Law Enforcement Surveillance of BLM/Protests Goes Tech AI

Posted on July 15, 2020July 15, 2020 by Denise Simon

Meet Dataminr, the leading artificial intelligence platform for real-time event and risk detection. In a world characterized by unexpected and rapidly moving events that can impact operations in innumerable and unforeseen ways, relevant information can surface anywhere at any time. Dataminr discovers, distills and delivers alerts from the increasingly diverse and complex landscape of publicly available information—including social media, blogs, information sensors, and the dark web—ensuring that businesses have the knowledge they need to act with confidence.

Build the Movement to Defeat Racism!/¡Construir un ... source

Back in January, The New York Post had a short article on how the NYPD on Monday was ordered to respond to a request for records related to its surveillance of Black Lives Matters protestors’ cell phones and social media.

The secret police documents were among a Freedom of Information Law request by the New York Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Millions March NYC, an activist group affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement.

But, the Glomar response kicked in. What is that? It is used often actually. It is where an agency refuses to confirm or deny the existence of responsive records. The term “Glomar” originates from a case related to the CIA’s classified Glomar Explorer project, in which the agency sought to recover materials for military and intelligence purposes from a sunken Soviet submarine in the Pacific Ocean.

George Floyd protests: Trump blames 'antifa' for violence ... source

It is not just about Black Lives Matter, add in ANTIFA, The Youth Liberation Front and Boogaloo among others, perhaps even MS-13.

Okay, circling back to Dataminr.

Leveraging close ties to Twitter, controversial artificial intelligence startup Dataminr helped law enforcement digitally monitor the protests that swept the country following the killing of George Floyd, tipping off police to social media posts with the latest whereabouts and actions of demonstrators, according to documents reviewed by The Intercept and a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

Dataminr helps newsrooms, corporations, and governments around the world track crises with superhuman speed as they unfold across social media and the wider web. Through a combination of people and software, the company alerts organizations to chatter around global crises — wars, shootings, riots, disasters, and so forth — so that they’ll have a competitive edge as news is breaking. But the meaning of that competitive edge, the supercharged ability to filter out important events from the noise of hundreds of millions of tweets and posts across social media, will vary drastically based on the customer; the agenda of a newspaper using Dataminr to inform its breaking news coverage won’t be the same as the agendas of a bank or the FBI. It’s this latter category of Dataminr’s business, lucrative government work, that’s had the firm on the defensive in recent years.

In 2016, Twitter was forced to reckon with multiple reports that its platform was being used to enable domestic surveillance, including a Wall Street Journal report on Dataminr’s collaboration with American spy agencies in May; an American Civil Liberties Union report on Geofeedia, a Dataminr competitor, in October; and another ACLU investigation into Dataminr’s federal police surveillance work in December. The company sought to assure the public that attempts to monitor its users for purposes of surveillance were strictly forbidden under its rules, and that any violators would be kicked off the platform. For example, then-VP Chris Moody wrote in a company blog post that “using Twitter’s Public APIs or data products to track or profile protesters and activists is absolutely unacceptable and prohibited.” In a letter to the ACLU, Twitter public policy chief Colin Crowell similarly wrote that “the use of Twitter data for surveillance is strictly prohibited” and that “Datatminr’s product does not provide any government customers with … any form of surveillance.”

Dataminr continues to enable what is essentially surveillance by U.S. law enforcement entities, contradicting its earlier assurances to the contrary, even if it remains within some of the narrow technical boundaries it outlined four years ago, like not providing direct firehose access, tweet geolocations, or certain access to fusion centers.

Dataminr relayed tweets and other social media content about the George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests directly to police, apparently across the country. In so doing, it used to great effect its privileged access to Twitter data — despite current terms of service that explicitly bar software developers “from tracking, alerting, or monitoring sensitive events (such as protests, rallies, or community organizing meetings)” via Twitter.

And despite Dataminr’s claims that its law enforcement service merely “delivers breaking news alerts on emergency events, such as natural disasters, fires, explosions and shootings,” as a company spokesperson told The Intercept for a previous report, the company has facilitated the surveillance of recent protests, including nonviolent activity, siphoning vast amounts of social media data from across the web and converting it into tidy police intelligence packages.

Dataminr’s Black Lives Matter protest surveillance included persistent monitoring of social media to tip off police to the locations and activities of protests, developments within specific rallies, as well as instances of alleged “looting” and other property damage. According to the source with direct knowledge of Dataminr’s protest monitoring, the company and Twitter’s past claims that they don’t condone or enable surveillance are “bullshit,” relying on a deliberately narrowed definition. “It’s true Dataminr doesn’t specifically track protesters and activists individually, but at the request of the police they are tracking protests, and therefore protesters,” this source explained. There is much more detail here from The Intercept.

So, if law enforcement in various locations has a partnership with Dataminr, it puts to question why destructive protests of an ongoing basis continues to happen costing lives, injuries and ruining business and livelihoods. Ah that is a question for governors, mayors, prosecutors and judges but you can be assured that in many cases arrests have been made and investigators have additional tools for build cases against alleged criminals.

So, if there is to be law and order and any kind of restoration to community peace or civil society, tools such as Dataminr are valuable that is if the unlawful acts are prosecuted in the first place.

Have you Heard about the Youth Liberation Front?

Posted on July 13, 2020July 13, 2020 by Denise Simon

PORTLAND — Shortly before 1 a.m. on July 5, as protesters braced for more long hours on the streets in Oregon’s largest city, the Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front took to Twitter with a stern declaration.

Be like water, keep moving.

If you see someone smashing windows, shut the (expletive) up.

Walk, don’t run. Hold the front and back lines.

In this July 1 photo, protesters feed plywood and pallets into fires around Portland’s historic Elk Fountain, donated to the city in 1900. The damage that evening to the foundation resulted in the statue’s removal until repairs can be done. (Hal Bernton / The Seattle Times)

Well after protests against police have faded in many American cities, the Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front has emerged in Portland as a persistent militant voice, using social media to promote rallies, and offering tactical advice and commentary on gatherings that often have ended in confrontations with the police and arrests.

The conduct they champion has ignited a bitter debate about the direction these protests have taken in an ongoing drama that plays out nightly in front of the Multnomah County Justice Center and later in largely empty streets defined by block after block of boarded-up buildings. The core of downtown — in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic and the demonstrations — appears drained of much of the vitality that has long helped to define this Northwest city.

This June 15 sidewalk fire near businesses was one of more than 140 set during the protests that began in Portland in late May. It was put out by firefighters soon after this photo was taken. Later that evening, a second fire was set on a narrow street between two apartment buildings, causing concern from residents before it, too, was put out by firefighters. (Hal Bernton / The Seattle Times)

For the Youth Liberation Front’s anonymous leaders, these protests are part of the revolution. They are resolutely anti-capitalist and anti-fascist, and express disdain for those who work for reform within what they view as a failing political system.

In a podcast interview last October, three of their leaders, one of whom identified himself as still in high school, said they were spurred to activism over a range of issues that included climate change, law enforcement misconduct and the rise of right-wing hate groups.

They have affiliates in Seattle and other U.S. cities, and have gained thousands of new social media followers as they launched into promoting protests over the May 25 police killing of George Floyd. Recently on social media, they have displayed a battle-hardened bravado, scornful not just of baby boomers but white millennials who they view as too often unwilling to put their bodies on the line in protests.

A June 18 tweet from the group: “We are a bunch of teenagers armed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and yerba mate — we can take a 5 a.m. raid and be back on our feet a few hours later … we’ll be back again and again until every prison is reduced to ashes and every wall to rubble.”

They are by no means the only group that has organized protests in Portland: Big gatherings that attracted tens of thousands of people, and ended peacefully, were largely put together by others.

But they have been among the most outspoken, combining organizing skills and street savvy in what has evolved into a grueling more-than-40-day marathon for protesters and law enforcement officials who often stay on duty until deep into the early morning hours.

In court filings in U.S. District Court, county officials estimate that damage costs to the Justice Center building, as well as a nearby courthouse that on July 3 had 15 more windows shattered, will exceed $284,000. There have been 140 arson fires, most in trash bins, on the streets or sidewalks. But they also included a May 29 fire inside a first-floor office of the Justice Center, a high-rise that includes a county jail.

In July, protesters have focused more attention on the federal courthouse next to the Justice Center. The U.S. Attorney, in a July 6 filing, charged seven protesters with defacing the building and assaulting federal officers.

In Portland’s downtown area on May 29, some protesters joined in looting stores. In the days that followed, they have broken windows in banks, restaurants and other businesses and the glass in four doors of the side entrance to the historic Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Overall, this damage exceeds $4.5 million, according to documents filed by county and city officials in U.S. court.

Statues also have been defaced with graffiti and damaged.

On July 1 protesters lit fires fueled by plywood and pallets around a downtown Portland landmark — the Elk Fountain — located within sight of the Justice Center where police are based. The damage forced the statue’s removal.

In social media posts, Youth Liberation Front leaders portray acts of vandalism as part of the broader struggle to make big changes in America. They reject any effort — by police or other groups — to divide the protest movement into those who are peaceful and those who turn to violence.

“The Pigs are in a PR battle so they say there’s a difference from ‘peaceful’ and nonviolent protesters. When in fact what we are fighting is the ultimate form of violence, making any and all resistance self and community defense,” the Youth Liberation Front tweeted.

In interviews during protests, some youthful participants embraced those views.

“With real change comes a lot of collateral damage,” said one young man who attended a late-night protest and declined to give his name.

Both police and protesters face scrutiny

As the protests wear on, both police and protesters have, on occasion, come under harsh criticism.

On June 26, protesters set a Dumpster on fire and pushed it up to the side of a northeast Portland building that housed minority-owned businesses and a police precinct station, where people were inside and had to contend with an exit door barricaded shut from the outside. Two suspects, an 18-year-old white man and a 22-year-old Black man, have since been arrested.

Video filed by police in court show that this was a controversial action even among protesters on the scene.

“Put that goddamn fire out, that is a Black building, Black business,” said one voice in a video filed by Portland city officials in U.S. District Court and posted online by The Oregonian.

The next day, Black community leaders lined up outside the building to denounce the arson.

“I know whoever was behind this thinks they were doing it — or perhaps are trying to have us think they were doing it — in the names of Black Lives Matter,” said Tony Hopson, president of Self Enhancement Inc., an organization that assists youth in poverty. “We know that it was just the opposite. Not only was it not about Black Lives Matter. It was against Black Lives Matter.”

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler joined them, calling the arson “blatant criminal violence — violence that is totally unacceptable.”

Less than a week later, police were taking heat from a prominent state politician.

Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek, a Democrat who represents North Portland, lashed out at them for “the utter inability to exercise restraint” in a response to a July 1 protest in her district. In front of a police union building, officers used tear gas that spread to motorists despite a U.S. District Court restraining order restricting its use to times when life and safety are at risk. The police also arrested three journalists, and Kotek said the police conduct represented an unnecessary escalation against people exercising their freedom of assembly.

In response, Daryl Turner, union president of the Portland Police Association and who is Black, accused “a small number of individuals” of having “hijacked the racial equity platform of peaceful protests.” In a follow-up statement, Turner declared their “destructive and chaotic behavior defines the meaning of white privilege.”

Chris Davis, a deputy chief of the Portland Police Bureau, at a July 8 briefing with reporters, said that officers have been pushed longer and harder than he has ever seen during what he termed an “unprecedented” stretch of protests that have injured more than 100 people, including police.

Davis said police have been hit with frozen water bottles, rocks and other objects, had paintballs spatter their face shields, and been harassed with laser lights that can damage eyesight. He said there are still no excuses for police failing to live up to the organization’s standards, and some conduct concerns have been referred to an independent review and the bureau’s professional standards commission.

Legacy and new prominence

The Youth Liberation Front, from early on, has favored secrecy. The group’s leadership appears to embrace the radical Northwest legacy of the “black bloc” whose acts of vandalism roiled the 1999 Seattle protests during a meeting of the World Trade Organization.

The group launched a Twitter account in May 2018, and gained more prominence in September of 2019 as its members helped organize a walk out of Portland high school students to draw attention to climate change.

The next month, three of the leaders — two young men and a young woman — spoke anonymously in a podcast produced by It’s Going Down, a “digital community center for anarchist, anti-fascist … anti-capitalist and anti-colonial movements.”

In the podcast they talked about how they brought 250 masks to a September climate march, where they helped persuade peers — skittish about identifying with anarchists, black bloc and the anti-fascist movement — to shield their identities and join their fight.

“There are a lot of youth … who have the idea of … anti-capitalism, anti-racism already in their mind,” said an organizer. “But the idea of like Antifa, the idea of masking up is what scares them away … What we did with the climate strike is let them know that we don’t do this to be intimidating or threatening. We do it to protect ourselves and show solidarity.”

By the time Portland joined in the nationwide protests against George Floyd, the Youth Liberation Front was adept at mobilizing its supporters. But as its social media following grew, as did its reputation, it drew new scrutiny from within the activist community.

“Lots of folks have been reaching out concerned that we’re putting our majority white voices over POC (people of color) organizers that have been doing this work longer than us all,” said a June 7 post on the group’s Facebook page. “I apologize for the lack of communication and transparency on our part, and there is really not an excuse … all we can do is learn from mistakes and the criticisms from the community, and grow as people.”

The group did not respond to an email request from The Seattle Times for an interview.

A ‘Night of Rage’

In Portland, the evening of July 7 was billed in a Pacific Northwest Liberation Front Facebook post and tweet as a “Night of Rage for Summer Taylor,” a solidarity vigil in front of the Justice Center .

Taylor, 24, who was drawn to work at a veterinary clinic by a love of animals, was killed during a protest in Seattle earlier this month by a man who maneuvered his car onto a closed stretch of Interstate 5, drove around barriers and barreled into demonstrators. Another person was seriously injured.

The driver, Dawit Kelete, is charged with vehicular homicide, vehicular assault and reckless driving. He told jail officials he was withdrawing from Percocet and struggled with “untreated addictions.”

The protest of July 7 unfolded in an uneasy mix of suspicion and reflection.

Several of the early speakers got a cool reception from some of those gathered near the Justice Center. They hadn’t been to some of the earlier downtown protests, and were thought to be trying to tamp down the militancy of the movement, several protesters told a reporter.

In a nearby park, people gathered around a circle of candles lit in memory of the lost life. There was a moment of silence as a banner was held up that declared “Rest in Power in Summer Taylor.”

Then, some of the protesters picked up a familiar refrain “ACAB” — or All Cops are Bastards — and another that linked Mayor Wheeler’s name to an obscenity.

A woman opted out of the chants. “It’s not about Ted Wheeler. It’s not about the police. That’s not the reality of what happened to Summer Taylor.”

About 15 minutes before midnight, federal law enforcement officials made a brief appearance, firing two flash bangs, then retreating into a building. The crowd reacted like someone had poked a stick into a beehive, hurling insults that would continue deep into the night.

Mayor de Blasio Lying About why NYC is in Financial Trouble

Posted on July 13, 2020July 13, 2020 by Denise Simon

(Reuters) – New York City needs a $7.4 billion in federal aid to offset economic losses from the coronavirus, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Sunday, urging President Donald Trump to push his fellow Republicans in the U.S. Senate to back more relief funding for states and cities.

“The federal government must make us whole for us to be able to be in a position to restart,” De Blasio, a Democrat, said in an interview on Fox News. “If New York City is not whole, it will drag down the entire region, and it will hold up the entire national economic restart.”

I am reminded of the ol song New York New York written for Liza Minelli but made more famous by Frank Sinatra. One part of the lyrics include”

These little town blues
Are melting away
I’ll make a brand new start of it
In old New York
If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere
It’s up to you, New York, New York

(note: old New York and it is up to you New York, but you have de Blasio now)

source

***

Really Mr. Mayor? Thanks to Open the Books, let’s go deeper shall we?

New York’s budget deficit ballooned from $6 billion to $13 billion while the Empire State was the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. But the financial woes aren’t stopping 290,304 government employees from bringing home six-figure salaries and higher.

Across New York, nearly 20,000 highly compensated local, city and state employees out-earned Governor Andrew Cuomo’s $178,500 salary.

Our auditors at OpentheBooks.com found plumbers in New York City making $285,000 per year; police officers at the Port Authority of New York-New Jersey earning $423,467; Long Island school superintendents making up to $547,049; and a 93-year old college professor retired on a $561,754 pension.

So, maybe it’s no surprise that the New York General Assembly hiked their own pay and will be the most highly compensated state legislature in the country by 2021 with salaries of $130,000.

Using our new interactive mapping tool, quickly review (by ZIP code) the 290,304 New York public employees and retirees who earned more than $100,000 and cost taxpayers $38 billion (FY2018-9). Just click a pin and scroll down to see the results rendered in the chart beneath the map.

Forbes_-_$100k_club_map

Auditing New York state’s largest pay and pension systems:

Port Authority of New York–New Jersey (4,830 employees with $100,000 salaries) – These employees included 183 law enforcement officers who made between $250,000 and $423,467 last year. Sergeants made up to $423,467; lieutenants, $374,588; and police officers, $367,774. Three maintenance supervisors made between $305,000 and $313,000. The chief diversity and inclusion officer made $291,163.

Public schools (67,231) – The highest K-12 retirement pension was earned by a former principal from an elementary school in Queens, Anne Bussel ($535,385). Superintendent Anna Hunderfund at Locust Valley made $385,806 but recently took a $600,000 buyout. Superintendent salaries outside of New York City included: Michael King ($547,049) at Rocky Point Union Free; Louis Celenza ($514,934) at Central Islip Union Free; and Louis Wool ($445,000) at Harrison Central.

Across New York state (98,848) – We found 302 employees of the Division of State Police out-earned the governor and made up to $252,921 in salary, overtime, and other pay. Reviewing pensions at every level of government across the state, 802 retirees made more than Cuomo’s salary ($178,500).

In cities, towns, and villages outside of New York City, there were 11,184 six-figure earners. Highly compensated municipal employees included Frederick Parent (Clarkstown – $389,284); James Moran (Kings Point — $335,467); Gregory Muller (Lloyd Harbor – $327,273); Thomas Cokeley (Ramapo – $323,562); and Thomas Prendergast (Clarkstown – $318,108).

Clarkstown’s finance manager pointed to recent reforms and argued that officers Parent and Prendergast had extenuating circumstances. However, we found 25 Clarkstown employees made more than $232,821 in 2018, the latest year available.

The Town of Ramapo responded by acknowledging that Cokeley cashed in a lot of benefits before retiring. In 2018, 10 employees of Ramapo made more than $233,784.

New York City (114,045) – Only in New York can school janitors out-earn the principals. We found 40 “custodial engineers” who earned between $154,000 and $256,000, while 57 principals made less than $154,000.

In 2019, the city spent its entire income tax collection (and more) on its six-figure salaried workforce ($14.5 billion). Costs included $1.8 billion on overtime – which allowed 36 plumbers to make between $200,000 and $285,000.

Mayor Bill de Blasio paid 184 staffers in his office $100,000 . High earners included first deputy Dean Fuleihan ($282,659); a press officer Wiley Norvell ($184,050) and even the chef at Gracie Mansion ($123,537).

In total, $38 billion in cash compensation flowed to local and state government workers across New York who earned six figures. Our auditors did not include the cost of benefits.

We also haven’t included the payroll costs of at least 12,373 federal employees making $100,000 within the executive agencies based in New York.

Rats Out-Fox New York City Bureaucrats

In 2017, Mayor Bill de Blasio declared war on the city’s rat population and demanded “more rat corpses.” The city council minted $32 million for the rat extermination campaign.

Despite a city workforce of 329,000, the rats outsmarted the bureaucrats.

Last year, in a co-investigation with The New York Times NYT, we mapped 130,000 rat sightings since 2010 and found that reports to the city’s 311 hotline soared nearly 38-percent.

Double Dipping Members of the General Assembly

New York lawmakers are set to become the most highly compensated state assembly in the country. Members voted to hike their own pay from $79,500 in 2019 to $110,000 in 2020 and $130,000 in 2021.

Then, there are the double dippers who get elected, retire, and then get re-elected. Local news reported that twenty-one current reps and state senators double dip the system and collect a salary and a pension at the same time in their same position.

For example, in 2011, David Gantt retired from the general assembly, filed for a pension ($72,455), and was re-elected. Today, Gantt’s current salary is $110,000. Total: $182,455

Private Associations & Nonprofits Muscled into the Public Pension Plan

Private associations and nonprofit organizations have gamed the public pension system for personal gain. These associations are organized as “non-profits,” yet funded by taxpayers – and their pensions are guaranteed by taxpayers.

Highly compensated leaders include Stephen Acquario (New York State Association of Counties – $258,743); Timothy Kremer (NYS School Boards Association — $258,259); and Gerald Geist (NYS Association of Towns – $210,253).

Highly Compensated Locals

Central Islip Union Free School District on Long Island paid nine of the top ten most highly compensated educators in the state. Incredibly, those salaries ranged from $444,332 to $514,934.

Across the state, fifty retired educators hit the jackpot with pensions exceeding $200,000. The five highest include James Feltman (Commack Union Free – $327,006); Sheldon Karnilow (Half Hollow Hills Central – $323,442); Carole Hankin (Syosset Central – $320,547); James Hunderfund (Commack Union Free – $318,081); and Thomas Shea (South Huntington Union Free — $293,862).

Before the COVID-19 crisis, New York state government was facing its biggest budget shortfall in a decade. Now, with tax revenues dropping, more underlying financial weaknesses are being exposed.

In his daily press conferences, Cuomo says that New York is broke. The governor is asking Congress for a $60 billion coronavirus bailout over the next three years.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would be happy to oblige. She recently helped pass the HEROES Act in the House which would provide $500 billion in state aid. However, U.S. Senate Leader Mitch McConnell said there isn’t going to be a “blue state bailout.”

However, New York, like many states with excessive pay and pension costs, intends to rely on a U.S. taxpayer bailout to see them through their fiscal woes.

45 Goals for America

Posted on July 13, 2020July 13, 2020 by Denise Simon

They are not good and many are real today. So a hat tip to Cleon Skousen, a former FBI agent and to The Blaze from 2018. The thought came to me over the weekend and I began poking around open source information for more research. Perhaps this will help the reader ask very different questions of U.S. Representatives in Congress.

45 Communist goals for America | TheBlaze

It was Jan. 10, 1963, that Congressman Albert S. Herlong. Jr. from Florida read the list of 45 Communist goals for America into the Congressional Record. The purpose of him reading this was to gain insight into liberal elite ideas and strategies for America that sound awfully familiar today.

The list is attributed to Cleon Skousen, researcher and author of “The Naked Communist.”

On Wednesday’s episode of “Pat Gray Unleashed,” Pat and producer Keith revisited Cleon Skousen’s book and compared it to the current state of affairs in America and to the Democratic Party’s platform.

Do any of these hit close to home?

Here’s the list:

1. U.S. should accept coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.2. U.S. should be willing to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

These encapsulate the Kennan Doctrine, which advocated for the “containment” of communism. Establishment figures supporting the amoral containment policy at least implicitly worked with the communists in scaring the wits out of the American people concerning atomic war.

President Ronald Reagan undid the doctrine when he took an aggressive stand against the Evil Empire by backing freedom fighters from around the world that were struggling against the left-wing communist jackboot. As a result, the Soviet Union and its satellites imploded, a considerable and unexpected setback to the international communist edifice.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament by the U.S. would be a demonstration of “moral strength.”

The nuclear freeze advocates supported a freeze on

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

Today, there are calls to end the embargo on the slave island of Cuba, there were complaints about the embargo against Iraq, and the U.S., not Saddam Hussein, was blamed for the suffering of the Iraqi people. Would they have advocated for free trade with Hitler and his National Socialist regime?

5. Extend long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

Such aid and trade over decades contributed greatly to the left-wing communist liquidation of over 100 million people worldwide, according to the well-documented “Black Book of Communism.”

This aid and trade marks a shameful chapter in American history. Without the aid and trade, the left-wing international communist behemoth would have imploded on its own rot a lot sooner and umpteen millions would have been saved from poverty, misery, starvation and death.

7. Grant recognition of Red China and admission of Red China to the U.N.

Not only did President Jimmy Carter fulfill this goal but he also betrayed America’s allies in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Iran, Afghanistan, Angola and elsewhere.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev’s promise in 1955 to settle the Germany question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the U.S. has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces.

There are still American intellectuals, and elected members of Congress, who dream of an eventual one world government and who view the U.N., founded by communists such as Alger Hiss, the first secretary-general, as the instrument to bring this about.

World government was also the dream of Adolf Hitler and J.V. Stalin. World government was the dream of Osama bin Laden and the 9/11 hijackers.

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

While the idea of banning any political party runs contrary to notions of American freedom and liberty, notions that are the exact opposite of those held by the left-wing communists themselves, nevertheless these goals sought to undermine the constitutional obligation of Congress to investigate subversion. The weakening of our government’s ability to conduct such investigations led to the attack of 9/11.

It is entirely proper and appropriate for our government to expect employees, paid by the American taxpayer, to take an oath of loyalty.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the U.S.

In his book “Reagan’s War,” Peter Schweizer demonstrates the astonishing degree to which communists and communist sympathizers have penetrated the Democratic Party. In his book, Schweizer writes about the presidential election of 1979.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions, by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

This strategy goes back to the founding of the American Civil Liberties Union by Fabian Socialists Roger Baldwin and John Dewey and Communists William Z. Foster and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn among others.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for Socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations that are under Communist attack.

The success of these goals, from a communist perspective, is obvious. Is there any doubt this is so?

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV & motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all form of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings,” substituting shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. ” Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”

24.Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural and healthy.”

This is the Gramscian agenda of the “long march through the institutions” spelled out explicitly: gradual takeover of the “means of communication” and then using those vehicles to debauch the culture and weaken the will of the individual to resist.

Today those few who still have the courage to advocate public morality are denounced and viciously attacked. Most Americans are entirely unwitting regarding the motives behind this agenda.

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a “religious crutch.”

This has been largely accomplished through the communist infiltration of the National Council of Churches, Conservative and Reform Judaism, and the Catholic seminaries.

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the grounds that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state”

Replacing belief in the creator with belief in the earthly man-controlled State.

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

And replace our nation of “laws, not men” with royal decree emanating from appointed judges and executive orders. Replace elected officials with bureaucrats.

30. Discredit the American founding fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of “the big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

Obliterating the American past, with its antecedents in principles of freedom, liberty and private ownership is a major goal of the communists then and now.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture – education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

Public ownership of the means of production, the core principle of totalitarianism.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

Turn America into a socialist police state.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand or treat.

The Soviets used to send “social misfits” and those deemed politically incorrect to massive mental institutions called gulags. The Red Chinese call them

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose communist goals.

Psychiatry remains a bulwark of the communist agenda of fostering self-criticism and docility.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

Done! The sovereign family is the single most powerful obstacle to authoritarian control.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

Outcome-based education, values clarification or whatever they’re calling it this year.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special interest groups should rise up and make a “united force” to solve economic, political or social problems.

This describes the dialectical fostering of group consciousness and conflict, which furthers the interests of authoritarianism.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

The results of this successful campaign are increasingly obvious in the world today.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally Reservation so the U.S. cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.

This would mark a complete subversion of our Constitution and an end to representative sovereign government as we know it, which is the whole idea.

A Terrorist Donated $3.3M to the BLM War Chest

Posted on July 9, 2020July 10, 2020 by Denise Simon

Her name is Susan Rosenberg and President Clinton commuted her prison sentence. Just as bad, Congressman, Jerry Nadler (D-NY) was a good friend of Rosenberg and worked diligently to get her released from prison. Rosenberg was part of the May 19th Communist Organization and proud of the bombings.

In the 1980s, a Far-Left, Female-Led Domestic Terrorism Group ... Smithsonian

M19CO), was a US-based revolutionary organization formed by members of the Weather Underground Organization. The group was originally known as the New York chapter of the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee.

Rudy Giuliani and Andy McCarthy prosecuted her.

Now we need to continue to ask where is Obama’s old friend Bill Ayers. Why you ask?

Hold on tight, here we go.

Susan Rosenberg is a convicted domestic terrorist and radical left activist whose youth was spent protesting the Vietnam War and racism in America. A member of the Weather Underground and other radical organizations which used violence as a tool for political change, Rosenberg was sentenced to 58 years in federal prison after being arrested for possession of explosives and weapons during the planning of a number of bombing operations. [1] She was also a suspect in a 1981 armored car robbery which left one guard and two officers dead. She was released in 2001 when then-President Bill Clinton commuted her sentence. [2]

The commutation led to bipartisan criticism from Republican New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as well as police officials. [3] Rosenberg continued her radical activism through the publication of her 2011 book, An American Radical, and as the Vice-Chair of the fiscal sponsor group Thousand Currents. [4] [5] She also spent 12 years working for the left-of-center social activism group American Jewish World Service and co-founded the anti-prison group National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls. [6]

From 2016 to 2020, Thousand Currents became one of America’s most influential racial and social change organizations because it is Black Lives Matter Global Network’s fiscal sponsor. [7] As the group’s fiscal sponsor, Thousand Currents handles Black Lives Matter’s administrative and back-end work so the racial group can focus on its activism, protests, and riots. [8] As of June 24, 2020, Thousand Currents had deleted from its website the Board of Directors information listing Rosenberg’s biography. [9]
Early Life

In an excerpt from her 2011 book, An American Radical, Rosenberg describes being raised by civil rights advocates. Her father ran a dental practice which focused on helping “Spanish Harlem” residents, and her mother helped struggling artists get on their feet. Both of her parents opposed America’s Cold War-era nuclear build-up, the Vietnam War, and racial inequality in the mid-20th century. [10]

As a child, Rosenberg participated in anti-war demonstrations in New York and, at 15 years old, went to Washington, D.C. with her school to oppose the Vietnam War. She describes seeing police strike and arrest protesters who “raised a North Vietnamese flag on the Justice Department building,” and release tear gas. After the protest, she joined her school’s anti-war group and helped organize activism against the war. [11] Rosenberg’s description of the protest does not include mention of the rioting and property damage caused by activists who put the flag on the Department of Justice roof. This damage was cited by Dr. Wayne Thompson in his 2000 book, To Hanoi and Back, which is included in a number of official federal agencies’ historical records. [12]

Rosenberg’s high school group was part of the national Students for a Democratic Society. The group splintered due to factional interests, and at least one faction’s leadership led to the creation of the terrorist group Weather Underground. [13]

After college, Rosenberg worked as an anti-drug counselor and continued to be involved in anti-war and anti-racism movements. [14]
Political Activism & Terrorism

Rosenberg joined the Weather Underground and other radical, radical left groups which used bombings and other terrorist attacks to protest the Vietnam War and police brutality against minorities. The Underground was founded to overthrow the U.S. government through violent means, though its attacks on police and military resulted in no known deaths. [15]

She also helped found the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee, a radical group which looked to anti-slavery revolutionary John Brown for inspiration to oppose the Klu Klux Klan in the late 1970s and early 1980s. [16] [17] The Committee and Klu Klux Klan members took their conflicting activism to extreme levels, including violence against each other’s membership. [18] [19]

Rosenberg’s terrorism reached a peak when she and other radicals led the May 19th Communist Organization (M19CO). The nation’s only female-led Communist terror group, it helped break a convicted cop killer out of prison in 1979 and organized a number of bombings around the country. The group also participated in a Rockland County, New York, armored car robbery which left a guard and two police officers dead. Rosenberg’s 1984 arrest was one of several arrests over a six-month period which led to the Organization’s collapse. [20]
Brink’s Robbery

On October 20, 1981, Rosenberg’s May 19th Communist Organization and members of the Black Liberation Army carried out a robbery attack against a Brink’s armored car in Nanuet, New York. [21] According to CIA documents, this criminal coalition, known as “The Family,” was organized by Mutulu Shakur, stepfather of the late hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur. [22]

While Rosenberg maintained her innocence in the Brink’s robbery, a report by the New York State Criminal Justice Institute placed Rosenberg at the Mount Vernon safe-house that served as a staging location for the assault. [23] The $1.6 million stolen in the raid was intended to be used to fund the “New Afrika Movement.” [24]
Conviction and Parole Request

Rosenberg managed to evade arrest for three years following the Brink’s robbery. During this time, MC19CO orchestrated a series of bombings against federal government targets, including a blast detonated outside the Senate Chamber of the United States Capitol Building. [25]

Law enforcement caught up to her in November 1984 after she used stolen identification to rent a storage unit to stash away guns and bomb-making materials. The suspicious facility manager called police who noticed Rosenberg was wearing a disguise as she and an accomplice were unloading the supplies. They were both arrested and investigators found more than 700 pounds of explosives, along with multiple firearms and thousands of false ID cards.

Rosenberg was convicted on federal explosives and firearms charges and sentenced to 58 years in prison, the longest conviction for such charges in American history. [26] [27]

Future New York City mayor and President Donald Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, at the time a U.S. District Attorney, led Rosenberg’s prosecution. Though she was indicted for planning and driving in the Rockland County case, Giuliani declined to purse prosecution because of the long sentence Rosenberg received on the other charges. [28] [29] Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy, who convinced a federal judge to oppose Rosenberg’s request for parole in 1999, wrote that Giuliani also didn’t want to put the public and robbery victims through a second trial. [30]

Rosenberg’s attorneys sought parole on the basis that Rosenberg had been a model prisoner and had rejected her previous terrorist activities and beliefs. [31] They also argued that her sentence was extreme compared to the charges upon which she was convicted, and that McCarthy’s use of the robbery to argue against parole was invalid because Giuliani had dismissed the charges. [32] McCarthy maintained that it was Rosenberg’s radical declarations during her trial and her regret that “she hadn’t had the courage to shoot it out with police” when she was arrested that led to the lengthy sentence. He also argued that the robbery rightly played a role in the parole rejection because “it has long been the law that sentencing courts and the Parole Commission may take into account any conduct, even if the defendant has been acquitted — which Rosenberg, of course, had not been.” [33]
Commutation

See also: “Other Controversies” section of the Bill Clinton profile.

After Rosenberg’s parole request was denied, President Bill Clinton commuted her sentence on his last day in office. She was one of 176 people protected by Clinton that day, including indicted fugitive March Rich and former Clinton Whitewater associate Susan McDougal. McDougal was convicted of bank fraud in the Clinton Whitewater scandal investigation. [34] Clinton also commuted the 40-year sentence of Rosenberg co-conspirator Linda Sue Evans. [35] Evans was imprisoned for 11 counts of false identification used to purchase firearms and for harboring a fugitive related to the armored car murders. [36] She was also convicted in 1990 for participating in a number of terrorist bombings, including at the U.S. Capitol Building. [37]

Rosenberg’s commutation brought bipartisan condemnation from Giuliani, Schumer, and at least two police officials. Officials cited by The New York Times at the time of the commutation included then-New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who had escorted Rosenberg to and from her trial, and Rockland County union police official David Trois. Trois said he believed Rosenberg participated in the armored car robbery, a claim she denied. [38] Kerik said the commutation “sickened” him. [39]

The New York Times published an editorial criticizing Clinton’s pardons on his last day in office, including the ones for Rosenberg and Evans. [40]

In an interview three days after her “executive clemency,” Rosenberg said in an interview with leftist political group Democracy Now that “the whole issue with my case was a question of due process…” She called Clinton’s action “an important statement…” Her attorney said that Rosenberg desired to go to trial over the armored car robbery to prove innocence, but Giuliani and his office declined to do so. “…[T]heir evidence was flimsy at best,” said the attorney. [41]

During a 2008 Democratic presidential primary debate, then-candidate Barack Obama criticized President Clinton’s decision to grant Rosenberg clemency. [42]
Commutation Actors

Rosenberg’s commutation included a number of key players, such as:

Jerrold Nadler

In 1993, at the request of her mother and rabbi, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D—NY) reached out to the Bureau of Prisons on Rosenberg’s behalf for permission to visit her dying father. [43] Nadler continued to advocate for Rosenberg leveraging his connections within the Clinton White House. [44]

Nadler also signed a letter in 2019 asking the New York State Board of Parole to release Judith Clark, another member of MC19CO convicted for her role as the getaway driver in the Brink’s robbery. [45]

In 2011, Nadler told the far-left anti-war publication TruthOut that he criticized “the head of the Bureau of Prisons,” who opposed letting Rosenberg visit her father for security reasons. According to Nadler, he was told that Rosenberg was “still in contact with some of her terrorist friends from the outside” and that the Bureau of Prisons was concerned that her armed entourage would be targeted by those associates. Nadler said his first response to the concern was, “So?” Later, he said he pressured the Bureau into keeping the visit secret and still provide armed security, as had been done when transferring Rosenberg to several prisons. [46]

Howard Gutman

Attorney Howard Gutman of the prestigious Williams & Connelly law firm represented Rosenberg in her efforts to gain executive clemency. The Williams & Connelly firm also led President Bill Clinton’s impeachment defense. [47] Gutman, who later raised $500,000 for President Barack Obama’s White House campaign, became the United States Ambassador to Belgium in 2009. [48] [49]

60 Minutes Producers

Rosenberg was interviewed by “60 Minutes” in 2000, where she claimed to be “really afraid” of “the government” after the Brink’s robbery. While she maintained her innocence in that crime during the interview, she also portrayed herself as distrusting the government instead of engaging in terrorist bombings with M19C0. [50] While there is no direct causational relationship between the interview and the commutation, they took place within three months of each other. [51]
Post-Commutation

Left-of-center groups like the PEN American Center have praised Rosenberg for her HIV/Aids advocacy while in prison. [52]

Immediately following her release, Rosenberg became the Communications Director at the left-of-center American Jewish World Service organization, a position she held for nearly 12 years. [53] [54] AJWS is an advocacy, grant, and issue-oriented organization which promotes both human rights like freedom from sex slavery as well as left-of-center social change priorities like greater access to abortion and advocacy for transgenderism. [55]

Rosenberg co-founded the anti-prison group National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls. [56] The organization advocates for fewer women and girls in prison and for a change in America’s prison system from punishment to criminal reform efforts. [57]

Rosenberg has taught as an adjunct professor at the City University of New York and Hunter College. [58] In 2004, she was offered a teaching position at Hamilton College that was pulled after protests by faculty and students. [59] Rosenberg has widely lectured on prominent college campuses about her prison experience and her political views. [60]
Thousand Currents

Formerly known as the International Development Exchange (IDEX), Thousand Currents is a left-of-center grantmaking organization. [61] As of June 16, 2020, Rosenberg sat on the Thousand Currents Board of Directors serving as Vice Chair. However, the organization subsequently deleted the Board of Directors information listing Rosenberg’s biography from its website. [62]

While still known as IDEX in 2016, Thousand Currents began a sponsorship of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. [63] In 2019, financial documents showed the group held over $3.3 million in assets earmarked for BLM. [64] As of June 24, 2020, access to financial information had been deleted from the organization’s website. [65] [66]

With assistance from Thousand Currents, the Black Lives Matter Global Foundation established a $12 million fund in the months following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. [67] Thousand Currents claims support for BLM’s mission “to eradicate White supremacy and build power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes through its educational and charitable activities.” [68]