# Protesters "Protesting"



## Don M. (May 26, 2015)

This is interesting reading.  Seems like there may be ulterior motives to some of these "Protests".

http://www.newsmax.com/US/Ferguson-Missouri-paid-protesters/2015/05/25/id/646587/


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## Warrigal (May 26, 2015)

Do you really believe this report? It sounds very far fetched to me.

I've tried following the links to the Washington Times but I don't get the article I'm supposed to.


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## BobF (May 26, 2015)

In 2010, most of ACORN closed for various reasons.   Not sure how ACORN is now active again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Community_Organizations_for_Reform_Now


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## QuickSilver (May 26, 2015)

Dame Warrigal said:


> Do you really believe this report? It sounds very far fetched to me.
> 
> I've tried following the links to the Washington Times but I don't get the article I'm supposed to.



From Wiki

*



			Newsmax Media,
		
Click to expand...

*


> commonly called Newsmax, is a conservative[SUP][1][/SUP] American news media organization founded by Christopher Ruddy and based in West Palm Beach, Florida. It operates the news website *Newsmax.com*, publishes the Franklin Prosperity Report and _*Newsmax*_ magazine, and runs a conservative cable news channel _*Newsmax TV*._


_


Of course it's BS

As for ACORN... it no longer exists and was defunded by congress..  All due to false allegations..  

The *Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now* (*ACORN*) was a collection of community-based organizations in the United States and internationally that advocated for low- and moderate-income families by working on neighborhood safety, voter registration, health care, affordable housing, and other social issues. At its peak ACORN had over 500,000 members and more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters in over 100 cities across the U.S.,[SUP][3][/SUP][SUP][4][/SUP] as well as in Argentina, Canada, Mexico, and Peru.[SUP][5][/SUP] ACORN was founded in 1970 by Wade Rathke and Gary Delgado.[SUP][6][/SUP] Its U.S. offices filed for Chapter 7 liquidation on November 2, 2010, effectively closing the organization.[SUP][7][/SUP] Many ACORN members and organizers formed new state-wide organizations.[SUP][8][/SUP]
ACORN has conducted voter registration drives, as well as working to remove systemic barriers to registration of low and working-class voters. The Republican Party regularly alleged that it committed voter fraud, but few cases have been found or prosecuted. The organization conducted its own audits and cooperated with investigations of employees, referring some cases to law enforcement.
ACORN suffered an extremely damaging nationwide controversy beginning in the fall of 2009 after two conservative activists secretly made and released videos of staged interactions with low-level ACORN personnel in several offices, portraying them as encouraging criminal behavior. Some media publicized the videos without investigation. These videos were later found in several independent law enforcement investigations to have been partially falsified and selectively edited by the activists, James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles. [SUP][9][/SUP] The organization suffered an immediate loss of funding from government agencies with which it had contracts, and from private donors[SUP][10][/SUP][SUP][11][/SUP][SUP][12][/SUP] prior to the results of any investigations. Legislative amendments to spending bills in the United States House and Senate prohibited government funding of the group.
*Four different independent investigations by various state and city Attorneys General and the GAO released in 2009 and 2010 cleared ACORN, finding its employees had not engaged in the alleged criminal activities and that the organization had managed its federal funding appropriately. Their reports described the videos as deceptively edited to present the workers in the worst possible light. The loss of funds had been too damaging and by March 2010, 15 of ACORN's 30 state chapters had already closed.[SUP][10][/SUP] ACORN announced it was closing its remaining state chapters and disbanding.[SUP][13][/SUP] *Some state chapters have reorganized to continue operations under different names.
_


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## AprilT (May 26, 2015)

What you have here is a misrepresentation of what that particular organization did even if they were involved in Ferguson, which is quite possible, but that rag reporting source is trying to do something so much worse that what ACorn could ever try to do.  The organization may have hired people to come in to be back up support on the protest lines, not rioters who looted and tore the town apart, that's just the same kind of spewing and inciting that they accused certain others of doing to get people up in arms.

ACORN, it an empowerment organization, their purpose good or bad, depending upon or which end you stand on is to help people who are often not able to get their voice heard or who are often abused by the system, to have a voice to make change for the betterment of the downtrodden.  Well at least that's how they see themselves and as I understand so far.  People are often brought in from all over to do sit-ins to assist in protest, some paid, political parties do it all the time, nothing new to see here.  Now those doing crimes in the process, that's a whole different story.  That rag newsource is guilty of a crime by trying to group the criminals with the people who were just doing the protesting as to incite the general public to keep this whole thing of everyone being at opposite sides and condemning all the people of Ferguson and anyone who may want to help them make change for the better. .


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## Warrigal (May 26, 2015)

Funny isn't it? I know nothing about any of this but like Hamlet I get the impression that "something is rotten in the state of Denmark"  which I understand to mean that it's all very fishy.

I can understand an activist group organising buses to bring in protestors but paying them by the week is very hard to believe. QuickSilver called it BS. I have a well developed BS detector and it went off pretty quickly. Still I did attempt to verify the article. I could not.

One thing the internet should be teaching us is that we must be sceptical about a lot of things that are put before us. Over time we ought to get better at detecting attempts to mislead us. Propaganda is still alive and well in the 21st century but given that it has been around for all of our lives, we should be getting much harder to fool.


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## Misty (May 26, 2015)

According to this article, there are 174 Organizations that are active Acorn entities or renamed active Acorn organizations

List of Still-Active ACORN Entities, ACORN Allies, and Rebranded ACORN Organizations



1825 Atlantic MHANY, Inc.
4415 San Jacinto Street Corporation
5301 McDougall Corporation
730 Rockaway MHANY, Inc.
A Community Voice (ACV)
ACORN Community Land Association of Pennsylvania
ACORN Community Land Association, Inc.
ACORN Global Enterprises, L3C
ACORN Loan Program
Action NC
Action Now
Action Now Institute
Action United
Action United Education Fund
Action United Political Action Committee
Advancement Project
Advancement Project California
Advocates and Actions
Affiliated Media Foundation Movement, Inc.
Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA)



http://causeofaction.org/still-active-acorn-entities-acorn-allies-and-rebranded-acorn-organizations/


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## QuickSilver (May 26, 2015)

Misty said:


> According to this article, there are 174 Organizations that are active Acorn entities or renamed active Acorn organizations
> 
> List of Still-Active ACORN Entities, ACORN Allies, and Rebranded ACORN Organizations
> 
> ...



And this proves exactly what concerning the allegations?


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## QuickSilver (May 26, 2015)

AprilT said:


> What you have here is a misrepresentation of what that particular organization did even if they were involved in Ferguson, which is quite possible, but that rag reporting source is trying to do something so much worse that what ACorn could ever try to do.  The organization may have hired people to come in to be back up support on the protest lines, not rioters who looted and tore the town apart, that's just the same kind of spewing and inciting that they accused certain others of doing to get people up in arms.
> 
> ACORN, it an empowerment organization, their purpose good or bad, depending upon or which end you stand on is to help people who are often not able to get their voice heard or who are often abused by the system, to have a voice to make change for the betterment of the downtrodden.  Well at least that's how they see themselves and as I understand so far.  People are often brought in from all over to do sit-ins to assist in protest, some paid, political parties do it all the time, nothing new to see here.  Now those doing crimes in the process, that's a whole different story.  That rag newsource is guilty of a crime by trying to group the criminals with the people who were just doing the protesting as to incite the general public to keep this whole thing of everyone being at opposite sides and condemning all the people of Ferguson and anyone who may want to help them make change for the better. .



Not to mention the fact that the people guilty of the rioting and looting were local HS kids looking for trouble..  not paid protestors.


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## Warrigal (May 26, 2015)

QuickSilver said:


> And this proves exactly what concerning the allegations?



I'm wondering the same thing. Please consider my ignorance and explain clearly because I really am wanting to understand.


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## Misty (May 26, 2015)

I was responding to Bobf's post I copied below, Dame Warrigal...I should have been more specific about my response. 

*BobF* 






  					 					 					 						Senior Member 					 					 					                                           					 						 							 								
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




































 	  	 		 		 		 				 				 		In 2010, most of ACORN closed for various reasons.   Not sure how ACORN is now active again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associa...for_Reform_Now ​


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## QuickSilver (May 26, 2015)

Dame Warrigal said:


> I'm wondering the same thing. Please consider my ignorance and explain clearly because I really am wanting to understand.



ACORN was an organization of community organizers that helped poor people find resources and it also helped people register to vote.  Because it was based in Chicago, the Right wing immediately wanted to connect Obama with the organization... after all he was a community organizer... SOOO  they set about trying to prove ACORN was guilty of all sorts of Illegal things...   One Far Right Winger went into an ACORN office and selectively edited tapes to try to implicate ACORN in illegal activities..   It was disproven over and over, but that didn't stop the Republican congress from defunding it and causing it to disband. 

From above:   It was all a Right Wing effort to dirty then Candidate Obama.

_ACORN suffered an extremely damaging __nationwide controversy__ beginning in the fall of 2009 after two __conservative__ activists secretly made and released videos of staged interactions with low-level ACORN personnel in several offices, portraying them as encouraging criminal behavior. Some media publicized the videos without investigation. These videos were later found in several independent law enforcement investigations to have been partially falsified and selectively edited by the activists, __James O'Keefe__ and Hannah Giles. [SUP][9][/SUP] The organization suffered an immediate loss of funding from government agencies with which it had contracts, and from private donors[SUP][10][/SUP][SUP][11][/SUP][SUP][12][/SUP] prior to the results of any investigations. __Legislative amendments__ to spending bills in the United States House and Senate prohibited government funding of the group.
*Four different independent investigations by various state and city Attorneys General and the GAO released in 2009 and 2010 cleared ACORN, finding its employees had not engaged in the alleged criminal activities and that the organization had managed its federal funding appropriately. Their reports described the videos as deceptively edited to present the workers in the worst possible light. The loss of funds had been too damaging and by March 2010, 15 of ACORN's 30 state chapters had already closed.[SUP][10][/SUP] ACORN announced it was closing its remaining state chapters and disbanding.[SUP][13][/SUP] *Some state chapters have reorganized to continue operations under different names._


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## Misty (May 26, 2015)

QuickSilver said:


> ACORN was an organization of community organizers that helped poor people find resources and it also helped people register to vote.  Because it was based in Chicago, the Right wing immediately wanted to connect Obama with the organization... after all he was a community organizer... SOOO  they set about trying to prove ACORN was guilty of all sorts of Illegal things...   One Far Right Winger went into an ACORN office and selectively edited tapes to try to implicate ACORN in illegal activities..   It was disproven over and over, but that didn't stop the Republican congress from defunding it and causing it to disband.
> 
> From above:   It was all a Right Wing effort to dirty then Candidate Obama.
> 
> ...



The Democratic-controlled Senate voted 83-7 to deny ACORN access to millions of dollars in federal housing funds.


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## WhatInThe (May 26, 2015)

BobF said:


> In 2010, most of ACORN closed for various reasons.   Not sure how ACORN is now active again.
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Community_Organizations_for_Reform_Now



ACORN is mentioned because a successor organization called MORE-Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment are one of the ones being accused of stiffing protestors. The article does mention ACORN went bankrupt.


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## BobF (May 26, 2015)

Dame Warrigal said:


> Do you really believe this report? It sounds very far fetched to me.
> 
> I've tried following the links to the Washington Times but I don't get the article I'm supposed to.



http://www.washingtontimes.com/news...tter-protesters-start-cutthech/#ixzz3acmWpseK

[h=1]Hired Black Lives Matter protesters start #CutTheCheck after being stiffed by ACORN successor group[/h].................

This is what I got Warrigal.


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## AZ Jim (May 26, 2015)

Get to the bottom of this report and I bet one will find republican fingerprints.


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## BobF (May 26, 2015)

If you want to point to proper ways it would not be Republican or Democrat.   The US electors are supposed to be represented by Congresmen and Senators from their district who are supposed to represent and vote for those districts as their electors have indicated in various public meetings.   Parties are far to involved with total control of the government and will mostly ignore local problems, which they should not be doing.

Parties should not be trying to control the US at all.   Congress has its own defined missions and should avoid just following party wishes for the entire country as they should be following the leads from their voting districts rather than some central party.


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## AZ Jim (May 26, 2015)

bobf said:


> if you want to point to proper ways it would not be republican or democrat.   The us electors are supposed to be represented by congresmen and senators from their district who are supposed to represent and vote for those districts as their electors have indicated in various public meetings.   Parties are far to involved with total control of the government and will mostly ignore local problems, which they should not be doing.
> 
> Parties should not be trying to control the us at all.   Congress has its own defined missions and should avoid just following party wishes for the entire country as they should be following the leads from their voting districts rather than some central party.




*wtf?

*


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## BobF (May 26, 2015)

Golly Jim.    Some nasty implied verbiage there.   Read the instructions from the Constitution.   No where does it even imply party control.    It is all about represented people, through their Senators or Congressmen.   Not one word about a general party speaking for 'all' of the US.

Right now each party only represents about a 30% of the nations people.   If it was not for the larger element of about 40% of the people swinging the votes with their inputs, neither party would have a voice at all.


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## Jackie22 (May 26, 2015)

AZ Jim said:


> Get to the bottom of this report and I bet one will find republican fingerprints.



Yes, just one more Republican instigated witch hunt.


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## AprilT (May 26, 2015)

Yes, I mentioned ACORN, because that was one of the organizations mentioned in the article I saw referenced on that site's links.  Who they said was paying for protesters, I imagine there were others, but, I had other things to do than to spend the rest of the morning chasing down all their sources from their numerous convoluted nonsense.  I only just returned from the great outdoors and am now seeing that list of other active  or  inactive organizations mentioned.


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## Glinda (May 26, 2015)

Anything that comes from Newsmax is immediately suspect.  This sounds like typical republican BS to me.


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## BobF (May 26, 2015)

Glinda said:


> Anything that comes from Newsmax is immediately suspect.  This sounds like typical republican BS to me.



This type of response from some that just hate Republicans will only start more of the same types of responses from Republicans that just say 'such and such' is just what can be expected of far left Democrat ideas.

Why not just let people post with out putting down their personal political party loyalty.    Both sides do have equal rights to post.


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## Warrigal (May 26, 2015)

Bobf said:
			
		

> http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...#ixzz3acmWpseK
> 
> *Hired Black Lives Matter protesters start #CutTheCheck after being stiffed by ACORN successor group*


Bob, I followed your link and links within it. It does not establish that #cutthecheck is about non payment of $5,000 per month for protesting. It doesn't help that I don't understand what "cut the check" actually means.

I've watched the bits of video of the sit in, which seemed to be a small number of people upset about something but what that is is not clear. A letter referred to makes no reference to payment for protesting, much less rioting. Try as I may, I keep coming back to the same assertions that are not backed up by anything substantial.

I still don't buy the basic premise that people were offered a substantial sums on a monthly basis to take part in riotous protests. It doesn't make any sense to me.


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## BobF (May 26, 2015)

Put down all you want.    I just posted what was available and now I am done.   No more fighting one way or the other.   For someone who lives half a world away, what is the concern about the US political mess we have.   To me we have moved from a semi freindly, except for election months, multi party nation to what we seem to have now.   Highly hateful from one side to the other and neither side really has enough members to be a majority.    Both depend on the larger group, the independents, for enough support to win.    I wish we could go back to our proper ways and just elect our Congressmen and Senators from a named list for those that say they will support our district as they are really assigned.


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## Warrigal (May 26, 2015)

Huh? I'm not putting down anything. I'm just expressing some incredulity. 
It takes some effort to sort the wheat from the chaff in the media but it is important to do so.

On this issue I still have an open mind in that while I think it unlikely that people would be paid $5,000 per month to protest, I would change my mind if it turns out to be true. Perhaps the OP can provide more information that will shine a light on whether there is real substance to this story. So far I have been able to do so but I may be looking in the wrong places.

As someone from the other side of the world I'm not at all concerned about US politics as such. We have our own issues to be concerned about but that doesn't prevent me from taking an interest in social issues in the US, or the UK or in places like Ireland and Turkey etc. In every situation I prefer to respond to true accounts of events and sometimes I sense that the truth is being well and truly distorted. That's when I get really interested.


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## AZ Jim (May 26, 2015)

DW, Never mind BobF, he's, ah, well, he's BobF.


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## Warrigal (May 26, 2015)

Bob and I have managed to have cordial conversations in the past, even though we see the world of politics differently.
In this case I am not seeing politics. I think I see misrepresentation of events and from what I have read, including frequent use of the terms "blacks" and "whites", I think the motivation is racial prejudice. I don't think this can be sheeted home to politics although it certainly does sometimes express itself politically.

Reading the above, I don't seem to be expressing my thoughts very clearly so I'll quit while I'm behind.


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## BobF (May 27, 2015)

Dame Warrigal said:


> Bob and I have managed to have cordial conversations in the past, even though we see the world of politics differently.
> In this case I am not seeing politics. I think I see misrepresentation of events and from what I have read, including frequent use of the terms "blacks" and "whites", I think the motivation is racial prejudice. I don't think this can be sheeted home to politics although it certainly does sometimes express itself politically.
> 
> Reading the above, I don't seem to be expressing my thoughts very clearly so I'll quit while I'm behind.



Thanks Warrigal.   That time frame was for years and on a really friendly forum from Australia.    Surely do miss that forum since it was closed.


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## Warrigal (May 27, 2015)

Bob, you'll be pleased to hear that Joycy is alive and well and we are still sparring partners, although over time we are finding that we have much more in common than was first apparent.


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