Tag: Progressives

Boonsboro, MD: Black Lives Matter and Leftists’ Dirty Tricks

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 1 Comment
Earlier this year Dan’s Restaurant and Taphouse became the central organizing location for Black Lives Matter in Washington County, Maryland.

Update below!

Boonsboro, Maryland is a small rural town in conservative Western Maryland. It is near where I live and for the last 35 years I’ve visited friends there, gone to doctor’s appointments there and shopped in its small shopping plaza. It is a town where one could live a peaceful life—until now.

….Until a few obviously Leftwing activists associated with internationally famous and now wealthy author Nora Roberts (whose birth name was Eleanor Marie Robertson), began a campaign in support of Black Lives Matter.

Charlotte Aufdem-Brinke told interviewer Bernadette Wagner that she wanted to see “progressive change come to Washington County” saying she was modeling for her children. Watch the whole interview beginning at the 22:40 mark here: https://primetime4women.com/show-10-in-season-2-with-marie-hawse-and-charlotte-aufdem-brinke/

In June, after George Floyd’s death in Minnesota, Roberts’ daughter-in-law, a co-owner of Dan’s  Restaurant & Taphouse, Charlotte Aufdem-Brinke and the restaurant became the central location for Black Lives Matter organizing.

(Aufdem-Brinke is Nora Roberts’ first married name. Charlotte’s present marital status to her son Dan is not clear and doesn’t matter.)

Fine and dandy, Ms. Aufdem-Brinke is free to voice her opinions, organize for Progressive causes, and model her political views for her children.

However, it is what happened next that has many in the community outraged.

She apparently was a lead organizer behind a billboard that was placed prominently in town funded via a GoFundMe account where Aufdem-Brinke is the first donor listed ($500).

(The image below is the ‘corrected’ second billboard as the first one credited “the people of Boonsboro” for paying for the billboard.)

 

If you want to read the Battle of the Billboards by controversial local agitator Ryan Miner, see it here  but just know that he calls local, long-time residents of the community “hayseeds,” and “Boonsboro’s finest happy-go-lucky hubcap shiners.”

Calling names is a universal trait it seems for Progressives pushing their agenda.

By the way, Miner was not always on the Left, but that is a story for another time.

This is what you really need to know—Progressive Dems cheat (duh!)!

Del. Parrott is a decent and honorable man, no wonder he would be surprised someone would play this dirty.

Aufdem-Brinke and fellow Progressives can put up all the billboards they desire, but somehow these Leftists who “model for their kids whose hearts are so pure” can’t seem to not cheat  as we learned in October when it was discovered that someone affiliated with Black Lives Matter and Nora Roberts’ daughter-in-law, listed well-known local conservative Republicans as donors to the billboard fundraising campaign including 2020 Republican Congressional candidate Neil Parrott founder of the Hagerstown Tea Party.

From the Herald Mail less than two weeks before the November election:

Several Washington County Republicans’ names falsely listed as supporting BLM fundraiser

Several prominent Washington County Republicans say they have been falsely associated with donating to a Black Lives Matter fundraiser.

Washington County Republican Chair Jerry DeWolf sent an email Thursday morning to Washington County Sheriff Doug Mullendore stating he and several others were fraudulently listed as donors on a GoFundMe fundraiser to put up a Black Live Matter billboard near Boonsboro. He requested the sheriff’s office begin an investigation into the fundraiser organizers and “others who may have participated in this fraud.”

The email also was sent to The Herald-Mail, Maryland Republican Party Chair Dirk Haire and Maryland Republican Party Executive Director Corine Frank.

In DeWolf’s email, he said he assumed the act was a “politically motivated attack designed to harass and intimidate,” and he would “personally be interested in pressing the maximum charges available should (the sheriff’s) office find it warranted to do so.”

Of course, the sheriff found nothing criminal. Didn’t this raise identity fraud legal questions?  (We have a weak sheriff here in Washington County.)

Del. Neil Parrott, R-Washington, who is a candidate to represent Maryland’s 6th Congressional District in the U.S. House, was listed as donating $50. He said Friday the donation was not made by him. He said he was made aware of the donation in his name and was surprised that someone would do that.

We must get it through our heads that playing dirty, cheating and lying is how the Left plays this game!  The stolen 2020 Presidential election is a prime example of how far they will go.

Others listed as donors have confirmed the legitimacy of their donations, such as Charlotte Aufdem-Brinke, co-owner of Dan’s Restaurant & Taphouse. Aufdem-Brinke, who was the first donor listed, said Thursday that the donation for $500 was legitimate.***

Aufdem-Brinke said she liked the fundraiser’s message, saying it aligned with the Taphouse’s stance on inclusivity and ending a “hateful mindset.”

More here.

Message to local readers:  No “hayseeds,” as Aufdem-Brinke’s pal Ryan Miner calls you, should spend a single dime at Dan’s Restaurant & Taphouse in Boonsboro, Maryland. 

Message to national readers:  GoFundMe can easily be manipulated by devious Dems who appear to have no moral compass and who obviously believe that the ends justify the means.

***See the GoFundMe account for the Boonsboro Black Lives Matter billboard and see who the legitimate donors are (after the Republicans were able to remove their names).  How many are actually from Boonsboro?

I’ve created a whole new category here at Frauds & Crooks that I am calling Leftists’ Dirty Tricks.  It appears I will need it going forward.

Update!

Is this what the good folks of Boonsboro are supporting.  This happened in Washington DC yesterday:

‘Choose Democracy’ Claims it is Organizing to Stop Trump’s Coup

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 5 Comments

“When Trump a few weeks ago began saying he wouldn’t commit to a peaceful transfer of power, that’s when I decided I needed to do it.”

(Lisa Graustein)

 

Yes, this group of community organizers is planning to go to the streets at election time because they believe Trump will not leave office if he loses.  They think that Donald Trump is planning a coup.  Nevermind that Obama and his entire inner circle has been trying to illegally overthrow Trump for over four years.

They make it sound like they are going to bodily remove the President on November 4th, but no matter what happens, he is President until inauguration day in January (LOL! do they know that!).

This is a prime example of how the media (granted BuzzFeed “leans left”) carries the water for the Progressive Left and obviously is enjoying hyping the size of the Trump opposition.

The ‘star’ of this story is a humble former “public school teacher” who has been moved by the words of that meany in the White House to get politically active this year and has selected a group called Choose Democracy where she is putting in time as a volunteer (two hours a day!).

Here is Choose Democracy’s pledge:

 

From BuzzFeed News (hat tip Cathy):

This Is How Thousands Of Americans Are Preparing To Take On Trump If He Refuses To Leave Office

One day late last month, longtime activist George Lakey was yet again training people on how to peacefully resist a coup. But this time, he was not in Moscow or Bangkok or one of the many other far-off places where he has traveled over his 70-year career as a sociologist and writer promoting democracy and nonviolent forms of protest. He was in the United States, at his home in suburban Philadelphia.

On the other end of Lakey’s Zoom webinar were around 1,000 American voters — 500 more, he noted, than had shown up the week before — from around the country who were glued to their screens, taking careful notes.

As President Donald Trump has spent the last few months planting seeds of doubt about the integrity of the US’s electoral process and urging his supporters to “go into the polls and watch very carefully,” dozens of advocacy groups, mostly progressive, have been hard at work trying to organize and train everyday Americans for what to do if their democracy appears to fall apart before their eyes.

“When Trump a few weeks ago began saying he wouldn’t commit to a peaceful transfer of power, that’s when I decided I needed to do it,” said Lisa Graustein, a 45-year-old former public school teacher in Boston, of her decision to give up two hours of her day to partake in a training on the finer points of mass demonstrations, peaceful sit-ins, and putting public pressure on elected officials.

Lisa Graustein

Graustein, who now runs a food distribution center [see packing Goya beans photo–must have been before Goya CEO came out for Trump!—ed], said she had been “semi active” in local political and activist causes in the past.

Still, that was a far cry from pondering the questions Lakey asked in the training, such as: Are you a person who will stand up to authority and be a voice for others? Or hearing Lakey assure the group that dictatorships fall when the masses rise up and that nonviolent resistance — like in Argentina in 1987 and the Soviet Union in 1991 — could be used to defeat a possible power grab by Trump.

But Graustein said she and all her friends and work colleagues are anxious about the election. “People not active in previous elections are active now,” she said. And so when someone in her Quaker community told her about the training, she signed up.

The idea behind the effort was to “actually help prevent” the possibility of a coup, explained Eileen Flanagan, who moderated the training with Lakey.

The training was organized by Choose Democracy, a Washington, DC–based group that describes itself as a “crew of organizers, activists, trainers, academics, and concerned citizens preparing for the scenario of a coup in 2020.”

So BuzzFeed reporter, Ukrainian-based Christopher Miller, wants you to believe that Lisa the food bank worker, just a typical American middle-aged woman, is motivated for the first time to go to the streets to throw ‘orange man’ from the White House.

But, hold on a second!

“Someone in her Quaker community” told her about Choose Democracy?  She didn’t know Daddy was its primary funder?

I checked Open Secrets on Choose Democracy and it seems that in mid September, someone with the same last name, Graustein, was the primary donor to the PAC Choose Democracy.

Related to Lisa Graustein? Sure looks like it.

Check out the Graustein Memorial Fund (these family trusts are where wealthy people can legally park money and then direct it at their pet causes.)

It seems that the fund has taken a “new direction” over the years helped along by William’s daughter Lisa.  See here.

Here is Lisa’s bio.  Oh, and her teaching job was at a public charter school, not at a “public school” in the traditional sense.

LISA GRAUSTEIN 

Lisa is a public school teacher, gay rights activist, artist, and member of our Board of Trustees. She is a facilitator with Beyond Diversity 101, which offers workshops that expose, stimulate and transform the dynamics of diversity at the root level. Learn more about BD101 here.

Check out Lisa’s presentation, From Genocide to Generational Continuity: Frames for Understanding and Transforming Education,on how the process of genocide – actual and symbolic – is woven into the fabric of our nation’s key institutions, including our education system. [Link appears to be dead!—ed]

Lakey is an oft-arrested Quaker

It seems pretty clear that Ms. Graustein is not a newbie to political agitation.

After all, she is a Quaker.

Most Americans don’t know that the ‘Friends’ (aka Quakers) are an extreme leftwing political group.

I wrote about them at RRW and elsewhere over the years because they have worked closely with pro-Palestinian and Islamic supremacist groups.

You will see at the Wall Street Journal that they are aggressively anti-Israel.

Be sure to read more of the BuzzFeed story that never mention’s Lisa Graustein’s connection to the source of money that is going to organizing spearheaded by an infamous community organizer, George Lakey.

One last thing….

I see at Open Secrets that Choose Democracy had not spent any of the Graustein’s money, or anyone else’s, through the end of September, so this PAC isn’t contributing to the Biden campaign, or any other campaign it seems.

Note again that 6 donors gave the vast majority of the funds Choose Democracy has available.

Makes me wonder if they are saving their bucks for street action—hiring agitators, covering their expenses, and buying ‘supplies’ as they plan to storm Washington, DC. and the Trump White House.

Don’t miss my post yesterday on Leo Hohmann’s post in which he directs our attention to Shutdown DC.

California Begins Handouts to Illegal Aliens Tomorrow

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 5 Comments

I guess you can argue that California does that all the time, but this is a new monetary handout due to the Chinese virus.

Thanks to reader Nancy for sending me the news.

Some of the usual ‘religious’ nonprofits will be responsible for passing out the payola.

From Cal Matters:

Financial help for California’s undocumented immigrants starts Monday

California’s undocumented immigrants can begin applying Monday for disaster relief payments of up to $1,000 per household under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s coronavirus emergency assistance plan.

Unai Montes-Irueste, director of communications with United Ways of California says the money will only reach one in ten of the ‘undocumented.’ About Montes-Irueste: https://www.laprogressive.com/author/unai-montes-irueste/page/2/

In April, Newsom announced a one-time, $75-million fund for undocumented adults who are not eligible for other forms of government assistance, such an unemployment benefits and federal stimulus checks. A qualifying undocumented adult can receive $500, with a maximum of $1,000 per household.

Since the announcement was made, many undocumented immigrants have been waiting for information to apply as soon as the application period opened.

California has more than two million undocumented immigrants. Nearly one in ten workers is undocumented.

With the funds spread among so many people, most families will not receive the funding. Applications are approved on a first-come, first-served basis, until the money runs out.

“In the best case scenario, these funds would reach one in 10 people,” said Unai Montes-Irueste, director of communications with United Ways of California.

[….]

Montes-Irueste of United Ways of California — which has helped undocumented immigrants without bank accounts during the pandemic — said it is important for people to know where to get help and avoid being scammed.

Called the Disaster Relief Assistance for Immigrants Project, the $75 million in state funding will be distributed to 12 organizations throughout California.

More here.

See the list of who is passing out the taxpayer dollars. Catholic Charities and Jewish Family Services are on the list.  I’m guessing they get to keep a cut for their ‘administrative’ costs.

Update!  Don’t miss Montgomery County, MD being sued for handing out money to illegal aliens.

Taxpayer-Funded Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society Sending Immigration Lawyers to Border so More Migrants Can Get In!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 5 Comments

Recently I told you that the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and Church World Service were both either promoting or outright offering sanctuary to illegal aliens.

HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, another of the nine federal contractors  employed by the US State Department to place refugees into your towns and cities, is focusing on hiring lawyers for the law breakers at the southern border.  [For new readers, see nine contractors in this post.—ed]

Jewish leaders at the southern border
HIAS organized a trip for Jewish leaders to the southern border.  https://www.truah.org/letters-from-the-border/

HIAS receives more than half of its income from you via your tax dollars to take care of legal refugees who were selected and screened, and yet they are working feverishly to be sure the illegal aliens on the southern border have legal representation.

Recently they sent out an appeal for financial help.  Mind you! financial help for an organization that got $24,493,702 directly from the US Treasury in 2016 (according to its Form 990 here)!

Why is our money going to a group promoting a progressive political agenda that large numbers of Americans oppose (if they only knew!)?

This is a screenshot of their recent appeal for more moola…

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Now let’s have a look at the most recent Form 990 available for HIAS.

Below is the page showing their federal grants.  Notice that their privately raised dollars that year amounted to $17,361,702, less than half of their income.

I think the fact that they can’t raise enough private money for their ‘good works’ signals that the general public just isn’t that interested in their mission.

If you go to page 9 notice that if they weren’t getting federal funding they would die.

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Salary and employee expenses amounted to $20,686,120 and their office expenses, rent and travel amounted to another $7,106,664 while they only took in just over $17 million in private dollars.

Again, if they weren’t getting federal funding they would most likely die.  Or, they would have to slash staff or significantly cut the high salaries of top brass!

Have a look at their top salaried positions. 

And, btw, let me say that if they were a truly private non-profit (or a for-profit) their salaries would be none of our business, but they aren’t.

They are effectively a government agency which means they can’t keep this information from the taxpayers who pay a significant portion of their salaries!

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Endnote:  Readers may have noticed many refugee-related stories here at Frauds and Crooks.  I am still working to restore Refugee Resettlement Watch and once it is done (soon I think!), many stories like this one will be posted there.  However, there is a ‘Charity fraud’ category here at Frauds and Crooks, so stories like this fit right in!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting Ready for the New School Year? Then Prepare for Hating Haters Indoctrination

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 1 Comment

Maybe it might best be described as Hating Trump Voters 101.

I’m not spending a lot of time on this, too much backed up in my posting queue, but I just saw this Opinion piece at the Philadelphia Inquirer that tells us to see the Southern Poverty Law Center‘s “Hate at School” report. (I’m betting there is nothing in it about how to treat even Trump supporters with respect.)

Do your kids have the “emotional intelligence” to be ready for the 2020 Presidential election? Indeed are they ready to confront “racism, sexism, and heteronormativity” this year?

If not, may I suggest home schooling!

To confront the 2020 election cycle, we need emotional intelligence in schools | Opinion

In the history classes I teach, I begin with a digital dialogue called “What Gives Us Pause.” Before we begin formal instruction, I invite students to share with each other the social and political currents that worry them most, or make them most hopeful for the future. This dialogue unleashes a flood of student voices.

brendon jobs photo for interview
Author Brendon Jobs a “teacher leader.”  http://marcusedu.blogspot.com/2013/02/brendon-jobs-interview-how-to-be.html

Every year, students name wars that tear nations apart, gentrification that disrupts the fabric of urban communities, environmental crises, and hate and prejudice. I expect them to talk about the most recent incidents of mass shootings and gun violence right here in Philadelphia. Very quickly, this bonds the classroom in ways that prepare us to support and hold each other accountable, and name patterns of behavior we witness — in the news cycle, on social media, and in our own lived experiences — as the year unfolds.

When I began teaching in 2007, the first years felt sterile. I was discouraged from getting too political or confronting social power structures like racism, patriarchy, or class. I was trained to believe that teachers had to create “safe spaces” that were apolitical and socially neutral. We celebrated civil rights victories but did not discuss the dark legacy of slavery. We didn’t talk about the environment. Textbook-driven instruction drove my practice at the expense of student voices and authentic connections with each other.

Grrrrr!  “Student voices!” “Authentic connections!”  But, did they learn anything about the Revolutionary War or the Civil War?

I digress…. after a recent visit to the Antietam Battlefield, a friend whispered a question—what about all the northern white families who lost their husbands, fathers and sons fighting to free the slaves, don’t they deserve reparations?

Jobs goes on….

Too often, public conversations stop at simply naming transgressions: identifying something as hurtful or difficult and then moving on. In other cases, policy-driven mandates aiming to keep discourse respectful — like bans on the use of specific words, music, readings, or opinions — leave little room for gray areas. School communities, on the other hand, can model practical responses to and discussions of these moments that young people can use their entire lives, including when confronting racism, sexism, and heteronormativity. [You can bet any students who support our President will never emote in Jobs’ classes!—-ed]

[….]

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The SPLC calls it the “Trump Effect” (LOL! note the obligatory dark cover of the report!) https://www.splcenter.org/20190502/hate-school

The stakes feel high. The special report “Hate at School”by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance project showed a sharp increase in hate and bias in schools since the 2016 election.

Thankfully, the “Hate at School” report offers many entry points for engaging students, educators, and families in inquiry around how to notice, name, and combat acts of bias and hatred on an ongoing basis — not only when individual moments grow large and public. This defines the work that educators across the nation prepare to engage as school resumes, just over a year out from the 2020 election. [It is all about 2020 to the Progressives.—ed]

There is much more (if you can stomach it!).

Are you looking for a project?  Even if your kids are grown, how about looking into what is being taught in your local schools?

My post over the weekend about Michigan teachers being indoctrinated with incomplete information about Islam, see it here, was a huge success on social media.

Fascinating that the beat goes on at the Southern Poverty Law Center. You might think the media (and people like Jobs) would hesitate for a few minutes about using the work of the hypocrites at the SPLC after the incredible airing of their dirty (racist!) linen earlier last spring.

See my complete archive on the SPLC by clicking here.