A Top Financier of Trump and McConnell Is a Driving Force Behind Amazon Deforestation




Reader Supported News
30 August 19

We are making the best progress on donations we have made all month at this point. Still barely 500 readers out of the 500,000 who have visited RSN this month have contributed.
Give us a hand - today, please.
With urgency.
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News


If you would prefer to send a check:
Reader Supported News
PO Box 2043
Citrus Hts, CA 95611



Reader Supported News
30 August 19
It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News

A Top Financier of Trump and McConnell Is a Driving Force Behind Amazon Deforestation 
A fire burns trees next to grazing land in the Amazon basin in Ze Doca, Brazil. (photo: Mario Tama/Getty)
Ryan Grim, The Intercept
Grim writes: "Two Brazilian firms owned by a top donor to President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are significantly responsible for the ongoing destruction of the Amazon rainforest, carnage that has developed into raging fires that have captivated global attention." 

EXCERPT: 

Schwarzman, a founder of Blackstone, owns roughly a fifth of the company, making him one of the world’s richest men. In 2018, he was paid at least $568 million, which was, in fact, a drop from the $786 million he made the year before. He has been generous toward McConnell and Trump with that wealth. In 2016, he gave $2.5 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, McConnell’s Super PAC and put Jim Breyer, McConnell’s billionaire brother-in-law, on the board of Blackstone. Two years later, Schwarzman kicked in $8 million to McConnell’s Super PAC. 
Blackstone employees have given well over $10 million to McConnell and his Super PAC over the years, making them the biggest source of direct financing over McConnell’s career. McConnell’s Senate campaign declined to comment.
Schwarzman is a close friend and adviser to Trump, and served as the chair of his Strategic and Policy Forum until it fell apart in the wake of the Charlottesville neo-Nazi rally, in which Trump famously praised “very fine people, on both sides.” In December 2017, as the final details of the GOP tax cut were being ironed out, Schwarzman hosted a $100,000-a-plate fundraiser for Trump. Some of the president’s dinner companions complained about the tax bill, and days later, Trump slashed the top percentage rate in the final package from 39.6 to 37. 
In recent months, the Sackler family, whose members founded and own the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma, have become pariahs for their role in facilitating the opioid crisis and the deaths of tens of thousands of people. Schwarzman’s contributions to the destruction of the Amazon, which stands between humanity and an uninhabitable planet, may ultimately render him as socially untouchable as the Sacklers, given the scale of the fallout from the destruction of the rainforest.

Researchers say that the presence of fringe candidates 'gradually works to make Republican voters more open to the ideas of the alt-right.' (photo: Steve Helber/AP)
Researchers say that the presence of fringe candidates 'gradually works to make Republican voters more open to the ideas of the alt-right.' (photo: Steve Helber/AP)

Leaked Emails Show How White Nationalists Have Infiltrated Conservative Media
Hannah Gais, Splinter
Gais writes: "There is a burgeoning underground network of group chats, message boards, and email chains serving as the breeding ground for incubating white nationalist ideas, and as a forum to strategize around how to launder those ideas through mainstream conservative publications."
READ MORE

Sen. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. (photo: Paul Sancya/AP)
Sen. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. (photo: Paul Sancya/AP)

Cenk Uygur | Brace for Impact, Washington. Progressives Are Going to Win.
Cenk Uygur, The Washington Post
Uygur writes: "The electorate does not want a moderate or conservative Democrat, no matter how much the mainstream media tries to will it into existence."
READ MORE

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (photo: Tawni Bannister/Hollywood Reporter)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (photo: Tawni Bannister/Hollywood Reporter)

Progressive Group That Backed AOC Takes Aim at Incumbents Across US
Billy House, Bloomberg
House writes: "The group is hoping to repeat Ocasio-Cortez's stunning 2018 Democratic primary victory over Joe Crowley, who was a member of House leadership and a 20-year incumbent."
READ MORE

Immigration detention center. (photo: Ross D. Franklin/AP)
Immigration detention center. (photo: Ross D. Franklin/AP)

DHS Bars Congressional Staffers From Migrant Detention Centers After Reports of Rotten Food, Children Eating Off Floor
Ramsey Touchberry, Newsweek
Touchberry writes: "The Department of Homeland Security has prevented congressional staffers from the House Oversight Committee from visiting additional migrant detention facilities along the southern border after allegedly making troubling discoveries in recent weeks at other detention centers, according to a letter sent to DHS Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan on Thursday."
READ MORE

Dissident FARC leaders announcing their split. (photo: teleSUR)
Dissident FARC leaders announcing their split. (photo: teleSUR)

Minority Faction of FARC Leadership Takes Up Arms
teleSUR
Excerpt: "In a blow to Colombia's peace process, a minority of senior leaders of the FARC have announced that they are splitting from the main organization and will be taking up arms again. The FARC have officially condemned the split, defending the principles of the 2016 peace agreements."
READ MORE

Methane burns off at drilling well. (photo: Orjan F. Ellingvag/Getty)
Methane burns off at drilling well. (photo: Orjan F. Ellingvag/Getty)

Despite Pushback From Big Oil, Trump Administration Will Weaken Methane Regulations
E.A. Crunden, ThinkProgress
Crunden writes: "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday announced it will reverse Obama-era limitations on the greenhouse gas methane, which is far more potent than carbon dioxide and often associated with fracking."
READ MORE












Comments