Student loans: Biden administration 'terminates' status of troubled college accrediting agency

Ronda Lee

Fri, August 19, 2022 

The Education Department (ED) revoked the accreditation status of the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) after years of scandals related to for-profit schools and the student loans provided to students across the country.

"ACICS is no longer a nationally recognized accrediting agency and can no longer serve as a 'gatekeeper' of institutional eligibility for federal student aid programs," the ED stated in an announcement titled: "U.S. Department of Education Terminates Federal Recognition of ACICS."

The non-profit education corporation accredited now defunct for-profit schools ITT Tech and Corinthian Colleges. Many students enrolled at these schools didn’t have transferable credits nor promised degrees. ACICS was also accused of double dipping in taxpayer funded pandemic PPP loans and coronavirus stimulus payments.

"ACICS accredited the worst of the worst scam schools, including Corinthian, ITT Tech and Art Institute and a school that didn't even exist,” Thomas Gokey, an organizer with the Debt Collective, said in a statement. “These schools never should have been allowed to access federal funds, and the harm they have done to millions of students can only be repaired by full cancellation and a commitment to fund high quality public college for all."

A 2018 NBER working paper found that students who attended for-profit colleges were more likely to obtain a federal loan than those who attend a public college and three times more likely to default on student loans — driven by the fact that these students were six times less likely to receive employment after enrollment compared to their public college peers.

Students at for-profit colleges tend to take out more student loans and experience worse outcomes than public college students. (NBER)

In 2016, the Obama-era ED stripped ACICS of its status as an accrediting agency. At the time, ACICS had already accredited 237 schools that enrolled 361,000 students receiving federal financial student aid. In 2018, the Trump-era ED reinstated ACICS. However, in 2020, after a damning USA Today report detailing how ACICS accredited a school that reportedly had zero students and no faulty or classrooms, the ED launched an investigation into ACICS.

“We are talking about an entity that accredited a school that didn’t even exist and continues to rubber stamp some of the worst for-profit colleges,” Eric Rothschild, director of litigation at the National Student Legal Defense Network, said in a statement. “Students count on accreditors to validate that the schools where they spend their time and money will meet a baseline level of quality.”

When Biden took office in January 2021, career officials at the ED recommended that ACICS, which was founded in 1912, be disempowered once again. The officials stated that ACICS “fails to demonstrate compliance” with regulations and that “provides a stand-alone basis for termination.”

US President Joe Biden listens to the national anthem at the graduation ceremony for his alma mater, the University of Delaware, at Delaware Stadium, in Newark, Delaware, on May 28, 2022. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

"Accrediting agencies are often the only barrier between predatory for-profit colleges and access to millions of dollars in federal aid," Cody Hounanian, executive director of the Student Debt Crisis Center, said in a statement. “Without proper accountability, these schools make huge profits and leave American families crushed by student debt and without a valuable degree. Today’s action is a small step towards cleaning up the exploitative elements of America’s higher education system. However, there is more work to be done to hold all bad-actors accountable and to provide financial relief to individuals who have been harmed.”

Predatory lending at for-profit schools exacerbated the student debt crisis, which has ballooned to more than $1.7 trillion.

“The Department of Education’s latest announcement regarding the ACICS is good news for both students concerned about attending a school that will provide them with adequate education, as well as for taxpayers who are worried that their money will go to waste at fraudulent institutions,” Jacob Channel, senior economist at Student Loan Hero, said in a statement.

President Biden currently faces a decision whether to cancel some student loan debt ahead of the August 31st deadline for pandemic forbearance of federal student loans.

Aarthi Swaminathan contributed to this article.

Ronda is a personal finance senior reporter for Yahoo Money and attorney with experience in law, insurance, education, and government. Follow her on Twitter @writesronda 

German dependence on China growing 'at tremendous pace', research shows


 A container of China Shipping is loaded at a loading terminal in the port of Hamburg

Fri, August 19, 2022 
By Klaus Lauer

BERLIN (Reuters) - The German economy became more dependent on China in the first half of 2022, with direct investment and its trade deficit reaching new heights, despite political pressure on Berlin to pivot away from Beijing, according to research seen by Reuters.

At the same time, growth in German exports to China weakened significantly, the German Economic Institute (IW) said in its study, citing economists pointing to a trend towards more local production in the Chinese market.

"The German economy is much more dependent on China than the other way round," said Juergen Matthes, who authored the study.

He warned that this dependence posed a political problem as Beijing's stance on the Ukraine war and its military posture towards Taiwan placed German business with the world's second-largest economy under scrutiny.

"Yet despite these dangers and problems, economic interdependencies with China have been moving in the wrong direction at a tremendous pace in the first half of 2022," the economist said.

The study found that German investment in China amounted to around 10 billion euros ($10 billion) between January and June, far exceeding the previous peak half-year value recorded since the turn of the millennium of 6.2 billion euros.

"The Chinese sales market and the profits beckoning there in the short term simply seem too attractive," Matthes said.

China's share of German imports rose to 12.4% in the first half of 2022, compared with 3.4% in 2000, while German imports of Chinese goods surged in value terms by 45.7% year on year during that six-month period, the IW found.

Germany's trade deficit with the country had leapt to almost 41 billion euros by mid-2022, the institute said, adding that the gap was set to widen further.

The IW called for a policy turnaround, urging a reduction in incentives for doing business with China and a shift towards more trade with other emerging markets, particularly in Asia.

Matthes also called on German businesses to curb their dependency on China, warning that any Western sanctions against Beijing, for example if it invaded Taiwan, would threaten particularly exposed companies with bankruptcy.

"We otherwise risk running into a 'too big too fail' situation like we saw with the banks," he said.

($1 = 0.9916 euros)

(Reporting by Klaus Lauer; Writing by Rachel More; Editing by Paul Carrel and David Holmes)

Overworked elephant rips Thai owner in half



Bryan Ke
Fri, August 19, 2022 

An annoyed elephant has reportedly ripped his owner in half using his tusks in the Thai province of Phang Nga after being forced to work under hot weather.

Officers from Takua Thung Police Station responded to a call about the elephant owner’s death at around 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday in the Tha Yu subdistrict.

Upon their arrival, authorities were informed that Pom Pam, a 20-year-old male elephant, had ripped apart his owner, 32-year-old Supachai Wongfaed.

Rescue workers, officers and the village chief went to the scene of the incident and saw Wongfaed’s body in the middle of a rubber plantation. They reportedly found his corpse split in half in a pool of blood with Pom Pam standing over it.

Phang Nga Provincial Livestock officers were eventually called over to sedate the animal so that the rescue workers could retrieve the body of Wongfaed, the son of Thawon Wongfaed, Khok Charoen subdistrict's former mayor.

During their preliminary investigation, Takua Thung Police Station officers discovered that Pom Pam was forced to carry wood in the rubber plantation prior to the attack. The officers suggested that the hot weather that day made the elephant “go crazy” and attack his owner.

According to the weather forecast of Phang Nga province for August, daytime temperatures can go as high as 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit on average.

Rescuers reportedly used a dart gun to tranquilize Pom Pam and retrieve Wongfaed's body, which was later handed over to his relatives for his funeral.

Although the practice of using elephants to carry wood through forested areas was banned by Thailand's government in 1989, the practice still occurs in some areas around the country.

"[It] is yet another stark reminder that Asian elephants are and always remain wild animals that can attack and kill when they are abused or overly stressed by humans,” Duncan McNair, the CEO of the charity Save The Asian Elephants, told Newsweek. “They suffer deeply, psychologically as well as physically, when broken and forced into constant severe toil in logging and related activities.”

"Save The Asian Elephants has abundant evidence of approaching 2,000 human deaths and catastrophic injuries caused by captive elephants brutalized in unnatural forced activities including tourism,” McNair added.

While Thailand has almost 30 laws placed to protect elephants, they still reportedly suffer abuse at the hands of humans, such as getting pierced by bullhooks – a stick with a metal hook at the end – to control their movement.

Elephants are typically seen as good-natured animals, but they can potentially hurt humans if they feel unsafe or distressed. One elephant made headlines in June for killing a 70-year-old woman and then crashing her funeral to trample on her corpse.'

Republicans Demand To Know What Happened To Vanishing GOP Millions

Mary Papenfuss
Sat, August 20, 2022 

National Republican Senatorial Committee funds declined to just $28.4 million by the end of June.

 (Photo: Manuel Augusto Moreno via Getty Images)

A number of Republican strategists and consultants are growing increasingly dismayed about millions of dollars vanishing at the National Republican Senatorial Committee — just when the funds are needed most, The Washington Post reported Friday.

Cash at the national campaign fund is dwindling as candidates head into the final stretch of Senate races across the U.S.

“If they were a corporation, the CEO would be fired,” a national Republican consultant working on Senate races told the newspaper, referring to the committee.

“There needs to be an audit or investigation because we’re not gonna take the Senate now and this money has been squandered,” added the consultant, who spoke to the outlet on condition of anonymity. “It’s a rip-off.”

Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who chairs the NRSC, has been attacked by Republicans for featuring himself in ads and releasing a policy agenda that caused trouble for the GOP, leading to quips that “NRSC” stands for “National Rick Scott Committee.”

NRSC funds had reportedly reached $173 million this election cycle but were already down to $28.4 million by the end of June.

The committee spent more than $12 million on American Express credit cardpayments with an unclear purpose, along with $13 million for consultants and $9 million on debt payments, the Post said.

Now, a number of Republican candidates are struggling to raise money ahead of the general elections in November.

“It’s surprising and says a lot about the Republican brand that their candidates have struggled to raise money,” J.B. Poersch, the president of the Democratic-allied Senate Majority PAC, told the Post.

“With extreme candidates and extreme positions, maybe Republican donors are finding these candidates are out of step with where they are,” he said. “Maybe voters are feeling the same way.”

AMERICAN PROTESTANTS
A Missouri pastor has apologized after berating his congregation for being 'poor, broke, busted' and not getting him a luxury watch


Cheryl Teh
Fri, August 19, 202


A Missouri pastor has apologized for calling his congregation too "broke" to buy him a watch.

"I'm not worth your Red Lobster money?" Carlton Funderburke was heard saying in a sermon.

Funderburke also demanded a Movado watch, saying he'd been waiting to receive it for months.

In an August 7 sermon, pastor Carlton Funderburke was heard ranting about his congregation not "honoring" him. Funderburke is a senior pastor at the Church at the Well in Kansas City.

"This is how I know you're still poor, broke, busted, and disgusted, because of how you've been honoring me. I'm not worth your McDonald's money? I'm not worth your Red Lobster money?" Funderburke said.

"I ain't worth y'all Louis Vuitton? I ain't worth your Prada? I'm not worth your Gucci?" he was heard saying in the video. The identity of the person who recorded the video is unclear, but it was uploaded to TikTok by the Kansas City Defender, a local media company.

@kansascitydefender
Kansas City Pastor GOES OFF on congregation calling them "poor, broke busted and disgusted" because they didn't give him enough money to buy a new watch he's been wanting. It's pastors like these that give the church a bad name smh an also why a lot of our generation left the church. What y'all think? 🤔♬ original sound - kcdefender

In the video, some members of the congregation can be seen rising to their feet and appearing to approach him angrily. Funderburke can be seen brushing them off.

He went on to say that he had been waiting for months to receive a Movado watch. Movado watches can retail for anywhere between a couple of hundred dollars to upwards of a thousand dollars.

"And y'all know I asked for one last year. Here it is all the way in August and I still ain't got it," Funderburke added. "Y'all ain't said nothing. Let me kick down the door and talk to my cheap sons and daughters."

This week, the pastor released an apology video.

"Though there is context behind the content of the clip, no context will suffice to explain the hurt and anguish caused by my words. I've spoken to those I am accountable to and have received their correction and instruction," he said.

"I have also privately apologized to our church, who has extended their love and support to me," Funderburke added in his apology video.

While it's not common for preachers to ask for personal gifts from their congregations, the idea of the "prosperity gospel" has gained steam in America. Disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker, one of the most prominent names associated with the movement, was convicted in 1989 of 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy for defrauding his followers out of $158 million

. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison and fined $500,000, but was paroled in 1994 after serving just over five years. Lamor Whitehead, a New York-based bishop known for flashy designer clothes and luxury cars, was accused last year of cheating a congregant out of $90,000 — her life savings. Whitehead denied wrongdoing in an interview with the New York Daily News.

Representatives at the Church at the Well did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Americans with incomes over $100,000 are flocking to Walmart to save money, revealing how soaring prices are squeezing the upper middle class

insider@insider.com (Áine Cain) -

© Bruce Bennett/Getty ImagesA Walmart store. Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Walmart is attracting more upper middle-class shoppers due to inflation.

 
CFO John Rainey touted an influx of customers with household incomes above $100,000.

Inflation has prompted many Americans to adjust their spending habits.

Inflation is squeezing American consumers, even the upper middle class. But according to the latest round of retail earnings calls, the ongoing efforts of upper middle-class shoppers to pinch pennies are proving to be a boon to Walmart.

The big-box chain has strived to keep costs down in response to inflation. Walmart has also struggled with overstocked inventory, much like its rival Target.

But the latest sales data indicates that inflation is driving some upper middle-class consumers to Walmart, which recently saw its sales grow 8%. The company's chief financial officer, John Rainey, told CNBC that nearly 75% of Walmart's recent market-share gains came from "customers with annual household incomes of $100,000 or more" who are turning to the big-box stores' grocery aisles. During the company's Tuesday earnings call, Walmart announced that it had beat Wall Street estimates.

What exactly constitutes the upper middle class can vary throughout the United States, depending on the local cost of living, according to Pew Research. In a 2022 article noting that upper middle-class families are facing unique struggles during the pandemic, the Wall Street Journal, citing Fed data, defined "upper middle class" as earning "between $75,301 and $127,300 a year."

'Walmart's advantage'

"The middle-class consumer is currently looking for value to save money," Jharonne Martis, director of consumer research at financial market data firm Refinitiv, told Insider. "They are cutting off their Netflix subscriptions and instead getting a membership at Sam's Club, Costco or BJ's to save money at the pump. This is Walmart's advantage."

In the latest earnings call, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon announced that the company has "continued to gain share in grocery."

"Price leadership is especially important right now and one-stop shopping becomes more than just convenience when people are paying over $4 a gallon for fuel," he said in a call with investors.

Martis also cited Walmart's foray into fuel — through the gas pumps available at Sam's Club locations — as a major advantage. In its latest earnings call, Walmart announced that its revenue at Sam's Club had jumped 17.5%, trouncing investors' expectations.

"At a time when economists are predicting that discretionary spending by consumers is likely to decline, analysts polled by Refinitiv remain more bullish on discounters that sell gasoline versus those that don't," Martis said.

The average Walmart shopper is a white suburban woman who earns around $80,000 a year, according to data from analytics firm Numerator, though Walmart's focus on steep discounts has also attracted lower-income shoppers looking to save money.

One expert cited Walmart's recent investments in its digital capabilities, in addition to its discounting, as possible lures for more upper middle-class shoppers.

"Walmart's CEO mentioned this during the company's latest earnings call, pointing to convenience and digital capabilities as reasons the company is successfully connecting with both middle and high-income shoppers," Pieter de Villiers, CEO at mobile messaging firm Clickatell, said in a statement to Insider.

Inflation has prompted middle-class shoppers to rethink their consumption strategies. Over the summer, the inflation rate hit 9.1%, a 40-year-high. Since June, prices have begun to cool down somewhat. In July, prices only rose 8.5% year-over-year. Still, ongoing inflation has made many Americans feel substantially poorer whenever they shop for groceries or hit the gas pump.

But these high prices aren't borne equally by everyone. Rising prices have traditionally harmed low-income consumers, while wealthier shoppers have an easier time bearing the costs. That's no different for the current trend of inflation, which came in the wake of a pandemic that saw thousands of citizens fall below the poverty line. And even financially-secure shoppers may be looking to scale back spending.

YER ALL SHEPPLE

Rudy Giuliani Says U.S. 'Could Possibly Be Too Dumb to Be a Democracy'

TALK ABOUT ELITIST

Rudy Giuliani has suggested that if the American public couldn't see that the raid on the Florida property of his ally Donald Trump was the latest chapter of a left-wing "conspiracy" then perhaps the U.S. is "too dumb to be a democracy."


© Spencer Platt/Getty 

Rudy Giuliani at an election night watch party in Manhattan on June 28, 2022 in New York City.

In an interview with conservative channel Newsmax, the former New York city mayor gave a wide-ranging critique of the branches of government, starting with the FBI search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago property and the removal of classified information reportedly found there.

"Now they want to make him responsible for having taken classified documents and preserve them," he said on Thursday. "If you look at the Espionage Act, it's not really about taking the documents, it's about destroying them or hiding them or giving them to the enemy."

"It's not about taking them and putting them in a place that's roughly as safe as they were in, in the first one," he told anchor Rob Schmitt.

He said that the raid was "obviously part of a continuous, I hate to call it conspiracy but that's what it is, that started back in 2016," involving the Democrats.

When asked about media criticism of him and the prospect that the Trump team would "throw you under the bus," Giuliani referred to the investigation into claims of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

"Who ended up telling the truth about Russian collusion? Them or Trump and me," Giuliani told Newsmax, before explaining why the public should think that he and the former president have credibility.

"If the American people don't know what's going on by now, then our country could possibly be too dumb to be a democracy, Giuliani said. "I mean, it is quite obvious that they will frame him with every single thing they've got."

"And even if you don't realize they stole the election, there's something wrong here," he said, referring to his conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election won by President Joe Biden that have been repeatedly dismissed. Newsweek has contacted the Trump team for comment.

Giuliani was a key figure in the former president's attempts to overturn the 2020 election results. He was involved in a dispute with the Fulton County District Attorney's office over whether to testify before a special grand jury in its probe of the Trump campaign's efforts to overturn Biden's win in Georgia.

He was subpoenaed to testify following the June testimony of Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson to the January 6 committee investigating the U.S. Capitol riots. After his appearance on Wednesday, Giuliani said he had "satisfied his obligation" under the subpoena.

GOP candidate says call for Garland's death was 'facetious'

WHEN CAUGHT THEY WERE JUST JOKING

Via AP news wire - 

A Republican candidate for Congress in western New York said in a radio interview that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland “should be executed” for authorizing a search former President Donald Trump's home, before clarifying later in the show that he wasn't being serious.


© ASSOCIATED PRESSElection 2022 House Paladino

Buffalo-area businessman Carl Paladino made the comment in an interview with Breitbart News Saturday on Aug. 13. During the interview, Paladino was criticizing President Joe Biden for what he said was a lack of leadership and disengagement from government.

“So we have a couple of unelected people who are running our government, in an administration of people like Garland, who should be not only impeached, he probably should be executed,” Paladino said. “The guy is just lost. He’s a lost soul. He’s trying to get an image, and his image, his methodology is just terrible. To raid the home of a former president is just — people are scratching their heads and they’re saying, ‘What is wrong with this guy?’”

A short time later in the interview, host Matthew Boyle pressed Paladino about what he meant when he said that Garland should be executed.

“I’m just being facetious. The man should be removed from office,” Paladino said. “He shows his incompetence. He wants to get his face in front of the people and show he’s got some mettle to him, but his choice of issues and choice of methodology is very sad.”

A Justice Department spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The FBI is generally responsible for investigating threats made against the attorney general. Messages seeking comment were left with his campaign Thursday.

A Paladino spokesperson, Vish Burra, told The Buffalo News the candidate wasn't actually calling for Garland's death.

“The comment is clear: Carl does not think Garland should be executed and when you listen to the interview, when asked what he meant, he stated he was being facetious,” Burra said Wednesday.

Paladino, a millionaire real estate developer who was the party's candidate for governor of New York in 2010, is in a close primary fight with New York Republican State Committee Chairman Nick Langworthy. Paladino has been endorsed by U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik.

The FBI and Justice Department have faced a barrage of violent threats in the days since agents searched Trump's Mar-a-Lago home as part of an investigation into the discovery of classified White House records.

A man, who had said on social media that federal agents should be killed “on sight,” died in a shootout with law enforcement officers in Ohio after trying to get inside the FBI's Cincinnati field office with a semiautomatic rifle.

Paladino has a long history of outrageous comments.

In June, he shared a Facebook post suggesting that a racist mass shooting in Buffalo was part of a conspiracy to take away people’s guns. The same month, he apologized for a comment he'd made in an interview in which he said Adolf Hitler was “the kind of leader we need today” because of his ability to rally crowds.

In 2016, Paladino joked to a newspaper that he hoped then-President Barack Obama would die from mad cow disease and said Michelle Obama should “return to being a male" and be sent to live with a gorilla in a cave.

The following year, he was removed from Buffalo’s school board for improperly discussing teacher contract negotiations, although he contended the comments about the Obamas were the real reason for his removal.

During his run for governor, he was criticized for forwarding emails to friends containing racist jokes and pornography.

Donald Trump booster Carl Paladino, now a New York congressional candidate, is violating federal law by not disclosing his personal finances

Madison Hall

Fri, August 19, 2022 

Carl Paladino speaks before a rally for then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at JetSmart Aviation Services on Sunday, April 10, 2016, in Rochester, New York.Mike Groll/AP

• GOP congressional candidate Carl Paladino hasn't filed a mandatory personal financial disclosure.

• Paladino is wealthy Western New York real estate developer who's routinely courted controversy.

• Early voting for the NY-23 primary election began on August 13. Election Day is August 23.

Carl Paladino, a Donald Trump-boosting Republican running to represent New York's 23rd Congressional District, is violating a federal conflict-of-interest and transparency law by not disclosing details about his own finances, an Insider review of congressional financial filings indicates.

Paladino — endorsed by third-ranking House Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York — is running against the chair of the New York Republican Party, Nick Langworthy, in the district's open GOP primary. His late disclosure means that voters cannot review details about the ostensibly wealthy real estate developer's income, investments, employment, and debts.

A congressional candidate could face an investigation or fine if he or she "knowingly and willfully falsifies a statement or fails to file a statement" in accordance with US House guidance, although officials rarely pursue such investigations.

Paladino's campaign did not respond to Insider's repeated requests for comment.

The campaign did, however, tell the Buffalo News earlier this month that Paladino hasn't filed his financial disclosures because the Clerk of the House of Representatives "failed to supply this campaign with login credentials." The campaign further noted that the clerk extended the filing period and that the disclosure was "in the process of being filed."

Records maintained by the Clerk of the House of Representatives do not, however, indicate Paladino officially requested an extension or received one. Federal law, meanwhile, requires all candidates to submit their personal financial disclosures within 30 days of an election no matter what.

And in the event a candidate cannot or does not want to use Congress' electronic filing system, they have the option to mail paper disclosures to the US House — there are also no congressional records of Paladino doing so.

Now with less than a week until Election Day, Paladino has still yet to file his disclosure and early voting has already begun — voters were allowed to begin casting their ballots on August 13.

'Suspicious'

Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, the government affairs manager at the nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight, told Insider that it's "unfair to the potential future constituents and the voters to not have that information before they're casting their vote.

"It's a little bit suspicious," Hedtler-Gaudette added, "that the one thing that could potentially contain some interesting information is the one thing that they seem to not be able to do."

The House Ethics Committee, the party that would be tasked with investigating Paladino's violation, frequently overlooks STOCK Act infractions.

The committee is even more handicapped as of late after ranking member Rep. Jackie Walorski died in a car accident on August 3. The committee typically does not vote without having a full committee of 10 members.

Langworthy, Paladino's opponent, submitted his 2021 annual personal financial disclosure in July. The disclosure shows that he invests in several mutual funds and the SPDR S&P 500.

Candidates running for a House office are required to file financial disclosures with the House after raising or spending $5,000 in cash, according to federal law and guidelines from the House Ethics Committee. Paladino crossed that threshold weeks ago.

Paladino formally declared his run for office in June 2022, shortly after Republican Rep. Chris Jacobs announced he would not seek re-election.

Paladino's turbulent career in politics includes a 2010 run for New York state governor that he badly lost in the general election.

In 2016, while serving on the Buffalo School Board, he made sexist and racist remarks about then-first lady Michelle Obama. He later apologized. Fellow board members pressured him to resign, but he refused.

New York's education commissioner ultimately removed Paladino from office in 2017 for, as the New York Times reported at the time, revealing confidential information about collective bargaining negotiations with the city's teachers union.

Just this week, Paladino told Breitbart News that Attorney General Merrick Garland "should be executed" for green-lighting a search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in pursuit of government records — a comment Paladino later said was "facetious."

Paladino is primarily self-funding his congressional campaign. The chairman of a real estate development company, Paladino has loaned his campaign $1.5 million, or 99% of the campaign's total money raised.

Paladino is a long-time supporter of Trump, although Trump has not yet endorsed a candidate in New York's 23rd District — a decidedly red district that will almost certainly elect the winner of Paladino-Langworthy in November's general election.

A push to ban congressional stock trading

Members of Congress and congressional candidates — Republicans and Democrats alike — have routinely violated

Insider's "Conflicted Congress" project found 70 members of Congress in violation of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 with late or missing disclosures.

In the wake of the investigation, Congress has begun debating whether to ban lawmakers and their spouses from buying, selling, or holding individual stocks.

House Democrats have suggested they'll hold a vote on the issue in September, though a vote has yet to be scheduled.

PAKISTAN
Absent democracy

Touqir Hussain 

Published August 20, 2022 

WHAT is democracy? The focus of democracy is the people, and its core idea is self-governance. So if the people were to govern themselves, would you imagine them making policies that harm them? The substance of democracy are policies that are beneficial for the people. Going by this criterion, Pakistan’s ‘democracy’ might look like one, but doesn’t work like one.

Some causes of democracy’s failure are foundational.

At the time of independence, the people’s desire for democracy was normal. Its concept of self-determination had provided a rationale for the Pakistan idea and offered a vision for progress. Western political institutions had been introduced by the British. But the British also strengthened or inducted non-democratic practices and institutions, such as feudalism and an elite civil service, with a strong focus on law-and-order tactics.

These were tools of colonial domination and instruments of governance — ensuring stability while minimally satisfying people’s aspirations. The system served the overall purpose of maintaining British hegemony.

Read: Democracy in name?

After independence, these institutions and methods needed to be adapted to realise the ideals of democratic rule, but were stren­gth­e­ned instead because of the existential threats the new state faced. There were enormous economic and security challenges, and the monumental administrative and humani­tarian task of settling millions of refugees. There were also the challenges of nation- and state-building, concerns about unity, and the divisive search for a national identity.

The intelligentsia has not played its due role.

Pakistan sought a solution in an Islamic identity, a strong military, and a centralised bureaucratic state. There emerged powerful groups or institutions that went on to do­­minate its body politic by taking advantage of the leadership vacuum. Administrative challenges strengthened overdependence on the bureaucracy, while the emphasis on security skewed national priorities and resource allocation. Feudalism supported by religious institutions created self-sustai­ning disparities in society by resisting edu­cation, women’s rights and socioeconomic emancipation. All this was hardly conducive for a democratic environment.

As the army, civil-military bureaucracy, dominant social groups and religious ortho­doxy undermined the political process, contributing to its crisis of governance, the country became dependent on financiers like the US and Saudi Arabia, who wanted to use it for their own strategic purposes.

The US came to have a stake for military purposes, while Saudi Arabia saw an opportunity in the country’s fertile religious infrastructure. The landscape became vulnerable to external influences as sectarian complexities made the country susceptible to Saudi-Iranian rivalry, with part of its ethnic composition tied to Afghanistan. This incited extremism.

The internal dynamics, regional rivalries and global politics, instead of motivating a march to progress, provided ideal conditions for a great leap backwards, allowing non-democratic forces to appropriate power and hold on to it.

Civilians and the army took turns to rule Pakistan, but the system, arguably, remained the same, ‘unscathed’ by democracy. They competed for power but then collaborated to maintain the system. It seemed that they figured out that all they needed was each other, supported by the judiciary and bureaucracy and with a misplaced focus on religion. In all this, there was no fear of accountability or electability. They did not need the people. So they did very little for them.

Read: Democracy and prosperity at 75

When the cost of maintaining a ‘democracy’ led by civilians would become unbearable, we would tolerate the army’s intervention to help us get rid of them. But instead of retu­r­ning to the bar­ra­cks, the military took to assuming the role of the poli­ticians. Then we’d long for democracy, which let us down again.

Prolonged per­­i­ods of military rule have now cha­nged the balance of power, with civilian rulers complying with the interests of the security establishment. The fact is that no institution is solely responsible for democracy’s misfortunes.

Nations are changed by ideas and political action. The intelligentsia has a special role to play in sharing ideas and mobilising for political action. In Pakistan, though fixated on the idea of democracy, this segment has not played its due role.

Having never had a proper debate about democracy, much of it has now found a new passion — populism fanned by the powerful rhetoric of morality, nationalism and religion. There is no new awakening regarding ‘democracy’. Without knowing it, they have moved from deception to illusion.

What we need is a deeper debate on democracy. You cannot change what you do not know. Nations change not because they have become democratic; they become democratic because they have changed. Shuffling the deck won’t do. The deck needs to be cleared.

The writer, a former ambassador, is adjunct professor at Georgetown University and Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2022

INDIA
Bureaucracy’s place

A.G. Noorani 

Published August 20, 2022 

THE first government of India immediately on independence was headed by prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his deputy Vallabhbhai Patel. Both were barristers and were familiar with the British system of government. But both were autocrats and rode roughshod over civil servants. The best among them, Sir Girija Shankar Bajpai, secretary general of the external affairs ministry, threatened to resign several times. Nehru could not let him go. Prime minister Indira Gandhi’s adviser P.N. Haksar coined the theory of “committed civil servants” — ie, committed to blind obedience to Haksar and Indira Gandhi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a new doctrine. Civil servants can complain to him directly against their ministers. What is the correct position in the constitutional law of parliamentary democracies?

Vallabhhai Patel stated the correct position in the constituent assembly in October 1949. “Today, my secretary can write a note opposed to my views. I have given that freedom to all my secretaries. I have told them, ‘if you do not give your honest opinion for fear that it will displease your minister, please then you had better go’.”

When Sardar Patel uttered these words in the constituent assembly, he could not have imagined that the constitutional checks he was devising to ensure the integrity and independence of the civil service over the years would collapse so completely as they have by now.

India’s founders wanted an independent civil service.

Dr B.R. Ambedkar characterised Article 311, which embodies guarantees against arbitrary dismissal from service, as “probably the best provision that we have for the safety and security of the civil service, because it contains a fundamental limitation upon the authority to dismiss”. He did not quite reckon with the ways of those “drest in a little brief authority”. Transfers, suspensions, compulsory retirements, and promotions, or their denials, have proved their potency as weapons to punish the independent or reward the unworthy.

The record makes it amply clear that it was an independent civil service which the founding fathers of the constitution wanted to establish in the country. In April 1948, Sardar Patel, who was union home minister, wrote to prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru a letter which deserves to rank among the historic documents of Constitution-making.

He wrote, “I need hardly emphasise that an efficient, disciplined and contented service, assured of its prospect as a result of diligent and honest work, is a sine qua non of sound administration under a democratic regime even more than under an authoritarian rule. The service must be above party and we should ensure that political considerations, either in its recruitment or in its discipline and control, are reduced to the minimum, if not eliminated altogether.”

Sardar Patel delivered on Oct 10, 1949, one of his best speeches in the constituent assembly. “Take work from them,” he said of the civil services, “Every man wants some sort of encouragement. Nobody wants to put in work when every day he is criticised and ridiculed in public. Nobody will give you work like that. So, once and for all, decide whether you want this service or not.”

A distinguished civil servant, Mr B.K. Nehru, proposed an effective reform which would arrest the decline and restore the civil services to the position that was intended for them by the framers of the constitution.

The British experience is relevant because the constitution-makers consciously adopted “the British type of constitution”. This would entail that “the posting, transfer, and promotion of, and disciplinary action against, a civil ser­vant is decided by the head of the civil service depart­m­e­­nt, who also holds the post of cabinet secretary, in consul­tation with senior permanent secre­ta­ries”. As the noted constitutional lawyer Sir Ivor Jennings, put it, “the civil service as a whole is controlled by the treasury under the direction of the prime minister” whose approval would be needed for senior-most appointments. By convention, it is very seldom withheld.

Every Jim Hacker is entitled to select his Bernard Woolley, the private secretary. He enjoys no such freedom in regard to Sir Humphrey Appleby, the permanent secretary.

Examples illustrate the independence of the civil service. Sir Robert Armstrong, head of the home civil service, informed a select committee of parliament in February 1972 of “the well-known rule that ministers of a current government are not entitled to ask to see the papers of a previous adminis­tration. … If a request, notwithstanding that, is made, the civil servant has the right to refuse”. A civil servant who can refuse to let a minister see a file is more than a keeper of files. He is the custodian of a tradition which survives the political birds of passage.

The writer is an author and a lawyer.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2022