Like French Pres. Charles de Gaulle, his grandson Pierre admires Russia, has no interest in being subservient to US-UK, says traditional values have disappeared in the West

President “de Gaulle considered the US as “an occupying state interfering in all economic, military and political processes in the world…opposed NATO, expelled NATO institutions from France [on March 7, 1966]…Throughout the war, the US supported the Vichy government, headed by the Nazi collaborator Marshal Pétain.“

11/21/2023, “Grandson of war hero Charles de Gaulle wants Russian citizenship,” Hannah Thompson, connexionfrance.com

 

[Map of Vichy and occupied France, 1940, “France in Defeat”]

“The 60-year-old said ‘traditional values have disappeared in the West’”

“A grandson of French war hero General Charles de Gaulle has said that he wants to apply to be Russian, after lamenting the “values that have disappeared from the West”. 

Pierre de Gaulle, 60, was attending a cultural forum event in St Petersburg on November 16, [2023] when he said: “I would be honoured to receive Russian citizenship. I am happy to see that you fight for traditional values; family, spirituality…all these values have disappeared in Western countries.”

He later told the TASS news agency that he intended to apply for Russian citizenship, and said that Russia offers “big possibilities”.

“Pierre de Gaulle on the left, and his grandfather Charles on the right. Pierre said he would be ‘honoured’ to receive Russian citizenship. Pic: Abaca Press / dpa picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo”

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Mr de Gaulle has repeatedly said that he is a supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has since said that he believes that the West has “lost” the war.

Also in St Petersburg, he said: “Neither NATO nor the West can continue the war,” suggesting that he espouses Mr Putin’s [truthful statements] rhetoric that the US and NATO are the ‘real’ antagonists in the war, and are using it as a way to weaken Moscow. He then said: “It is necessary to stop this tragedy.”

Last January [2023], Mr de Gaulle told Le Figaro: “I am struck by this single-minded thought process that systematically presents Putin as the ‘bad guy’, and his [US controlled] Ukrainian [so-called] counterpart [President Volodymyr Zelensky] as the ‘good guy’.”

In February [2023], he travelled to Volgograd (previously Stalingrad) to attend the

80-year anniversary commemorations to mark the Soviet

victory over the Germans in 1943 [in which 27 million Soviet citizens gave their lives saving the world from Hitler].

As a grandson of General de Gaulle-who led the fight against the Germans in France during World War Two and later became President of France – Mr de Gaulle comes from a family that is typically considered to represent French pride and values.

He is the fourth son of Philippe de Gaulle, General de Gaulle’s eldest son.

His pro-Russia stance clearly puts him [very much in agreement with his grandfather but apparently] at odds with [some of] his family, who have previously moved to distance themselves from his comments.”

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Added: Like his grandfather Charles de Gaulle, Pierre de Gaulle has no interest in being subservient to US or its dollar monopoly, and thinks Russia is a fine and important friend:

1/4/23, “Grandson of former French President Charles de Gaulle defends ‘under attack’ Russia and slams EU,” Euroweeklynews.com, Matthew Roscoe

“Pierre de Gaulle, the grandson of former French President General Charles de Gaulle, has shared his opinions on the war [in Ukraine] and has defended Russia, which he believes is being conspired against.

The grandson of former French President General Charles de Gaulle said the West had planned a “conspiracy” against Russia in advance and believes Putin is just defending himself against sanctions.

Speaking to AgoraVox at the Russian Centre for Science and Culture, Pierre de Gaulle said that he considers it “extremely important for France to maintain and develop relations of mutual understanding and cooperation with Russia, primarily through historical ties, the common destinies that unite us.”

He added: “Europeans should not forget that only maintaining relations with Russia is

a guarantee of stability and prosperity in Europe and in the world. Unfortunately, the

consequences of the current crisis are reflected primarily in Europe.

“Of course, the whole world suffers as a result of anti-Russian sanctions. But above all, Russia’s recent partners in Europe are suffering, and France is among them. This crisis greatly

weakens the balance that my grandfather always tried to maintain, even in the most difficult times.”

Speaking about Russian and French historical relations, Pierre de Gaulle added: “France managed to maintain this balance throughout the Cold War, it began to be established between France and the USSR immediately after the Second World War.

“After all, then Russia found itself in the same camp with the countries that defeated the Nazi occupiers, and therefore with France.

And that is why my grandfather

always, always tried to maintain respectful relations with Russia.”

The grandson of Charles de Gaulle, who was also a French army general, said that he believes it is in “France’s interest to continue this policy and to maintain a balance between East and West in our policy, because this is essential for the stability of Europe.”

He then slammed the US for its part in the war.

He said: “I think that public opinion in France is beginning to understand what the evil game of the Americans is today. By using lies primarily when communicating with allies within NATO, the United States has managed to

use the Ukrainian crisis to destabilise Europe.”

“The Americans, as it were, cut off Europe from Russia, set the Europeans against the Russians. Why would they do that? Because Europe in alliance with Russia could be a strong bloc both politically and economically, culturally and socially – in general, up to 500 million people live in the EU and Russia,” he added.

“Ever since the Vietnam War and the economic crises that followed, Americans have always tried by force, cunning and other dishonest means to make up for the loss of their economic and political influence, although it is inevitable.

“In particular, the Americans are trying to slow down the dollar’s loss of its status as the only

(that is, monopoly) world exchange currency. And this policy continues.”

Speaking about the EU, de Gaulle was quick to accuse the European Commission of being

a haven for thieves.

“With regard to Europe, my grandfather really advocated a Europe of nations, that is, for each country to cooperate with others in the name of the European Union, economic and political, but with a certain autonomy in politics and decision-making,” the Frenchman [Pres. De Gaulle’s grandson] said.

“Instead, we ended up in a system dominated by a technocracy that imposes its directives on each of the member states. This technocracy is, unfortunately, extremely corrupt.”

He added: “For some reason, they stopped writing about this in the press, but when Ursula von der Leyen was appointed President of the European Commission, she was also credited with the remaining unexplained expenses of about 100 million euros associated with the hiring of external consultants, consulting firms, when she was defence minister.

“These questions are passed over in silence. There is also a lot of talk about the ties between the President of the European Commission and pharmaceutical companies. Let me remind you that her son works for an American biotechnology company and that the CEO of Pfizer was recently called twice to testify about strange contracts with his company. He was supposed to speak before the European Commission. But both times he refused.”

“I would like a little more honesty and transparency at the level of the European Commission, which adopts certain laws. After all, when we talk about the leaders of the European Commission, we are talking about people who were not elected by the citizens of European states,” he said.

“Unfortunately, these gentlemen from the European Commission still do not know how to keep their word. It’s a disaster, but today’s European leaders are like that. I would like at least a little more transparency in their actions.

“Recently, as part of the case of bribery by Qatar of “Eurocrats”, who undertook to speak only positive things about this Arab emirate

in exchange for money, whole bags of money were strangely found …

in the house of one of the officials of the European Commission.”

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Added: de Gaulle wasn’t an “Atlanticist,” had no interest in being a US-UK colony. “de Gaulle took every opportunity to express his discontent with the dollar as a reserve currency: ”US imperialism leaves no field unoccupied. It takes every form, but the dollar is the most insidious”….

8/11/2022, “Charles de Gaulle on the US, NATO and the Dollar,” United World International

“Russia’s campaign in Ukraine has opened new debates about Europe’s historical and prospective positions

on the US-Russia axis.

In 20th century European history, Charles de Gaulle is one of the most prominent figures to be considered in this context.

We interviewed Ali Rıza Taşdelen, a journalist and Vatan Party (Türkiye) executive who closely follows French politics, about de Gaulle’s life, thoughts and policies.”

The symbol of the resistance against nazi occupation…

Charles de Gaulle is the symbol of the resistance to the Nazi occupation of France in the Second World War. He is the national hero of the French nation. Besides being a good soldier, he is a world-class statesman who

defended France’s independence against the USA and NATO.

De Gaulle and [vs.] the Social Democrats…[Map of Vichy and occupied France, 1940, “France in Defeat”]

France’s political confrontation with the Nazi occupation and its aftermath, as well as during the Cold War, can give us an idea of

who de Gaulle is and what he means to France:

On the one side, the Social Democrats, led by their General Secretary Paul Faur, surrendered to fascism during the Second World War and adopted a collaborationist policy, accepted to come under the shelter of the US after the war, brought France into NATO and paved the way for NATO’s Gladio organization in the country,

in short, pursued an Atlanticist line.

On the other side, General Charles de Gaulle, who resisted together with the Communists the invasion of Hitler fascism and became

the symbol of the resistance,

opposed NATO,

expelled NATO institutions from France [on March 7, 1966],

became the target of the US and NATO Gladio, and

defended a more popular and welfare state against the economic

system imposed by the US

and the reign of the dollar.

Could you elaborate on de Gaulle’s opposition to the US?

De Gaulle is known for his resistance against the Nazi occupation and for taking France out of NATO. France’s withdrawal from NATO on March 7, 1966 is only a consequence. The process started in the 1940s when the Nazis occupied France.

The US hostility towards De Gaulle

began not with the anti-American line he pursued in the 1960s,

but with de Gaulle’s national resistance movement against the Nazi occupation.

Throughout the war, the US supported the Vichy government, headed by the Nazi collaborator Marshal Pétain.

While the Vichy government surrendered

to Hitler with the armistice agreement,

Charles de Gaulle was preparing to fight against the occupation in London.

On June 18, 1940, de Gaulle called for resistance for a “Free France” against the invaders and then on September 24, 1941, he announced that the “French Committee of National Liberation” was formed to unite all resistance groups. On 24 December 1941, Jean Moulin returned to France on De Gaulle’s orders to organize and unite resistance groups. In Lyon, he founded the “United Resistance Movement”, which included communists. Maurice Thorez, Secretary General of the French Communist Party in Moscow, was in contact with De Gaulle. On September 26, Stalin announced that the Soviet Union had recognized De Gaulle’s “Free France”.

De Gaulle arrived in Algiers from London and took over the Provisional Government on June 3, 1944. On June 6, Anglo-Saxon Allied Forces (the US, UK and Canada) under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower,

landed in Normandy, France.

As the Allied forces advance towards Paris, on August 10, railroad workers, led by the FKP, went on strike. Subsequently, General Confederation of Labour called for a general strike and took a stand against the US. On August 25, 1944, Paris was liberated and De Gaulle returned to Paris.

CIA’s aim in the Normandy landings

De Gaulle declared that the aim of CIA in the Normandy landings of the Anglo-Saxon Allied Forces led by the US was to eliminate him and form a government close to the US. On June 6, 1964, de Gaulle refused to attend the 20th anniversary celebrations of the Normandy landings in France, and told Prime Minister Pompidou, who advocated attending the ceremony the following: “The landings on June 6 were an Anglo-Saxon affair from which France was excluded. They were determined to settle in France, which they saw as enemy territory! Just as they had done in Italy and were going to do in Germany! They had prepared the Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories, which would rule France as their armies marched forward. They had printed counterfeit money. They would have behaved as if they were in a conquered country. And now you want me to commemorate their landings.”

De Gaulle considered the US as “an occupying state interfering in all economic, military and political processes in the world”.

NATO as a camouflage for the US takeover of Europe

What was de Gaulle’s view of NATO?

De Gaulle believed that NATO was a tool for the US to take Europe in hand. He opposed US hegemonism. In one of his conversations, he told Ahmet the following about NATO:

“NATO is an academy of empty words. It is an organization that weakens our defense capabilities, instills the idea that defense is inconceivable without it, thus numbing our sense of national independence. NATO is in fact a deception, a camouflage for the US takeover Europe”.

The process of withdrawal from NATO’s military wing

Before withdrawing from NATO’s military wing, he announced

the withdrawal of the French representative to the Atlantic Council and

France’s Mediterranean fleet from NATO’s Mediterranean Command on March 7, 1959.

In June of the same year [1959], he banned US nuclear storage on French territory.

In 1963, French naval power in the Atlantic and the Manche

was withdrawn from NATO command, and

in 1964, French officers from NATO’s naval command.

On March 7, 1966, de Gaulle sent a letter to US President Johnson, in which he stated France’s withdrawal from NATO’s military wing. In the letter he stressed that the world had changed since NATO was founded in 1949, and since then France has improved its defense capabilities, no longer requiring any Allied military presence on French territory, and also that France had taken sovereignty into its own hands and no longer putting French military forces under NATO’s order.

Killing de Gaulle

Some say that the US attempted a coup d’état against de Gaulle and to assassinate him. Is this true?

Yes, that is true. The US, along with Britain, tried everything to eliminate de Gaulle during the war. The US and Britain continued to do so after the war, from the time De Gaulle became head of government until his departure in 1969. The CIA monitored De Gaulle’s every move and attempted to assassinate him.

Coup attempt against de Gaulle

Besides, de Gaulle’s anti-US and anti-NATO policies and his efforts to resolve the problem in Algeria by negotiating with the insurgents caused a great uneasiness in the US. With the support of NATO’s secret organization in France (stay-behind organization), an unsuccessful coup attempt was organized against De Gaulle by the “Secret Army Organization” (Organisation de l’armée secrete – OAS), which consists of officers who were against De Gaulle and supported the French occupation of Algeria. General Challe, a French General who had previously commanded NATO’s Allied Forces in Central Europe, led the coup.

A great Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals

Did de Gaulle’s struggle with the United States have an international aspect? Did he seek alliances against the US?

In 1964, de Gaulle officially recognized the People’s Republic of China and welcomed China’s development of the atomic bomb. In the same year he traveled to South America. In 1966, on a trip to Asia, he criticized the US policy in Vietnam in a speech in Phnom-Penh, the capital of Cambodia. He then moved on to Moscow to discuss with Brezhnev a Pan-European defence system based on a Soviet-French basis. He had in mind a great Europe “from the Atlantic to the Urals”.

The third path between capitalism and collectivism

We would also like to talk about his views on economic affairs in addition to his political views. You mentioned that De Gaulle was in favor of a welfare state. Could you elaborate on this?

De Gaulle was on the path between capitalism and collectivism. Alain Peyrefitte, de Gaulle’s spokesman, wrote in his book “C’etait de Gaulle” that de Gaulle said of the economic system:

“The world is divided between two rival systems in fierce struggle: capitalism and collectivism.

Capitalism is unacceptable in its social consequences. It crushes the most modest. It turns man into man’s wolf (author’s note: surprising to hear a Marxist slogan).

Collectivism is also unacceptable: it deprives humans of the will to fight transforming them into sheep.

A third path must be invented between the wolves and the sheep.”

When Peyrefitte asked de Gaulle, “Which one?” he replied: “Participation and planning. Participation, since one must involve employees in the functioning of the company, giving them back the dignity that capitalism has taken away from them; and planning, because it makes it possible to correct the failures of the market, which would blind us if we completely loose control over it.” “The state should intervene in the public interest, when necessary. Workers should participate in the development of their companies”.

For De Gaulle, nothing is above the nation and the state. He especially opposes the market economy imposed by the US: “The market is not above the nation and the state. It is the nation and the state that must dominate the market. If the market rules, the Americans would rule over it; it is all a disguise for American hegemony. If we have put our faith in the free market, we would have been colonized by the Americans. If the state does not take the necessary initiatives, nothing will work.”

Against the Dollar as reserve currency

De Gaulle took every opportunity to express his discontent with the dollar as a reserve currency: ”US imperialism leaves no field unoccupied. It takes every form,

but the dollar is the most insidious”.

“We pay the US to purchase us. So each time we have dollars, we will convert them into gold. Everyone should do the same… Political pressures will no longer be used to manipulate money.”

De Gaulle was convinced that the international monetary system of the day would not work, and one day the domination of the dollar would come to an end….

Social democrats have adopted an anti-Gaullist line from the Nazi occupation to the present day. Today, the de Gaullean tradition persists to a lesser extent in the nationalist parties of the left and right. The Gaullist legacy is partly alive in Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National and Jean Luc Melenchon La France Insoumise. In addition, a few relatively small parties also support de Gaulle.

The last representative of the de Gaulle tradition

Former president Jacques Chirac was the last representative of the de Gaulle tradition. Chirac opposed the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

In Chirac’s time, France was in favour of the

alliance between Germany and Russia against the US-UK alliance.

At that time, a Paris-Berlin-Moscow axis was formed. The leaders of this alliance were Chirac, Schröder and Putin.

After the election to the presidency in 2007 of Nicolas Sarkozy, who had risen rapidly as the representative of the pro-Atlantic wing within Chirac’s party, the party broke with the tradition of Charles de Gaulle and aligned itself with the US. Today, there is an important faction within the Republican Party that maintains the de Gaulle tradition.

[Really? Where is it? I’d like to join. To my knowledge, the entire US political class including the entire Republican Party is fully on board with endless US wars which are funded by enslaving US taxpayers from birth. Not one single elected person has stood up for us and demanded that we be freed from enslavement to US global genocide which most certainly includes flattening Russia and Syria. As Philip Giraldi accurately observed, Endless war is Deep State’s only business, it has no other excuse for bleeding US taxpayers. (Blog editor)].

Today, these de Gaullist groups and parties still oppose the US and NATO and are in favor of friendly relations with Russia and Bashar al-Assad.”

 

 

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FBI seizes phones of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, approached him on street, climbed into his SUV, in escalation of campaign finance investigation-NY Times, 11/10/23 (Sat.,11/11/23 print ed.)

“New York’s mayor claimed that the city is full as migrants were sleeping on the street while waiting for their asylum applications to be processed, amid sweltering summer temperatures.” 8/1/23, AFP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8/1/23, “Hundreds of migrants sleep in line early on Aug. 1, 2023, for placement at the Roosevelt Hotel intake center in New York,” NY Daily News

11/10/23, “F.B.I. Seizes Eric Adams’s Phones as Campaign Investigation Intensifies,” NY Times, (Sat., 11/11/23 print ed.), by William K. Rashbaum, Dana Rubenstein, Michael Rothfeld

[Image above, Aug. 1, 2023, AFP,  Migrants outside Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan. “Since April last year, more than 93,000 migrants, mostly from Central and South America, have arrived in New York, which is required by [current] law to offer free housing to anyone who requests it.”]

“Days after a raid at Mr. Adams’s chief fund-raiser’s home, federal agents took the mayor’s phones and iPad, two people with knowledge of the matter said.”

“The F.B.I. seized electronic devices from Mayor Eric Adams in a dramatic escalation of a federal campaign contribution investigation.Credit…Stephanie Keith for The New York Times”

“F.B.I. agents seized Mayor Eric Adams’s electronic devices early this week in what appeared to be a dramatic escalation of a criminal inquiry into whether his 2021 campaign conspired with the Turkish government and others to funnel money into its coffers.

The agents approached the mayor after an event at New York University on Monday evening and asked his security detail to step away, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

They climbed into his S.U.V. with him

and, pursuant to a court-authorized warrant, took his devices, the person said.

The devices — at least two cellphones and an iPad — were returned to the mayor within a matter of days, according to that person and another person familiar with the situation. Law enforcement investigators with a search warrant can make copies of the data on devices after they seize them.

A lawyer for Mr. Adams and his campaign said in a statement that the mayor was cooperating with federal authorities, and had already “proactively reported” at least one instance of improper behavior.

“After learning of the federal investigation, it was discovered that an individual had recently acted improperly,” said the lawyer, Boyd Johnson. “In the spirit of transparency and cooperation, this behavior was immediately and proactively reported to investigators.”

Mr. Johnson said that Mr. Adams has not been accused of wrongdoing and had “immediately complied with the F.B.I.’s request and provided them with electronic devices.” Mr. Adams had attended an anniversary celebration for the ASD Nest Support Project, an initiative at New York University that works with public schools to enhance education for autistic learners.

The statement did not identify the individual, detail the conduct reported to authorities or make clear whether the reported misconduct was related to the seizure of the mayor’s devices. It was also not immediately clear whether the agents referred to the fund-raising investigation when they took the mayor’s devices.

Mr. Adams, in his own statement, said that “as a former member of law enforcement, I expect all members of my staff to follow the law and fully cooperate with any sort of investigation — and I will continue to do exactly that.” He added that he had “nothing to hide.”

The surprise seizure of Mr. Adams’s devices was an extraordinary development and appeared to be the first direct instance of the campaign contribution investigation touching the mayor. Mr. Adams, a retired police captain, said on Wednesday that he is so strident in urging his staff to “follow the law” that he can be almost “annoying.” He laughed at the notion that he had any potential criminal exposure

Spokesmen for the F.B.I. and the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, whose prosecutors are also investigating the matter, declined to comment.

The federal investigation into Mr. Adams’s campaign burst into public view on Nov. 2, when F.B.I. agents searched the home of the mayor’s chief fund-raiser and seized two laptop computers, three iPhones

and a manila folder labeled “Eric Adams.”

The fund-raiser, a 25-year-old former intern named Brianna Suggs, has not spoken publicly since the raid.

Mr. Adams responded to news of the raid by

abruptly returning from Washington, D.C., where he had only just arrived for a day of meetings with White House and congressional leaders

regarding the migrant influx,

an issue he has said threatens to “destroy New York City.”

On Wednesday, he said his abrupt return was driven by his desire to be present for his team, and out of concern for Ms. Suggs, who he said had gone through a “traumatic experience.”

“Although I am mayor, I have not stopped being a man and a human,” he said.

But he also said he did not speak with Ms. Suggs on the day of the raid, to avoid any appearance of interfering in an ongoing investigation.

“The seizure of Mr. Adams’s devices took place days after the F.B.I. raided the Brooklyn home of his chief fund-raiser, Brianna Suggs.Credit…Stephanie Keith for The New York Times”

The warrant obtained by the F.B.I. to search Ms. Suggs’s home sought evidence of a conspiracy to violate campaign finance law between members of Mr. Adams’s campaign, the Turkish government or Turkish nationals, and a Brooklyn-based construction company, KSK Construction, whose owners are originally from Turkey. The warrant also sought records about donations from Bay Atlantic University, a Washington, D.C., college whose founder is Turkish and is affiliated with a school

Mr. Adams visited when he went to Turkey as Brooklyn borough president in 2015.

The warrant, reviewed by The New York Times, indicated authorities were looking at whether the Turkish government or Turkish nationals funneled donations to Mr. Adams using a so-called straw donor scheme, in which the contributors listed were not the actual source of the money. The warrant also inquired about Mr. Adams’s campaign’s use of

New York City’s generous public matching program, in which New York City offers an eight-to-one match of the first $250 of a resident’s donation.

The federal authorities also sought evidence of whether any Adams campaign member provided any benefit to Turkey or the construction company in exchange for campaign donations.

The Turkish Consulate in Manhattan on Thursday.Credit…Sara Hylton for The New York Times

This is not the first time Mr. Adams or people in his orbit have attracted law enforcement scrutiny.

In September [2023], Eric Ulrich, Mr. Adams’s former buildings commissioner

and senior adviser, was indicted 

by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg,

on 16 felony charges, including counts of bribetaking and conspiracy.

[5/3/22, “Mayor Adams appoints Eric Ulrich as Dept. of Buildings Commissioner”]

In July, Mr. Bragg indicted six people, including a retired police inspector who once worked and socialized with Mr. Adams, on charges of conspiring to funnel illegal donations to the mayor’s 2021 campaign.

Separately, the city’s Department of Investigation was investigating the role of Timothy Pearson, one of the mayor’s closest advisers, in a violent altercation at a migrant center in Manhattan.

Mr. Adams has also had skirmishes with the law before becoming mayor. Soon after he was elected Brooklyn borough president, he organized an event to raise money for a new nonprofit, One Brooklyn, which had not yet registered with the state. The invitation list was based on donor rolls for nonprofits run by his predecessor, records show.

A city Department of Investigation inquiry concluded Mr. Adams and his nonprofit appeared to have improperly solicited funding from groups that either had or would soon have matters pending before his office. Mr. Adams’s office emphasized to investigators that the slip-ups had occurred early in his administration and promised to comply with the law going forward.

Earlier, while Mr. Adams was a New York state senator, the state inspector general found that he and other Senate Democrats had fraternized with lobbyists and accepted significant campaign contributions from people affiliated with contenders for a video lottery contract at Aqueduct Racetrack.

In response to a Times examination of his fund-raising record in 2021,

Mr. Adams attributed the scrutiny in part to his race.

“Black candidates for office are often held to a higher, unfair standard — especially those from lower-income backgrounds such as myself,” he said in a statement then. “No campaign of mine has ever been charged with a serious fund-raising violation, and no contribution has ever affected my decision-making as a public official.” He added: “I did not go from being a person that enforced the law to become one that breaks the law.”

Mr. Adams is not the first city mayor whose fund-raising has attracted federal scrutiny. In 2017, federal prosecutors examined episodes in which Bill de Blasio, who was then the mayor, or his surrogates sought donations from people seeking favors from the city, and then made inquiries to city agencies on their behalf.

In deciding not to bring charges, the acting United States attorney, Joon H. Kim, cited “the particular difficulty in proving criminal intent in corruption schemes where there is no evidence of personal profit.” Mr. de Blasio received a warning letter about those activities from the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board.”

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“William K. Rashbaum is a senior writer on the Metro desk, where he covers political and municipal corruption, courts, terrorism and law enforcement. He was a part of the team awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News. More about William K. Rashbaum

Dana Rubinstein is a reporter on the Metro desk covering New York City politics. Before joining The Times in 2020, she spent nine years at the publication now known as Politico New York. More about Dana Rubinstein

Michael Rothfeld is an investigative reporter on the Metro desk and co-author of the book “The Fixers.” He was part of a team at The Wall Street Journal that won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for stories about hush money deals made on behalf of Donald Trump and a federal investigation of the president’s personal lawyer. More about Michael Rothfeld”

“A version of this article appears in print on Nov. 11, 2023 of the New York edition with the headline: INQUIRY WIDENS AS F.B.I. SEIZES ADAMS’S PHONES.”

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Curtis Sliwa and Sid Rosenberg Recommend Pro Law and Order Candidates for New York City Council, final day to vote Tues., Nov. 7, 2023

Nov. 2, 2023, “Curtis and Sid’s List of Pro Law & Order Candidates for New York City Council,” WABCRadio.com

Among 12 recommendations:

Dist. 47, Ari Kagan

Dist. 19, Vickie Paladino

Dist. 22, Kelly Klingman

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Find my district

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Early voting ends 11/5/23, Election Day 11/7/23.

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51 districts and current office holders

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Map of 51 NY City Council districts

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Added: Two candidates in Queens districts are running on Animal Welfare Party line:

Kelly Klingman, dist. 22, Queens, is running on Republican Party, Conservative Party, and Animal Welfare Party lines in New York City Council elections to represent District 22.

Robert Holden dist. 30, Queens, is running on Democratic Party, Republican Party, Conservative Party, Medical Freedom Party, and Animal Welfare Party lines is running for re-election to the New York City Council to represent District 30.

 

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Illegal aliens leave miles of disease laden garbage near US border daily, destroy environment, animals die in agony from ingesting trash, Arizona border photos-April 2009

Filth, feces, disease, animals dying in agony, destruction of natural environment:



Image: “When a cow ingests a plastic bag, it can clog the stomach, and the animal usually dies in agony. These bags now blow across our borderlands like tumbleweeds….Courtesy of Warner Glenn. Glenn (right) and husband, Warner, struggle to remove a yellow plastic bag from the stomach of a butchered calf….The silence of the big environmental groups plays a role, too. They should be hollering from tallest buildings about border trash, but they aren’t. Making too much noise might turn off the open-borders liberals they rely on for donations.” 

4/2/2009, “Trashing Arizona,” TusconWeekly.com, Leo W. Banks (Alternate link)



Above, “This trash-filled wash is below Diablito Mountain, about 5 miles west of Interstate 19, southwest of Arivaca Junction. It is 21 miles north of the border at Nogales. The illegal aliens who dump their trash here have just emerged from the Tumacacori Highlands, which are also trashed out…. 

“Illegal immigrants dump tons of waste in the wilderness every day—and it’s devastating the environment…. 

Remember Robert Fulghum? He became famous in 1988 with a book called All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. It was a pop-culture hit, a little wise, a little goofy, one of those books that finds its moment, and bam! The whole country knows about it. I’ve been thinking about Kindergarten lately, and the trash dumped on our border lands by illegal aliens. The connection isn’t as tenuous as it might seem, and I’ll get to it in a moment, along with a modest proposal to deal with this huge problem. 

First, a question: Have you had your holy-smokes moment yet regarding our illegal-immigration crisis? If not, travel to Arizona’s border region, and go off-road to the game trails, mountain passes and grassland flats that make this area so magical. 

In many places, the magic is gone, lost beneath piles of garbage….The litter at Diablito, on state land, was so solid that you could walk a half-mile without your feet touching the sand…. 

If such a trip is impossible, look at the pictures accompanying this article. They should provide a jolt, a visual boot to the backside, after which you’ll proclaim, “Holy smokes! I had no idea!”
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Above: Rape tree: “Leo W. Banks – This rape tree, in the Altar Valley near Three Points, holds the undergarments of female border crossers. Coyotes sometimes rape their female clients in such remote desert locations, then hang their underwear from branches as a kind of trophy. The white structures on the mountain in the background are part of Kitt Peak Observatory.” 

Most people have no idea. These images should be beamed around the country so everyone can understand Arizona’s crucible. 

How much trash has been dropped since this invasion began? Try 24 million pounds, from the Colorado River to the New Mexico line [2007 estimate]. The federal Bureau of Land Management made that estimate in 2007 and called it conservative. The agency uses a formula of eight pounds of trash dropped per day, per person. 

Based on this, we can look at certain federal lands and understand the extent of the pileup. For example, at the peak of traffic in 2004 and 2005, the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge near Sasabe, southwest of Tucson, was getting 2,000 crossings a day, and that translates to 16,000 pounds of trash a day. 

In the early 2000s, the Tohono O’odham Reservation was getting 1,500 crossers daily and 12,000 pounds of trash. The tribe now has workers who march out several times a week to do cleanups, says Gary Olson, administrator of the tribe’s solid-waste program. Between September 2004 and December 2008, his workers removed 106 tons. 

But aren’t arrest numbers down? Fewer crossers mean less garbage, right?

Yes, although nobody should be jumping for joy. In the 262-mile-wide Tucson sector, the number of crossings has gone from ridiculous to merely intolerable. 

In 2005, sector agents made an average of 1,205 arrests a day. Last year [2008], the number was down to 870 daily—which translates to 7,000 pounds of trash. 

But remember: Those who get through outnumber arrests by at least 3-to-1. So the real figure is probably closer to 21,000 pounds dropped…every 24 hours.


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Above: “Leo W. Banks – Dozens of ugly dumpsites just like this one, in the Altar Valley, scar Arizona’s borderlands.” 

In the sheer numbers of people, this is a historic migration, far bigger than the 1848 California gold rush—and those grubby, gallant, greedy gold rushers also gave this land a good thrashing. 

As the conservation scientist Gary Nabhan tells me, the garbage being left behind today will scar our state’s landscape into the 22nd century. 

But there is good news, too. Serious cleanup efforts are underway. In January 2007, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality launched a cleanup campaign targeted at nonfederal lands within 100 kilometers of the border. Since then, working mainly with volunteers, the state’s Undocumented Migrant Waste Program has collected 56 tons of trash, in areas such as those along the Santa Cruz River near Tubac and Tumacacori, on ranches around Arivaca, and on private land near Douglas.

In December, ADEQ joined the Borderlands Management Task Force—a consortium that includes federal land managers, tribes and state agencies—to coordinate a border-wide Arizona cleanup. 

Its goals, according to Frank Zadroga, manager of Environmental Quality’s UDM waste program, include launching a Web site, probably by fall, which will serve as a one-stop data hub. It will also collect citizen tips about the location of dumps, which are being found in ever-more remote and sensitive areas. 

The Bureau of Land Management has been the major player in picking up garbage on the border since 2003. That year, the agency began its Southern Arizona Project, designed to fix the widespread environmental damage done by illegal aliens and drug smugglers. 

The agency doles out taxpayer cash—more than $5 million since 2003—to private and government groups to do this work, and trash collection is part of it. BLM spurs the pickup of about 230,000 pounds a year.

All of this signals hope. Pride of place and home is important, and the emphasis on volunteers brings together people who, even if they agree on nothing else, can agree that our borderlands should be restored to their pre-invasion beauty. 

Understand the difficulty of the task. The amount of trash still littering Arizona’s landscape tops by several times the amount that has been picked up, says Kathy Pedrick, who administers BLM’s project. 

In addition to being in remote areas, these dumpsites are also high-crime zones. After all, drug smugglers often use the same trails as people smugglers. The best routes into our country are bought, and the cartels don’t like anyone mucking around on land they’ve paid good money to control. 

Another problem: ADEQ officials say the sites can be contaminated with bio-hazardous waste. What else might be in these dumps? Are communicable diseases present?

The accompanying photograph to the left shows a site below Diablito Mountain, 5 miles west of Interstate 19 and 21 miles north of Nogales. Illegals reach this wash after emerging from the Tumacacori Mountains, which are also trashed out. The litter at Diablito, on state land, was so solid that you could walk a half-mile without your feet touching the sand. In border-speak, the site is called a layup. 

When illegals prepare to meet their pickup rides, they often drop everything to better squeeze into getaway vehicles. They switch from hiking clothes into street clothes, and off they go, to Los Angeles, Fargo, N.D., Lewiston, Maine, and everywhere in between. The majority of the trash is backpacks, clothing, food cans, toothpaste, toys, water bottles. 

But the Diablito site, like dozens of others, includes piles of human feces, tampons, medicines, syringes and even used condoms. 

“If a sick person discards a medicine bottle, anyone picking it up might be exposing himself,” says veterinarian Gary Thrasher, who travels the borderlands daily in his work. “You see guys joking around, picking up clothes and hats from these dumps and wearing them. I don’t know what they’re thinking. People are coming across from down in southern Mexico, and there are lots of problems you can run into, including cholera.” 

The health risk makes land managers leery of using volunteer cleanup crews, says Keith Graves, former Coronado National Forest district ranger in Nogales, and now the border liaison between the forest and the Secure Border Initiative. 

“It’s hard to find volunteers we feel comfortable with,” he says. “We have them sign agreements, and that basically makes them federal employees. So if they get injured, we pay for it. We can’t control what they pick up.” 

Some blame the Border Patrol for pushing illegals, and therefore trash, farther out into previously undisturbed land.

That has happened on national forest land and on Tohono O’odham land, where illegals, because of increased enforcement, spend more time and probably drop more trash....

Olson acknowledges the trade-off, but says he’s grateful for Border Patrol help, which—coupled with a declining economy [as of 2009]—has brought the number of crossings on the reservation down to an estimated 200 to 300 a day.
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Even so, on the reservation and elsewhere, we’re still talking about lots of people and vehicles. Smugglers load trucks with people or drugs and drive into the country, destroying vegetation and natural springs, and causing serious erosion. On some of our borderlands, enforcement has cut down these drive-throughs. 

Officials in the Buenos Aires, for example, used to find 100 smuggler vehicles a year on its land. But manager Mike Hawkes says new fencing has cut that number dramatically. “Last year, we had one,” he says. Those vehicles, when abandoned, become a form of litter. 

But the problem hasn’t been eliminated, and much damage has already been done—in the introduction of non=native seeds, especially buffelgrass. (See “State of the Desert,” March 5.) It is widespread in Sonora and enters our country on the wind, on water and on the clothing of the millions of illegals who’ve already passed through our deserts. It also enters on the tires of smuggler vehicles. The seeds drop in the desert, germinate and grow rapidly. Buffelgrass forces native plants to compete for moisture and space, and it has introduced fire as a major player in the Sonoran Desert. 

In the past, fires rarely produced big blazes in the desert. But today, if illegals don’t extinguish their cook fire, or they set a fire to distract law enforcement and then abandon it—two common events—the result can be a runaway fire fueled by buffelgrass. These fires kill plants and trees that set up the desert’s entire regeneration process, and the potential impact is huge. 

“We have preliminary evidence that fire changes the whole structure of desert habitats,” says Nabhan, now with UA’s Southwest Center. “Once a fire moves through, it knocks back the nurse trees and permanently alters the desert’s capacity to heal itself. 

“This isn’t hypothetical. We’re seeing it from Hermosillo, Mexico, north in a million places.” 

Prowling these border dumps provides the equivalent of a graduate-level seminar on what illegal immigration really is, and as importantly, what it’s not. No critical national issue attracts more lame thinking, a good example being the woman who told the Douglas Dispatch in January that border trash tells stories of “hardship and hope.” A visitor from Iowa, she ventured out with a church group to help ADEQ in a cleanup. 

I admire her civic spirit. But she’s delusional. The hardship is mostly self-imposed, and there is no hope in garbage. 

We know the crossers are a religious bunch, because of the Catholic medallions, statues and Bibles they drop, and we know they’re superstitious. The litter almost always includes garlic cloves: Illegals hang them from backpacks in the false belief that the scent will keep rattlesnakes away from their campsites. 

Some call illegal aliens “undocumented,” but the truth is they have documents falling out of their pockets, literally. Examine the ground, and you’ll find driver’s licenses, birth certificates and passports, most of them forged. 

From the Pokémon backpacks, diapers and infant formula, we know the crossers include children. But their debris is often mixed with tequila bottles and pornography. Another item sure to boil the blood: Spanish-language books advising illegals on their rights in the United States. 

Less common–but surprisingly present–is evidence that our border has become an international crossing. 

As I’ve reported previously in these pages, we know Arabs are coming, from the discovery of three prayer rugs near Douglas and an Arabic diary inside a backpack in Hereford. In 2004, a rancher west of Fort Huachuca answered his door to greet a female illegal wanting to use the phone. The call was to Libya. 

A while back, I got an e-mail about a pair of Russian night-vision goggles found near Sonoita. Best guess? They were probably left by drug smugglers. Anna Magoffin and her husband, Matt, who live east of Douglas, found a scarf marked with the word Kaibil—the name of Guatemala’s special forces. The Border Patrol has found machetes and brass knuckles at border dumps, as well as a bulletproof vest more sophisticated than what our troops in Iraq use. The vest, pictured here, is strong enough to repel multiple rifle shots.

Agents also collect statues and necklaces honoring Mexico’s legendary narco saint, Jesus Malverde. Drug dealers pray to him before bringing their poison into our country. They’re helped by scouts hiding out on mountain tops. At one such lookout, agents found a two-way radio powered by a motorcycle battery, and this, in turn, was rigged to a solar panel the size of a computer screen. 

Consider, too, the ugly reality of the rape tree, often found at dump sites. The coyotes who lead groups into the country will sometimes peel a woman out of the group, rape her and hang her panties from a tree as a kind of trophy. The rape tree pictured here [above] was part of a massive dump in the heavily trafficked Altar Valley. 

As the Border Patrol’s Mike Scioli says, the underwear is a message to the next coyote coming along—who is, after all, a co-worker of the first one.

“It’s like saying, ‘Look what I did, guys. Now let’s see what you can do,'” says Scioli.

But a site as big as the one pictured [above] might contain anything. This one also had strips of burlap used to wrap marijuana bundles, black masks with holes for the eyes and mouth, and a day planner listing a series of phone numbers, including one for coyote Rosa Lima [below].
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Above: “Leo W. Banks – The person who dropped this notebook in the Altar Valley might’ve been guided into the country by coyote Rosa Lima, whose name appears on its pages.” 

When I ask land managers and ecologists about the impact of this trash on wildlife, on water quality, on our deserts overall, the answers are hedging and elusive, with good reason: Little hard research has been done. “I know everybody is worried about it, but nobody has really studied it,” says Thrasher. 

It probably won’t be studied in the near future, either. The reason, in part, says Nabhan, is our government’s [alleged] emphasis on security, which has made it difficult to actually get to the border. He used to walk from Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, in Southwest Arizona, into Sonora to work. 

“If you want to do that now, Homeland Security sends your passport back to Washington,” Nabhan says. “Our ability to work on the border has really been knocked back. Even if you get a permit,

 it’s dangerous to be out there.” 

The agency that would do such studies, the Arizona Game and Fish Department, has not done them because of the danger. “We haven’t looked at these questions directly, mostly because we’re afraid to put our biologists into these areas,“ says Gabriel Paz, a law enforcement program manager for Game and Fish.

“There are too many border bandits.” 

But the silence of the big environmental groups plays a role, too. They should be hollering from tallest buildings about border trash, but they aren’t. Making too much noise might turn off the open-borders liberals they rely on for donations. However, many individual environmentalists have done great work as volunteers, through hiking clubs, hunting clubs and other organizations, to clean up the messes.  

So politics and the border war conspire to keep us in the dark on border trash. 

But scientists know any omnivore that smells food will poke around in it, which explains why garbage has been found in the stomachs of bears and deer.“We know wildlife is chewing on this stuff, but we don’t know the effects,” says Darrell Tersey, natural resources specialist at Ironwood Forest National Monument, north and west of metro Tucson. 

In one case, though, the effects are not in doubt: When a cow ingests a plastic bag, it can clog the stomach, and the animal usually dies in agony. These bags now blow across our borderlands like tumbleweed. 

 

Last fall, Wendy and Warner Glenn found a sick calf on their ranch near Douglas. It was standing with its forehead against a tree, grinding its teeth in terrible stomach pain. The vet, unsure what was wrong, primarily treated the animal for the pain, after which the Glenns brought it home. 

But when they went out to the corral the next morning, the calf was dead. Wendy and Warner butchered the animal to learn the cause and discovered a yellow plastic bag blocking portions of its stomach. “It could’ve been suffering for several days before we found it,” says Wendy. 

Cattle also eat clothes. “I’ve seen cattle eating clothing to get the salts, and gone back later and found the cow dead,” says Keith Graves. 

The desert tortoise is particularly susceptible to the ill effects of alien trash. These critters live in rocky wash banks heavy with vegetation and shade, the same areas where illegals lay up. And the tortoises are slow to reproduce, meaning any knock-back in its population will take a long time to replenish. 

Officials at the Ironwood—where 3,000 pounds of trash a year are removed, some left by local citizens—suspected such a population decline and studied the question in 2002. Results were inconclusive. But the authors cited the observation of a longtime resident who has seen fewer tortoises since illegals began using the area in such big numbers. 

This fellow also has encountered aliens carrying desert tortoises, and so have staffers at the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, both in Southwest Arizona. The reason? Probably to cook and eat. 

Curt McCasland, manager at the Cabeza, says they’ve also found the shells of five tortoises among the litter at trash dumps. “We don’t know if the trash killed the tortoises, or if the migrants consumed the tortoises,” says McCasland. “We’re not sure what’s happening. We’re too busy monitoring the impacts of illegal immigration on our wilderness areas and haven’t had time or money to study tortoises.” 

As for the water supply, it would seem to be especially vulnerable, because these trash dumps are often found at water sources. Some ranchers have reported their wells are contaminated with fecal bacteria, likely the result of so many illegal aliens defecating near water sources. But this issue, too, needs more study.

On national forest land, says Graves, the contamination of wells is less of an issue than the fouling of drinking water for wildlife, such as at open stock tanks. “The contamination there is very high,” he says. Open stock tanks are pits in the ground, usually associated with a stream system. Illegals and animals gather at the tanks and defecate, and when it rains, the waste gets into the tanks, creating sewage-like conditions in summertime. 

“If you fill a water bottle at one of these tanks, it has more protein in it than a protein shake because of the animal and human fecal matter,” says Graves. 

There’s one additional issue these dumpsites clarify: Illegal immigration into Arizona is just a vast border-area problem, correct? 

Not even close. A lot of the trash pickup at the Ironwood takes place on trails threading around Silverbell Mine, 75 miles north of the line. BLM has cleaned alien layups in metro Phoenix and, incredibly, in the Agua Fria National Monument, 40 miles north of central Phoenix. 

Illegal alien trash dumps can also be found within the Tucson city limits. Want to see one? Drive east from downtown on Interstate 10, exit at Wilmot Road, and turn left. Follow Wilmot for 1.4 miles; turn left onto the dirt path, park and follow the garbage. 

Some of it, on the fringes, is urban trash left by nearby residents. But if you walk back toward the interstate, or west toward the Pima Air and Space Museum, the ground overflows with clothes, backpacks, water bottles and plastic trash bags, which illegals use as raincoats. 

When groups hole up here waiting for their pickup rides, they’re aided by locals who make money delivering food and drinks. The evidence is all over the ground, in discarded pizza boxes, Kentucky Fried Chicken tubs and soft-drink containers. The area looks as if it has been carpet-bombed. 

The challenge now is not just to maintain cleanup efforts, but to intensify them. It’s necessary, because the illegals are still coming, and we can even expect the flow to pick up in the future, thanks to two decisions by Democratic leaders in Washington, D.C., regarding the E-Verify program. This Internet system, which checks information from a prospective worker against data from the Social Security Administration, is the fairest, most effective method employers have of ensuring that new hires are legally OK to work in the United States.

But President Obama, who supported E-Verify while campaigning, and the Democrats stripped E-Verify from the stimulus package, meaning companies getting stimulus money aren’t required to use the system. 

Funding for E-Verify runs out in September [2009]. Anyone want to guess whether the Democrats will reauthorize it? Don’t bet on it. 

The message this sends is obvious: If you’re living here illegally now and need work, or are considering jumping the border tomorrow to find work, the gringos are again winking at their own laws. When the economy picks up, expect crossings to pick up, too, with all of the attendant troubles, including more trash. 

But restoring our borderlands, our beloved home, is not impossible. It will take work and persistence, as well as an appreciation of one undeniable, timeless and ultimately redemptive premise: If you drop something, you should pick it up. 

The Border Patrol has agents keep garbage bags in their vehicles, and after making arrests at a layup, they sometimes hand the bags to the illegals and tell them to get busy. It’s a great idea. But the concept needs an expansion, and that dovetails nicely with my proposal: Every day, near heavily crossed areas, the Border Patrol keeps buses ready to haul away the day’s arrest harvest. The illegals are processed through law-enforcement computers and often pushed back into Mexico. Before doing that, shouldn’t we put them to work? With the buses already there, it wouldn’t require a huge effort to 

force them to clean up their own mess. 

It’s one of the bits of wisdom that made Fulghum’s book a hit: All we need are trash bags, stick-spears and the proper amount of righteous indignation. It’ll make kindergarten teachers everywhere smile.”
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Added: 

The largest population transfer on earth for two decades, 1990-2010, was from Mexico to the United States: 7.4 million, p. 23, pdf, Sept. 2016 UN report,  “International Migration Report 2015.” In the ten years from 1990-2000, US added 5 million Mexicans, 500,000 each year. In the ten years from 2000-2010, US added 2.4 million Mexicans, 240,000 each year. Total for 20 years, 1990-2010= 7.4 million.

 

 

 

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