Soros Strikes Locally by Tom Reynolds
SCOPE was often written about gun owners not being active in politics and, especially, not voting. The left, on the other hand, loves politics!
No one epitomizes the radical left’s drive for power more than George Soros. Researching what Soros funds is difficult as there are so many layers to the onion of organizations that he finances. A few examples are Indivisibles, the Sunrise Movement, the Tides Foundation, Tides Advocacy and Tides. There is even an advocacy group they support in California called SCOPE, but it's nowhere related to what our mission is and could never be confused with what we do. https://scopela.org/
Soros has made headlines funding big city radical District Attorneys and other radical groups. Perhaps you don’t think of Sorors influence in local terms but you could not be more wrong. SCOPE’s Oneida-Herkimer Chairman, Bohdan Rabarsky, has done some research on this in his area. Here is some of what he found.
Before Donald Trump was even inaugurated, there was an organization formed to counter his election, called Indivisible. This group now claims to have 6,000+ chapters throughout America. The Indivisible groups can’t be dismissed. There’s probably a chapter near you - you just might not realize it. They have a general website, https://indivisible.org/ and chapters usually have a Facebook page, with limited information unless you log in as a member. It doesn’t allow you to comment or like - only share.
Also in 2016, Congresswomen Claudia Tenney was elected for her 1st term. She was a strong Trump supporter. That fact drew the attention of the local chapter of Indivisible Mohawk Valley, which proceeded with a vicious campaign of protests and rallies against Trump and Tenney for almost every week, for 2 years. They held protests on the sidewalk in front of her Utica Congressional office every Friday. They held protests at Tenney’s satellite offices whenever she was at those offices. They wrote letters-to-the-editor that hit every newspaper in the 7 counties representing Tenney’s 22nd Congressional district. Indivisible was successful and Tenney lost her reelection bid. (She was subsequently reelected in 2020 by a handful of votes.)
The Indivisibles are very well organized and are very well funded. You have to peel back the layers, but sooner or later, you’ll connect the dots to many of George Soros’s organizations. The woman that runs the Indivisible Mohawk Valley chapter comes from South Dakota, relocated to Clinton, NY and she’s Indivisible’s only local paid organizer. The rest are volunteers. Whenever indivisible has a rally or protest, BLM, Citizen NY and Sunrise Movement are also usually present.
Give Indivisible’s members credit - they are dedicated to their cause. So far, they’ve gotten their members elected to the Utica Common Council, Oneida County Board of Legislators and various town & village boards. They know how to organize and they think nothing of getting together on a Sunday afternoon at the town Community Center with 30 or 40 members in support of a candidate.
Other groups that they’re involved with locally are The Working Families Party, Citizen’s Action of NY and the Sunrise Movement. They build up community support by having giveaways of diapers, formula, food, back packs, etc. They accept donations, but when added to Soros’ funding, they have “big bucks” that they can use build a political power when it comes time for voting.
Another group to keep an eye on is called Sunrise Movement. They have 45-50 chapters in New York State, located in colleges & universities. We have one here at Hamilton College. They're made up of students and the group uses the various skills of the students to help promote their group. They hide behind the Green Movement, but like AOC's Green New Deal, they promote the entire radical left agenda.
What do Indivisible and Sunrise also have in common? They're very much anti 2nd Amendment.
The New Eastcoast Arms Collectors Associates owned by David Petronis had a gun show at the Clinton Arena, a municipal arena owned by the town of Kirkland, for many years. It was a huge success. It never had a security problem so the town law enforcement liked it and the town made money off of it, as did the dealers and the promoter. Then in 2017 or 2018 Indivisible Mohawk Valley showed up at a town board meeting with 15-20 of its members holding signs. They also brought along the TV media that they notified and charged that minors could possibly get in to buy guns, the promoter lacked security and the Clinton Arena was too close to a school, (never mind the gun show was held in July when school was let out for the summer). They convinced the town board which told the promoter he would have to provide round the clock security and he would have to reimburse the town to the tune of $7,000-$8,000 for the 3-day event. Therefore, he cancelled the show and any future shows and now he only promotes his shows in private facilities, no more public funded facilities.
As radical left policies fail on a nationwide basis, many in the media are predicting a “Red Wave” in the 2022 elections. So, gun owners can just sit back and ignore politics, as they have done before, and the Red Wave will just happen. Wrong! As Bohdan has shown, Soros and company are active and well-funded. They’re not conceding anything and Soros has the money to fund their efforts. Nancy Pelosi controls the House by 5 votes. Tenney won in 2020 by 109 votes; do you think that Indivisibles and Sunrise in Oneida-Herkimer might be energized to take back that seat?
We need to reach out to those gun owners who won’t get active. Who won’t vote. We have the potential power and 2022 seems to provide the opportunity to take back control of our country from Biden, Pelosi and Schumer. SCOPE will be doing its best but we can do more and better with your help in your chapters and at the state level. If you think 2021 has been bad, keep Pelosi and Schumer in power until 2024 and see how really bad it can get. It’s time to get involved.
