LAKE VIEW, N.Y. (WIVB) The Libertarian Party has picked Duane Whitmer, an accountant from Lake View, to appear on their line in the special election to fill Chris Collins former seat in Congress. The partys leaders met Sunday night to make their nomination official.

Whitmer, 32, will face Democratic Grand Island Town Supervisor Nate McMurray and Republican State Senator Chris Jacobs.

This campaign isnt just trying to win the seat, Whitmer said. Its also leading an educational reform saying were here. Were fighting. Were the Libertarian Party. This is what were about.

The 27th Congressional District in New York has been without representation since October 1st, the day Collins resigned the seat. It was the same day he pleaded guilty to insider trading charges.

Whitmer says he supports restructuring the nations tax plan to benefit the middle class. Hes also pro 2nd Amendment.

I dont believe D.C. or Albany should be regulating your life, he said.

The special election will take place on April 28th.

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Whitmer nominated to appear on Libertarian line for 27th district special election - WIVB.com - News 4

Richard Spencer. Robert Rotellas foundation gave Spencers National Policy Institute $12,500 over three years. Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

At first glance, Robert Rotella appears to be a typical libertarian donor. Through the foundation named in his honor, the Bellevue, Washingtonbased founder of Rotella Capital Management has donated millions to libertarian and conservative organizations like the Cato Institute, the Reason Foundation, and Turning Point USA. One of his particular favorites is the Institute for Justice. Since 2010, he has donated nearly a quarter of a million dollars to the group, and through it, he has helped set up a Supreme Court battle with dramatic implications for public schools. Justices heard Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue on Wednesday: the Institute for Justice had brought the case against the state of Montana in order to force it to include religious schools in its tax-credit scholarship program. The case has implications not just for the First Amendment but for teachers unions, who view it as yet another attempt to take precious resources away from public schools.

Rotellas financial support for libertarian causes is enough to make him a consequential figure, but theres another reason to know his name: A closer look at the financial records of the Robert P. Rotella Foundation, which he manages alongside his sister, Rosemarie, reveals that he isnt just interested in right-to-work laws or free enterprise. Hes also a significant funder of white nationalism.

Of the $5.8 million the foundation has donated to various causes since 2002, roughly $105,000 has gone to organizations like the National Policy Institute, or NPI, which is led by neo-Nazi Richard Spencer. A comprehensive review of the foundations available 990 reports indicates that its financial support for white nationalism began in 2014 and continued through 2018. Though $105,000 is not an exceptionally large sum of money, white nationalist organizations are small, and it doesnt take much money to keep them afloat. Annual recurring donations are kind of where its at for these guys because they all have financial limits, imposed by federal law, on how large the donations can be, explained David Neiwert, the author of Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump.

A guy like Spencer, for instance, doesnt need a single sugar daddy to give him money, Neiwert added. Basically, the National Policy Institute is Spencer, and he just needs an annual salary. Five thousand dollars is basically 5 percent of that annual income for him. He just needs another 20 of those donations and hes done for the year. Thats actually not that hard to get, because there are a lot of people out there who are willing to keep that chunk rolling in for him every year.

Rotella was one of those people. His foundation gave $2,500 to NPI in 2014, then doubled the sum in 2015. It handed off another $5,000 chunk to the group in 2016. Donations to other white nationalist groups follow a similar pattern. Between 2013 and 2017, his foundation donated $10,000 every year, or $40,000 total, to the Charles Martel Society, a white nationalist organization that publishes The Occidental Quarterly, a pseudo-academic journal that focuses on race science. Members of the journals advisory board include Virginia Abernethy, a Vanderbilt University professor emerita who describes herself as an ethnic separatist, and Tom Suni, a writer whom the Southern Poverty Law Center calls an intellectual voice for white nationalists and who once complained that the media pathologized White Western peoples into endless atonement. Until 2018, the RPRFs donations composed roughly 13 to 18 percent of the Charles Martel Societys donation income, depending on the year.

Rotellas foundation also funded the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR. That group, founded by the late anti-immigration eugenicist John Tanton, has received $17,500 from Rotella since 2015. FAIR calls for sweeping restrictions on legal immigration based on stereotypes about the criminal tendencies of nonwhites; the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated it a hate group. During the same period, Rotella gave another $35,000 to the New Century Foundation, publisher of the digital outlet American Renaissance. The website advocates for white separatism, eugenics, and strict immigration restrictions.

Rick McNeely, a spokesperson for the Rotella family, told New York in December that the Charles Martel Society and the National Policy Institute had misrepresented their work to the foundation. In retrospect, the original goals of why someone would give a donation, in the spirit of diversity and giving other people voices, that certainly wouldnt have been something [the Rotellas] would do if there had been better disclosure. Or if they had a crystal ball, McNeely said.

Unfortunately, none of us can tell the future or hidden agendas or what might happen, he added. However, the goals and characteristics of the Charles Martel Society are not hidden knowledge. The Southern Poverty Law Center helped publicize the societys role as a leading purveyor of academic racism in 2010, years before the Rotella Foundation started funding the group. The society has been around since 2001, meaning it had 13 years to establish its white nationalist raison dtre before it received any Rotella money. FAIR has existed since 1979; NPI, since 2005. Richard Spencer, no stranger to the limelight, had already begun leading NPI by the time it started receiving Rotella money. The intentions of these organizations were clear enough to many.

McNeely said he was unaware that the RPRF had also funded American Renaissance, nor could he explain how the Charles Martel Society and NPI became familiar with a relatively minor foundation in the first place. Public information offers scant additional insight into Rotella or the substance of his views. He has no social-media presence. His official biography on the Rotella Capital Management website says he earned degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Temple University before founding his company in 1995. He eventually relocated from Chicago to Bellevue, where the company is now based. An amateur photographer, he opened the Rotella Gallery in Bellevue, and his biography on its website says he is originally from Niagara Falls, New York.

Despite Rotellas relatively low profile, his donation history offers a rare glimpse into the way the alt-rightis funded. Information about its major donors tends to be scarce. The RPRF is only the second funder of Spencers organization whose identity has become known; the other is multimillionaire William Regnery II, who founded the Charles Martel Society and also helped found NPI.

Rotellas other charitable causes are not so obviously linked to partisan issues. In addition to funding environmental groups like Conservation International and the Pollinator Partnership, the RPRF donated thousands to obscure groups that tout research efforts into UFOs, anti-vaccination, and the apparently fictitious Morgellons disease. The foundation has donated $5,000 to the Exopolitics Institute, which offers a certification program in extraterrestrial affairs, and $25,000 to the Farsight Institute, which claims its team of psychic remote viewers has confirmed that aliens built the Pyramids. But Neiwert says this grouping of interests, while strange, isnt completely unusual. White nationalism runs on conspiracies, he explained.

The psychics of the Farsight Institute probably have little impact on daily affairs, but other Rotella beneficiaries achieve more tangible results. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported in November that before Stephen Miller joined President Trumps speechwriting team, he regularly shared links to American Renaissance stories with Breitbart staffers to influence their coverage. Julie Kirchner, who resigned as the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ombudsman in October, had previously led FAIR for nearly a decade. She wasnt the only FAIR employee in the Trump administration, either. John Zadrozny and Ian Smith both worked for FAIR in different capacities before joining the Department of Homeland Security under Trump; both have since left the administration.

The Rotella Foundations giving will soon cease: McNeely said it will dissolve this year. The family lacked the manpower to do it correctly, he explained. But the foundation has already accomplished a great deal during its 18 years in existence including funding a legal case that could lead to a radical reinterpretation of the First Amendment. The Supreme Court will rule on Espinoza later this year, and, given the conservative makeup of the court, the Rotella-funded Institute for Justice is likely to win. That worries unions like the American Federation of Teachers, which opposes the use of public funds for religious schools. Robert Rotella and his support for far-right causes is exhibit A in the disturbing story of how money has infiltrated and corrupted our political system, Randi Weingarten, the president of AFT, told New York.

As a backer of Richard Spencer, Rotella represents a clear and present danger to the tolerance and diversity underpinning American democracy and its well past time his influence is exposed and interrogated,Weingarten added.

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This Obscure Foundation Helped Fund The Alt-Right - New York Magazine

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For climate skeptics, its hard to compete with the youthful appeal of global phenomenon Greta Thunberg. But one U.S. think tank hopes its found an answer: the anti-Greta.

Naomi Seibt is a 19-year-old German who, like Greta, is blond, eloquent and European. But Naomi denounces climate alarmism, calls climate consciousness a despicably anti-human ideology, and has even deployed Gretas now famous How dare you? line to take on the mainstream German media.

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Shes a fantastic voice for free markets and for climate realism, said James Taylor, director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center for Climate and Environmental Policy at the Heartland Institute, an influential libertarian think tank in suburban Chicago that has the ear of the Trump administration.

In December, Heartland headlined Naomi at its forum at the UN climate conference in Madrid, where Taylor described her as the star of the show. Last month, Heartland hired Naomi as the young face of its campaign to question the scientific consensus that human activity is causing dangerous global warming.

Naomi Seibt vs. Greta Thunberg: whom should we trust? asked Heartland in a digital video. Later this week, Naomi is set to make her American debut at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, a high-profile annual gathering just outside Washington of right-leaning activists.

If imitation is the highest form of flattery, Heartlands tactics amount to an acknowledgment that Greta has touched a nerve, especially among teens and young adults. Since launching her protest two years ago outside the Swedish parliament at age 15, Greta has sparked youth protests across the globe and in 2019 was named Time magazines Person of the Year, the youngest to ever win the honor.

The teenager has called on the nations of the world to cut their total carbon output by at least half over the next decade, saying that if they dont, then there will be horrible consequences.

I want you to panic, she told attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last year. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.

Naomi, for her part, argues that these predictions of dire consequences are exaggerated. In a video posted on Heartlands website, she gazes into the camera and says, I dont want you to panic. I want you to think.

Graham Brookie directs the Digital Forensic Research Lab, an arm of the nonprofit Atlantic Council that works to identify and expose disinformation. While the campaign is not outright disinformation, Brookie said in an email, it does bear resemblance to a model we use called the 4ds dismiss the message, distort the facts, distract the audience, and express dismay at the whole thing.

Brookie added: The tactic is intended to create an equivalency in spokespeople and message. In this case, it is a false equivalency between a message based in climate science that went viral organically and a message based in climate skepticism trying to catch up using paid promotion.

Naomi said her political activism was sparked a few years ago when she began asking questions in school about Germanys liberal immigration policies. She said the backlash from teachers and other students hardened her skepticism about mainstream German thinking. More recently, she said that watching young people joining weekly Fridays For Future protests inspired by Greta helped spur her opposition to climate change activism.

I get chills when I see those young people, especially at Fridays for Future. They are screaming and shouting and theyre generally terrified, she said in an interview. They dont want the world to end.

Naomi said she does not dispute that greenhouse gas emissions are warming the planet, but she argues that many scientists and activists have overstated their impact.

I dont want to get people to stop believing in man-made climate change, not at all, she said. Are manmade CO2 emissions having that much impact on the climate? I think thats ridiculous to believe.

Naomi argues that other factors, such as solar energy, play a role though the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth has actually declined since the 1970s, according to federal measurements. A slew of peer-reviewed reports, from scientific bodies in the U.S. and elsewhere, have concluded that greenhouse gas emissions are the dominant cause of warming since the mid-20th century, producing a range of devastating effects from massive marine die-offs in South America to severe wildfires in Australia and sinking ground in the Arctic.

In addition to climate change, Naomi echoes far-right skepticism about feminism and immigration. The German media have described her as sympathetic to the nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD), the biggest opposition party in parliament, whose leaders have spoken of fighting an invasion of foreigners. Naomi says she is not a member of AfD she describes herself as libertarian but acknowledges speaking at a recent AfD event.

Her path to Heartland began in November with a speech at EIKE, a Munich think tank whose vice president is a prominent AfD politician. By then, Naomi was already active on YouTube, producing videos on topics ranging from migration to feminism to climate change. In the audience was Heartlands Taylor. He said he immediately recognized her potential and approached her about working with Heartland.

Founded in 1984 and funded largely by anonymous donors, Heartland has increasingly focused on climate change over the past decade. Its staff and researchers enjoy ready access to the Trump administration, and one of its senior fellows, William Happer, served as a senior director on the White House National Security Council between September 2018 and 2019.

An emeritus professor of physics at Princeton University, Happer has repeatedly argued that carbon emissions should be viewed as beneficial to society not a pollutant that drives global warming. During his time with the Trump administration, he sought to enlist Heartlands help in promoting his ideas and objected to a U.S. intelligence officials finding that climate impacts could be possibly catastrophic, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

Why would an American think tank want to get involved in German politics? Because it worries that Berlins strong stance on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions could be contagious, according to a recent investigation aired on German television.

For two decades, Germany has been a leader in pressing other nations to curb carbon output and shift to renewable energy. Though it is falling short of its ambitious goals, Germany has pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions this year by 40 percent compared to 1990 and by up to 95 percent by mid-century.

In December, during the Madrid climate conference, two undercover staffers from the nonprofit investigative newsroom CORRECTIV approached Taylor and claimed to work for a wealthy donor from the auto industry who wanted to give Heartland a half-million euros. Taylor took the bait, and followed up with a three-page proposal outlining a campaign to push back against German efforts to regulate emissions.

These restrictive environmental programs are largely unnecessary, says the document, a copy of which was obtained by The Post. Worse, other nations including the United States and European Union nations are increasingly being influenced by unwise German policy.

The proposal described Naomi as the star of a Climate Reality Forum organized by Heartland during the Madrid talks. With over 100,000 people viewing her talk on climate realism, the proposal said, Naomi was well-positioned to fight German climate policies.

Funding for our Germany Environmental Issues project will enable Heartland to provide Naomi with the equipment and the sources she needs to present a series of effective videos calling attention to the negative impacts of overreaching environmental regulations, the proposal says.

CORRECTIV aired its report on Heartland earlier this month on German TV. Taylor dismissed the report, saying, Heck, I would have spoken with them if they told us who they were, and the answers would have been pretty much the same.

The report included secretly filmed footage of Naomi, who struck back with her own video response. Invoking Greta, she said, To the media, I have a few last words: How dare you?"

Despite echoes of Gretas style, Naomi has objected to the comparison.

The reason I dont like the term anti-Greta is that it suggests I myself am an indoctrinated puppet, I guess, for the other side, she says in one video. Asked if she meant that as a criticism of Greta, Naomi says: That sounds kind of mean, actually. She added: I dont want to shame her in any way.

Taylor said the tendency to associate Naomi with Greta is kind of natural and benefits Heartlands message.

To the extent that Naomi is pretty much the same, just with a different perspective, yeah, I think that its good that people will look at the two as similar in many ways, he said.

Still, Naomi has a long climb to reach the level of global attention lavished on Greta. While Greta measures her social media following in the millions, Naomi counts slightly under 50,000 YouTube subscribers.

Through her spokespeople, Greta declined to comment.

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The anti-Greta: A conservative think tank takes on the global phenomenon - msnNOW

Its no secret Americans are divided. Liberals pit themselves against conservatives, often bitterly. There are even factions amongst those camps. Leftists, led by the likes of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are seeking to dominate the more moderate elements of the Democratic Party. The fusion of libertarians and conservatives, absent the unifying threat of communism and the Cold War, is fraying.

In such a fractious environment, perhaps we should turn to our first president, who warned us of the dangers of political parties and in whom a public spirit reigned almost before there was any public to be spirited about. What would he have to say about the libertarian-conservative debate?

Following the Revolutionary War, America was economically weak. So George Washington took measures to ensure financial growth. He championed the Potomac River project to established a network of roads and tributaries that connected separate parts of the country. This would allow citizens to travel and trade with one another, improving the lives of everyday Americans and securing the promise of prosperity to millions yet unborn. This was an end worthy of the attention of Americas father.

Washington also saw prosperity as a means. It can satisfy material needs while creating the conditions for a nation and a people to act justly. Mothers would not be forced to steal for themselves and their children to survive. A wealthy country need not renege on debts to its allies. Prosperity makes that possible.

Yet beyond such advantages, Washington saw prosperity as necessary for the accomplishment of his greatest task: the establishment of an American national character.

The Potomac River project was essential because it would bring the States on the Atlantic in close connexion with those forming to the westward, by a short and easy transportation. Without this, Washington could easily conceive that Americans would have different views, separate interests and other connexions.

At a time many people thought of themselves as citizens of a particular state, rather than a nation, free trade and travel would promote cultural education and unity. It would bring Americans together for those simple and everyday exchanges that combat prejudice and encourage reciprocal goodwill.

Furthermore, Washington was not only establishing commerce but a marketplace of ideas. If individuals could travel for trade, they could also gather to deliberate. Citizens across states lines could converse and come to a consensus. This would ensure that all Americans, regardless of locality, were dedicated to a shared set of principles.

Washington did not promote prosperity so that atomistic individuals could each pursue their own desires. He did it for the sake of unity, so citizens would be willing to make those concessions which are requisite to the general prosperity, and in some instances, to sacrifice their individual advantages to the interest of the Community. He championed improvements in infrastructure for economic growth but also as a mechanism for forming a common culture and commitment to republican ideas.

Put another way, Washingtons views of the interplay between prosperity and American national character mirrors the relationship of the body and the soul. The body is not what is most essential for the human person. A soldier does not lose his character with the loss of his arm.

Still, what happens to the body has the potential to affect the soul. It is difficult for someone suffering from a debilitating disease to maintain his or her spiritedness. Washington promoted prosperity in order to provide for the body politic. But he did so for the sake of the American soul.

So was Washington a libertarian or a conservative? He would certainly agree that economic prosperity is desirable in and of itself. This opinion is shared by libertarians and conservatives alike but is more essential to the libertarian platform.

However, Washington was seeking to establish communities and not mere markets. And he gave supremacy to the former. In Washingtons mind, what elevates prosperity in importance is its usefulness as a means, not just its goodness as an end. He would not have advocated policies that treat economic growth as if it is the only goal without a view to how those policies affect communities and character.

This is an approach we could learn from today. Washingtons nuanced understanding of prosperity could form the basis of a new fusionism between libertarians and conservatives. That alliance is especially tenuous amongst millennials and members of Gen Z whose views of coalition-building are not framed by the urgency of the Cold War. The commonality amongst libertarians and conservatives, millennials and baby boomers, is the American national character Washington bequeathed to all.

Brenda M. Hafera is the director of International and Continuing Education Programs at The Fund for American Studies.

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How George Washington Can Revive Fusionism On The Right - The Federalist

Looking back, Trey Holcomb said hes always been a Libertarian at heart. The 49-year-old public school teacher has largely voted Republican, but the election of Donald Trump led him to part ways with the Grand Old Party a few years ago.

I looked at what the Republican party was saying they were about and what they were actually doing, he said, and it didnt match up. They want to extend compassion to some groups but not to others. If you are going to love thy neighbor unless they are a refugee from another country, that doesnt make sense to me. Why not treat people as individuals. There are great Christian people in the Republican party, but, as a party, thats not what it stands for anymore.

Disillusioned, he went with an open mind to Tarrant Countys Democratic primary in 2016 only to find narrow partisan talking points that Holcomb said felt contrived to garner votes. The real issues that are facing this country ballooning national debt, endless foreign wars, unjust marijuana laws were largely missing from the discourse of both parties.

Partisan politics dumbs down elections into fearmongering over abortion rights and gun control, Holcomb said. Both parties, he added, are guilty of misrepresenting the other side to gain votes. While the idea of joining a political party felt anathema to his new insights, Holcomb saw an opportunity to make a difference as a candidate for Texas 12th Congressional District under the Libertarian ticket.

Libertarianism, Holcomb said, is based on the philosophy of liberty. You own your life. Your decisions should not be made for you.

On March 10 at Billy Bobs Texas, Holcomb will plead his case to Libertarian Party delegates at the partys county convention. If chosen to represent the Libertarian party in the national Congressional race, Holcomb will face the winners of the Republican and Democratic primaries. Incumbent Republican Kay Granger is facing off against TCU grad and staunch conservative Chris Putnam, who, according to the Texas Tribune, has shown fundraising prowess with an early haul of $456,000. The Democratic primary will pit aircraft assembler Danny Anderson against college professor Lisa Welch.

For the first time in recent memory, Granger, who is in her 12th term in the U.S. House of Representatives, appears to be politically vulnerable. Her ambitious pet project, the $1.2 billion (and rising) flood control development north of downtown known as Panther Island, has suffered from ballooning costs, construction delays, and a noticeable absence of promised federal funds (Buddy, Can You Spare a Billion? April 11, 2018).

Everyone who is paying attention [to the Panther Island debacle] is frustrated, Holcomb said. Whether that amounts to change at the polls remains to be seen. Granger has been in Congress since 1996. I have no interest in being a career politician. Politicians who stay in for a generation and enrich themselves are only there for themselves. Thats how Congress operates.

Holcomb is building his campaign on three pillars: addressing the national debt, stopping the United States endless cycles of foreign wars, and reforming marijuana laws that have sent hundreds of thousands of nonviolent young men and women to jail for the offense of smoking a plant.

Future generations of Americans will be forced to pay down the debt that they did not create. Holcomb sees national debt as a moral issue and a growing political crisis. The U.S. governments public debt is now more than $20 trillion, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

This country was founded on principal, Holcomb said. Look at the primary source. No taxation without representation. When youre at $5 or $10 trillion, you are now borrowing money from people who have not been born yet. If thats not an example of taxation without representation, I dont know what is.

The killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani and the subsequent saber-rattling tweets by Trump have been a reminder of how the United States is seemingly always on the verge of war. Holcomb sees profits as driving that cycle. Banks fund our debt, he said, and our debt floats the military. Around one-sixth of federal spending goes to the military, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Im a 49-year-old school teacher, he said. They have 49-year-old teachers in Tehran, too. Why should we impose our views on their life? I have had kids in my class who went to war. Some were improved, some were maimed, and some didnt return. It changes your perspective.

Teaching has also informed his views on marijuana. When politicians visit Holcombs high school history class, many teenagers ask about the prospects of marijuana law reform.

My first impression was, These kids want to know when they can legally get high, Holcomb said. It turns out that a lot of these kids have relatives who have been caught in possession of a plant. Now, they have legal consequences for an action that didnt hurt anybody. That has to stop. Kids have a good B.S. detector.

Marijuana is legal for medical purposes in 33 states. Its only a matter of time, Holcomb said, before marijuana is rescheduled by the Food and Drug Administration from its current status of Schedule 1, the category reserved for heroin and other controlled substances that are deemed highly dangerous for public use.

Holcomb feels good about his chances of earning his partys nomination and garnering a large number of votes later this year. Most voters, he said, arent diehard Democrats or Republicans. The binary thinking that drives our elections is an illusion that is perpetrated by the entrenched powers who benefit from being reelected.

Holcomb said his campaign will be an awakening for Tarrant County voters who are fed up with politics as usual. Hes betting that voters will respond to a concept that has been the bedrock of American values since 1776.

Theres a marketplace of ideas that will be presented to voters, he said, and I think freedom is pretty popular.

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Breaking the Two-Party Paradigm - Fort Worth Weekly

LINCOLN Reid Preston gave out red Republican goods this month in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln student union pens, sunglasses, bottle openers.

As treasurer of UNLs College Republicans, the freshman from Lyons, Nebraska, cares about todays political scene. Asked if Democratic professors have badgered him with liberal messages, Preston said they havent.

Even a professor of political science, who might reasonably be expected to share his own views, was pretty much in the middle, Preston said. For the most part, he was really good at not having any biases at all.

Many Republicans nationwide say they have lost faith in colleges and universities and now view them as havens of liberal indoctrination. In a comparatively short period, national surveys show, Republicans generally have shifted from a positive opinion of higher education to one of distrust.

But a 2018 campus culture survey done by the NU system, and World-Herald conversations this month with 19 students at UNL and the University of Nebraska at Omaha, found minimal concern about professorial political proselytizing.

Conservatives nevertheless have reason to be suspicious. Not only do college faculties lean liberal, they tumble leftward. Whether that has any effect on teaching and learning isnt clear, but there isnt good evidence that anyone is being indoctrinated. Most of the 19 students said politics rarely, if ever, comes up in classes.

High-profile incidents of dismissive or contemptuous treatment of conservative students convey the notion that such episodes are commonplace on college campuses.

Outside the same student union 2 years ago, a liberal graduate student-lecturer berated a sophomore who was recruiting for the conservative Turning Point USA. The student captured still photos of the lecturer flipping her off and recorded some of the diatribe on video.

The images swept the nation and gave conservatives a gotcha moment. The incident proved, they said, that conservative students are bullied on college campuses. Some Republican state senators in Nebraska demanded changes at UNL, and the student-lecturer wasnt invited back for the next school year.

Harvey Perlman, former chancellor of UNL and now a law professor there, said that if professors strive to sway Nebraska students toward liberalism, theyre doing a bad job, considering Republican domination of state politics.

If the concern is somehow that left-leaning faculty will twist the minds of their students, it hasnt seemed to work, said Perlman, who switched from Republican to Democrat after the 2016 election of Donald Trump. Most of us are fairly careful when discussing issues that divide people.

David Randall of the conservative-libertarian National Association of Scholars doesnt see it that way. Randall, director of research of the New York-based organization, said liberals, or progressives, have bent higher education toward a social justice mission that aims to liberate groups from oppression.

This results in a teacher thinking its appropriate to rebuke a student for her political perspective, Randall said. In effect, there is a radical monoculture growing in higher education, he said.

Of the 19 students interviewed by The World-Herald, seven said they were Democrats, six said they were Republicans and the rest were independent, libertarian or apolitical.

The Pew Research Center found last year that 59% of Americans who lean Republican responded that colleges have a negative effect on the nation's direction, up from 35% in 2012. Among Democratic leaners, 67% had a positive view the same percentage as in 2012.

Molly Patrick, a UNO junior with a multidisciplinary major, said professors havent imposed their politics on her. Were just worrying about facts and stuff, said Patrick, a libertarian from Fremont. Some Republicans might think theyre liberal notions, but theyre just facts.

Noah Floersch, an independent from Omaha, said he has some conservative views and hasnt been lambasted with liberal political messages from professors. Floersch, a UNL junior, said his family leans to the right.

I dont feel like Ive been forced one way or another, but I definitely think my scope has broadened, said Floersch, a marketing major.

Sixty Andrews, a senior UNO political science major from Omaha, said he doesnt hear professors uttering contempt for Trump. Professors allow us to offer our opinions whether we agree or disagree with any political leader, he said.

Andrews, a Republican, said higher education has a beneficial impact on individuals and society.

I cant get my students to turn in their assignments on time, (so) Im certainly not going to impact their view on who to vote for, said Darren Linvill, an associate professor of communication at Clemson University in South Carolina.

Nationwide surveys indicate many college faculties are overwhelmingly liberal or Democratic. The UCLA Higher Education Research Institute found in its latest survey (2016-17) that 48.3% of faculty members identified themselves as liberal compared with 11.7% who said they were conservative.

Further, that survey of more than 20,000 full-time undergraduate teaching faculty members at 143 colleges indicated the percentage of liberals has grown from 36.8% in 1998-99.

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A report published four years ago by Econ Journal Watch found that at 40 universities, many elite schools like Harvard and Stanford, 3,623 professors had registered as Democrats and only 314 as Republicans. That ratio is about 11.5 to 1. The study looked at faculty members in economics, history, journalism, law and psychology.

Conservatives know this and dont like it. The Pew Research Center found last year that 59% of Americans who lean Republican responded that colleges have a negative effect on the nations direction, up from 35% in 2012. Among Democratic leaners, 67% had a positive view the same percentage as in 2012.

A Gallup poll in 2017 found that only 33% of Republicans have a lot of confidence in higher education. Fifty-six percent of Democrats answered that question positively. The Gallup poll found that the biggest reasons for Republican lack of confidence were the belief that they were too political and pushed their own agenda.

UNLs Richard Duncan, a registered Republican and professor of law, said that when there is little diversity in political thought at colleges, theres no reason to have a lot of confidence in them. And UNL could use more such diversity, he said.

That said, Duncan is in his 41st year at UNL and said the institution is a really good place. He said that for the most part, its a university where conservatives and progressives can mingle and find their views respected.

An NU campus climate survey published in 2018 found that 90% of students believed liberals felt free to express their views on campus and 75% believed conservatives had the same freedom.

Robert Reason, an associate dean at Iowa State University, said the presence of liberal indoctrination is just not shown in any of the research.

Reason said that during faculty recruitment, Ive never had a conversation about someones political views. He described himself as a moderate Democrat.

Many say a big reason for the disparity is that liberals select careers in higher education because there are like-minded people in it. They say conservatives are more likely to join the private sector.

Clemsons Linvill said studies have found that students become slightly more liberal while in college, but that a similar change also takes place among young adults who dont go to college. Linvill, who said he is registered as an independent, has studied political bias in higher education and said its largely fallacious.

Linvill said in one report that there has been a growth of conservative groups with a stated mission to expose political bias and abuse in higher education. This has contributed to widespread publicity of episodes where bias was evident, he said.

Julia Schleck, an associate professor of English at UNL, said through an email that the partisan divide over higher education has been deliberately engineered by conservative media.

Schleck, who leans to the left, said negative coverage in those outlets over the past five years has produced the slump in Republicans opinion of higher education.

Randall, at the National Association of Scholars, said conservative students have created groups like Turning Point USA because of the nonstop propaganda thrust at them by liberal professors.

The Harvard student newspaper two years ago said in an editorial that the school needs more diversity of political viewpoints. The editorial said 83.2% of the universitys arts and sciences faculty identified themselves as liberal in the papers survey, compared with 1.5% who said they were conservative.

These statistics do not reflect America, the piece said. And, it said, the statistics probably contribute to declining faith in American colleges.

Rain clouds and a bit of a rainbow roll over the sky in Millard on Aug. 16, 2016.

The sun sets behind a center pivot located north of Red Cloud, Nebraska, on Thursday, July 27, 2006.

Storm clouds hide the sun as it sets over Nebraska's Sand Hills on July 7, 2009, near Thedord, Nebraska.

A summer storm passes north of Rose, Nebraska, on Sunday, June 10, 2007.

A rainbow forms over U.S. Highway 12, just east of Valentine, Nebraska, as storms roll over the area on July 25, 2017.

The sun sets behind an approaching storm as a car heads west on U.S. Highway 34 near Union, Nebraska, on April 24, 2016.

Icicles form on vines in downtown Omaha on Feb. 24, 2017.

Railroad tracks are illuminated by the setting sun on May 3, 2017, east of Scottsbluff, Nebraska.

The sun sets behind Chimney Rock on May 3, 2017.

Members of the Boats, Bikes, Boots & Brews group head to shore as the sun sets after an evening out on Lake Zorinsky on April 22, 2015.

Icicles hang from the horse carriage parking sign in the Old Market on Jan. 15, 2017.

Wheat, ready for the combine, is silhouetted by the setting sun as the wheat harvest on the Lagler farm near Grant, Nebraska, was in full swing on July 7, 2005.

A layer of fog covers the Missouri River near the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge on Feb. 5, 2015.

A setting sun creates a pink haze on a windmill and the Sand Hills southwest of Rushville, Nebraska, on Sept. 22, 2007.

Pigeons scatter at sunset as the St. John's steeple is silhouetted against the Woodmen tower in downtown Omaha on Oct. 3, 2014.

The sun bursts behind the clouds over the North Platte River east of Bridgeport, Nebraska, on July 26, 2006.

Steve Jobman, a farmer south of Minatare, Nebraska, cuts alfalfa after sunset on June 2, 2004.

Wheat waves in the wind in a field west of Dalton, Nebraska, on July 18, 2001.

The moon rises over the northern cross of the St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha on Feb. 10, 2017. On this night, there was a full moon, a lunar eclipse and comet 45P passed by the earth.

As the wind speed picks up, a woman holds onto her hood while crossing 16th Street along Dodge Street in Omaha on Feb. 24, 2017.

From left: Melody Borcherding, Kseniya Burgoon and Michael Beltz scoop out a vehicle on Jan. 23, 2018, in Norfolk.

Jeff Bachman harvests soybeans and prepares to transfer them as the sun sets on a field near Ayr, Nebraska, on Oct. 19, 2008.

As the sun sets, sandhill cranes arrive to roost in the Platte River at the Rowe Sanctuary & Iain Nicholson Audubon Center south of Gibbon, Nebraska, on March 12, 2008.

A pair of sandhill cranes pass in front of the moon shortly after sunrise at the Iain Nicolson Audubon Center at Rowe Sanctuary near Gibbon, Nebraska, on March 13, 2012. Sandhill cranes, which mate for life, can live between 20 and 40 years.

A windmill is dwarfed by storm clouds near Crawford, Nebraska, on May 3, 2017.

An early November storm system rolls through the Great Plains, but Omaha only receives rain, which collected on freshly-fallen leaves on Nov. 11, 2015.

Cattle head up to a well to get a drink at the end of the day near Sparks, Nebraska, on Aug. 21, 2015. Smoke from the wildfires in the western states created a haze.

The moon rises above the corn as farmers harvest the last of their fields in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa on Nov. 5, 2014.

Two riders help round up part of the 750 head of cattle branded at the Lute Family Ranch, located south of Hyannis, Nebraska, on May 12, 2005. Mick Knott, who runs the ranch, owns about half the cattle, and the Lute Foundation owns the rest. The work started about dawn and finished about noon.

The rising sun illuminates a tree and a windmill in a snow-covered field located on U.S. Highway 20 between Rushville and Chadron, Nebraska, on March 1, 2017.

The College Home Run Derby was held at TD Ameritrade Park and was highlighted by The World-Herald's annual Independence Day fireworks display on July 2, 2015.

Fog rises from the Missouri River and covers the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge on Jan. 5, 2010.

The weekend's perfect weather colored the clouds at sunset south of Wymore, Nebraska, on Oct. 23, 2004.

Deer chill out at Chalco Hills Recreation Area on Feb. 22, 2018.

A leaf is covered in a dusting of snow near 138th and Hickory Streets on Dec. 18, 2014, in Millard.

A runner emerges from the edge of the rising sun on Sept. 11, 2015, at Zorinsky Lake Park and Recreation Area in Omaha.

Nearly 45 minutes after sunset, an orange and blue glow is seen setting behind the Omaha skyline flanked between trees in Council Bluffs on Jan. 11, 2018.

Rain drops collect on a flower following early showers on May 10, 2017, in Millard.

The promise of rain is fleeting for the seven windmills on the Watson Ranch north of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, on U.S. 71 on May 16, 2004.

A crescent moon sets behind the UNO bell tower on Nov. 6, 2013.

Ralph Remmert is depicted in the mural "Fertile Ground" near 13th and Mike Fahey Streets in north downtown Omaha on June 19, 2017.

Ralph Kohler, 94, keeps his eyes to the sky for ducks and geese as the sun rises over his hunting pond east of Tekamah, Nebraska, on Nov. 30, 2011. Kohler has been a professional guide for most of his life, and he is preparing for the spring season.

The sun rises over St. Paul Lutheran Church, located three miles north of Republican City, Nebraska, in March of 2004.

Geese are silhouetted in the color and clouds as the sun sets at Zorinsky Lake on Feb. 21, 2016.

The sun rises on Chimney Rock on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014, near McGrew, Nebraska.

Cranes walk through the shallow water of the Platte River shortly before sunset near The Crane Trust, which is close to Wood River, Nebraska, on March 13, 2012. The river provides cranes with a safe place from predators for rest at night.

A bespangled vest awaits a rider during Nebraska's Big Rodeo on July 25, 2013, in Burwell, Nebraska.

Horses stand in the snow on Feb. 22, 2018.

Residents of the Nebraska Panhandle enjoyed unseasonably mild temperatures and cloud cover on Aug. 12, 2004.

Members of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association hold their hats as 2013 Miss Burwell Rodeo Olivia Hunsperger passes by during the opening ceremonies on July 27, 2013, in Burwell, Nebraska. "This may be a small town, but it's got a big rodeo, and it's got a really big heart," Hunsperger said.

A break in the clouds highlights downtown Omaha as seen from Lewis Central High School in Council Bluffs, as severe storms passed through the Omaha Metro area on June 5, 2014.

John Wanief waits for the bus in a shelter at 120th Street and West Center Road as cold rain pours down in Millard on Nov. 11, 2015.

Flocks of waterfowl fill the sky as the sun rises over Ponca, Nebraska, on March 3, 2018.

A red tail hawk perches on a light stanchion backed by the moon and overlooking the property near the Indian Creek development in Omaha on Feb. 27, 2018.

A woman walks with two dogs in Memorial Park near Dodge Street as many sledders go down the hill in Omaha, Nebraska, on Feb. 2, 2016. MATT MILLER/THE WORLD-HERALD

The sun sets over Sidney, Nebraska, on June 2, 2015.

The rising sun shines on a snow-covered hill located north of Chadron, Nebraska, on March 1, 2017.

Storm clouds are illuminated by the setting sun as people exit a football camp in Lincoln on Friday, June 16, 2017.

Sharon Vencil walks her dogs, Blackie and Whitie, along the Field Club Trail on March 6, 2018, in Omaha.

The morning sun burns off a layer of fog just north of the Chimney Rock.

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Conservatives are concerned, but is liberal indoctrination really an issue at UNL and UNO? - Omaha World-Herald

Sarah Hurst on how the far-right activist visited Russia to praise Vladimir Putin and spread Islamophobic and racist propaganda about the UK.

The far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon who calls himself Tommy Robinson has received VIP treatment in Russia, giving a press conference at the headquarters of newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda and speaking at a Libertarian Party conference.

Yaxley-Lennon was greeted at the newspapers offices in Moscow by Alexander Malkevich, formerly the head of a propaganda outlet called USA Really and currently billed as the head of the Foundation for Defending National Values.Malkevich was sanctioned by the US in 2018 for attempted election interference.

The 37-year-old founder of the English Defence League (EDL) and a recent convert to the Conservative Party has served prison time in the UK for various crimes, including assault and mortgage fraud, and last year for contempt of court for broadcasting a Facebook Live video of defendants in a trial, in breach of reporting restrictions. However, Russian media didnt think any of this was worth mentioning, depicting him instead as a victim of censorship and EU oppression.

Yaxley-Lennons visit followed one by Britain First leader Paul Golding last year to the Russian Duma, which resulted in a criminal charge being brought.

Komsomolskaya Pravda, which claims to be the most popular newspaper in Russia, announced that the theme of the press conference would be whats going on with free speech in Europe? It described Yaxley-Lennon as a politician and journalist and noted that, not only had he been jailed for making a video, but he had also been illegally banned from Twitter forsupposed extremist statements, despite having half a million followers.

Yaxley-Lennons own title for his presentation at the event was more direct: The Rape of Britain.

Robinson said that all the problems he was talking about were connected to Muslims, the website RIA-FAN reported. This is not just about one-off crimes by individuals but about gangs of migrants raping underage British girls, it continued, relaying Yaxley-Lennons words uncritically. You cant believe the British media! Robinson ranted. Ive seen their manipulations, how they make up lies about me Thats why Im here! Because all these issues are relevant in Russia.

The website Vechernyaya Moskva interviewed Yaxley-Lennon at the press conference and published an article with the headline British Politician Robinson: Lets Break Up the European Union Together. He told them that he thought the Netherlands and France would be the next countries to leave the EU after the UK, and that Frances exit would be possible if Marine Le Pen got enough support. The French far-right leader met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in March 2017 one month before the presidential election in which she was a candidate. A Russian company is now suing her to recover a loan of $10.8 million.

Peter Jukes and Hardeep Matharu

Yaxley-Lennons views are also remarkably similar to Putins. He said in the interview that EU sanctions on Russia arent motivated by Russias aggression against Ukraine but are an attempt to rein in Russias power. The EU is destabilising Ukraine and intervening militarily there as part of a programme of expansion, Yaxley-Lennon insisted. And if Russia had wanted to take out Sergei Skripal, it would have done it quietly, not with aRussianchemical weapon, he claimed. He said that he hoped Russia would become one of the UKs key partners after Brexit and that they would fight jihadism together.

We can cooperate to preserve our Christian values,culture and identity, Yaxley-Lennon told the newspaper. Russians see Putin as the defender of their country. He is a strong politician. The West doesnt have enough strong men. Western politicians are emasculated. He said that he would like to go for a beer with Putin and would advise him to fight the censorship and propaganda that is being used against Russia. Yaxley-Lennon would also ask Putin to let him host a Russian TV show.

Yaxley-Lennon posted pictures of his lecture at the Libertarian Party conference in St. Petersburg on his Telegram channel, with the words Thank you Russia. The party itself also tweeted pictures of himspeaking to a packed hall. He was an odd choice of guest for a party, the leader of which Mikhail Svetov was one of the organisers of anti-Putin protests in Moscow last summer. But, if people on the fringes are likely to get together somewhere, it will be in Russia.

This article is part of a series on Kremlin links to prominent people in Europe that issupportedby a grant from JournalismFund.EU.

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'Rape of Britain': Russia Rolls Out the Red Carpet for 'Tommy Robinson' - Byline Times

Early voting for the presidential primary election begins on Monday and town clerks around the Island report an increase in voter registration ahead of the closely watched race.

This will be the first time in Massachusetts voters have the opportunity to cast their ballots early and town clerks are hoping it will boost election participation. The Massachusetts primary is March 3, part of Super Tuesday, when more than a dozen states hold their presidential primary elections.

The goal is to try to get as many people as possible out to vote by making it easier for them, said Edgartown town clerk Karen Medeiros. We are hopeful, but it probably wont make a big difference in voter turnout.

The early voting for the presidential primary begins Feb. 24 and continues through Feb. 28 at sites around the Island. There are 15 Democratic candidates, four Republican, 10 Libertarian and four Green-Rainbow on the ballot.

There are 15,194 voters registered on the Island for the primary election, according to town clerks, a 5.6 percent increase from the 14,382 registered voters in the 2016 presidential primary election.

Oak Bluffs town clerk, Laura Johnston. Mark Alan Lovewell

Voter turnout at elections is typically very healthy on the Island; that hasnt changed in many years, said Chilmark town clerk Jennifer Christy. The trend has stayed steady.

The town of Oak Bluffs has the most registered voters at 3,914, standing just above Edgartown which has 3,822. In Tisbury there are 3,497 registered voters and in West Tisbury there are 2,601. Chilmark and Aquinnah have 979 and 381 registered voters, respectively.

Those registered as unenrolled make up the majority of voters for the primary election this year, at 52 per cent. The trend is consistent in each town, with 8,014 total voters registered as unenrolled, 5,766 registered as Democrats and 1,305 registered as Republicans.

Libertarian, Green-Rainbow and other smaller party designations make up the rest of registered voters at just over one per cent.

The deadline to register to vote in the primary election was Feb. 12, and voters can no longer change their party affiliations. However, unenrolled voters will be able to vote for candidates of either party without permanently changing their affiliation. After choosing a party designation to cast a ballot in the primary, voters will return to their designation as an unenrolled voter.

Its just for a moment in time that they have to go one way or another, said West Tisbury town clerk Tara Whiting-Wells. They just want the freedom to choose . . . Im not sure why the numbers are historically more than any other party [on the Island].

Ms. Christy said that the trend of voters registering as unenrolled has been on the rise over the last decade.

Im sure it can be chalked up to quite a lot of factors, she said. Its sort of an Island-wide situation.

Earlier this year the League of Women Voters launched a campaign to register every eligible person on the Island to vote, in honor of the centennial of the historic suffrage movement that granted women the right to vote.

Every election and primary is extremely important, said member Beatrice Phear. We need voters to pay attention.

To kick off early voting on Monday, the towns of Edgartown, Oak Bluffs and West Tisbury are unveiling new voting machines to their residents.

The new machines are slightly slower, they have to think a little more than the old machines, said Ms. Whiting-Wells. Some are excited by it and other are terrified. But I think I can speak to the three town clerks when I say, we all like it . . . it has better security and more reliable technology.

Chilmark and Aquinnah will be sticking to their historic, wooden ballot boxes that require a team of longstanding volunteers to count the votes by hand.

We stick with it because, simply, it still works fine, Ms. Christy said. People seem to like that way of slipping their ballot into the box.

Town clerks said that absentee ballots are already beginning to trickle in, with as many as 98 requests in West Tisbury thus far. Voters can cast an absentee ballot until noon the day before the election.

Each election cycle is exciting, Ms. Whiting-Wells said. Ill be interested to see how this one pans out.

Early voting:

Aquinnah Town Hall, 65 State Road, Aquinnah Monday, Feb. 24, noon to 4 p.m.; Tuesday, Feb. 25, noon to 4 p.m.; closed Wednesday; Thursday, Feb. 27, noon to 4 p.m.; Friday Feb. 28, noon to 3 p.m.

Chilmark Town Hall, 401 Middle Road, Chilmark Monday, Feb. 24 through Friday, Feb. 28, 8 a.m. to noon.

Edgartown Town Hall, 70 Main street, Edgartown Monday, Feb. 24 through Friday, Feb. 28, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Oak Bluffs Town Clerks Office, Town Hall, 56 School street, Oak Bluffs Monday, Feb. 24 through Friday, Feb. 28, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Tisbury Emergency Services Facility, 215 Spring street, Tisbury Monday, Feb. 24 through Friday, Feb. 28, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

West Tisbury Town Hall, 1059 State Road, West Tisbury Monday, Feb. 24 through Friday, Feb. 28, 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Read more:

Voter Registration Is Up as Island Prepares for Presidential Primary - The Vineyard Gazette - Martha's Vineyard News