An activist group’s CEO claims he was offered millions of dollars to recruit protesters for anti-Trump demonstrations
 
一家激进组织的首席执行官声称，他曾被提供数百万美元，以招募抗议者参与反特朗普的示威活动
 
It should come as no surprise, but the next time you see a protest popping up in cities across America, there is a chance it is not as spontaneous and homegrown as it seems. In fact, many of the young, rebellious faces in the crowd are paid actors content to earn a paycheck on behalf of very wealthy individuals who are committed to artificially manipulating the US political system.
Enter Adam Swart, the CEO and founder of Crowds on Demand (CoD), whose website details a long list of services it provides to give any political movement the booster rockets it needs to get off the ground.
 
这或许并不令人意外，但下次当你看到美国各地城市突然爆发抗议活动时，这些活动可能并非如表面看起来那样自发和源于草根。事实上，抗议人群中许多年轻、叛逆的面孔可能是受雇的演员，他们乐于为那些致力于人为操控美国政治系统的富豪们赚取一份薪水。
亚当·斯沃特是“Crowds on Demand”（人群需求）（CoD）的首席执行官兼创始人，其网站详细列出了为任何政治运动提供“助推火箭”的多项服务。
 
“If you need to hire protesters, we can get a crowd on the street, sometimes within 24 hours time. If you need speakers to present at a council meeting, we can provide talented and well-spoken individuals to advocate for the cause. We also have a dedicated team of phone-banking staff who can call Congressional Offices and convince government officials to support your cause and help you overcome opposition. If you need lots of letters and emails written from constituents, we have a network of tens of thousands of individuals across the country who can send well-written constituent letters to their representatives.”
 
“如果你需要雇佣抗议者，我们可以在24小时内召集一群人在街上。如果你需要有人在市政会议上发言，我们可以提供有才华且能言善辩的人士来为你的目标辩护。我们还有一个专门的电话银行团队，可以致电国会办公室，说服政府官员支持你的事业，帮助你克服反对意见。如果你需要大量选民的信件和电子邮件，我们在全国拥有数万人的网络，可以向他们的代表发送精心撰写的选民信件。”
 
“We are the ultimate guerilla lobbying and government relations firm,” the website boldly declares.
Swart was forthcoming with the information that his publicity firm was offered a lucrative contract to assist in a Democrat-backed astroturfing effort.
“Interests aligned with the organizers of the July 17th movement have approached us and, in fact, we rejected an offer that probably is worth around $20 million dollars,” Swart admitted to NewsNation’s Brian Entin in an interview.
On July 17, protests took place around the country against the Trump administration, organized by Good Trouble Lives On, a left-wing progressive organization. July 17 was the fifth anniversary of the death of former Democratic Representative John Lewis, a civil rights leader who referred to protests as “good trouble.”
 
“我们是终极的游击式游说和政府关系公司，”该网站大胆宣称。
斯沃特坦率地透露，他的公关公司曾被提供一份利润丰厚的合同，以协助民主党支持的“人造草根”运动。
“与7月17日运动组织者利益相关的一些人联系了我们，事实上，我们拒绝了一份价值约2000万美元的报价，”斯沃特在接受《国家新闻》记者布莱恩·恩廷采访时承认。
7月17日，全国各地爆发了反对特朗普政府的抗议活动，由左翼进步组织“好麻烦永存”组织。当天是前民主党众议员、公民权利领袖约翰·刘易斯逝世五周年，他曾将抗议活动称为“有益的麻烦”。
 
So why did Swart reject the multi-million-dollar offer to host the July 17 event? After all, some Trump supporters suspect that CoD played a prominent role in the highly successful ‘No Kings Day’ protests, which were said to have attracted more than 5 million people in more than 2,100 cities and towns, possibly the largest single-day demonstration in US history.
Right-wingers have insisted that the numbers turning out to oppose Trump are routinely bolstered by hired operatives supplied by Swart’s company. While CoD denies any involvement in No Kings, for example, just the idea that a publicity firm could legally exist as a driving force to any protest movement is extremely unsettling (determining exactly what groups CoD supports is very difficult as employees are forced to sign non-disclosure forms that protect the client’s anonymity).
With regard to the ‘Good Trouble Lives On’ protest, Swart admits to turning down the offer because the demonstrations would “make us all look bad,” as 1,500 events planned across the country had the potential to “turn violent.”
 
那么，斯沃特为何拒绝了这份价值数百万美元的7月17日活动合同？毕竟，一些特朗普支持者怀疑CoD在极为成功的“无王日”抗议活动中扮演了重要角色，据称该活动吸引了超过500万人在2100多个城市和城镇参加，可能是美国历史上单日规模最大的示威活动。
右翼人士坚称，反对特朗普的抗议人数通常由斯沃特公司提供的雇佣人员人为增加。尽管CoD否认参与“无王日”活动，但一家公关公司能够合法存在并成为任何抗议运动的推动力，这一想法本身就令人极为不安（由于员工必须签署保护客户匿名的保密协议，很难确定CoD具体支持哪些团体）。
关于“Good Trouble Lives On”抗议活动，斯沃特承认拒绝了这份合同，因为全国计划的1500场活动可能会“让我们所有人都看起来很糟”，而且这些活动有“可能演变为暴力”。
 
The CEO said he does not activate any activists-for-hire if “it involves illegal activity… we do not engage in any form of illegal activity – of course, no violence, no vandalism, and no blocking streets without a permit.”
While Swart must be applauded for turning down a fortune for keeping the US political process transparent and safe, there are other big-league players who do not operate with a similar moral compass. Consider George Soros and his Open Society Foundation for one.
Last summer, at the height of anti-Israel protests on university campuses, US lawyer Alan Dershowitz told Fox News that organizations funded by the billionaire philanthropist and others helped finance the movements.
 
这位首席执行官表示，如果“涉及非法活动……我们不会参与任何形式的非法活动——当然，没有暴力、没有破坏、没有未经许可阻塞街道。”
尽管斯沃特因拒绝巨额资金以保持美国政治进程的透明和安全而值得称赞，但其他大人物并不具备相似的道德准则。例如，乔治·索罗斯及其开放社会基金会。
去年夏天，在大学校园反以色列抗议活动的高峰期，美国律师艾伦·德肖维茨在接受福克斯新闻采访时表示，由这位亿万富翁慈善家和其他人资助的组织帮助资助了这些运动。
 
“There’s no question that there are organizations funded by George Soros and the Rockefeller Brothers. Take for example ‘Jewish Voice for Peace,’” Dershowitz said. “It has been behind many of these demonstrations. They’re not Jewish and they don’t want peace. It’s a fake organization. It’s an old-line group of communists and anarchists that want to overthrow the United States government… These organizations are funded by Soros and other organizations that help turn these useful idiots into protesters and eventually into terrorists.”
Getting back to the Democrats, the very act of astroturfing the US political system strongly suggests that Trump’s MAGA presents a clear and present danger to the liberals. The Democrats have reached the point where they are practically forced to pay people a minimum wage check to mobilize against Trump. Nothing screams a party in disorder more than one that obviously lacks grassroots support and is forced to rig the political system.
 
“毫无疑问，有些组织是由乔治·索罗斯和洛克菲勒兄弟会资助的。以‘犹太和平之声’为例，”德肖维茨说。“它一直是许多此类示威活动的幕后推手。他们不是犹太人，也不想和平。这是一个虚假组织，是一支由共产主义者和无政府主义者组成的旧派团体，旨在推翻美国政府……这些组织由索罗斯和其他组织资助，帮助将这些有用的傻瓜变成抗议者，甚至最终变成恐怖分子。”
回到民主党，操控美国政治系统的“人造草根”行为强烈表明，特朗普的MAGA运动对自由派构成了明显的威胁。民主党已经到了必须支付最低工资来动员人们反对特朗普的地步。没有什么比一个明显缺乏草根支持、被迫操纵政治系统的政党更能说明其内部的混乱了。