Category Archives: Liberal

The Wall Street Journal ran an excerpt from Mark Lillas new book, The Once and Future Liberal, coming out on Tuesday that we mentioned here yesterday. Heres a linkto the whole piece if you are a WSJ subscriber, but if not here are two of the better paragraphs in it:

As a teacher, I am increasingly struck by a difference between my conservative and progressive students. Contrary to the stereotype, the conservatives are far more likely to connect their engagements to a set of political ideas and principles. Young people on the left are much more inclined to say that they are engaged in politics as an X, concerned about other Xs and those issues touching on X-ness. And they are less and less comfortable with debate.

Over the past decade a new, and very revealing, locution has drifted from our universities into the media mainstream: Speaking as an XThis is not an anodyne phrase. It sets up a wall against any questions that come from a non-X perspective. Classroom conversations that once might have begun, I think A, and here is my argument, now take the form, Speaking as an X, I am offended that you claim B. What replaces argument, then, are taboos against unfamiliar ideas and contrary opinions.

This phenomenon, I submit, is why conservatives have the advantage out in the real world, and why conservatives are more likely to win political battles in the long run, despite the lefts near monopolistic control of academic, the media, popular entertainment, and corporate human resources departments.

Two further notes: What Lilla describes as having burst the bounds of academia into the media mainstream now also applies to large parts of corporate America. See: Google. Id love to see a study some time of how many graduates with degrees in Gender Studies or related politicized fields end up in corporate human resources department jobs, or consulting companies that put on diversity training seminars for corporate America.

Second, Ill wait to read the whole book to see Lillas complete judgment, but one question the early excerpts raise is whether progressive students are in fact not liberals at all (and not actually in favor of progress for that matter: I saw Harvards Steven Pinker give a great lecture in June on the question Why are Progressives against progress? He has a book coming out in March that will explore this question.) If it is the case that todays so-called progressives are in fact anti-liberals, does it not require then that liberals go into explicit opposition to progressivism, andhorrorsally with conservatives?

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The Liberal Crackup - Power Line (blog)

ATLANTA Democrats are preparing for what many believe will be the partys largest presidential field in decades in 2020. But at the premier annual progressive gathering on the political calendar, signs of the crowded primary to come are nowhere to be seen.

Just one potential candidate Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is scheduled to speak at the three-day Netroots Nation event. Beyond that, theres almost no presence from the many prospective presidential candidates who are already building up their political teams and making moves to run.

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Instead, the elected officials and formal presenters in the main ballroom are focused on ideology the need to be unapologetically progressive in 2018. To them, voting rights, climate change and health care take precedence over a presidential race that is more than three years away.

The question of alleged Trump campaign collusion with Russia looms especially large here. In the hallways and on side panels, activists and organizers are resisting the guidance of party leaders who worry about overplaying the Russia issue at the expense of others that may matter more to voters. The message from the grass roots? Were not going to stop talking about President Donald Trump and Russia.

Not only is it a false choice, its a really limited choice, said Democracy for America Executive Director Charles Chamberlain of the common refrain that Democratic candidates and groups ought to focus on issues like health care rather than the investigations. I get it when people are frustrated when they feel like all theyre hearing is, Russia, Russia, Russia[but] it actually isnt a distraction: Its actually critical for our democracy.

In any case, its not a debate that top Democratic presidential prospects are eager to get involved in. Some said they couldnt attend the event this year because their invitations arrived at a time when it was unclear whether the Senate would be in session. Others were wary of protesters like the Black Lives Matter activists who interrupted then-presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Martin OMalley at 2015's event, according to multiple Democrats aligned with potential White House contenders.

The divide over the partys approach to Russia was apparent from the public speeches and statements of the elected officials who did attend. Unlike the grass-roots activists who want to engage voters about the investigations that continue to dominate headlines and cable television, the officeholders steered clear of talking about Russia.

Theres a different Trump scandal or controversy almost daily, but the only thing thats consistently dominated the news these last eight months is Russia, said Shripal Shah, a vice president of the Democratic opposition research group American Bridge. As a party, we have to figure out the best way to message the issue: Its not going anywhere, and we cant afford to ignore it.

In Thursday evening keynote addresses, former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander hit on voting rights, Tallahassee mayor and Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum criticized current Gov. Rick Scott for his ties to Trump, former Maryland Rep. Donna Edwards talked about winning back Barack Obama voters who sat out the 2016 election, and Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams delivered a largely biographical speech.

The pattern repeated itself on Friday: Paul Ryan challenger Randy Bryce talked about health care, Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego leaned on the imperative to develop a progressive agenda, and Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison the deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee sat on a panel that touched on right-wing smears and media failures.

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As other progressive elected officials including California Rep. Barbara Lee, Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky, California Rep. Ro Khanna, Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan roamed the halls and sat on panels of their own, even the official programming steered clear of the topic: Just one event appeared designed to touch tangentially on the Russian investigations a Friday panel about the role of state attorneys general and legal action against the White House.

Mingling at the hotel bar and in the coffee line, some activists conceded that an unrelenting focus on special prosecutor Robert Mueller or the Intelligence committee investigations might not be helpful in the Republican-leaning suburban districts that are essential to Democratic hopes of winning back the House.

If you talk about Russia does Jon Ossoff win those 4 or 5 points? I dont think so, that district had a ceiling, said Mike Ceraso, a party organizer and former senior staffer on the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, referring to the Democrat who narrowly lost a Georgia special election in June.

Even so, organizers universally agree that the topic so animates Democratic base voters that the party cant afford to take its foot off the gas pedal.

A messaging memo prepared for liberal groups American Bridge, End Citizens United, MoveOn.org, and Stand Up America by Democratic polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner and viewed this week by POLITICO got straight to that point: "Although the Russia scandal is not the top concern, the research shows this issue is motivating to potential Democratic voters," it reads.

Sources say some Democratic presidential prospects didnt attend Netroots this year because they wary of protesters like the Black Lives Matter activists who interrupted then-presidential candidate Martin OMalley (right) at 2015s event. | Ross D. Franklin/AP

If you are not recognizing that what is going to drive massive turnout in 2018 is people who want to send a message to Congress that we have to fight and stand up and be against Trump, youre not seeing the full picture, said Chamberlain.

The memo, aiming to provide some guidance, encouraged campaigns to stress the national security implications of Trumps potential ties to Russia.

Voters particularly swing voters are sensitive to the scandals national security implications, reads the memo, which was based off polling in a wide range of primarily Republican-held House districts and a series of focus groups.

The document reflects a growing wish particularly among those who are dealing with donors for a framework for talking about the topic and issues related to it, such as impeachment.

Look, at the end of the day, its an issue. Our democracy was corrupted by a foreign power, and we should never allow that to happen. But just because youre talking about it doesnt mean youre avoiding other issues that are just as important, like economic issues, said Gallego, fresh off his Friday speech that steered clear of the investigations.

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At Netroots, liberal activists demand full-throttle approach to Trump-Russia ties - Politico

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The strange traditionalism of America's liberal elite Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ne of the great conceits of progressivism and a certain brand of apocalyptic conservatism alike is that each generation grows up to reject the moralism of its parents: Out goes Betty Draper; in comes Betty Friedan. Each generation is the most socially ...

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The strange traditionalism of America's liberal elite - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Liberal pieties, because they lack a limiting principle, inevitably grow large enough that they crash into other liberal pieties. Just this month, the burgeoning pieties have collided in two liberal habitats, Google and academia.

An overheated and misleading New York Times story (sadly a norm in the Trump era) claimed the administration "wants to investigate colleges for discriminating against white applicants," as the paper's Twitter feed put it.

This overblown report raised questions about why and how the administration would investigate colleges for discriminating against whites? The answer was that the Department of Justice, under federal law, may launch investigations into bias or discrimination and sue institutions to end violations.

Affirmative action in college admissions, which is both marginally legal and marginally unconstitutional, is perfect example of a good liberal intention growing unchecked until it becomes a monster.

Diversity is worthwhile for various reasons. In an academic setting, a student's background informs his or her arguments and understanding of a subject. Colleges may find it valuable to search extra hard for applicants from underrepresented populations or to unearth qualified students from communities that may not be oriented toward applying to college.

But the Left took this good little idea and made it absolute, wanting colleges and other institutions to impose racial quotas. Every panel discussion must be 50 percent female. Blacks and Hispanics must have proportional representation in the boardroom and the C-Suite of every corporation.

This daunting and in any case undesirable task is, ironically, made impossible even to approach because another ungoverned good idea, nondiscrimination, has grown up to fight it. Racial discrimination has torn the United States since its birth. Women have always been the victims of sex discrimination. Mitigating these wrongs was right. Passing layers and layers of state and federal anti-discrimination laws and multiplying the protected classes at every opportunity was, however, a foolish but highly predictable overreach by the Left.

So now you have two incompatible pieties at odds with each other. Discrimination on race or sex must be punished and prevented by law, yet it is demanded that institutions do whatever it takes to achieve sex and racial parity and proportionality.

The same story of a sort of internecine ideological cannibalism is taking place at Google.

Tolerance and sensitivity toward other people are both obviously good things. But when both of them grow without limit they cannot coexist. Google tried to prove its tolerance through an internal message board, which solicited ideas and debate. In this forum, a software engineer penned a "memo" expressing minority views on sex differences and diversity.

But sensitivity to the politically correct orthodoxy, which had metastasized into an absolute intolerance toward minority views, led Google to fire the programmer.

The substance of the memo and the blowback show the same phenomenon.

Feminists have for decades insisted that gender is a social construct shaped by culture rather than by biology. Encourage girls to play with toy trucks, it was said, and they'd grow up with the same tastes and other characteristics of boys. But that idea, which voluminous data shows to be false, is also damaging, for it undermines the argument of those who say women should receive different treatment from men in certain circumstances.

The sacked engineer, James Damore, suggested that Google make software engineering more "people-oriented" by pairing programming with greater collaboration in order to interest more women in the field. He also suggested the company find ways reduce workplace stress and facilitate greater work-life balances.

Objectively, each of these efforts could actually make it easier for women to succeed at Google. But the notion that the sexes are naturally different in significant ways undermines the premise that equality must not be questioned.

The irony is that when feminists insist on interpreting biological differences as insults and perceive the offer of help as an insulting lowering of the bar rather than as a leveling the playing field, they undermine policies that could go a long way toward achieving the parity they desire.

Google is one of the biggest companies in the world, but it wasn't big enough for both these ideas. Tolerance, diversity, nondiscrimination, equality, and accommodation cannot all make absolute demands at the same time.

Left-wing ideas have reached an odd stage at which they are turning on each other and devouring their own.

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At Google and in academia, liberal pieties clash - Washington Examiner

First they said he would never run for president. Then they said he would never be the Republican nominee for president. Then they said he could never be elected president. The latest false narrative being pushed by the liberal media is that some Republicans are making moves to run against President Trump in 2020.

These fake news stories are in the interests of the liberal agenda because they raise manufactured questions about the presidents standing with Republican primary voters and are meant to cause division among conservatives. Try as they might, the American people are too smart for the elitist gamesmanship going on in the boardrooms at the New York Times and Washington Post.

Heres the unfortunate reality for liberal Democrats and other so-called Never Trumpers: President Trump is in great shape with grassroots conservatives (regardless of party affiliation) across the country and with good reason. Hes making good on his promises.

On pro-life issues, the National Right to Life Committee gave President Trump an "A" grade for his performance through his first 100 days in office. On 2nd Amendment rights, President Trump is the first president to address the National Rifle Association leadership forum in 34 years and their Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said that he sees a tremendous pride wave out there in the heartland of the country with this president. Social conservative leaders praised President Trumps recent decision to not allow transgender people to serve in the military. And if all this isnt enough to satisfy conservatives, Justice Neil Gorsuchs stellar service on the Supreme Court is icing on the cake.

One thing is clear: President Trump is an outsider and a change agent and conservatives are elated that he wakes up in the morning to fight the failed status quo in Washington and the biased mainstream news media that only does the bidding of out-of-touch liberals in New York and San Francisco.

Theres much more that conservatives like about the job President Trump is doing. When it comes to sanctuary city reform and border security, President Trumps leadership has exceeded all expectations. In fact, President Trump has been so effective in dealing with sanctuary city lawlessness that elitist liberal Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is suing the Trump Administration to try and keep Chicago a dangerous sanctuary city.

I could go on and on, but one thing is clear: President Trump is an outsider and a change agent and conservatives are elated that President Trump wakes up in the morning to fight the failed status quo in Washington and the biased mainstream news media that only does the bidding of out-of-touch liberals in New York and San Francisco.

No one knows this better than Vice President Mike Pence. Since becoming President Trumps running mate a little over a year ago, Vice President Pence has been a full partner with the president in their mission to enact their conservative reform agenda and Make America Great Again. The vice president is focused like a laser beam on fixing health care, tax reform, and various other initiatives and is doing a great job. When Vice President Pence travels to Iowa or Ohio to advocate for the presidents agenda it means exactly that and nothing more. President Trump and Vice President Pence are looking forward to defeating Congresswoman Maxine Waters or whatever leftist the out-of-control Democrat Party nominates in 2020.

Also mentioned in some of these disingenuous news stories has been career politician John Kasich. Ohio Governor Kasich ran for president in 2000 and 2016. In 2000, he didnt make it to the primaries and in 2016 he won only his home state of Ohio. President Trump carried Ohio and other Rust Belt states during the general election because his outsider message connected with millions of voters in a way Kasich could not, largely because he was a longtime Washington politician.

President Trump has been in office for only 200 days and yet the mainstream media is already trying to start the 2020 campaign for president. Are there really Americans out there itching to start watching coverage of the 2020 race even before the 2018 midterms take place? Or is it just because contentious presidential elections are the only thing that sells failing newspapers anymore?

I submit that most reasonable hardworking American taxpayers want to give their president a chance to succeed because if his agenda is enacted, peoples lives will improve.

David N. Bossie is President of Citizens United, a Fox News Contributor and the former Deputy Campaign Manager for Donald Trump for President.

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Liberal media wrong about 2020 | Fox News - Fox News

Wall Street Journal (subscription)

New York's Liberal Subway War Wall Street Journal (subscription) New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio famously hate each other, but they seem to agree that the victims of their feud should be the people of New York. Witness their brawl over who deserves the blame for the rapid ... and more »

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New York's Liberal Subway War - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

In the name of diversity, Google just killed diversity.

While that may sound like a sentence out of a Lewis Carroll novel, it's the stark reality of the modern-day liberal groupthink that pervades much of America's academic and corporate cultures. The titans of Silicon Valley roaming the halls of Google's sprawling Mountain View, California campus represent the epitome of this totalitarian mindset.

After Google engineer James Damore recently penned a lengthy memo calling for the company to take real strides toward diversity rather than just bean-counting folks by race, ethnicity and sex, he was summarily fired for "perpetuating gender stereotypes." What nonsense.

What exactly were Damore's sins? He suggested that men and women are actually different, and that companies should value ideological diversity. For the liberal leadership at Google, this was a bridge too far. Among today's American left, the altar of diversity actually dictates that leaders must discriminate against those holding contrarian views. Disagreement with the liberal ethos simply isn't tolerated anymore.

Damore is far from the first to suffer such a fate. In 2013, the liberal pitchfork brigade helped to oust Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich for his 2008 donation to a traditional marriage initiative.

Damore's firing was total twaddle, but it was predictable.

In fact, we at the National Center for Public Policy Research's Free Enterprise Project warned of the perils of Google's authoritarian tendencies earlier this year at the annual shareholder meeting of Google's parent company, Alphabet (GOOGL).

At the meeting, I asked Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt about the company's actual commitment to diversity and inclusion in light of the company's public policy positions, not to mention the views of top management, that all skew to the extreme political left. I noted conservatives may not feel welcome in such an environment, let alone feel free to express their beliefs. Schmidt and other company executives dismissed my entire question by claiming everyone at the company and in the tech industry as a whole was in agreement with them.

Not so fast, Mr. Schmidt.

After that confrontation, a strange thing happened. I started receiving messages from Google employees thanking me for challenging Alphabet's leadership. Without realizing it, I was apparently speaking for a closeted segment of Google employees with conservative beliefs.

One email read, "I'm working with a few other Googlers to fix the company's political discrimination problem. Really appreciate you shining a light on the matter."

Another said she was working closely with a group of conservatives at Google, and noted, "(t)hey're all very appreciative that you were standing up for their interests at the shareholder's (sic) meeting. The shareholder resolution your organization filed also made a lot of people happy."

I won't divulge the names of these conservative Google employees lest they suffer the same fate as Damore. But it's clear that, despite Mr. Schmidt's claim, not everyone at Google subscribes to his far-left worldview.

After the shareholder meeting, we warned that "Schmidt's bold claims that no one disagrees with his liberal elitist positions prove the point of the Free Enterprise Project's question. To the extent that any conservatives exist within Alphabet's walls, it certainly doesn't appear they can be comfortable letting those opinions be known to upper management. hat's not fostering diversity of opinion. That's approaching a hostile work environment."

Damore made his opinion known. It was met with the ultimate corporate hostility as he was shown the door.

To honor the memory of musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, singer Don McLean penned the classic song "American Pie" in which he mournfully wrote that he "saw Satan laughing with delight the day the music died."

Google's motto used to be "don't be evil." I now think I see Satan laughing with delight on this day that diversity died there.

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8/09/2017 While everyone was focused on ex-Google employee James Damore's comments about women engineers in his now-famous memo, there was one...

8/09/2017 While everyone was focused on ex-Google employee James Damore's comments...

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I Confronted Google About Its Liberal Groupthink At A Shareholder Meeting Here's What Happened Next - Investor's Business Daily

Haley Samsel, USA TODAY College , TEGNA 3:05 PM. EDT August 09, 2017

Installation of processor in CPU socket (Photo: golubovy/Thinkstock, abb)

Youve heard the rhetoric before: Liberal arts majors are broke and cant find jobs. Their skills are less useful than those with STEM degrees. Even former President Barack Obama took a famous jab at art history majors before apologizing.

But consider this: the potential value of a liberal arts education in the growing tech sector and related industries.

Thats the argument put forward in George Anders new book You Can Do Anything: The Surprising Power of a Useless Liberal Arts Education. After penning a Forbes cover story on the demand for liberal arts majors at technology companies, Anders received a torrent of responses from readers. He realized he had found a big, uncovered story.

Love this. Tech's big #hiring surprise: software companies find that liberal arts thinking makes them stronger. https://t.co/wAbdn7QYr1

It just seemed as if there was this tremendous disconnect between public rhetoric that said youve got to go the STEM route and there is no route but STEM and then all of these interesting new job openings that were coming up for people with liberal arts degrees, Anders tells USA TODAY College. It was this hidden strength of the economy that nobody wanted to write about or talk about.

While researching for the book, Anders talked to graduates who had applied their humanities and social science degrees to careers in digital marketing, user experience and digital design.

Among the success stories: NeKelia Henderson, a Georgia State grad who majored in English and has a job at a digital ad agency, telling stories with numbers. And Josh Sucher, an anthropology major who now works in user experience for companies like Etsy.

The merging of liberal arts and tech. It has worked well for me in my career progression to technical writing. https://t.co/RibMHw1DaD

Anders says companies are looking for five key qualities in potential employees: an eagerness to tackle uncharted areas, the ability to solve murky problems, well-honed analytic methods, keen awareness of group dynamics, and an ability to inspire and persuade others.

These traits are often elements of a liberal arts education, regardless of what field youre pursuing, Anders says.

Liberal arts in any dose can take you to interesting places, Anders says. But going the full distance for a major and particularly doing some of the larger projects that youll do later on will get you to the point where youre really good at these kinds of things.

Tech workers from investors to engineers are also speaking out about the value of employees with liberal arts backgrounds.

Tracy Chou, a software engineer and co-founder of Project Include, recently wrote in Quartz that she regrets not striving for a proper liberal arts education and not learning to think critically about the world we live in and how to engage with it.

Chou, who graduated with engineering and computer science degrees from Stanford, added: It worries me that so many of the builders of technology today are people like me; people [who] havent spent anywhere near enough time thinking about these larger questions of what it is that we are building, and what the implications are for the world.

Chou tells USA TODAY College that the condescending attitude toward liberal arts is not uncommon in tech circles.

It is of course quite harmful, in that it dismisses a lot of relevant thinking and context that can dramatically improve the products and services we are building, and the impact that they have on society, Chou wrote in an email.

Scott Hartley, a venture capitalist who studied political science at Stanford, says the narrative around Silicon Valleys obsession with STEM studies is at odds with what he saw during his time as an investor on Sand Hill Road, an area known for its concentration of VC firms.

I was hearing all this talk about, If you have soft skills, youre doomed and If you have an English degree, youre going to become a barista, and it was running counter to what I was seeing day to day, Hartley says.

The companies Hartley was most interested in were often created by people with less technical backgrounds who had pinpointed a problem and used their creative thinking to find a different angle to address it, he says.

A lot of times, I think that was because they had a background in something other than just trying to deploy a product before they had really found a problem, Hartley says. So many of these companies that we were finding interesting were people that maybe had a degree in economics or political science or theater, and they were super convincing and charismatic and able to build a whole team around them.

Hartleys experiences prompted him to write The Fuzzie and the Techie, a reference to the monikers often used at Stanford to describe people with liberal arts and STEM backgrounds. He wants tech workers to embrace elements of both disciplines.

Whether youre an engineer who has never taken a philosophy or literature class, join a book club. And if youre somebody who loves English literature or psychology, take a night class where you have to deal with Excel or data science, Hartley advises. Break down those barriers so you dont feel intimidated by the other.

In the #AI era, STEM is important; so is Liberal Arts.

A list of liberal arts graduates leading tech companies https://t.co/qBsdRaH29d pic.twitter.com/7kPV9LYnGF

Anders says the ability to work in both worlds is valuable, especially when creative workers are communicating with people on the technical side. In the future, he hopes to see the liberal arts respected for their contributions to tech and other industries though he says some criticism will always be there.

Id like to see it so that weve got much more of a recognition that these are valuable skills and this is a valuable program, and if theres a little bit of controversy attached to it, thats fine, Anders says. Usually if youre doing anything interesting, its a little controversial.

2017 USATODAY.COM

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How a liberal arts degree can give you an edge in tech - WGRZ-TV

A man who attempted to infiltrate the League of Conservation Voters claimed to be an investor advisor based in St. Petersburg, while an alleged accomplice is a conservative commentator based in South Florida, according to a criminal complaint and online documents.

The St. Petersburg-based Daniel Logan -- an apparent alias of activist Dan Sandini -- tried to wine and dine his way into the liberal group's upper ranks and "gave indications in several of his meetings of the potential for contributions of the magnitude of four million dollars per year for multiple years."

He also tried to get the liberal group to set up a voter drive in Florida, according to a report that suggests conservative activist James OKeefe III could be tied the scheme.

The League has filed a complaint with the California Attorney Generals Office about an apparently criminal effort by imposters to infiltrate the inner workings of the group and its Golden State affiliate.

Alleged activity includes possible undercover recordings and other deception.

Its quite a tale and, as recounted in this New Yorker piece. In that, comes a Florida tidbit from Carol Browner, chairwoman of the Leagues board of directors, who headed the EPA under President Bill Clinton and directed President Barack Obama's Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy.

By June, Sandini had attended several of L.C.V.s top-donor gatherings in Washington, D.C., including one that counted several senators among the guests. Browner claims that Sandini made her immediately uncomfortable. He stood too close, and he seemed to both know too much and too little, she recalled.

He was strangely knowledgeable about her husbands career, and kept pushing Browner to respond to heavy-handed left-wing statements, while urging her to set up a voting drive in Florida.

He gave me the heebie-jeebies, she said, a sentiment she shared with colleagues at the time.

The Florida angle was not central to the alleged scheme but there are other ties, the Tampa Bay Times has confirmed.

Sandini apparently posed as Dan Logan who was supposedly from St. Petersburg and had a a Facebook account with pictures of him there. (The page is no longer active) A Google search turns up a now-defunct LinkedIn account for Daniel L. Logan, president of St. Petersburg-based Logan Investments.

On Twitter, Dan Sandini lists himself as an independent citizen journalist from Portland, Ore. It says is is inspired by Andrew Breitbart and James OKeefe. Sandini also has ties to Steve Bannon and is listed in the credits of Bannons film Occupy Unmasked.

Yet another Florida connection comes with Ann Vandersteel, whom the League alleges posed as Ann Steel, the widow of a wealthy oil investor. We believe that, in reality, Vandersteel is a conservative commentator on YourVoice America Radio, the complaint states.

Vandersteel is based in Jupiter and is a co-host of the show with Bill Mitchell. The Times left a message for her on Wednesday and has not heard back.

Her LinkedIn page shows she is a Realtor. In 1990, she worked as a residential liaison for Trump Plaza in West Palm Beach. Interfaced with Donald Trump weekly upon property inspections, it states.

O'Keefe is scheduled to keynote the Palm Beach GOP's annual lobsterfest dinner on Aug. 17

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Alleged scheme to infiltrate liberal group has Florida players - Tampabay.com (blog)

The beating heart of the effort to resist President Donald Trump will descend on Atlanta on Thursday with a four-day conference of the nations leading liberal activists and politicians.

The mission of the Netroots Nation event is to energize a legion of new activists ahead of next years midterms, derail Trumps agenda and lay the groundwork to oust him in 2020. And theyll have backup from U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Vice President Al Gore, as well as Georgias two Democratic candidates for governor, Stacey Abrams and Stacey Evans.

Part pep rally and part insurgency training, the conference includes nearly 200 panels and training sessions designed to teach progressive activists how to reclaim state legislatures, advance LGBT rights in the South and master social media strategy.

Others aim to encourage liberals to run for office, whether they challenge incumbent Republicans or establishment Democrats. One even advises activists on how and why they should take over their local Democratic Party to bring a more liberal bent.

And then there are discussions focused on sharpening lessons from Democrat Hillary Clintons defeat in November. One trains candidates and activists to secure their websites against the Internets wretched hive of scum and villainy. Another panel counsels strategists on how to combat fake news.

This is the premier conference for left-leaning strategists and activists who use the Internet, and fake news is our biggest challenge, said Melissa Ryan, a digital strategist who has worked for Barack Obama and will lead the Netroots panel.

I firmly believe that one of the reasons we lost in 2016 is that we didnt even know we were playing on the same battlefield we didnt realize it was a problem until it was too late, she said.

A focus on the South

The annual conference started in 2006 it was then known as the YearlyKos and was initially organized by the left-leaning Daily Kos website.

The event has long drawn a string of marquee names, including Obama and Joe Biden, and its emergence was seen at the time as a sign of the ascendancy of bloggers in Democratic politics.

Over the years, it has also become a flash point between the partys left flank and its elected officials: Nancy Pelosi was booed and heckled in 2013, Black Lives Matter protesters interrupted Democratic presidential candidate Martin OMalleys speech in 2015.

Last years event in St. Louis was panned by some critics as a hodgepodge of uninspiring panels and lower-level luminaries. But just as Trump has energized liberals throughout the nation, he has also helped breathe new life into the conference, which is expected to draw nearly 3,000 people.

Mary Rickles, a Netroots spokeswoman, said the event will feature the most training sessions in its history. About half of its attendees, she added, have never before attended the conference.

We want to shape the debate and go on the offensive to form a vision for the resistance movement and beyond the resistance, she said. We have an influx of new attendees and new partnerships. And a lot of progressive groups that have been involved in Netroots for years have stepped it up this time.

Studded throughout the four days are regional meetings intent on plotting a course for Democrats in Georgia, where Republicans have consolidated control despite liberal dreams of flipping the state, and other parts of the South.

One panel, to be headlined by Clarkston Mayor Ted Terry, seems aimed at convincing activists that the South isnt a lost cause. Terry said hell talk about how cities can be truer laboratories of democracy than states and use his DeKalb County city which recently approved the states most liberal marijuana policy as proof.

As a progressive local mayor in a red state, I dont have to wait for the next governor or Congress to take action on affordable housing, clean energy or criminal justice reforms, Terry said. So the power in the South, from my perspective, is at the local level where home rule can be broad-ranging.

Attendees will also be pushed and prodded to throw their hat in the ring. Kate Catherall, the founder of Chorus Agency, is out to recruit more first-time candidates to run for office, whether it be school board or governor.

Now more than ever we need authentic voices to change the direction of our policies and politics, Catherall said. We dont have an apathy problem in politics we have a leadership deficit.

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL NEWS

If it happens in Washington or under the Gold Dome or somewhere else and it affects Georgians, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has somebody there to tell you what it means. Follow our coverage at http://www.myAJC.com/politics.

Netroots coverage

Follow news from the Netroots Nation as it happens at http://politics.blog.ajc.com/.

Also, see a story about liberals ambitions for winning in the South in Sundays Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Read more:

Liberal activists to pour into Atlanta for Netroots convention - MyAJC