April 15, 2022
In this premiere episode of The Chris Hedges Report, Dr. West joins Chris Hedges to discuss the decay of the American empire, the struggle to show international solidarity in the face of escalating militarism, and what it means to examine this historical moment through a moral and spiritual lens.
Published in Monterey Herald, April 6, 2022
We are on the verge of losing what is left of democracy in America, and the Democratic Party seems to do little more than shrug its shoulders. Republicans are on the attack, accusing the Dems of all kinds of deeds and crimes, mostly without substance. Polls show a strong chance that the GOP, who have accomplished nothing at all, could win both houses of Congress this November.
To prevent electoral defeat, the Democrats need to expose the number of Republicans who have committed political crimes. Yet for some reason, Attorney General Merrick Garland has shown little willingness to prosecute Republicans for January 6 and attempting to nullify the 2020 election. Donald Trump and his family always seem immune to legal accountability. And now the Manhattan District Attorney is bailing out on prosecuting the financial crimes of the Trump family.
What will it take to get the Democratic Party to see the danger ahead? Could it be that leaders like Nancy Pelosi (82), Chuck Schumer (71), and President Biden (79) are past their prime and Dems need new blood to light a fire and go on the offensive? Maybe so.
— Arlen Grossman, Del Rey Oaks
Letter to the Editor/ Monterey Herald/ April 6, 2022
We are on the verge of losing what is left of democracy in America, and the Democratic Party seems to do little more than shrug its shoulders. Republicans are on the attack, accusing the Dems of all kinds of deeds and crimes, mostly without substance. Polls show a strong chance that the GOP, who have accomplished nothing at all, could win both houses of Congress this November.
To prevent electoral defeat, the Democrats need to expose the number of Republicans who have committed political crimes. Yet for some reason, Attorney General Merrick Garland has shown little willingness to prosecute Republicans for January 6 and attempting to nullify the 2020 election. Donald Trump and his family always seem immune to legal accountability. And now the Manhattan District Attorney is bailing out on prosecuting the financial crimes of the Trump family.
What will it take to get the Democratic Party to see the danger ahead? Could it be that leaders like Nancy Pelosi (82), Chuck Schumer (71), and President Biden (79) are past their prime and Dems need new blood to light a fire and go on the offensive? Maybe so.
The corporate Democrat spent the past year grabbing headlines for obstructing his party’s agenda, in particular gutting and ultimately blocking climate legislation that would impact the fossil fuel industry in which he and his family made their fortune. Last week, for example, he vowed to block progressive nominee Sarah Bloom Raskin from the Federal Reserve due to her willingness to factor climate science into the Fed’s monetary policy.
Far less attention has been afforded to the senator’s wife, Gayle Manchin, a former West Virginia secretary of education, who in March 2021 was appointed by President Joe Biden to cochair a commission that distributes federal infrastructure grants across thirteen states, including West Virginia.
But now an investigation suggests Manchin might have financial ties to a recipient of funding from that commission, an economic development partnership agency called the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC).
Late last summer, ARC, awarded a $1.5 million grant to the Appalachian Investors Alliance (AIA), a nonprofit foundation that works to deliver investment to small Appalachian businesses. The nonprofit’s director, Mike Green, is a prominent West Virginia venture capital manager who also serves as the officer and organizer of West Virginia Growth Investment LLC — a company in which Gayle Manchin has invested, according to federal financial disclosures.
Virginia Canter, the chief ethics counselor of the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), said that Manchin’s financial ties to Green may have posed a conflict of interest. Canter, who served as an ethics counselor to former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, recommended that the Manchin family divest their West Virginia business interests to avoid any potential issues:
Since ARC investments support hundreds of economic development projects across the Appalachian region, to avoid any potential conflict of interest, Ms Manchin should commit to divest her and her spouse’s investments in businesses located in that region that could benefit from ARC projects and funding.
Despite making the news in 2016 for her role lobbying for schools to stock epinephrine autoinjectors, leading to a near-monopoly for EpiPens manufactured by her daughter’s former employer Mylan, Manchin’s tenure in the Biden administration has largely flown under the radar.
So ARC’s announcement last September that it had awarded $1.5 million to the AIA received little attention. The grant, part of ARC’s Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative, was characterized as a “special regional project” that would “create new access to capital by creating and supporting angel and micro-venture funds in small and growing Appalachian businesses.” According to the Ironton Tribune, the POWER initiative “targets federal resources to help revitalize the economy in fossil-fuel impacted communities.”
Financial records show Manchin owned a stake in West Virginia Growth Investment LLC worth between $15,000 and $50,000 in 2020. Green is listed as the LLC’s organizer and officer in West Virginia business records.
Green and Manchin have also worked closely in the past: Manchin previously served as president of the West Virginia Board of Education while Green was the board’s vice president.
Green doesn’t just serve as the AIA’s director. The nonprofit’s website also lists Green’s venture capital firm, Mountain State Capital, as one its angel investors. Among the case studies on the alliance’s website is Conservation Labs, a water monitoring startup that received seed funding in November 2019 from Green’s Mountain State Capital and other funds. The alliance’s website states that “Mountain State Capital identified Conservation Labs, Inc. as a company that stood this test of diligence” and that many of the funds affiliated with AIA joined in funding Conservation Labs after a diligence process led by Green’s VC firm.
According to her financial disclosure documents, Manchin’s investment in Green’s West Virginia Growth Investment LLC includes stakes in Valtari and Peca Labs, two companies that Green has funded through his VC firm.
Green sits on the board of Valtari, a stroke diagnostic startup incubated at West Virginia University with the help of Mountain State cofounder Matt Harbaugh. Peca Labs, a medical device technology company, is also part of the Mountain State Capital investment portfolio.
When she joined the Biden administration, Gayle Manchin signed an ethics ethics agreement that stated:
I will not participate personally and substantially in any particular matter . . . in which I know that a person whose interests are imputed to me has a financial interest directly and predictably affected by the particular matter, unless I first obtain a written waiver.
Canter, the chief ethics counselor at CREW, said Manchin’s investments may have posed a conflict of interest.
“Under the criminal conflict of interest statute, 18 USC 208, Ms Manchin is required to recuse from any particular matter that would have a direct and predictable effect on her financial interests,” she said. “For example, she would be barred from participating in the Appalachian Investors Alliance award, if it would affect her financial interest in West Virginia Growth Investment LLC or any of its underlying investments.”
According to Canter, in the case of the ARC grant awards, “If her coinvestor was representing the grantee, she would arguably have a recusal requirement based on her outside business relationship with him since it would cause a reasonable person to question her impartiality.”
A spokesperson for the Appalachian Regional Commission said that “ARC has safeguards in place to protect the integrity of our work.”
The spokesperson added:
Federal cochair Gayle Manchin does not have any financial relationships with organizations that have received ARC funding. If ARC were to receive a grant application from an entity with which she has financial ties, the federal cochair would recuse herself from involvement, per federal government ethics requirements.
The ARC spokesperson and its inspector general did not respond to questions about whether Manchin recused herself from discussions involving the AIA grant or sought an ethics waiver on the matter.
By Arlen Grossman
I somehow found an email thread that seemed to be populated with Republicans, who wanted to blame and tear down President Biden for all the problems of this country and the world. Here was my response:
If we continue like this, our country will continue going downhill, and we will find it difficult to find solutions we can all agree with. I guess what I am trying to say is that we can’t be all sure we have all the answers. Somehow we have to find a way to come together to solve the multiple problems this country has.
Sorry, Teddy. Either we ignored what you said, or it’s that we don’t know what statesmanship is in this country. It could also be that we don’t know the meaning of statesmanship. But the sad fact is that we’ve made no progress on what you suggested in 1912.
Who could have known that members of Congress would take advantage of their position? Maybe everybody.
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