Nearly six months after Donald Trump was elected as the 45th President of the United States, numerous “spontaneous” protests and collaborations of progressive groups continue. Each week is filled with one demonstration after another. Protesters gather to resist the policies of the newly elected President and Republican elected officials, or to support a myriad of progressive issues like a $15 an hour minimum wage, Planned Parenthood, sanctuary cities, and LGBTQ rights.
Money, it turns out, is the common catalyst in getting people off their living room couches to create chaos, mayhem and turmoil against an administration that is barely 100 days old.
On March 4, a pro-Trump rally was held at the Minnesota State Capitol. Anti-Trump protesters, called “Antifa” (a kitschy moniker that stands for Anti-Fascist Action), crashed the event spraying peaceful Trump supporters in the face with mace, lobbing smoke bombs and firecrackers inside the building, deafening them with bullhorns, and shocking them with tasers. Linwood Kaine, the son of Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine, was arrested with four others on suspicion of second-degree rioting. The call for protesters to attend the pro-Trump rally was featured on social media sites, including the “Minnesota Protests” Facebook page.
Antifa protesters who attended the rally were well coordinated – all of them wearing similar black clothing, with bandanas and masks covering their faces and carrying backpacks. People at the event saw some of the protest leaders outside the Capitol handing out white envelopes to those who created the chaos, which witnesses to this exchange – who wish to remain anonymous – believe were paychecks.
Where is the money to fund violence coming from? Social media and classified ads are giving us some information.
@LeoDube @Dalex_60 @AntifaBoston George Soros is a big supporter of ours. He provides alot of funds is a hero.
— Antifa Anchorage (@AntifaAnchorage) April 28, 2017
@BevHillsAntifa @LagBeachAntifa First of many vids I’m sure. Well done comrade. With the recently acquired funds from Soros, sky’s the limit.
— Midwest Antifa (@AntifaMidwest) April 28, 2017
Show Me The Money
In October 2016, Alpha News reported on progressive protesters being paid to cause trouble. A story on an undercover Project Veritas video confirmed the potentially illegal collaboration of officials from the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the Clinton campaign, and George Soros funded Priorities USA Action PAC in 2016. Officials discussed hiring and training of protesters sent to deliberately disrupt and cause violence at Republican and Trump events during the presidential campaign. As Alpha News reported, Trump supporters were physically beaten and spat on outside the Minneapolis Convention Center in August 2016 by mobs of people while entering the building where Trump, then the Republican nominee for president, made an appearance at a private fundraiser. There were reports of a single security guard who helped the Trump supporters safely exit and enter the building while angry protesters knocked people to the ground, kicked them, and threw unidentified liquids at them.
All of this violence was very well orchestrated and coordinated. Project Veritas interviewed then-field director for the progressive group “Americans United for Change” Scott Foval, who confirmed on video that protests were scripted (Foval was fired shortly after the videos came to light). He said operatives were trained on what to wear, how to behave, where to locate themselves, and what to say to incite and trigger sometimes violent responses to their presence. More recently, the progressive agitation group, “Indivisible” posted tactics and scripts on their website to instruct their followers on what to say and do to disrupt republican town halls and agitate republican elected leaders. In the Project Veritas video, Foval said there were groups of people in other cities who attend protests and rallies, saying, “…we have to have a central country agitator training…now we have a built-in group of people in New York; we do this we have a built-in group of people in DC…we have a group of people in Minneapolis…” The Americans United For Change field director said to find protesters, they would call local unions, like the AFL-CIO, for help.
This help is very well funded.
Help wanted
In Minneapolis, a group called “Working America” has been posting help wanted ads on Craigslist Minneapolis-St. Paul. Working America, according to its website, was founded in 2003, and is the community affiliate of the AFL-CIO. Working America’s mission statement is to make sure the “priorities of working people, their families and communities are heard from our state houses to the White House, from our city councils and school boards to the halls of Congress.”
Paying activists $12.50 an hour as a starting wage to “Fight Trump”, as it says in its ads, Working America entices the applicant with the headline, “Join The Worker’s Movement and Fight the Attacks on the Working Class!” The ad boasts that the organization has the largest professional door-to-door campaign team and looks to add to its army of employees, stating, “When there is strength in numbers, we build movements and win on issues!”
Stalin would be proud.
Alpha News called Working America to find out more about the “job.” A woman named Margo explained the position is for canvassers to go into neighborhoods, door-to-door, and talk to people about “economic justice” issues and ask them to financially contribute and take action towards the cause. Alpha News asked if the position includes protesting and Margo said, “…the main job of our canvassers is to really just get out there face-to-face in the community, but there are other parts of Working America that work on other things. This job is a canvasser position.” Margo would not reveal what these “other things” were.
Alpha News researched the funding behind Working America, which is categorized as a Political Action Committee (PAC) at Open Secrets.org. There is a complex labyrinth of progressive political groups and money. Working America is primarily funded by a Super PAC called “For Our Future.” For Our Future’s top donor was another Super PAC called “Nextgen Climate Action Committee,” which was founded by liberal progressive billionaire donor and Hillary Clinton supporter, Tom Steyer of San Francisco. Steyer is the top donor of Nextgen and the organization has been funding anti-Trump ads, according to Fortune Magazine. Steyer has been spearheading the anti-Trump agenda with his vast fortune. He is a big player in the endless progressive money spigot that pays for “concerned citizens” to canvass neighborhoods and “work on other things” for progressive causes.
“Clean Water Action” is another organization running classified ads looking for paid help on Craigslist. Their help wanted ad says, “Activists Unite to Defend Against Toxic Trump,” as if all Trump supporters want dirty water. The ad says that employees will receive $12-$17 an hour, including dental and health insurance benefits and a 401K, with a dire warning to potential employees that “The Stakes are Too High”.
“He has said that climate change is a hoax, perpetrated either by the Chinese government (to steal our money) or by academic professors (to get grants). He does not support government action to address climate change and would roll back the progress made under the Obama Administration. He has also said he would kill the Clean Water rule, leaving it to states to decide whether to protect the sources of our drinking water,” exclaims the copy of the ad.
Among the qualifications for the position is environmental or political knowledge, a sense of humor and to be a team player.
According to OpenSecrets.org, Clean Water Action donated to the campaigns of both Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016. It is a 501(c)(4) organization with an annual revenue of $8.4 million, according to Wikipedia.
The business of protesting to push the liberal progressive agenda appears to be lucrative and well funded. As long as wealthy progressive leaders and organizations are willing to pay protesters and canvassers, their coffers will continue to brim and they will continue to employ people to spread their agenda. Perhaps it is time for conservatives to take a cue from their political opponents? Obviously, conservatives can no longer rely on common sense values to supersede the well-funded leftists who spend lots and lots of money on grassroots efforts to get out the progressive message and beat the crap out of anyone who fails to agree with them.
Donna Azarian is an Editor with Alpha News. She has worked in the state for more than a decade as a political activist.
