Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Revealed: documents shed light on shadowy US far-right fraternal order

New documents detail inner workings of Society for American Civic Renewal, group with an emphasis on Christian nationalism
One document says that membership in the SACR group is ‘predicated on political alignment and faithfulness to the Christian religion’.
 Photograph: Fortgens Photography/Getty Images

Jason Wilson
THE GUARDIAN
Tue 19 Mar 2024 

New documents have shed light on the origins and inner workings of the shadowy Society for American Civic Renewal (SACR), including methods for judging the beliefs of potential members on topics such as Christian nationalism, and indications that its founders sought inspiration in an apartheid-era South African white men-only group, the Afrikaner-Broederbond.

They also show that Boise State University Professor and Claremont thinktank scholar Scott Yenor tried to coordinate SACR’s activities with other initiatives, including an open letter on “Christian marriage”.


One expert says that one of the new documents – some previously reported in Talking Points Memo – use biblical references that suggest a preparedness for violent struggle against the current “regime”.

The SACR is a secretive far-right men-only organization with an emphasis on Christian nationalism and a desire to open branches across the US.

The Guardian has previously reported on SACR’s close links to the Claremont Institute, an influential rightwing thinktank with fellows who have participated in attempts to overturn the 2020 election and promoted the idea that an authoritarian “Red Caesar” might redeem a US republic they see as decadent.

SACR’s origins appear to date to the latter half of 2020, with key milestones in the group’s development coming over the following 18 months.

And there are indications that the inner circle of the group sought inspiration from earlier iterations of Christian nationalism in authoritarian states.

As previously reported in the Guardian, Skyler Kressin, a tax consultant based in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, appears to play a central administrative role in SACR. Idaho and Texas company records show that Kressin incorporated lodges in Boise, Coeur d’Alene and Dallas; serves as a director of the Coeur d’Alene and Dallas lodges; and was named as the principal officer of the parent organization on its 2020-21 tax return.

On 30 October 2020, Kressin wrote an email to Yenor with the question “that good?”, along with a screenshot of an Amazon listing for Super-Afrikaners, a book by the investigative journalists Ivor Wilkins and Hans Strydom.


First published in 1978, Super-Afrikaners exposed the workings of South Africa’s Broederbond, a secretive, exclusive, men-only network that promoted the interests of white Afrikaners in that country and which is credited with a significant role in bringing the National party – the architects of apartheid – to power.

Within half an hour, Yenor replied: “That’s the one”.

The Guardian contacted Scott Yenor with detailed questions on aspects of this reporting, including whether or not the Afrikaner Broederbond had been an inspiration for SACR.

He did not respond directly to most of those questions, but on the matter of SACR’s secrecy, he wrote in an email: “We maintain confidentiality because we know talentless punks like you would pose ridiculous, bad-faith questions meant to stoke your unhinged fever dreams and incriminate us and even unaffiliated people.”

Yenor continued: “Lazy propagandists who disregard ethics in journalism don’t deserve detailed responses.”

The Guardian invited Yenor to respond to the initial questions.
SACR’s rules and vetting process


In the early part of 2021, Yenor drafted documents that firmed up SACR’s purpose and character.

To a 27 April 2021 email sent to himself and his wife at her employment address, Yenor attached a document entitled “Working membership and recruiting guide for chapter leadership”.

In spelling out SACR’s rules, the document reveals the high value the organization places on secrecy. It says that “all discussion is confidential unless clearly noted otherwise”; and “all names of attendees are strictly confidential”. The document even says that members should withhold information from prospective members, instructing that members should “never reveal the names of other Chapter members to prospects”, and “never reveal national or chapter initiatives to prospects – speak only in general terms about our objectives and mission”.

The document also lays out procedures for vetting such prospects. After chapter leaders have decided that a prospect is “worthy of consideration”, they should be invited to a chapter event.

The document says that at that point, members should “gauge alignment and fit” with questions such as “What are your thoughts on Christian nationalism?”, “Comment on the Trump presidency and what it entails for the future”, and “Describe the dynamic of your household in terms of your role and that of your wife.”

In the first section – “membership criteria” – the document says membership in the group is “predicated on political alignment and faithfulness to the Christian religion, combined with virtue and with any of community influence, capability, or wealth”.

The document elaborates on each of these criteria.

Alignment is “deference to and acceptance of the wisdom of our American and European Christian forebears in the political realm, a traditional understanding of patriarchal leadership in the household, and an acceptance of traditional natural law in ethics”.

Natural law is a view with a long history on the right which holds that fundamental moral principles arise from God or nature, not from human reflection or politics. It is a view that Claremont scholars have attempted to provide.

Faithfulness also has a patriarchal edge in SACR’s definition: it is “submission to the authority and standards of behavior of a particular Trinitarian Christian body”, but also “taking ownership as head of the household in terms of leading regular prayer and spiritual reading and reflection”.

Influence is defined as “the ability to make a mark primarily on culture and social discourse but also in politics and business. The positions here can range from equity ownership in productive enterprises to positions of influence in cultural, religious and intellectual institutions.”


Recruiting efforts for the group included visits to Boise from out-of-town collaborators.

A 19 March 2021 email from Yenor lays out a draft schedule for a visit to Boise by Aaron Renn, senior fellow and editor of “theocon” website American Reformer – co-founded by Nate Fischer – and a former senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

Plans included “dinner at Epi’s”, a Basque restaurant in Boise; a meeting with representatives of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a far-right thinktank; and a guest lecture by Renn to Yenor’s students.

Also planned were “drinks with SACR possibles” where Yenor anticipated a “soft sell as per Skyler’s method”, a comment which is not explained further.

The documents indicate Yenor had worked on putting together a group of “SACR possibles” ahead of Renn’s visit.

In a 19 March 2021 exchange, Yenor and his son Jackson workshop the wording of an invitation to prospective SACR members to an evening talk at a local “classical Christian” academy, the Ambrose school. While Scott Yenor’s original had “a national movement with national ambitions”, Jackson Yenor replied with the recommendation: “Say goals instead of ambitions. These guys are ‘goal oriented’ business people, not Machiavelli.”

Further on, the text advised prospective recruits that “chapters will unite public-spirited men who are interested in doing the work of civic renewal. This might involve shoring up teetering institutions. It might involve seeking to turn corrupt institutions.”

The Ambrose School is a “classical Christian” academy in Meridian, on the western edge of the Boise metro area, where Yenor’s wife Amy works as an events coordinator.

The draft invitation does not indicate any date for the drinks meeting, but Yenor’s visit happened less than three weeks after Yenor was working on the text.

The Guardian contacted Boise State University to ask whether there were any policies about faculty combining guest lecturer visits with political activism, but there was no immediate response.

Other documents appear to be connected to SACR recruiting.

On several occasions, Yenor emailed a link to the sacr.us domain with no further context or explanation in the email text. One such email was sent to the Gmail address of the chief executive of a civil engineering company in Pennsylvania. Another was sent to a lawyer and former justice department employee in Tallahassee, Florida.
Christian nationalist prayers

An April 2021 email Yenor sent to his wife’s work address has an attached PDF – “SACR-prayers”. The document features a “long prayer – formal and inaugural occasions” and a “short prayer – regular meetings”.


The long prayer draws biblical and historical parallels for SACR’s activities: “May God unite us in this mission as Joshua’s men when they defeated the mighty walls of Jericho, as Nehemiah’s men who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, as St Constantine’s men when they conquered in the sign of the cross. May the light of Christendom be restored in our homeland, and may America not fall to those who hate God.”

Brad Onishi is the author of Preparing for War, a critical account of Christian nationalism, the host of the Straight White American Jesus podcast, and an academic with appointments at UC Berkeley and the University of San Francisco. He is also a self-described former Christian nationalist.

In a telephone conversation he said that the prayers include “coded” references that may function as justifications of violence.

Explaining the reference to the story of the conquest of Jericho in the book of Joshua, Onishi said: “What happens when the walls fall down? Joshua’s men go in and kill everyone: men, children, women, animals.

“It’s an attempted genocide, right?”

“In that prayer they’re saying we’re Joshua’s men. We’re the type of men who trust God,” Onishi added.

“And when God, when God gives us the signal, we’re going to go kill everybody. That’s what we do.”

BC

Cleanup costs could be three times higher for Teck Resources’ coal mines, says report


 Clean up of selenium pollution from Teck Resources’ coal mines could cost $6.4 billion — or more than three times the deposit required so taxpayers don’t foot the bill, says a new report.

Published March 19, the report commissioned by Wildsight, a Kootenay-based environmental organization, highlights a significant gap between the $1.9 billion the province requires Teck to set aside for emergency shutdowns and mine reclamation and the projected cost of the company’s plans to address selenium pollution from coal mining in B.C.’s Elk Valley.

Selenium is a naturally occurring mineral that is toxic at higher doses, particularly to fish and egg-laying animals.

Simon Wiebe, mining policy and impacts researcher for Wildsight, emphasized that other cleanup costs aren’t included in the report’s projected $6.4-billion estimate, so the total would likely be even higher.

“There are many other issues involved in this: There's land reclamation, there's habitat reclamation, there are other water quality concerns as well ... heavy metals, nickel, sulfate,” said Wiebe.

The $6.4-billion estimate covers the cost of building water treatment facilities planned by Teck before 2027 and the operation of all existing facilities 60 years into the future, he explained.

Wildsight contracted Burgess Environmental Ltd., a Calgary-based consulting firm focused on environmental remediation and geotechnical engineering. The report draws on publicly available data from Teck, the provincial government and other analyses.

Teck currently provides a $1.9-billion cleanup bond to the province, which is intended to cover the costs of shutting down and reclamation of Teck’s mines in case of an emergency. Teck coal has the largest reclamation bond in the province of British Columbia.

In an emailed statement to Canada’s National Observer, Teck Resources spokesperson Dale Steeves called the report’s estimates “inaccurate and inconsistent with calculations made under government policy.”

The report’s “use of simplified assumptions for ongoing water treatment operating costs'' resulted in “significant overestimations,” according to Steeves’ statement. The company “meets all current bonding requirements” set out by the government and is “committed to meeting all reclamation obligations at no cost to government or taxpayers.”

Gordon Johnson, report author and president of Burgess Environmental, noted that information was requested but not received from Teck to create more accurate models. Johnson is an engineer with previous experience working for mining and oilsands companies.

Teck’s statement highlighted its four existing water treatment facilities, capable of handling four times as much water as its 2020 operations.

“We have invested $1.4 billion, so far, in water quality with plans to invest a further $150 million to $250 million by the end of 2024,” said Steeves, adding that selenium concentrations “have stabilized and are now reducing downstream of treatment.”

The Wildsight report was published a week after Canada and the U.S. announced the International Joint Commission (IJC) — a body tasked with resolving disputes about shared waterways — will investigate the effects of selenium pollution from mining operations in B.C. Part of this process will involve governments working together on an action plan to reduce and mitigate the impact of mining pollution in the Elk-Kootenai watershed.

“We're going to submit this document to the IJC and we're hoping they take it into account… Additional research is definitely needed,” said Wiebe.

Since 2012, the Ktunaxa Nation, the Councils of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai, and the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho have been calling for the commission’s investigation. In a March 11 press release, Gary Aitken Jr., vice-chair of the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, called this agreement “an important first step in addressing the serious pollution problem in the Kootenai Watershed.”

Teck is preparing to sell a majority stake of its Elk Valley coal mines to Swiss mining giant Glencore, and Wiebe hopes the Canadian government will look at this report during its review of the proposed sale under the Investment Canada Act.

Accountability for selenium pollution must be maintained throughout any transfer of ownership, noted Wiebe.

Natasha Bulowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

CANADA

Infrastructure program falls short on tracking results, but on right path: auditor


© Provided by The Canadian Press

Auditor general Karen Hogan says the government's $4.6-billion program to bolster transportation infrastructure across the country suffers from poor results tracking, but the fund is well-crafted overall.

In a report on Tuesday, Hogan said the Transport Department took an evidence-based approach to pinpoint supply-chain bottlenecks and call for proposals under the National Trade Corridors Fund.

For example, backed-up terminals and overloaded warehouses during the past few years led officials to solicit submissions for port upgrades and expansions.

However, half of the 181 funded projects failed to include a fleshed-out strategy to assess results, leaving their impact unclear, according to the report. A handful had no strategy.

"The department did not effectively monitor and report on results," the report stated.

Transport Canada needs sturdier monitoring and reporting systems, especially given how long infrastructure programs can take to produce results, Hogan wrote.

“This time factor makes it all the more important to have a robust system to track performance so that Transport Canada can show the extent to which the fund has contributed to improving the fluidity of Canada's transportation infrastructure," she said in a release.

The dearth of tracking also produced radio silence on how the program might back sustainable development goals from the United Nations, Hogan added.

The government launched the National Trade Corridors Fund in 2017 in an effort to strengthen Canada's network of roads, rails, airports and seaports by 2028. The projects by municipal and provincial governments as well as private companies range from routine street upgrades to multibillion-dollar port terminals.

Industry has welcomed the money, but says the program falls far short of the funding tsunami unleashed in the United States as well as the kind of comprehensive strategy needed to address long-standing problems.

Since 2021, the Biden administration's US$1.2-trillion infrastructure bill has funded some 40,000 projects aimed at rebuilding the U.S. transportation network.

"There is no commensurate kind of funding happening, particularly for marine infrastructure, on our side," said Jason Card, a spokesman for the Chamber of Marine Commerce.

"The dire consequence of that is we'll be falling behind in our carbon reduction goals, our supply-chain strength and our economic development goals, potentially. This stuff has a knock-on effect if you get three or four or five years where ports are doing extraordinary things down south of the border and we're not keeping up."

Trade groups and analysts have also called for a more cohesive approach to the overall flow of goods into and out of the country.

The government launched a national infrastructure assessment in 2021, but has yet to follow up on recommendations — establishing an independent commission on major infrastructure opportunities, for example — more than two and a half years later.

The United States, European Union, Australia and Switzerland have overarching transport infrastructure strategies, the European Court of Auditors found in 2021. Canada does not.

The auditor general highlighted other defects in the National Trade Corridors Fund.

The Transport Department weighed project proposals using a merit-based approach, "but could not demonstrate on what basis it prioritized some meritorious projects over others," the report found. Documents that laid out the benefit of various projects recommended by civil servants were "insufficient" to support their ultimate ranking, it said.

Nonetheless, the auditor general's office found no instance of funds handed over to ineligible recipients.

"In terms of the program, it's working well," Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez told reporters. "We have to do a little bit better in terms of reporting."

The government also established an office to develop a national supply-chain strategy in December, he noted.

As of Dec. 31, Transport Canada had approved $3.8 billion to fund 181 transportation projects under the now seven-year-old trade corridor program, with about 20 per cent of that money spent so far.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 19, 2024.

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press

Rockstar Games employees slam 'massive problem' at GTA 6 studio

Story by Jake Brigstock
 • 

Employees at Rockstar Games have hit out at the decision to bring the workforce back into the office full time to complete GTA 6 with one saying it could cause a "massive problem".

Senior bosses at Rockstar told employees on February 28 they would have to work in the office five-days-a-week again which will come into effect from April 15.

It didn't go down well with developers, who publicly lashed out at the decision when it was announced.

Employees at the company have been hybrid working or remotely but this is set to come to an end for the majority with Rockstar reportedly yet to give any further details at present.

And a developer has described the "massive problem" they say Rockstar could have caused itself.

Speaking to Aftermath, one Rockstar employee said: "We're quite worried that we're gonna lose personnel over this or it will have a large negative impact on people's health.

"It's a very anti-parent move. For people with disabilities, it's a massive problem."

Employees are said to be concerned about the 'state of the project' in relation to GTA 6 but have more concerns about the health of their colleagues first and foremost.

Another employee said: "In a world where we are still dealing with Covid, just being able to be considerate of your colleagues around you in staying away from the office is a really good benefit to have.

"That will be completely lost. That's going to result in a loss of productivity for the company."

Employees also claimed the move does not make sense because when they were working on Red Dead Redemption 2, although they would be in the office, they would be working remotely with other studios and departments anyway and say GTA 5 was made almost entirely remotely.

When the announcement was made on February 28, the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) said Rockstar management "is refusing to engage with workers and say they will be pulling the plug on their remote access technology to shut down any possibility of continued home working".

Austin Kelmore, chair at IWGB Game Workers, said at the time: “The workers in the IWGB Game Workers Union at Rockstar are pushing for transparency over pay and promotions, a healthy and inclusive workplace culture and work-life balance centred around what each worker needs.

"It is unacceptable that Rockstar leadership has gone back on its word time and time again and have ignored the workers' requests for basic working conditions."

It's reported Rockstar is forcing this through to issue productivity and security concerns after a major leak of unfinished portions of GTA 6 came in 2022 and the trailer leak that was posted online hours before it was due to be officially released.

Rockstar has been contacted for comment.

Terence Corcoran: John Kenneth Galbraith's industrial state makes a comeback

Opinion by Terence Corcoran
 • 
A BACK HANDED RIGHT WING REVIEW OF JK GALBRAITHS CLASSIC WORK(GALBRAITH WAS A CANADIAN-AMERIKAN ECONOMIST)THE NEW INDUSTRIAL STATE


Economist John Kenneth Galbraith, 1978.© Provided by Financial Post


It is hardly news that national industrial policy is making a big comeback around the world, almost 60 years after John Kenneth Galbraith wrote The New Industrial State, a 1967 bestseller that proposed replacing market economics with state industrial planning. His theories failed to take hold in the 20th century but we are now driving into the 21st century under the influence of Galbraith’s neo-Marxist  economic views.

Recent reports include a column in the Financial Times which complained this week that while America under President Joe Biden has rolled out a plethora of tariffs, subsidies and regulations, the plan falls shamefully short of meeting the full official industrial policy status. For that to happen, America needs to move away from “the mythology of efficient and always self-correcting markets, to an age in which the public sector will have to do more nudging, or ‘marketcrafting’, as some would put it, to ensure economically and politically stable outcomes.”

Throughout the European Union, politicians and activists are constantly insisting on  more state actions to bring in the green new deal and industrial development. EU government leaders are agitating for a more “proactive innovative industrial strategy” to fight off competition from China, France’s economic minister said  last year.

In North America, industrial policy theory crashed in the 1980s as one economic camp after another shot it down as unworkable. Both Democrats and Republicans turned against massive state planning in the United States. Various efforts were launched in Canada, nationally and provincially, but the economy has remained largely market driven.

In Quebec, a new study from The Centre for Productivity and Prosperity  concludes that 25 years of provincial government industrial policy “has been a failure.” One of the study’s authors describes the basic industrial policy problem: “The government actively promotes the development of sectors it deems promising and passively seeks to preserve jobs in businesses that are not conducive to productivity, innovation, and investment.”

The root of the industrial strategy problem is the impossible task of predicting and controlling future economic developments in co-operation with businesses looking for state backing, known in economics as corporate  rent-seekers. In the Quebec case, the researchers unfortunately do not totally reject the industrial planning as a method. They simply seem to be saying that the Quebec state got it wrong and needs to make it right. They call on the government to “urgently conduct a complete and uncompromising diagnosis” of the failed policies.

Another new  study  released this week looked at a classic industrial strategy story, Japan’s 1980s effort to boost technology development with policies similar to Biden’s CHIPs plan to create regional tech hubs. The study concludes that while Japan boosted the fortunes of some corporations and regions, the benefits were not widely distributed.

The latest Canadian formulation of industrial policy-making has triggered a relatively fierce debate over the role Canada’s pension funds should play in financing Canadian industry. A group of 90 corporate executives published an open letter  calling on Ottawa to change pension investment rules to force pension managers to invest more money in Canadian corporations. “Government has the right, responsibility, and obligation to regulate how this savings regime operates,“ said Canada’s top corporate leaders.

The rent-seeking aspect of the executive plea was identified in an  incisive report on the pension issue by the Financial Post’s Barbara Shecter. One pension fund manager noted the “self-serving” executive plea for a structure that would effectively direct pension investment funds into Canadian corporate shares. Also, forcing pensions to invest more in Canadian corporations would expose pension funds unstable industrial policies.

Specifics for directing pension funds are expected in next month’s budget. Will the government actually move in directions that have been strongly denounced throughout the pension industry? One determining factor will be the Trudeau government’s willingness to push Canada’s public pensions into funding the massive regulatory and subsidy policies around green growth. Does that mean pensions, already supportive of net-zero targets, could soon be forced to invest in Canadian electric vehicles and critical mineral developments?

It is not a coincidence that John Kenneth Galbraith’s 1967 magnum opus puts new technical developments at the top of his justifications for a new industrial state. When investment in technological development is running high, he said, there is the risk that “a failure in persuading consumers to buy the product can be extremely expensive.” To get around the reluctant consumer, Galbraith called for industrial policy. “The cost and associated risk can be greatly reduced if the state pays for more exalted technical development or guarantees a market for the technologically advanced product. Suitable justification — national defence, national prestige, deeply felt public need such as for supersonic travel — can be found. Modern technology thus defines a growing function of the modern state.”

Substituting EVs and net-zero for supersonic travel puts us squarely in the 21st-century version of Galbraith’s industrial policy thought process. Even supersonic travel is back on the planning agenda . A news story this week reports that NASA and a collection of corporations are developing jets that will break the sound barrier “with smaller carbon footprint, mostly because they will be fuelled by sustainable aviation fuel.”

Get out the planning books! We are flying into the new industrial state at record speed.

• Email: tcorcoran@postmedia.com

Financial Post

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In 1967, John Kenneth Galbraith put forward the idea of a new industrial society, the main feature of which was change in the structure of the working class by ...
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