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Fifth Column

Lefty groups behind anti-Trump protests in US propped up by billionaires and dark-money network

2025-05-06

[NYPOST] Dozens of lefty groups behind the country's supposedly ''grassroots'' May Day protests have been largely bankrolled by two billionaires and a dark-money network of progressive nonprofits.

More than $500 million from Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss' organizations, hedge-fund tycoon George Soros

...either Ernst Stavro Blofeld or Auric Goldfinger come true. Maybe both....
' Open Society Foundations and the dark-money Arabella network flowed to the progressive groups between fiscal years 2016 and 2023, according to an analysis shared with The Post.

The funding wasn't intended for the May Day protests per se, but it has been propping up many of the self-styled ''grassroots'' progressive activist groups over time.

''The hypocrisy of the May Day protests is glaring,'' said Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, to The Post.

''These organizations project the illusion of being driven by everyday Americans, but in reality they're being bankrolled by some of the biggest dark-money megadonors in politics.''

Starting Thursday, on May Day, organizers put together more than 1,000 protests across the country to demonstrate against President Trump, activity that spilled into the weekend.

Although the day is not generally a significant phenomenon in the US, in some countries, it is a holiday to mark International Workers’ Day and spring festivities. Oftentimes, labor movements overseas use it to protest for certain causes.

The "50501" movement — or "50 protests, 50 states, 1" effort, an anti-Trump organization that formed in January — is widely credited for trying to move that international energy into the US by orchestrating the widespread stateside protests last week.

US organizers framed the demonstrations as a fight against "Trump and his billionaire profiteers" — despite records showing that prominent plutocrats were funding many of the participating activist groups.

Many of the protests were also directed at tech baron Elon Musk, who is poised to dramatically reduce his cost-cutting role in the Trump administration by the month’s end.

"Trump and his billionaire profiteers are trying to create a race to the bottom — on wages, on benefits, on dignity itself," the "50501" movement said on its website ahead of the demonstrations.

"We are demanding a country that puts our families over their fortunes — public schools over private profits, healthcare over hedge funds, prosperity over free market politics."

About three dozen of the participating groups have raked in about $293.6 million from Wyss’ groups, $47 million from the Arabella network and $194.2 million from Soros’ Open Society Foundations, according to an assessment reviewed and checked by The Post.

Some of the most prominent left-wing activist groups in the anti-Trump demonstrations last week were the Sunrise Movement, Indivisible and Planned Parenthood
...has received federal funding since 1970, when President Richard Nixon signed into law the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act. It is sometimes described as the gynecololgical wing of the Democratic party...
Tax filings and other records show that the Sunrise Movement took in $2,070,000 from funders in the so-called Arabella network, and Indivisible got $107,000 from the Arabella network, $6.5 million from Wyss groups and $7.6 million from Soros’ Open Society Foundations, while Planned Parenthood Federation of America accrued $1.6 million from the Arabella network, almost $6 million from Wyss’ groups and $19.7 million from Soros’ group.

"The Open Society Foundations did not fund or coordinate the May Day protests," a rep for the Open Society Foundations told The Post.

"We support a wide range of organizations committed to justice and democratic participation, but how they choose to engage in political moments is up to them."

An Arabella representative said, "Arabella Advisors has no connection to the May Day protests.

"We are a nonpartisan professional services firm that provides operational and administrative support to philanthropists and nonprofit organizations."

The Arabella network data includes IRS
...the Internal Revenue Service; that office of the United States government that collects taxes and persecutes the regime's political enemies...
Form 990 information for the Sixteen Thirty Fund, North Fund, New Venture Fund and Hopewell Fund — nonprofit groups that the Washington, DC-based Arabella Advisors services with operational and administrative support.

Wyss’ groups include activities from the eponymous Wyss Foundation — his charitable group — and the Berger Action Fund, his advocacy arm.

Because of his Swiss citizenship, Wyss, 89, is precluded from donating to US political candidates. But he has emerged as a top backer of lefty causes in America nonetheless by pumping cash into dark-money groups.

Dark money in these cases refers to political spending that is not subject to financial disclosure requirements, which helps shield donor identities.

Wyss made his fortune from the medical-device-maker company Synthes, which he sold more than a decade ago to Johnson & Johnson.

One of the largest groups to partake in protests that benefited from Wyss was Families Over Billionaires, the trade name for the massive liberal dark-money Sixteen Thirty Fund, which received more than $278 million from his organizations, records show.

A Wyss representative did not return a Post request for comment.

The May Day demonstrations across the US were the latest in anti-Trump protests that have taken place since his 2024 election victory, which have been orchestrated by groups that have, in part, received billionaire cash.

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-Short Attention Span Theater-

Tim Walz mocked for saying he could ''code talk to white guys''

2025-05-03

A manly man for manly men, you betcha.
[NYPOST] Former Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz

...Kamala's smarmy-looking VP running mate, governor of Minnesota and self-admitted knucklehead, who decided to retire rather than to deploy with his National Guard unit, then claimed to have been in Iraq and Afghanistan. One man's socialism is another man's neighborliness....
is being mercilessly mocked after he claimed he was chosen to join Kamala Harris
former senatrix from California, 2020 Dem presidential hopeful and ultimately Joe Biden's intended successor
on the losing ticket because he could ''code talk to white guys.''
"What's he saying?"
"Dunno. I can't decipher it."
The Minnesota governor drew the derision of conservatives after he said on his national tour stop Monday that he was picked because of his ability to ''code talk to [men] watching football, fixing their truck[s]'' and ''put them at ease.''
"At ease."
"I ain't in the army, bub. And you ain't no sergeant major."

Walz added he was the ''permission structure'' to win over white men from rural America to vote for Democrats
...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy, white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects....

Walz's critics joked that his coding was not very convincing.

''Tampon Tim Walz thought white guys watching football and fixing their truck[s] would listen to him and vote for Kamala,'' one X user quipped, referring to the political moniker he earned for requiring public schools to provide menstrual products to all students in 4th through 12th grades.

''Tim Walz is DELUSIONAL!'' chimed in Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.).

''Tim Walz says Kamala picked him as a running mate to give 'permission' for white dudes to vote for a radical black/Indian woman,'' wrote conservative pundit Charlie Kirk. ''How'd that work out for you, Tim?!'' he added.

Walz made the comments at a Harvard Kennedy School forum on Monday night on a stop of his national ''listening tour.''

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-Great Cultural Revolution

US demands UPenn strip transgender athletes of women’s sports awards or face enforcement steps

2025-04-29

Keeping them on the back foot.

[IsraelTimes] The US Department of Education alleges that the University of Pennsylvania’s policy on transgender athletes violates federal law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in programs that receive federal funding.

The Education Department says in a statement that it has proposed a resolution agreement to the university under which the Ivy League school would issue a statement saying it will comply with federal law, transfer records and awards won by transgender athletes to athletes assigned female at birth, and issue a letter of apology to the female athletes.

The department says the university has 10 days to resolve or risk a referral to the US Justice Department for enforcement proceedings.

The Education Department does not immediately respond to a request for comment on what kind of enforcement actions it seeks. The university has no immediate comment.

The university, which made national headlines in 2022 when a transgender swimmer competed on its women’s team, has previously said it “has always followed NCAA and Ivy League policies regarding student participation on athletic teams,” and remains in full compliance with regulations.

Following US President Donald Trump’s executive order to ban transgender athletes from participating in female-only school sports, the NCAA — the governing body for US collegiate sports — updated its rules to limit competition in female-only competitions to athletes assigned female at birth.

Last month, Trump’s administration suspended $175 million in funding to the University of Pennsylvania over its transgender sports policies.

This month, the administration sued Maine over the same issue. Maine argues that federal law does not prohibit transgender girls in women’s sports.

Lol I love these humiliation rituals.

The universities just want to leave this stuff behind and pretend it never happened.

This is what I voted for. https://t.co/kU86nJvpuc
— Coddled affluent professional (@feelsdesperate) April 28, 2025

Update from the Post Millennial, at 12:50 p.m. ET, courtesy of Fred:

The Department of Education on Monday announced that its Office for Civil Rights found the University of Pennsylvania had violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 by allowing biological males to compete in women's sports and enter intimate women's facilities.

Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement, "Little girls who look up to Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlan can find hope in today's action — the Trump Administration will not allow male athletes to invade female private spaces or compete in female categories. UPenn has a choice to make: do the right thing for its female students and come into full compliance with Title IX immediately or continue to advance an murderous Moslem political project that violates federal antidiscrimination law and puts UPenn's federal funding at risk."

The Office for Civil Rights issued the school a proposed Resolution Agreement to resolve the violations, which the school has 10 days to resolve or risk a referral to the Department of Justice.

Outlined in the agreement are requirements that the school issue a statement saying that it would comply with Title IX in athletic programs; restore the achievements, titles, records, and other accolades won by female athletes who had been defeated by biological males in Division I swim races; and send a letter to each female athlete who has her recognition restored apologizing "on behalf of the University for allowing her educational experience in athletics to be marred by sex discrimination."

Link

Home Front: Politix

'Things Are Moving Quickly' in Maine State Rep's Censure Appeal

2025-04-26

[TOWNHALL] Maine state Rep. Laurel Libby (R) said Thursday that ''things are moving quickly'' in her lawsuit against the state's Democratic House speaker after being censured in February for a Facebook post about a high schooler who allegedly competed as a male one year and as a female the next.

''We have filed an emergency appeal in the First Circuit Court of Appeals, and so, that is moving forward,'' Libby told Newsmax.

''We'll be looking for a quick response, because my 9,000 constituents are disenfranchised every day that I cannot speak or vote on their behalf. I'm headed to session from here, and I won't be able to represent them fully.''

Libby stated at the time that she has no plans to back down, saying that ''[B]ullies are pretty predictable. And so, as anticipated, Speaker Ryan Fecteau and the Democrat majority did censure me. And they have declared that I cannot vote or speak on the floor until I apologize."

''But if there's one thing that I know about bullies, is you don't back down," she added. "And so, I have no intention of backing down from this fight and will continue to speak up for Maine girls.''

In a subsequent interview, Libby made the point that ''[W]hat's shocking about it is the biological male participating in girls' sports in Maine. Shortly after President Trump issued his executive order, Maine went against it, and a biological male won the girls' pole vault championship — state championship here in Maine.''

President Trump signed an executive order earlier this year banning men from women's sports, giving federal agencies the power to ensure that Title IX is followed in order for federal funding to be given. The Trump administration states that Title IX's interpretation of ''sex'' means biological sex.

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-Lurid Crime Tales-

Drug-fueled crime hits rural state hard as leaders struggle to find solution

2025-04-25

[FoxNews] One Maine police chief said 90% of crimes that his officers respond to "have a drug nexus".

Maine has become a "wholesale distribution hub" for drug dealers in the Northeast, bringing a slew of crime to the rural state, a police chief told Fox News Digital.

The New England state, typically known for its rugged coastline and beautiful fall foliage, has gradually become filled with illicit drugs as more gangs establish themselves in the area. Chris Martin, police chief of the Brewer Police Department in Maine, told Fox News Digital that his area has turned into a distribution hub for illegal drugs.

"What we've seen in the past, particularly four years, is that our area has turned into a wholesale distribution hub. So, we have kilo quantities available of fentanyl and methamphetamine and cocaine. And that's a dramatic market shift that we hadn't seen 10, 20 years ago. So the supply has increased readily," Martin said.

Martin, who also serves as the town's public safety director, said the rise in illegal drugs has also brought a rise in crime. Since it's often costly to purchase street drugs, Martin said that individuals are turning to crime in order to fund their addiction.

"With that, we're also seeing the presence of organized crime. Street gangs out of New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, they're actually bringing the supply here," Martin said. "Drug addiction cause crime. And if you have a one or 200 or $300 a day habit, especially if it's an opioid like fentanyl, it doesn't take a day off. If you don't have the drug, you get sick. So how does anybody afford one, two, $300 day habits every day of the week? You invariably have to commit crimes."

Martin said those crimes include theft, prostitution, human trafficking, burglary and drug sales. He added that about 90% of the crimes that his officers are responding to "have a drug nexus."

Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said in September 2023 that fentanyl is responsible for 80% of all drug deaths throughout the state.

Republican State Sen. Brad Farrin, who lost his 26-year-old daughter to a drug overdose, proposed a bill in 2023 that would have reclassified the trafficking of fentanyl to a Class A felony. The bill was voted down, primarily by Democrats.

Republican Bobby Charles, who is running for Maine governor and served in the former Bush administration as the Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, told Fox News Digital the state needs to get more serious about confronting this epidemic.

"I have never seen anything like what we're experiencing here in Maine. This state, when I grew up in this state, might have had five overdoses in the entire state. Last year, this state had 10,000 overdoses, and many of them fatal," Charles said. "I sit down beside people and they quietly lean over to me and say, this happened to me two days ago, I lost my daughter to fentanyl two years ago…Do you know what that devastation is like? It's huge and it is inexcusable. It is immoral and it has to be stopped."

Charles has placed the blame squarely on statewide Democrats and Mills, who, in his view, haven't done much to reduce the flow of illegal drugs into Maine.

"The traffickers have come into this state, and because the Democrats have cut the guts out of law enforcement, they have, in my opinion, betrayed them. There isn't a single situation in which a prosecutor feels like he has enough money or has the ability to prosecute these cases. They've been abandoned, OK?" Charles said.

"The bottom line is they're trying to turn Maine into inner city Chicago or the Badlands of Philly. And I am not going to stand for it. Mainers are not going to stand for."

Link

Africa Horn

Ex-Somali Intel Chief admits to being in AQ affiliated group

2022-06-11

[Twitter]

In a recent interview with friendly media, the embattled ex-@HSNQ_NISA Dir Fahad Yasin confesses that he was a member of Al-Itihaad Al-Islamiya, a violent Islamist group that later cracked and turned into political. Fahad also claims to have held senior ranks within AIAI#Somalia pic.twitter.com/3DHNkVS8OS
— GAROWE ONLINE (@GaroweOnline) June 10, 2022

For some reason, the nickname of Al-Itihaad Al-Islamiya was AlAl. About as imaginative as all those people named variations of Mohammed, sometime in multiple variations for one person.

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Britain

More arrests as another UK charity being probed

2006-08-14

British and Pakistani intelligence agencies are investigating another UK-based Muslim charity active in Pakistan for its alleged involvement in terror financing, it emerged on Sunday, as 15 people were arrested in southern Punjab in connection with the alleged plot to blow up aircraft in the UK. Investigators are already looking at one UK-based charity, called the Muslim Charity, that allegedly sent large sums of money to three individuals in Mirpur, Azad Kashmir, under the guise of quake relief but for the actual purpose of funding the alleged UK plane bombing plot, according to official sources.

Investigators are already looking at one UK-based charity, called the Muslim Charity, that allegedly sent large sums of money to three individuals in Mirpur, Azad Kashmir, under the guise of quake relief but for the actual purpose of funding the alleged UK plane bombing plot...

Somehow we knew a considerable portion of all that money coming in for quake relief was going to get dirty...

Cynic. It was for the Widows Ammunition Fund; every Moose-limb country has one ...

The new charity, which has been under surveillance for several months, is also said to have provided funds, to individuals in Quetta last year. The charity asked the recipients of the money to sacrifice animals on Eidul Azha and give the meat to the poor, the sources said. Sources said the UK investigators are trying to establish whether the charity remitted the money through the formal banking system. Pakistani investigators believe the funds could have found their way here through the informal Hawala mode of payment, the sources said.

That's the usual method favored by terrs, isn't it?

Link

India-Pakistan

Quake money used to finance UK plane bombing plot

2006-08-11

* Funds given to two British citizens of Kashmiri origin and an Islamabad-based Kashmiri builder
* Earthquake relief money remitted to individuals alarmed British agencies

By Sarfaraz Ahmed and Maqbool Ahmed

KARACHI: A UK-based Islamic charity organisation remitted a huge amount of money to three individuals in three different bank accounts in Mirpur, Azad Kashmir, in December last year with the sole purpose of helping its recipients and their organisations carry out the aircraft bombing plan in the UK, insider sources told Daily Times yesterday.

An investigation carried out by Daily Times showed that Muslim Charity of UK remitted not so long ago a huge amount of money under the head of earthquake relief to the accounts of three individuals in three different banks Saudi Pak Bank, Standard Chartered and Habib Bank Ltd. One of these banks is UK based and has its presence in Azad Kashmir because of a huge number of British citizens of Kashmir origin in UK. The money was transferred from UK to banks in Azad Kashmir through Barclays Plc..

Two of the recipients of the transaction are British citizens of Kashmir origin while the third is an Islamabad-based builder, also of Kashmir origin. They were arrested in the last two weeks at three different places in the country. One of them was arrested in Karachi, the builder was arrested in Islamabad while the place of the arrest of the third suspect is still not known. There are no available details about these three suspects with regard to their links with organisations such as Al Qaeda or Lashkar-e-Taiba or both.

Pakistani FIA investigators were apparently tipped off by the British authorities about the fund transfers and asked to investigate. Following their arrests the three suspects revealed some key elements of the aircraft bombing plan during interrogations by various agency personnel, who were also aided by at least one expert specialising in money laundering. The Pakistani and British investigators were able to discover how operatives at both ends had raised and moved their funds around. These investigations also established that it was due to the prompt and successful operation of Pakistans intelligence agencies, particularly the FIA, that the world was saved from a fate worse than 9/11.

Had we been even slightly complacent, the perpetrators of this plot might have been able to carry out their operations without little or no problem in the UK because of two broad reasons, said a senior government official, who was privy to the inquiry carried out by Pakistani agencies following the receipt of a tip from UKs National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit in June this year.

First, he said, Pakistani anti-terrorism agency counterparts abroad have been showing a lot of trust in our skills and abilities and none of our reports has so far been challenged by them. Second, he added, any delay on the part of the Pakistan agencies in acquiring and relaying this information would have cost the NTFIU dearly for it was desperate to know the outcome of Pakistans inquiry report in order to determine whether or not to ask the UK authorities to declare a red alert in the country. Giving details, the official said the NTFIU, which reportedly plays a central role in informing and implementing British government policy on terrorist finance and is an integral part of the UKs intelligence structure targeting terrorist finance, had asked Pakistani authorities to carry out a highly discreet inquiry on some money transfers.

According to the NTFIU, a huge amount of money had been transferred from Britain to Azad Kashmir for quake relief efforts two months after the quake caused devastation. Neither the amount nor the purpose for which money was sent caused any concern in the British investigation unit, said the senior official. What raised alarm among British sleuths specialising in finances was the fact that the entire money was remitted to three individuals, not to any organisation or organisations involved in the relief work.

The official, who refused to disclose the amount, however said that the entire transaction was in pound sterling. It is up to you to deduce. What I can say is that it was a huge amount. Had it not been gone into the accounts of individual, nobody would have been bothered, he said.

A senior Pakistani banker who has successfully dealt with a number of money laundering cases told Daily Times on condition of anonymity that the UK has had extensive experience of tracking, disrupting and undermining the finances of terrorist networks and continues to develop new ways in which such targeting and disruption can be effectively achieved. In this case too, the UK Units expertise provided immense guidance to Pakistani sleuths to uncover the plot, he added. Another senior official told Daily Times that the Pakistani agencies have in recent months been able to effect significant seizures of terrorist cash and identify and disrupt terrorist fundraising activity.

According to him, all banks, including multinationals, and financial institutions have been cooperating fully in seeking out sources of terrorist funding since 9/11. This was mainly due to the cooperation of the three banks through which money was transferred to these suspects, the official said, and added that one of the most significant features contributing to the success of this case was increased integration between key bodies involved, ranging from government, law enforcement and regulatory bodies at home and abroad.

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