Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders

Senate turns a blind eye. Senator Bernie Sanders could only gain the support of ten of his colleagues to vote for his resolution to direct the State Dept. to conduct a report on whether Israel’s military is committing human rights violations in Gaza.

The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 requires that any nation receiving military aid from the US must comply with internationally-recognized human rights laws.

If they don’t, Congress can cut off the weapons flow.

Sanders noted that his resolution was a simple request for information. It did not alter military assistance in any fashion.

“This is a very modest, common-sense proposal and frankly hard for me to understand why anyone would oppose it,” said Sanders.

The Vermont Senator noted that Israel’s military used US weapons to raze Gaza, and kill more than 23K of its civilians.

The vast majority of the people in Gaza are homeless and in need of food, water and medical assistance.

The US supply of weaponry to Israel—on a no-questions asked basis—has damaged America’s reputation throughout the world.

Sanders tried to undo the damage.

Opioid work hit batters McKinsey & Co. The management consultant reports a 22.7 percent drop in fiscal 2023 federal revenues to $54.9M, which is the lowest level since 2014.

The Financial Times attributes McKinsey’s fall from US revenues grace due to its involvement in the Purdue Pharma opioid scandal.

The consultant advised Purdue executives about how to “turbocharge the sales engine" for OxyContin.

It has paid more than $900M to settle legal claims for its role in the opioid crisis.

McKinsey chalked up $114M in revenues in federal revenues in 2018, which was its all-time high.

Watch out PR, here come the ‘deinfluencers.’ Bloomberg has reported on the rise of social media deinfluencers who encourage their followers not to buy so much junk.

Rejecting overhyped trends and materialism, deinfluencers often simply ask if a product is worth it.

The rise of fast fashion also has spurred the rise of deinfluencers.

They point out the low quality of the merchandise, and shed light on the human rights violations that take place in the factories that produce the garments.

Of course, deinfluencers could benefit from the same PR counsel that made influencers online celebrities.

Deinfluencers could be a potential gold mine for PR. How’s that for playing both sides of the marketing game?

Edelman’s Koch Connection….The Guardian chides Edelman for ranking as one of the Charles Koch Foundation’s top five professional contractors in 2022.

The Foundation, which plants seeds of doubt about global heating, runs afoul of Edelman’s pledge not to work for climate warming deniers.

Edelman received $107,750 from the Foundation, according to its disclosure form.

That’s pocket change for the world’s biggest PR firm.

Edelman says it no longer works for the Foundation.

The Guardian may want to do a follow-up on Edelman’s work for Saudi Arabia on behalf of promoting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s NEOM city-of-the-future project.

That’s where the big bucks are.