The military application of the Internet of Things will lead to breakthroughs in Network-Centric Warfare.



August 13, 2022 

Can the Military Harness the Internet of Things’ True Potential?
by Abdul Moiz Khan


In the 1990s, the U.S. Department of Defense put forward a new military doctrine called Network-Centric Warfare (NCW). The objective was to integrate emerging tactics, techniques, and procedures to bolster the warfighting capabilities of the military. To achieve this end, transforming information into combat power is critical. The Internet of Things, or IoT, refers to all those devices that are today connected to the internet and are sharing and collecting data. Real-time data collection and its analysis with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the main feature of IoT. Thus, the military application of IoT can be a breakthrough moment for Network-Centric Warfare.

Network-Centric Warfare’s doctrine seeks the integration of three domains: the physical domain, where events took place and operations are conducted; the information domain, where data is transmitted and stored; and the cognitive domain, where data is processed and analyzed. D.S. Alberts and other experts on the subject defined Network-Centric Warfare as “an information superiority-enabled concept of operations that generates increased combat power by networking sensors, decision-makers, and shooters to achieve shared awareness, increased speed of command, higher tempo of operations, greater lethality, increased survivability, and a degree of self-synchronization. In essence, NCW translates information superiority into combat power by effectively linking knowledgeable entities in the battlespace.” This military doctrine ignited a revolution in military affairs.

NCW brings many advantages to the table. It improves situational awareness at every level of the command structure. This in turn increases the speed of execution, as even the smallest tactical unit possesses the information. It can reduce collateral damage during a battle. At the logistical level, NCW can provide real-time data about the need for material supplies and can coordinate effectively to streamline the supply chains. It also helps in formulating joint force structures because of the real-time information sharing from tactical and strategic levels and a better communication channel that enhances the abilities of command and control structures.

An example of NCW in action is Operation Iraqi Freedom, undertaken by the United States and its allies. Despite being numerically weaker, the United States and its allies trampled the Iraqi forces with the help of its technologically advanced weapons and warfare systems. Prior information of important military targets through satellites and GPS combined with sensor-shooter integration increased the precision of weapons. Also, instant communication, along with GPS and laser targeting, provided the option of calling airstrikes at precise locations at a moment’s notice by the ground forces. K-Web, or knowledge wall, was one of the most important components of this war. It was a large screen display panel that had information about each warfighting and support unit. It was used effectively for planning, briefing, and executing plans by accumulating all the possible data. These are just some of the systems that changed the whole idea of warfare and unleashed the power of technology.

However, there are a few shortcomings with NCW that need to be addressed to further harness the potential of this revolution in military affairs. One shortcoming is that it is resource intensive. It is not easy to procure, and its research and design can take years. Another major shortcoming is that conventional systems lack automation. A huge chunk of data is collected in real-time during a conflict from different sources. However, many data integration systems rely on manual data entry systems. Similarly, processing this huge swath of data manually is a hurdle. This is where IoT will come into play. It is cost-effective and automated, which will make it a valuable component of NCW military systems.

In this “information age,” technological advancements are shaping the world at a very fast pace. IoT has an impact on every aspect of human life, as it is a network of physical devices that can be in any form, including home appliances, smart gears, actuators, and software for connectivity and data exchange. The number of IoT devices is increasing day by day as more devices are being connected to the internet. At the end of 2021, the total number of active IoT devices was estimated to be around 12.2 billion, more than the total human population.

IoT is being utilized in all spheres of life, from medical to the military. In the domain of the military, it is deployed for combat purposes, including Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR); in fire control systems, delivering devastating firepower; in security systems based on facial, or iris, or fingerprint or radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology; in training and simulation exercises; and electronic warfare.

The utilization of IoT for NCW can be very beneficial for the latter. IoT systems are far cheaper than the traditional systems that were used for real-time data collection. Situation awareness is one of the central aspects of NCW. For this, real-time data is collected, shared, and reprocessed at the same time to gather information and formulate strategy. IoT devices are not only cheaper but also more efficient. The IoT systems collect real-time data about the systems themselves, submeter data, and environmental data. The second utility IoT systems have is automation. They can collect, share, and reprocess large swaths of data without human help. This will have two advantages for NCW. First, large amounts of data will be reprocessed quickly, thus decreasing the response time and increasing efficacy. Second, it will decrease the human burden and free people for other tasks.

IoT is an advanced technology, and with the revolution in military affairs, it will have a far-reaching impact on the battlefield. It has solved a few shortcomings of NCW and augmented many of its capabilities, thus increasing its efficacy. With the speed at which Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom took place two decades ago, we can envisage what the future has in store.

Abdul Moiz Khan works as a Research Officer at the Center of International Strategic Studies (CISS), Islamabad. He tweets at @kmoizsays.

Image: DVIDS.

A Distant Mirror: Official Torture in the Roman Empire

by William Manson / August 13th, 2022

Much is to be learned from the political correspondence of such Roman luminaries as Julius Caesar, Cicero, Seneca, among many others.  Here I am restricting myself to a Gestapo-like bureaucrat, Pliny the Younger (61-113 C.E.), imperial governor of Bithynia province (now part of Turkey) under the divinely mandated autocracy of the Emperor Trajan (53-117 C.E.).

In his numerous letters seeking orders from the emperor, Pliny repeatedly pledges his obeisant loyalty.  But his tone, which seems curiously modern to me, is that of a pragmatic administrator merely seeking clarification of official policy regarding treatment of a small but possibly disloyal, subversive cult.  Here is a high-level governor, entirely indifferent to any considerations of morality, writing in the matter-of-fact, legalistic style we have come to expect from present-day war planners and intelligence agency heads.  New religious cults posed a possible threat of disloyalty to the emperor, whose rule itself is sanctified by the official State religion.

An eccentric, secretive cult known as Christians had become a concern, and Pliny simply requests orders as to how to deal with them:

I do not know…whether it is the mere name of Christian which is punishable, even if innocent of crime, or rather the crimes associated with the name…. I have asked them in person if they are Christians, and if they admit it, I repeat the question a second or third time, with a warning of the punishment awaiting them.  If they persist, I order them to be led away to execution.

On the other hand, after “enhanced interrogation,” many suspects said they had long ceased to be Christians, and, as proof, made offerings to Trajan’s statue and invocations to the official gods.  Christians had been in the habit of gathering to study the Gospels and share a meal afterwards.  But Pliny reports to the emperor that “they had in fact given up this practice since my edict, issued on your instructions, which banned all political societies.  This made me decide it was all the more necessary to extract the truth by torture from two slave-women, whom they call deaconesses… I have postponed any further examination and hastened to consult you.”

Although the “wretched cult” has “infected” both citizens and non-citizens in innumerable towns and villages, Pliny assures the emperor that it is being gradually suppressed, one indication being that:

People have begun to throng the temples which had been almost entirely deserted for a long time; the sacred rites which had been allowed to lapse are being performed again, and flesh of sacrificial victims is on sale everywhere, though up till recently scarcely anyone could be found to buy it [italics mine].

Entirely pragmatic and focused solely on policy which would strengthen the empire, Pliny the Younger strikingly prefigures the modern “fascist” official.  Devoid of independent principles or even ordinary compassion, he furthers his governmental status through carefully consulting with, and carrying out, the edicts of his superior, the absolute ruler.

We can easily discern the lineaments of the very modern-day tactics of intimidating, torturing and even executing without trial supposed “subversives” and suspected “terrorists” (Guantanamo, CIA renditions and black-sites, executions by drone without trial–ad nauseam).

• Note: all direct quotations are from: Pliny the Younger, Complete Letters, trans. P. G. Walsh, Oxford World Classics, 2009.Facebook

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William Manson is the author of The Psychodynamics of Culture (Greenwood Press). Read other articles by William.

Advocates call on Biden to permanently shut down inhumane Berks County Detention Center


Alexandra Martinez for Prism Reports
Prism
Monday August 08, 2022

Activist Adam de Monet wears an "Abolish ICE" facemask while joining others during a "Reunite Our Families Now" rally in Los Angeles on March 6, 2021, to protest continued deportations under President Joe Biden, urging that ICE be abolished and calling for the closure of camps where immigrants are being held.

This article was originally published at Prism

Members of the Shut Down Berks Coalition, immigrant families, and residents of Berks County, Pennsylvania, thought they had scored a victory on Feb. 26, 2021, when President Joe Biden’s administration emptied Berks County Detention Center, an immigrant detention center that has held families since 2001, including children as young as 2 weeks old. But, by September 2021, the Biden administration had fallen back on its campaign promise to close the infamous center with a history of abusing women, and the Berks County Commissioners reached an agreement to reopen, repurpose, and increase the bed space to detain immigrant women. Now, the Shut Down Berks Coalition and Berks County residents are demanding that the Biden administration permanently shut down the facility and release all women currently incarcerated.

“Conditions are worse, but we’ve always known that they’re bad,” said Adrianna Torres-García, program coordinator for the Free Migration Project. “It’s a prison, so we don’t expect conditions to be good. That’s why we’re calling for it to be permanently shut down and for no one to be incarcerated there. No matter what the conditions are, it’s still a prison.”

Since January 2022, Berks has incarcerated as many as 65 women at a time. In 2014 a staff member was convicted of raping a 19-year-old mother. Advocates and community members are concerned the abuse will continue now that the facility only houses women. In a 2018 report, there were 1,224 instances of reported sexual assault in ICE detention. According to Torres-García, the women at Berks report that they get less time to go outdoors and are repeatedly subjected to impromptu bed checks throughout the night. They’ve also reported receiving very little food, and have said what they are served makes them sick.

Berks is taxpayer funded, and Berks residents have argued that their tax dollars should instead be invested in the health and well-being of their community, including better-funded schools, violence prevention services, addiction treatment services, and greater access to health care—not prisons.

“All they’re doing is waiting for their immigration cases to go forward; they can do that from outside of a prison,” Torres-Garcia said. “As long as it’s open, even if it’s like the best conditions in the world, it’s still going to be a prison where people are incarcerated unfairly, and they don’t need to be there.”

Torres-Garcia said that releasing incarcerated people back to the community is always an option. When Berks was emptied, some of the people were released back to their community or to people who agreed to sponsor them, while others were deported. In other situations where centers have been closed, people have simply been transferred to other facilities—a decision advocates say is ICE’s way to continue perpetuating harm. Now, Berks has been repopulated.

But contracts with ICE have been severed before. In March 2022, the Department of Homeland Security declined to extend its ICE detention contract with Glades County, Alabama. After sustained pressure over the past year and a half in its fight to close Glades County Detention Center, the Shut Down Glades Coalition has been able to achieve zero people in ICE custody at Glades, with ICE announcing that they have “paused” the use of the facility, and acknowledged severely inadequate and dangerous medical care as a factor in its decision to end the use of the facility.

“I think it’s important to shut down the detention centers around the country because they’ve proven time and again, there’s no humane way to detain people,” said Sofia Casini, the director of visitation advocacy strategies at Freedom for Immigrants. “Every detention center is rife with examples of abuse, human rights violations, and just denial of people’s right to freedom and liberty. ICE thrives in secrecy, and this is the way it has run its detention machine all around the country. So what we’ve seen time and again—this is through our national hotline, where we receive abuse reports all around the country, and then from a network of community groups around the country—is that there is no way to humanely detain people in immigrant detention.”

While the contract with ICE has been severed, the Glades County detention facility is still being used to detain people in the custody of the U.S. Marshals despite its extensive record of human rights abuses, including racist violence, sexual abuse, the use of toxic chemical sprays, and fatal medical neglect, among other harms. ICE declined to fully terminate its Intergovernmental Service Agreement (IGSA) with Glades County, enabling future abuse.

“While we celebrate the fact that ICE has heard our demands and paused its operations at Glades, our work is not over,” Casini said. “Regardless of whether ICE or another agency holds the keys, the Glades jail will perpetuate this country’s shameful, racist, and dehumanizing systems of mass incarceration for as long as it remains standing. We all deserve to live in freedom and dignity, which is why we will continue to fight to close down all detention centers and seek freedom for everyone caged.”

Eric Martinez, who was formerly incarcerated at Glades and is now organizing with Immigrant Action Alliance, said there is no difference between the treatment of people who are incarcerated in the county jail portion from the people in immigration detention.

“It was an amazing feeling to raise up the voices of those in detention and to show the injustices and discrimination that go on in detention centers,” said Martinez. “Glades employees and ICE employees have done so much covering up, but what is done in the dark should come out to light. It was a great pleasure to be part of that light.”

Martinez said he faced repeated pepper spraying, horrible food, expensive phone calls, and doors slammed behind his back.

“For people that have never been incarcerated or are just looking to be in a safe country, that’s very traumatizing for them,” Martinez said. “So I think those detention centers should be demolished, and I’m glad that Glades was shut down.”

Prism is an independent and nonprofit newsroom led by journalists of color. Our in-depth and thought-provoking journalism reflects the lived experiences of people most impacted by injustice. We tell stories from the ground up to disrupt harmful narratives, and to inform movements for justice. Sign up for our newsletter to get our stories in your inbox, and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

SPACE RACE 2.0

Exclusive: Inside U.S. Space Command Joint Operations Center

Aug 13, 2022

Our cameras were the first to ever go inside the U.S. Space Command Joint Operations Center, where the U.S. tracks launches around the world to monitor the threat level. The facility is notified “almost immediately” of rocket or missile launches around the world, Lt. Gen. John Shaw told NBC News’ Tom Costello. Gen. James Dickinson, SpaceCom’s commander, spoke exclusively to NBC News about a Russian satellite launched into orbit just beneath a U.S. satellite, calling it “irresponsible,” and more. Outside experts said they believe the recent action by Russia is no coincidence.

SPACE RACE 2.0

WATCH: See China's space station show off huge new 'solar energy-capturing wings'

by Cami Mondeaux, Breaking News Reporter |
| August 13, 2022 

Newly released video from China’s human spaceflight agency shows the country’s recently developed “wings” meant to rotate around the Earth to provide solar power for the Tiangong space station.

Video footage displays the large solar rays in space above the Tiangong space station, showing how several of the panels move direction to face the sun. The new wings are part of the space station’s Wentian experiment module aimed to expand the Tiangong space station.

The solar panels will provide power to the space station as the country plans to keep it operating with rotating crews of three astronauts over the next decade, according to Space.com.

When fully completed, the Tiangong space station will be roughly 20% the size of the International Space Station, which has solar arrays with a wingspan of about 240 feet that give the station power. Comparatively, the two Wentian solar arrays currently in operation are each 98 feet long and have a total combined wingspan of over 180 feet, Space.com reported.

China’s space station plans to add a third and final module to the Tiangong station in October called Mengtian, which will carry another pair of large solar wings.

Sri Lanka permits China's space-tracking vessel to land at Chinese-run port

Sri Lanka has granted permission for the Chinese space-tracking vessel Yuan Wang 5 to dock at a port that China runs. The Hambantota port is the southernmost in Sri Lanka and has raised the concern of India.

China reached an agreement for a 99-year lease of Sri Lanka's Hambantota port to settle a debt in 2017

The Chinese space-tracking vessel Yuan Wang 5 was given permission to dock early next week at Sri Lanka's southernmost port, Hambantota, Sri Lanka said Saturday. 

Hambantota has been a Chinese-run port since 2017 when Sri Lanka and China signed a 99-year lease after Colombo struggled to pay back debt.

The Yuan Wang 5 survey vessel is described by security analysts as the latest generation of China's space-tracking ships capable of monitoring satellites, rockets and intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Washington has said Yuan Wang class ships are operated by the Strategic Support Force of the People's Liberation Army.

What does China want?

China and India have been in competition to expand influence in Sri Lanka as Colombo faces the most severe economic crisis since independence.

China agreed to restructure infrastructure loans to Sri Lanka, a critical step for the country to reach a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund.

The Yuan Wang 5 had been scheduled to arrive at Hambantota on Thursday, August 11, but its revised schedule currently has it docking Tuesday, August 16.

Colombo said the Yuan Wang 5 is only scheduled to resupply and has no specific scientific research mission to carry out in Sri Lankan waters.

What does India fear?

India has delivered the largest amount of aid of any country in the form of food, fuel, medicine and cooking gas to Sri Lanka, but is wary of Beijing's expanding influence in the Indian Ocean.

Delhi fears Beijing wants to use Hambantota as a military base and may be docking to enable surveillance of Indian military installations. At the same time, India disavowed assertions that it had attempted to pressure Sri Lanka to turn the Yuan Wang 5 away.

A spokesperson for India's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Arindam Bagchi, said, "We reject categorically the 'insinuation' and such statement about India. Sri Lanka is a sovereign country and makes its own independent decisions."

Bagchi added that India was aware of a planned visit by the Yuan Wang 5 and intends to safeguard Delhi's security and economic interests.

ar/ (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)

NY City councilman calls for collapsed carriage horse to go to sanctuary

By Jon Levine
August 13, 2022 2:40pm

A viral video captured Ryder's terrifying collapse on Wednesday.L2FTV/FNTV

I CAN SEE RIBS!!

New York City councilman Robert Holden called for the carriage horse that collapsed in Manhattan to be placed in an animal sanctuary.

Ryder, a 14-year-old carriage horse, collapsed on West 38th Street Wednesday. Viral video showed the animal lying in the middle of the roadway in Hell’s Kitchen as his driver whipped him and repeatedly demanded the exhausted animal “get up.”

Holden, who is also pushing for a ban on horse drawn carriages in the city, called on the horse’s owner, Ian McKeever, to let the animal be put to pasture.

“The multiple videos of Ryder collapsing on a hot day in Hell’s Kitchen that have gone viral shocked the entire world and only proved what we all knew about the torturous conditions that carriage horses endure daily in New York City,” said Holden. “Ryder joins a long list of horses who have collapsed or died on our city’s streets. I thank the animal advocacy groups and the thousands of concerned citizens for elevating this horrible story.”The exhausted, skinny horse was eventually assisted by authorities.

Councilman Robert Holden is also pushing for a ban on carriage horses.Helayne Seidman

“We look forward to hearing from Ian McKeever that he truly cares for his horse and is willing to let Ryder retire at a sanctuary,” he added.

Holden has also asked Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg to investigate possible carriage horse cruelty across the city.

Animal advocates have said they already have a retirement sanctuary lined up for the horse should McKeever allow it.

A veterinary inspection confirmed Ryder had been suffering from Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis, a neurological disease caused from possum droppings. He is recuperating at West Side Livery Stables on West 38th Street

 

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GOP operative wants LGBTQ community put in “isolation camps for their own protection”

He says that he and Arizona MAGA candidate Kari Lake "are going to round up all the folks in the LGBT community and bring them to quarantine camps."

By Greg Owen 

Saturday, August 13, 2022

LGBTQNATION.COM

Ethan Schmidt-Crockett, left, with Arizona Republican candidate for governor Kari LakePhoto: screenshot

A supporter of Kari Lake, the Trump-endorsed, newly-declared winner of last week’s Republican gubernatorial primary in Arizona, has called for the forced relocation of LGBTQ people to camps in an effort to stop the spread of the monkeypox virus.

Ethan Schmidt-Crockett declared in a video posted to Patriot Takes on Twitter: “We need to quarantine and isolate all the folks of the LGBT community. We need to find all of them. We need to hunt them down and put them into isolation camps for their own protection.”

Of the government, Schmidt-Crockett asks: “How come they’re not taking precautions advocating against reprobate fornication?”

Over the past week, Schmidt-Crockett has posted a series videos and pronouncements targeting the LGBTQ community as responsible for the current monkeypox (MPXV) virus outbreak and encouraging their forced removal, while touting Lake’s support.

“Kari Lake and I are going to round up all the folks in the LGBT community, and bring them to quarantine camps, it’s for their own safety #stopthespread”, Schmidt-Crockett posted.

Schmidt-Crockett appeared with Lake at a rally for her gubernatorial campaign in Arizona last August, where she endorsed his anti-mask crusade.

The Republican candidate followed Schmidt-Crockett on Instagram soon after, before his account was disabled for spreading false information.

In another video, Schmidt-Crockett declares: “Pride month caused all this. So we need to end Pride month. All the businesses associated with LGBT, Pride, they need to be shut, ’cause those are the places that are spreading the virus. So they need to be shut down. That’s the only way were gonna be able to stop the spread. This is serious. This is a public health emergency, and the LGBTQ community is at fault.”

Schmidt-Crockett has drawn public notice before with a series of anti-LGBTQ provocations at stores around Phoenix. In May, he filmed himself at a PetSmart demanding the store’s Pride flag be removed, claiming it “supports pedophilia and child sexualization.” He tells an employee: “The real rainbow is from God. That’s the rainbow of Satan.” The store left the flag up.

In May, Schmidt-Crockett once again threatened to go on a hunt, this time for LGBTQ supporters at Target, where he promised to expose the retail chain’s “Satanic pride shrines to children.”

 

 

Sinema Took Wall Street Money While Killing Tax on Investors

Sinema's defense of the tax provisions offers a jarring contrast to her background as a Green Party activist and self-styled “Prada socialist” who once likened accepting campaign cash to “bribery"

By Brian Slodysko • 

AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File
FILE – Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., speaks before President Joe Biden signs the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill into law during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Nov. 15, 2021.


Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the Arizona Democrat who single-handedly thwarted her party’s longtime goal of raising taxes on wealthy investors, received nearly $1 million over the past year from private equity professionals, hedge fund managers and venture capitalists whose taxes would have increased under the plan.

For years, Democrats have promised to raise taxes on such investors, who pay a significantly lower rate on their earnings than ordinary workers. But just as they closed in on that goal last week, Sinema forced a series of changes to her party’s $740 billion election-year spending package, eliminating a proposed “carried interest” tax increase on private equity earnings while securing a $35 billion exemption that will spare much of the industry from a separate tax increase other huge corporations now have to pay.

The bill, with Sinema's alterations intact, was given final approval by Congress on Friday and is expected to be signed by President Joe Biden next week.

Sinema has long aligned herself with the interests of private equity, hedge funds and venture capital, helping her net at least $1.5 million in campaign contributions since she was elected to the House a decade ago. But the $983,000 she has collected since last summer more than doubled what the industry donated to her during all of her preceding years in Congress combined, according to an Associated Press review of campaign finances disclosures.

The donations, which make Sinema one of the industry’s top beneficiaries in Congress, serve as a reminder of the way that high-power lobbying campaigns can have dramatic implications for the way legislation is crafted, particularly in the evenly divided Senate where there are no Democratic votes to spare. They also highlight a degree of political risk for Sinema, whose unapologetic defense of the industry's favorable tax treatment is viewed by many in her party as indefensible.

“From their vantage point, it’s a million dollars very well spent,” said Dean Baker, a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a liberal-leaning think tank. “It’s pretty rare you see this direct of a return on your investment. So I guess I would congratulate them.”

Sinema's office declined to make her available for an interview. Hannah Hurley, a Sinema spokesperson, acknowledged the senator shares some of the industry's views on taxation, but rebuffed any suggestion that the donations influenced her thinking.

“Senator Sinema makes every decision based on one criteria: what’s best for Arizona," Hurley said in a statement. “She has been clear and consistent for over a year that she will only support tax reforms and revenue options that support Arizona’s economic growth and competitiveness.”

The American Investment Council, a trade group that lobbies on behalf of private equity, also defended their push to defeat the tax provisions.

“Our team worked to ensure that members of Congress from both sides of the aisle understand how private equity directly employs workers and supports small businesses throughout their communities," Drew Maloney, the organization's CEO and president, said in a statement.

Sinema's defense of the tax provisions offers a jarring contrast to her background as a Green Party activist and self-styled “Prada socialist” who once likened accepting campaign cash to “bribery" and later called for “big corporations & the rich to pay their fair share” shortly before launching her first campaign for Congress in 2012.

She's been far more magnanimous since, praising private equity in 2016 from the House floor for providing "billions of dollars each year to Main Street businesses” and later interning at a private equity mogul's boutique winery in northern California during the 2020 congressional recess.

The soaring contributions from the industry to Sinema trace back to last summer. That's when she first made clear that she wouldn't support a carried interest tax increase, as well as other corporate and business tax hikes, included in an earlier iteration of Biden's agenda.

During a two-week period in September alone, Sinema collected $47,100 in contributions from 16 high-ranking officials from the private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, records show. Employees and executives of KKR, another private equity behemoth, contributed $44,100 to Sinema during a two-month span in late 2021.

In some cases, the families of private equity managers joined in. David Belluck, a partner at the firm Riverside Partners, gave a $5,800 max-out contribution to Sinema one day in late June. So did three of his college-age kids, with the family collectively donating $23,200, records show.

“I generally support centrist Democrats and her seat is important to keep a Democratic Senate majority,” Belluck said, adding that his family has known Sinema since her election to Congress. "She and I have never discussed private equity taxation.”

The donations from the industry coincide with a $26 million lobbying effort spearheaded by the investment firm Blackstone that culminated on the Senate floor last weekend.

By the time the bill was up for debate during a marathon series of votes, Sinema had already forced Democrats to abandon their carried interest tax increase.

“Senator Sinema said she would not vote for the bill .. unless we took it out,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters last week. "We had no choice.”

But after private equity lobbyists discovered a provision in the bill that would have subjected many of them to a separate 15% corporate minimum tax, they urgently pressed Sinema and other centrist Democrats for changes, according to emails as well as four people with direct knowledge of the matter who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

“Given the breaking nature of this development we need as many offices as possible weighing in with concerns to Leader Schumer’s office,” Blackstone lobbyist Ryan McConaghy wrote in a Saturday afternoon email obtained by the AP, which included proposed language for modifying the bill. “Would you and your boss be willing to raise the alarm on this and express concerns with Schumer and team?”

McConaghy did not respond to a request for comment.

Sinema worked with Republicans on an amendment that stripped the corporate tax increase provisions from the bill, which a handful of vulnerable Democrats also voted for.

"Since she has been in Congress, Kyrsten has consistently supported pro-growth policies that encourage job creation across Arizona. Her tax policy positions and focus on growing Arizona’s economy and competitiveness are longstanding and well known,” Hurley, the Sinema spokesperson, said.

But many in her party disagree. They say the favorable treatment does little to boost the overall economy and argue there’s little compelling evidence to suggest the tax benefits are enjoyed beyond some of the wealthiest investors.

Some of Sinema's donors make their case.

Blackstone, a significant source of campaign contributions, owns large tracts of real estate in Sinema's home state, Arizona. The firm was condemned by United Nations experts in 2019 who said Blackstone's financial model was responsible for a “financialization of housing” that has driven up rents and home costs, “pushing low-income, and increasingly middle-income people from their homes.”

Blackstone employees executives and their family members have given Sinema $44,000 since 2018, records show.

In a statement, Blackstone called the allegations by the U.N. experts “false and misleading” and said all employee contributions are "strictly personal.” The firm added that it was “incredibly proud of its investments in housing.”

Another major financial services donor is Centerbridge Partners, a New York-based firm that buys up the debt of distressed governments and companies and often uses hardball tactics to extract value. Since 2017, Sinema has collected at least $29,000 from donors associated with the firm, including co-founder Mark Gallogly and his wife, Elizabeth Strickler, records show.

In 2012, Centerbridge Partners purchased Arizona-based restaurant chain P.F. Chang’s for roughly $1 billion. After loading the struggling company up with $675 million of debt, they sold it to another private equity group in 2019, according to Bloomberg News. The company received a $10 million coronavirus aid loan to cover payroll, but shed jobs and closed locations as it struggled with the pandemic.

Centerbridge Partners was also part of a consortium of hedge funds that helped usher in an era of austerity in Puerto Rico after buying up billions of dollars of the island government’s $72 billion debt — and filing legal proceedings to collect. A subsidiary of Centerbridge Partners was among a group of creditors who repeatedly sued one of the U.S. territory’s pension funds. In one 2016 lawsuit, the group of creditors asked a judge to divert money from a Puerto Rican pension fund in order to collect.

A Centerbridge representative could not immediately provide comment Friday.

Liberal activists in Arizona say they plan to make Sinema's reliance on donations from wealthy investors a campaign issue when she is up for reelection in 2024.

"There are many takes on how to win, but there is no universe in which it is politically smart to fight for favorable tax treatment of the wealthiest people in the country," said Emily Kirkland, a political consultant who works for progressive candidates. “It’s absolutely going to be a potent issue.”

Associated Press writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.

Copyright AP - Associated Press

BUSINESS

AUG 9
How Wall Street Wooed Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Preserved Its Multibillion-Dollar Carried Interest Tax Break

BUSINESS

APR 15
Jamie Dimon, Other JP Morgan Executives Donated to Centrist Democrat Kyrsten Sinema

JAN 31
Kyrsten Sinema Raises Over $1.5 Million in Fourth Quarter While Opposing Key Pieces of Biden Agenda

Angelo Carusone: After FBI search for top secret documents at Mar-a-Lago, right-wing reaction have been preparing their audience for a call to action

WRITTEN BY MEDIA MATTERS STAFF

PUBLISHED 08/13/22 

LINDSEY REISER (GUEST ANCHOR): It didn't take long after Donald Trump's intense reaction to the FBI search of his home for his base and right-wing media to echo his outrage and stand behind him.

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REISER: Let's bring in Angelo Carusone, political media expert and president and CEO of Media Matters for America. What did you see in the reaction on right-wing media that struck out to you the most this week?

ANGELO CARUSONE: Two things. One, that they immediately started by poisoning the well, right? Which is to delegitimize the entire operation itself and to tap into that sort of cauldron of conspiracy and concern and venom that the right has sort of manufactured around the FBI, that sort of deep state conspiracy. That was the first thing.

And the second thing that stuck out at me is actually kind of really disturbing and scary. And that said, they were using the word tyranny a lot. And that's not unusual, you know, to generalize it. But they kept pointing to the FBI specifically as the tip of the spear of bringing about tyranny.

And when you think about one of the big narratives, if you're a right-wing media consumer – part of the reason why they push this idea that, oh, the Second Amendment is so important, you need to get as many guns as you can is that it's the one way that you defend yourself against tyranny.

And those are the things that stuck out – poisoned the well tap into that cauldron of deep state venom. But that second thing, that tyranny argument was kind of like a preparation to a call to action. And that's the thing I think that I'm pretty concerned with.

REISER: One thing that stuck out to me was these calls for the releasing of the documents, even though Trump and his lawyers had them and could have done that at any time. And there was so much so many questions about how legit this could be. And we need more information. Do you get the sense, though, that the rhetoric cooled at all after AG Garland came out? Nobody thought he would come out and have that press conference, but he did. Did the rhetoric cool at all after that?

CARUSONE: No, it got hotter, actually. They sort of used that – they used his own presence, as now they put him front and center. So that allowed them to keep playing that clip on a loop. And then to your point, just taking all the questions that they had initially and just now pushing them back on him, saying that he was running damage control, that he was the face of all of this. In fact, one of the things that was disturbing is that they started to use that press conference as a proof point, which wasn't really, for their original claims that this was sort of a Joe Biden, Merrick Garland operating in cahoots to take out Donald Trump in a political way. So they've actually attacked Merrick Garland more. And by extension, they've sort of made the argument that he's really got his hands on the reins here in a much more intense way. So they ratcheted up not down.

REISER: What have we seen in terms of information that was released about the FBI agents involved in the search, the judge who signed off on this search, and what was covered about them in the media? And did that have a direct impact on threats that were out there?

CARUSONE: Definitely. One of the things that the right exploited was this sort of like extremely loose connection to Epstein, which a lot of figures do. Of course, what they didn't talk about is that that judge was also a frequent guest on Newsmax that often criticized Hillary Clinton. You know, that never got mentioned as an example.

But instead, they actually tried to make the argument that somehow this was, again, another data point to prove into this deep state conspiracy. Fox News even went so far as to air a doctored image of the judge on Jeffrey Epstein's plane. Totally fabricated. It was a complete hoax, it was pretty obvious, but they aired it anyway, sort of throwing more gasoline onto that fire.

And that's all they need to do. And I think that's the thing I would just impress on everyone is that if you are a right-wing media consumer, you're looking through these events through a pretty foggy lens, but you have a fairly large amount of narrative to back up behind that. And that narrative is that there is a deep state plot to take out Donald Trump. All of these people are corrupt. So all these little touchstones are they're going to use to reinforce that.

REISER: Angelo Carusone, thanks very much for joining us. Fascinating conversation with you. Appreciate it.