InfluenceUpdates Podcast 13 Notes 122018
Thanks for tuning in, IÕm Michael Watson and this is the Influence Watch Podcast. In this episode: An anonymous intellectual leader of the leftist extremist movement Antifa is identified, labor unions and corporations join together to raise consumer prices for a, and the nominally Ònon-partisanÓ watchdog organization CREW deepens its ties to the institutional left.
1. The Daily Caller published an investigation into an online activist associated with the extreme-left ÒAntifaÓ group Smash Racism DC, known variously as ÒChepe,Ó the Twitter persona at sabokitty, Jose Martin, and Joseph or Jose Alcoff.
a. As with last weekÕs Tablet piece on the WomenÕs March, I encourage you to read the whole thing.
b. Alcoff (either openly or under aliases) has been associated with a number of left-wing groups. He organized for Occupy Wall Street; reportedly has ties to the National Lawyers Guild, a far-left legal group; and was listed as an organizer for the group Smash Racism DC in Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, an Antifa history, organizing, and propaganda volume.
c. Under the alias ÒChepe,Ó Alcoff reportedly avowed violent aggression against political opponents: He told a far left podcast ÒWe have got to dispense with nonviolenceÓ; as at sabokitty on Twitter, he allegedly wrote slogans vowing violence against rich people and discussing neck-punching technique
d. Under the alias Jose Martin, Alcoff reportedly expressed a desire for radical socialismÑnot just expanded government in the current system, but old-fashioned Marxian abolish-private-property stuffÑand a Òpolice free societyÓ for mainstream media outlets including the BBC, MSNBC, and Rolling Stone magazine
e. But under his given name, Alcoff reportedly worked for an anti-nontraditional finance activist group Americans for Financial Reform, even appearing on a podcast by House Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee, on which he made more moderate statements than he did under his other aliases.
f. Alcoff comes from a line of extreme left activists; his mother Linda Martin Alcoff is a prominent far-left philosopher.
i. Linda Alcoff chairs the board of the publisher of the feminist studies journal Hypatia, one of the Ògrievance studiesÓ journals hoodwinked into accepting nonsense research by a team of renegade academics.
ii. Jose Alcoff, for his part, told the audience at a Left Forum panel that he Òas raised in a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist family that understands intersectionalityÓ
g. After the Caller published its investigation, Americans for Financial Reform attempted to scrub AlcoffÕs name from press releases, apparently reversing the attempt after the Caller asked about it.

2. If you want a case study in how influencers who sound like they should be opposed to each other join together to get one over on the general public, look no further than the Jones Act (formally the Merchant Marine Act of 1920), a protectionist maritime law that pits the Seafarers Union and the operators of U.S.-registered merchant ships against American consumersÑespecially those in Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, who must import most products by sea.
a. In short, the law requires that ships carrying goods between US ports must be registered (ÒflaggedÓ in maritime-speak) in the US, built in the US from steel produced in the US, and crewed by Americans (up to certain limits).
b. As CRCÕs Harry Kazenoff noted in a recent piece for Capital Research Dot Org, this can lead to ridiculous outcomes: FishermanÕs Finest, a fishing vessel operator, praised itself for supporting the Jones Act when it built a new ship, the patriotically named ÒAmericaÕs Finest.Ó 
i. However, because the builders ran afoul of the US-produced steel rules, the ship required a Presidential waiver to leave the buildersÕ yard. 
ii. Said waiver was granted.
c. Leading activists for the Jones Act include the ÒAmerican Maritime Partnership,Ó a coalition of shipping industry interests. Since 2013, the Partnership has spent $5.6 million hiring lobbyists to advocate for the protection of the Jones Act, among other issues, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. 
d. The effect the Jones Act has on the economy in Puerto Rico is substantial at the consumer level; the cost of shipping a standard container to the US-controlled island is approximately double the cost of shipping it to independent Caribbean nations like Jamaica or the Dominican Republic, further increasing the cost of goods for Puerto Ricans.
e. The effect on Hawaii is also considerable; since Hawaii is reliant on imports, the Jones Act increases the costs of food and energy above even what the stateÕs remote location would require.

3.  The advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility for Ethics in Washington, better known by its acronym CREW, has long been criticized as a shop of Democratic partisan opposition researchers in independent ÒwatchdogÓ clothing. This week, the Washington Free Beacon reported even more evidence of thatÑin 2017, the Foundation to Promote Open Society and the Open Society Policy Center, two nodes in the network of Òopen societyÓ philanthropies and activist groups founded and supported by liberal billionaire George Soros, provided CREW with $1.35 million in financial support.
a. This is not the first time CREW has received money from the Open Society philanthropies.
b. Other notable left-wing funders that have supported CREW include theÊArca Foundation the Barbra Streisand Foundation, theÊTides Foundation, theÊWallace Global Fund, and the Woodbury Fund
c. CREW has also taken money from liberals who had interests in odd positions the group had taken: Evidence from tax records for nonprofit organizations associated with John Sperling, a now-dead Democracy Alliance member who made money founding the for-profit University of Phoenix, suggests that CREW took money from Sperling as CREW was advocating against supporters of an Obama administration rule that would financially harm for-profit colleges.
d. CREW is also aligned with partisan Democratic operatives: Until 2016, David Brock chaired the CREW board.

i. He left to Òensure its public reputation for non-partisanshipÓ
ii. He was replaced by Norm Eisen, a longtime liberal donor who assisted in co-founding CREW and who was US Ambassador to the Czech Republic in the Obama administration.
iii. Richard Painter, the mainstream mediaÕs favorite Òformerly George W. Bush ethics lawyerÓ was named vice chair. Painter later ran and was defeated for U.S. Senate in Minnesota as a Democratic candidate.
e. But BrockÕs influence over CREW remains. The Free Beacon also reported that documents filed with North Carolina showed that CREW shares employees with Media Matters for America, BrockÕs left-wing media pressure group. 
f. Since TrumpÕs election in 2016, CREW has aggressively pursued litigation against Trump himself and other members of the administration, in keeping with a strategic plan laid out by Brock for liberal donors and obtained by the Free Beacon in 2017.

ThatÕs our show for this week. If youÕre listening to this on Youtube we encourage you to subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher and if you have subscribed, thank you and please leave us a five-star rating. Due to the Christmas holiday we will be out next week; we look forward to your continued listenership in the New Year.