. golfer Tiger Woods brought home close to $121 million, while Korean pro golfer Jin Young Ko, the highest paid player in the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), made just over $3.5 million. U.S. golfer Nelly Korda took home $2.3 million last year.

Tennis

Professional tennis boasts one of the lowest gender pay gaps in all of sports, but an analysis of player compensation last year found that male tennis players on average still out-earn their female counterparts by more than 34 percent.

Women’s tennis players Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka were named by Forbes this year as two of the top 50 highest-paid athletes in the world – but were the only women to make the cut.

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Grimes auctioning off Met Gala accessories to help BIPOC Ukrainians

Singer Grimes is auctioning off accessories from her outfit for last year’s Met Gala to raise money for Ukrainian refugees who are Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC).

Grimes, who has two children with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, shared the details of the auction to her Instagram page on Tuesday.

“I’m auctioning stuff from my Met gala look last year to raise money to help get BIPOC families out of Ukraine since they’re having trouble exiting at the border,” she wrote.

The items up for grabs include a metal facemask and a pair of winged over-the-ear earrings she wore to the event celebrating the opening of the “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” exhibition on Sept. 13, 2021.

“Each piece offers a unique interpretation of the theme ‘resistance,'” the singer wrote about the auction. “All proceeds will go to Diaspora Relief and Razom, which will use the funds to provide food, shelter, and evacuation support to those in need.”

Bidding on the items begins on Artsy at 3 p.m. ET on May 26.

The fundraiser comes amid a war in Ukraine that has dragged on for over three months after Russia invaded the country.

The violence has created a humanitarian crisis in the region, and millions of refugees have sought to leave to neighboring countries including Poland.

The U.S. has sent billions of dollars in aid to the country to assist the Ukrainian forces.

The Biden administration and Democrats are pushing to pass an additional $40 billion Ukraine aid package. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday predicted the legislation would pass the Senate Thursday.  

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Health secretary Becerra tests positive for COVID-19 during trip to Berlin

Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday while traveling in Berlin, the department announced.  

“This morning in Berlin, ahead of G7 meetings for health ministers, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra tested positive for COVID-19 after taking a PCR test,” said HHS spokeswoman Sarah Lovenheim. “He is fully vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19, and is experiencing mild symptoms. He will continue to perform his duties as HHS Secretary, working in isolation.” 

The statement added that Becerra most recently visited the White House on Thursday and that President Biden is not considered a close contact.  

Becerra is the latest in a string of high-profile Biden administration officials to contract the virus, as the United States sees a surge in cases. Vice President Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken both recently had the virus.  

Biden so far has avoided having a known case of the virus, but the White House has acknowledged it is possible he will be infected as well. The administration argues that tools like vaccines, booster shots, and treatments now exist that make the virus much more manageable.  

The White House did warn earlier on Wednesday that it needs funding from Congress to be able to purchase enough updated vaccines for all Americans ahead of a new wave in the fall and winter.  

“[Becerra] remains fully engaged with the duties of HHS Secretary while in isolation in Berlin, and looks forward to resuming in-person meetings, as soon as possible,” Lovenheim said.  

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White House shrugs off likely defeat of Biden-backed Oregon congressman

The White House on Wednesday sought to put a positive spin on the likely primary defeat of one of the only candidates President Biden has endorsed in the midterm election cycle.

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters the White House did not view the performance of Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.), who Biden endorsed and who was on track to lose to challenger Jamie McLeod-Skinner, as a rebuke of the president’s agenda, instead arguing both candidates were supportive of Biden.

“The race in Oregon was focused on just how much each candidate supported the president. That’s what we saw in this particular race,” Jean-Pierre told reporters.

McLeod-Skinner, Jean-Pierre said, “ran on an agenda of President Biden’s priorities, including lowering the price of prescription drugs, and tackling climate change and the fossil fuel pledge.”

The press secretary pointed to McLeod-Skinner’s previous praise of Biden’s handling of the situation in Ukraine, and she noted that when Biden endorsed Schrader, McLeod-Skinner prefaced her disagreement by saying she respected Biden’s work to address the pandemic and the economy since taking office.

As of Wednesday afternoon, McLeod-Skinner led with 61 percent of the vote with roughly 53 percent of precincts reporting in Oregon’s 5th Congressional District. Biden backed Schrader last month, marking a rare foray into a Democratic primary race.

Jean-Pierre said the White House is “not at all” concerned about Schrader’s potential defeat signaling larger problems for the president’s sway within the party.

“Because again, both candidates were running on a platform that supported and embraced the president’s agenda,” she said.

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Dow plunges nearly 1,200 points in worst day since March 2020

Stocks plunged Wednesday as deepening concern about the economic impact of high inflation and rising interest rates drove the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its worst day since March 2020.

The Dow closed with a loss of 1,161 points, dropping 3.6 percent Wednesday for its steepest one-day drop since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. The S&P 500 closed 4 percent lower and the Nasdaq closed 4.7 percent lower Wednesday.

Wall Street experts pinned the steep Wednesday selloff on disappointing first quarter earnings from Target and other major retailers revealed earlier in the day, which traders saw a red flag for the economic outlook.

“The Charlie Brown shirt market continues, with big moves up and down seemingly every day,” said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at LPL Financial.

“Worries over inflation and a hawkish Fed are nothing new, but now add in worries over profit margins and the impact of inflation on the consumer and you have the recipe for a big down day.”

Target shares fell 25 percent Wednesday after the company reported earnings well below Wall Street analysts’ expectations. The retail giant blamed high gas prices, soaring transportation costs and rising employee compensation for its earnings shortfall, following similarly disappointing earnings reports from Walmart and Amazon earlier in the month.

Shares of Walmart, Amazon, Macy’s, Dollar General, and Best Buy also saw steep Wednesday declines, though no sector was spared from the market’s deep selloff.

Companies dependent on strong consumer spending such as food and beverage makers, consumer technology companies, banks, credit card companies, hotels, and airlines took heavy losses. A handful of telecommunications and pharmaceutical companies were among the few firms in the green by the closing bell.

“US stocks are crumbling after Wall Street worries about economic growth after hearing a chorus of concerns of higher prices that won’t be easing anytime soon. The strength of the consumer will be tested as both Walmart and Target signal rising pricing pressures are not easing,” wrote Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA.

Wednesday marked a new low for a stock market in steady decline since the start of the year. While the U.S. economy remains strong by many measures, stock prices have fallen over concerns about the combined impact of high inflation, rising interest rates and a series of obstacles to the Federal Reserve’s fight to stabilize prices.

The Dow is now down 14 percent from the start of 2022, well below 10 percent loss from a 52-week high that traders consider to be a correction. The S&P is down 18.3 percent on the year and the Nasdaq is deep into a bear market with 28-percent decline on the year after both indexes took heavy hits from an earlier nosedive in technology stocks.

Retailers are likely to feel more financial pressure though the rest of 2022 as the Fed boosts interest rates to curb inflation. Higher borrowing costs means retailers will likely see fewer sales as consumers pull back spending, and companies will also face the strain of rising rates on their profit margins.

Even so, some investment experts think Wednesday’s reaction to Target’s earnings miss could be overblown. 

​​Stocks rallied Tuesday after the Census Bureau reported 0.9 percent increase in retail sales last month, showing how resilient consumer spending has been in the face of high inflation.

“The consumer still seems to be looking for ways to cut costs, shifting where they shop for things like groceries and other necessities, so they can spend on services and experiences. It’s a tradeoff,” said Lindsey Bell, chief markets and money strategist at Ally.

“However, investors will likely remain nervous about how long this consumer resiliency can last.”

A decline in consumer demand should theoretically reduce inflation as companies are forced to keep prices stable — or even lower them — to ensure they can make as many sales as possible. But ongoing shutdowns in China, shipping delays, port bottlenecks and the economic fallout of the war in Ukraine are all likely to keep pushing prices for oil, food and other key goods higher.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell expressed confidence Wednesday the U.S. economy could handle rising interest rates without falling into a recession. But he made clear the Fed would not stop fighting inflation until it was on its way back toward the bank’s 2 percent annual target, even if it meant raising rates to levels meant to restrict the economy.

“Restoring price stability is an unconditional need — it’s something we have to do,” Powell said.

“The economy doesn’t work for workers, or for businesses, or for anybody without price stability,” he continued. “It’s the bedrock of the economy, and it’s something we need to do if we want to have the labor market we all want to have.”

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The Department of Justice’s strategy to advance environmental justice

After a halting start, the Biden administration has recently taken several steps to advance environmental justice and use enforcement of our nation’s environmental laws to protect communities of color and low-income and indigenous communities. This month, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has created an Office of Environmental Justice as part of a comprehensive environmental justice enforcement strategy for complementing the work of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) programs.

In addition, EPA has updated a screening tool it uses to identify communities that face disproportionate environmental burdens, and requested additional environmental justice funding, along with more enforcement and monitoring resources to protect disadvantaged communities, and new authority and funding for environmental justice grants.

DOJ’s strategy provides a roadmap for using enforcement to advance environmental justice through coordinated efforts to identify and prioritize cases that will significantly reduce environmental and public health harms in overburdened and underserved communities.  The strategy focuses on addressing actual or threatened adverse impacts to public health or the environment from systemic environmental violations, contamination or injury to natural resources. It also calls for public engagement to ensure affected communities play a role in identifying their needs and deciding how to address them and a transparent enforcement process so that the public can understand the nature and purpose of actions being taken, and can monitor progress.

The strategy calls for identifying and employing the full range of available enforcement authorities and tools for addressing environmental violations and protecting affected communities.  The suite of tools obviously includes environmental protection laws, but may also extend to federal civil rights laws, worker safety and consumer protection statutes, as well as the False Claims Act. 

Consistent with that comprehensive approach, DOJ has already begun a civil rights investigation into the potential links between racism and the notorious wastewater disposal and infectious disease problems in Lowndes County, Alabama. That impoverished Black community has endured years of chronic water, flooding and sanitation woes, including unsafe drinking water and repeated sewage backups.

A particular challenge facing DOJ arises from the practical difficulty of using enforcement tools to provide redress to communities for the harms they have suffered from past violations. Fines and compliance orders, for example, can penalize violators for their past actions and prevent or deter future violations, but generally cannot undo damage from past violations or relieve communities of burdens from harms they have already suffered.

One mechanism for using the enforcement process to repair or mitigate the harm from a violation is through use of what are known as Supplemental Environmental Projects. Those are projects that provides a tangible environmental or public health benefit that cannot be legally compelled but that a defendant has proposed to include as part of the settlement of an enforcement action to help communities recover from previous harms or avoid future harms. DOJ had used these tools for decades, and they had produced many environmental benefits, such as abating lead contamination or providing monitoring equipment to communities to verify compliance with settlement terms. The Trump administration repudiated the use of these mechanisms and issued a rule prohibiting their use. The DOJ has now revoked that policy and issued a rule allowing such projects, reopening a promising avenue for providing benefits to communities harmed by violations.

Another useful way of focusing protection on disadvantaged communities is through mapping tools to help identify communities that may face disproportionate environmental burdens. EPA has recently released a revised draft of EJ Screen, which creates a nationally consistent approach for mapping environmental burdens and vulnerabilities at a community level. 

The tool uses a dozen indicators of potential environmental risk or harm, including high concentrations of harmful air pollutants such as small particulate matter, ozone and diesel particulate matter, or elevated air quality hazards such as toxics-related cancer risk. Other indicators include proximity to hazardous waste sites, underground fuel storage tanks, wastewater contamination discharges and traffic.

EJ Screen also includes demographic factors generally indicating a community’s potential susceptibility to environmental burdens. It uses seven factors: income and education level, unemployment rate, percentages of non-English speakers, people of color, people under age 5 or over 64.  This screening information can be useful for deciding how and whether to deploy enforcement resources to protect disadvantaged communities, and for other screening, outreach and analytical purposes.

The White House Council on Environmental Quality has also issued another screening tool using  similar but not identical criteria to inform how federal agencies direct the benefits of federal spending. This is most obviously useful in identifying disadvantaged communities for purposes of implementing the Justice40 initiative, which provides that 40 percent of the benefits of specified federal spending go to disadvantaged communities.  Justice40 is a centerpiece of the administration’s environmental justice policy and an important tool for repairing and redressing the effects of a legacy of environmental injustice.

These enforcement and mapping tools will be invaluable in advancing environmental justice. But Congress needs to fund them if they are to fulfill their promise to our nation’s marginalized and overburdened low income, indigenous and communities of color of fair treatment and full participation in our nation’s economic and social life.

David F. Coursen is a former EPA attorney and a member of the Environmental Protection Network, a nonprofit organization of EPA alumni working to protect the agency’s progress toward clean air, water, land and climate protection.

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Eying new House district, Dem campaign chair faces backlash

The looming overhaul of New York’s congressional map has sparked open warfare among incumbent Democrats, setting the stage for a potential clash between the party’s midterm campaign chairman and a freshman Black lawmaker — a scenario that’s prompted a backlash from some members of the Congressional Black Caucus. 

The furor revolves around the recent announcement by Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, who currently represents New York’s 18th District, to run for reelection in the 17th, a seat currently held by fellow Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones, a member of the CBC. 

Maloney heads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), and his proposed jump has drawn howls from some Democrats, who say it’s inherently unfair to have the campaign chairman — a figure who both controls the party’s finances and is charged with protecting incumbents — take on someone currently holding a seat. 

Jones has not announced his plans if New York’s new map, which a judge unveiled on Monday, is finalized. But Jones represents an overwhelming majority of the newly proposed 17th District, and if the new lines become law he could be put in the difficult spot of either challenging Maloney to keep his seat, or jumping to the 16th District to take on another Black liberal Democrat, Rep. Jamaal Bowman.

Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), head of the Black Caucus, downplayed the quarrel on Wednesday, pointing out that New York’s map is not expected to be final until the end of the week. 

“We’re not at Friday yet, so we don’t know what the districts are gonna look like,” she told reporters in the Capitol. 

But other lawmakers aren’t waiting that long, lashing out at Maloney for even the threat of challenging an incumbent from his perch atop the DCCC. 

“There’s a simple solution here. Maloney should run in NY-18, which he mostly represents. Jones in NY-17, which he mostly represents. Bowman in NY-16, which he mostly represents,” Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), yet another first-term Black New Yorker, tweeted Wednesday. “Problem solved.”

When reports emerged Wednesday that Maloney and his supporters are planning to argue that Jones would be better suited for Bowman’s district, which is more urban, Torres dropped the cordial tone.

“The thinly veiled racism here is profoundly disappointing,” he said in a second tweet. “A black man is ideologically ill suited to represent a Westchester County District that he represents presently and won decisively in 2020?   

“Outrageous.”

Maloney has defended the notion of jumping districts, saying the new lines — if they become final — put his residence squarely in the 17th District.

“It’s important that we all remember that this is up to the voters, not to any of us. And ultimately, the voters will make these choices. All we do is put our names on a ballot,” he told reporters on Tuesday. 

“From my point of view, I’m just running where … I landed,” he continued. “If someone else is looking at the district as well, obviously we’ll try to work through that as colleagues and friends.”

With the New York map scheduled to be announced in its final form on Friday, a number of prominent Democrats are joining Beatty in treading carefully — at least publicly — until the process is through. 

“I like to see what it is when it’s all done. And I might have an opinion then,” said Rep. Jim Clyburn (S.C.), the Democratic whip and a prominent member of the Black Caucus. 

Others have focused their criticisms not at Maloney but the series of court decisions that first rejected the Democrats’ proposed map, which likely would have allowed Democrats to pick up several House seats, and then replaced it with the latest proposal, which could lead to Democratic losses. If there’s any racism in the process, these critics say, it was there.

“In Brooklyn and Queens, you’ve got four districts with significant pluralities of either African-Americans or Latinos. … In this proposed map, the Black or Latino population was degraded in all four districts. Are you kidding me? That doesn’t happen by accident,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said Tuesday. 

Beatty on Wednesday delivered a similar verdict. 

“I’m not going to go and make a statement that our DCCC chair did anything that was racially motivated. Candidates can make choices. No one’s going to force anyone to run anywhere,” she said. “I think the bigger picture is what happened in redistricting. If you want to talk about something being racially motivated, let’s go look at the court system.” 

Mychael Schnell contributed reporting.

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