You won't believe the progressive puppeteers behind the Ferguson protesters

The progressive playbook pretty much demands that the left fund activists and radicals and pass it off as good old grassroots organizing. So are you surprised to find out that Islamists, Communists, and anti-American activists are all uniting in Ferguson? And - shock of shocks - George Soros himself has funded groups in Ferguson through his Open Society Foundation. John Cardillo joined Glenn at the chalkboard to lay out all the connections no one else is reporting.

Watch a highlight of this segment below or sign up and watch the full thing on TheBlaze TV.

Glenn: All right, I want to reintroduce you to John Cardillo. He is a Blaze contributor, investigative blogger at JohnCardillo.com, President of PsyID, and we have had him on the show. You’ve been on the show several times, John, and I wanted to talk to you, because we reached out to you because what PsyID does is you look at…you can crunch the numbers on the Internet. You can look at Facebook and Twitter and everything else, and you can find original sources of things. You can find where the fires are burning and who started the fire.

John: Right. That’s a good way to put it, yes.

Glenn: Okay, so my question was radical Islamists, anti-Israel people, Communists, Socialists, will work together to destabilize Europe and the Western world, so now we’re looking at Ferguson. That fits into the Western world, and I wanted to know where is this push coming from, this anti-police push? Because I don’t believe that it’s actually ground, grassroots. So, I asked you to go in and look, who is starting the fire, and boy—

John: It’s interesting, isn’t it?

Glenn: It is.

John: Well, you’re right. It’s the Islamists. It’s the Communists. It’s the anti-Americans, and it’s funded by a guy we all know, George Soros.

Glenn: What a surprise.

John: To the tune of $33 million that we can find.

Glenn: Okay. So, tell me, take me through the chalkboard and show me what you found.

John: Okay, let’s walk through it.

Glenn: You started with the two main guys.

John: Started with two main guys, so the two main guys we started with was a guy named DeRay McKesson and a guy named Shaun King.

Glenn: Can I start here? #BlackLivesMatter and #HandsUpDontShoot, those are the two things that everybody knows.

John: Everyone knows them, two most predominant hashtags, used quite often by both of these guys. DeRay McKesson is an interesting guy, well-educated guy, Bowdoin graduate. He’s more of what I call third-generation social justice warrior. Let’s call him SJWIII.

Glenn: Okay.

John: So, he’s really vocal on social media, and he’s out there coordinating, conversing with all the usual suspects, now, most often with the sympathetic media, and I picked these four people in particular, Wesley Lowery, Charles Blow, Melissa Harris-Perry, Michael Eric Dyson. They have been about the most forward vocal when it comes to the Ferguson protests, the New York City protests, etc. So, let’s say they are fanning these flames down here. This guy, Shaun King, has become an absolute pro at using GoFundMe and Internet fundraising for the families. Unfortunately, there have been a lot of questions about where the money goes after he raises this money.

Glenn: Okay.

John: There have been some questions about certain families about Haiti earthquake relief all around Shaun King’s Internet fundraising efforts. One lawyer consistently comes out and defends him, but I haven’t seen a real audit done on any of this money, so it’s sort of a he said, she said at this point.

Glenn: Okay.

John: So, as you start digging a little deeper into these guys, some interesting things start to happen. I’m going to pop up to the top and show you how this all sort of connects. As all this stuff came to a head back in November, of all groups, SEIU, and I know you’ve spent a lot of time—

Glenn: I know them quite well.

John: You know them real well. SEIU sends out a press release encouraging everybody…now, I want to back up. You know how all these groups say we’re independent, we don’t work in concert with one another?

Glenn: Yes.

John: SEIU sends out a press release telling everybody to go to Al Sharpton’s National Action Network’s Get Out the Vote rally in Ferguson, Missouri. They even go so far as to link to NAN, the National Action Network, in the press release. So, the press release goes down. Who speaks at the National Action Network conference? Sure, Al Sharpton’s people do, but so does the son of Elijah Muhammad, the founder of the Nation of Islam.

Glenn: Wow.

John: In fact, he’s one of the keynote speakers. Let’s go back a little bit again. I find DeRay McKesson Tweeting at the beginning of this with this guy who has been in the news recently. This guy is a guy named John C. Muhammad.

Glenn: This is the guy who’s like in the government, the local government, right?

John: Yes, little town called Upland Park, Missouri, five miles from Ferguson, yeah, 4.8 miles from Ferguson. He called himself a city manager, city administrator. Today I saw him called a city clerk. It really doesn’t matter, because what’s really important about this guy is this guy alleged that it was a false flag, that the KKK shot the police officers in Ferguson.

Glenn: Right.

John: What’s even more interesting about this guy, and here’s where nuance becomes important, he Tweets in concert with Jeff City, @JeffCity NOI, in other words, at Jefferson City, Missouri, Nation of Islam’s official account. That in of itself, coincidental? Well, maybe, maybe not. He’s in the area. We know he’s a member of the Nation of Islam because he promotes a foundation founded by Elijah Muhammad. What became very interesting to me is when I started analyzing speeches Farrakhan recently made, one particularly inflammatory speech, Farrakhan was talking about teaching children how to throw Molotov cocktails at the police.

Glenn: I had heard that speech.

John: You heard that speech? Okay, in that speech, Farrakhan refers to Ferguson mistakenly as Jefferson, which put a light bulb off in my head that the Jeff City chapter of the Nation of Islam coordinating with this guy, why would he make the mistake unless he’s getting reports from that chapter on the unrest in Ferguson? So, now when you start to put all of this together, what starts to shake out becomes pretty scary, because it’s very well-organized in a truly professional political sense. You’ve got the National Action Network which has been incredibly effective as a political and PR wing, typically engaging in shakedown and smear.

Glenn: Uh huh.

John: You’ve got Nation of Islam which appears to be acting as the muscle, because they’re also bringing in elements of the new Black Panther party. You know, Malik Shabazz was one of their guys, Black Panther guy.

Glenn: Right.

John: And you’ve got the SEIU handling all the organization.

Glenn: Holy cow.

John: So, they find the people to get on the buses, National Action Network. They put the muscle to protect the people on the buses, and they actually find the buses and get them from point A to point B. So, now you’ve got a very concerted effort. You’ve got the social justice warriors on social media getting this message out exponentially further than these guys ever could’ve done on their own. Well, something really interesting happened.

Glenn: Okay, let me take a break because I want to hear the something interesting happens. Then I want you to take me to how do you know the 33 million from Soros and then the pro-Palestinian, because that is really playing a very big role. We’ll do that when we come back.

[BREAK]

Glenn: All right, let’s pick it right back up where you were. You said the interesting thing.

John: So, interesting and really quick, in December after that Get Out the Vote little meeting when these guys all spoke, there’s a rally in D.C. DeRay McKesson and his grassroots crew go there thinking they’re going to speak alongside everybody. Well, Al Sharpton says, “Not so fast. You’ve got to pay for VIP access,” because he’s getting a little bit more popular. Sharpton actually called security on these guys on the McKesson 3.0.

Glenn: That’s what’s happening.

John: And literally turns the mic off on the ones that are able to make it to the stage. So, there’s an interesting little rift now developing. Jesse Jackson is sort of hanging out the middle with the Rainbow Push Coalition. He’s…let’s call him a COO type for all of this right now.

Glenn The elder statesman of radicals.

John: Exactly, the elder statesman. Now, we know Soros is funding this because of his tax returns. We can find through two of his foundations. It’s the Open Societies Foundation and Drug Policy Alliance. We can see 33 million going into those that directly trickle down to this.

Glenn: Have you checked anything on Tides Foundation?

John: Not yet.

Glenn: Okay, can you look into that?

John: Certainly.

Glenn: Because the Tides Foundation I bet you has millions. Can you imagine if the Tea Party would have ever, ever, total would have received $33 million, what it could have done? That’s enormous amounts of money.

John: But remember, Glenn, this is 33 million we know of from the hundreds of millions that have come in.

Glenn: From the one guy.

John: From one guy.

Glenn: Yeah.

John: I mean, Tides is on the list. I just couldn’t get to it. The voluminous information, by the time I had to get here to Dallas, I just couldn’t push through it all.

Glenn: Okay.

John: Okay, so now here again for the sinister angle of it all, so we know all these players, all pretty bad guys in their own right. Enter the pro-Palestinian group. Now, you’ve got a journalist, Rania Khalek.

Glenn: From where?

John: She’s just a pro-Palestinian journalist about the world.

Glenn: Okay, freelancer.

John: Yeah, exactly, freelancer. This guy, Bassem Masri, who’s another just sort of agitator, civil unrest kind of guy, pro-Palestinian, and Method Man from the Wu-Tang Clan, which I did not realize had a song back, way back when they were popular called PLO Style.

Glenn: Oh yeah.

John: Yeah, and so she believes that the shots were actually aimed at the protesters, that this is all nonsense.

Glenn: Last week’s shots.

John: Last week’s shots, that those cops were hit by accident. He, like this guy, Muhammad, believes that it was false flag, believes that white supremacists or the KKK shot the cops to blame the protesters. Method Man says, “Too bad, cops. You reap what you sow.” All three of them tie back and say but this is just like the poor Palestinians, meaning all that aggression from those evil Israelis.

Glenn: Zionist evil, Jewish plot.

John: Zionist evil, Jewish plot, and they’re behind this. In reality, what appears to be happening, my law enforcement sources, intelligence sources, feel it’s information and intelligence sharing. They’re learning from what’s going on in Gaza and other places how to create more unrest here, and these guys are learning from them how to take tactics used in the Middle East and bring them to Ferguson.

Glenn: John, how hard was this to find?

John: Not hard to find, a little bit labor-intensive, but it’s out there. It’s out there.

Glenn: Okay, so come on back and have a seat. You have anything else?

John: No.

Glenn: Okay, come on back and have a seat. So, why isn’t anybody doing this?

John: Because they’re afraid to tell the story. They don’t want to tell it. It’s not politically correct. It doesn’t fit the narrative. It’s not a story that they want getting out. You’ve got New York Times and MSNBC on that board. They don’t want to tell that story.

Glenn: And the Washington Post.

John: And the Washington Post, I’m sorry, yes. They don’t want to show that their people are complicit in fanning those little flames down there.

Glenn: Okay, when I was out in Silicon Valley last week, they talked to me about how the world organizations are getting flatter and flatter and flatter. They said it’s really about the connections and how many people you can connect to. That’s what this is. That’s what SEIU, that’s why NAN and SEIU are so important, because they have all of those union people, okay?

John: Thousands and thousands and thousands.

Glenn: So, help me out. What should the average person do? Because the best way, I mean, especially with the way Facebook runs their algorithms. I’ve got people 3 million people on my Facebook page, but I can post this, and maybe only 350,000 of them will actually see this. Even though they like my page, they don’t see everything that I’ve done. So, what I’ve been trying to figure out is how do we get the information out more? How do we spread…those people who like my page, how do they get this information out and how do others make fatter connections?

John: I love Twitter as a tool for that. It’s hitting a broader audience in real time, and it’s hitting it with more frequency. You can constantly get this information out. TheBlaze Twitter is great. I pick up a lot of my news from TheBlaze Twitter, and I can pick up the evolution of a story throughout the day on TheBlaze Twitter. So, I think that’s an outstanding tool. I’m out there. People like myself, people like you, we’re out there Tweeting this all day long, and I think this is where the blogger army comes into play. When you’ve got thousands and thousands of like-minded bloggers each getting those few thousand people that hit their blogs, well, those few thousands turn into tens of millions eventually and if they’ve got a central repository of information like TheBlaze where they can get like-minded information and intelligence.

Glenn: So, for instance, we’re doing The Root special this week, and this week it’s on the armies of Armageddon. It covers kind of what we talked about at the beginning. Or this, I’d like you to go into another studio. We’re just going to take an iPhone and just have you do this yourself. We’ll put it up on our YouTube page, and I’ll Facebook it and everything else, Tweet it out tonight. Is there anything that our audience should do? When they see an important thing, is there anything they should do with those besides like them?

John: Tweet them, save them, Tweet them at you, Tweet them at TheBlaze, Tweet them at the people they know will spread that information, because when I see people out there doing something that they shouldn’t, @FBI, @CIA. Well, they’re not reading that. If you see something that is terror-centric or criminal-centric, make that phone call if you believe it really is, but if it’s something that’s just inflammatory and might imply civil unrest and there’s no imminent criminal threat, get it to a like-minded media personality. Currently you’re the only guy right now.

Glenn: Well, @Breitbart or @Drudge or @FOXNews, @Rush.

John: But FOX hasn’t run this as much as they should, and I’m a little disappointed in the way they’ve…Megyn Kelly’s done a great job.

Glenn: Megyn is really good.

John: Yeah, but some of the others haven’t. Michelle Malkin has done an awesome job.

Glenn: It’s the usual suspects. I mean, it really is the same group of people. Any indication of where this is going next? Any indication that this is gathering steam with anybody who’s real and not in this?

John: Well yeah, I mean, my fear based on the evolution that we’ve seen is that it is not a long leap for ISIS to get involved in this. I mean, you know this. You’ve covered Farrakhan over the years. How many billions did he take from Libya, directly and indirectly? He’s not going to be shy to take money from whoever is backing ISIS and help them get here. One threat…I know we’re short on time, and one thing I tell everyone to watch, prison converts to Islam.

Glenn: Yes.

John: Watch them. They’re a threat.

Glenn: We’ve been talking about that.

John: They’re here. Don’t watch the southern border. Watch prison. Watch parolees, probationers. They hate authority. They hate me and you, and they hate the government. These are dangerous guys to begin with.

Glenn: Okay, will you do me a favor, will you go back and look for the connections on that? I’ll do a whole show with you and also on Tides Foundation.

John: Absolutely.

The critical difference: Rights from the Creator, not the state

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

When politicians claim that rights flow from the state, they pave the way for tyranny.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) recently delivered a lecture that should alarm every American. During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, he argued that believing rights come from a Creator rather than government is the same belief held by Iran’s theocratic regime.

Kaine claimed that the principles underpinning Iran’s dictatorship — the same regime that persecutes Sunnis, Jews, Christians, and other minorities — are also the principles enshrined in our Declaration of Independence.

In America, rights belong to the individual. In Iran, rights serve the state.

That claim exposes either a profound misunderstanding or a reckless indifference to America’s founding. Rights do not come from government. They never did. They come from the Creator, as the Declaration of Independence proclaims without qualification. Jefferson didn’t hedge. Rights are unalienable — built into every human being.

This foundation stands worlds apart from Iran. Its leaders invoke God but grant rights only through clerical interpretation. Freedom of speech, property, religion, and even life itself depend on obedience to the ruling clerics. Step outside their dictates, and those so-called rights vanish.

This is not a trivial difference. It is the essence of liberty versus tyranny. In America, rights belong to the individual. The government’s role is to secure them, not define them. In Iran, rights serve the state. They empower rulers, not the people.

From Muhammad to Marx

The same confusion applies to Marxist regimes. The Soviet Union’s constitutions promised citizens rights — work, health care, education, freedom of speech — but always with fine print. If you spoke out against the party, those rights evaporated. If you practiced religion openly, you were charged with treason. Property and voting were allowed as long as they were filtered and controlled by the state — and could be revoked at any moment. Rights were conditional, granted through obedience.

Kaine seems to be advocating a similar approach — whether consciously or not. By claiming that natural rights are somehow comparable to sharia law, he ignores the critical distinction between inherent rights and conditional privileges. He dismisses the very principle that made America a beacon of freedom.

Jefferson and the founders understood this clearly. “We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights,” they wrote. No government, no cleric, no king can revoke them. They exist by virtue of humanity itself. The government exists to protect them, not ration them.

This is not a theological quibble. It is the entire basis of our government. Confuse the source of rights, and tyranny hides behind piety or ideology. The people are disempowered. Clerics, bureaucrats, or politicians become arbiters of what rights citizens may enjoy.

John Greim / Contributor | Getty Images

Gifts from God, not the state

Kaine’s statement reflects either a profound ignorance of this principle or an ideological bias that favors state power over individual liberty. Either way, Americans must recognize the danger. Understanding the origin of rights is not academic — it is the difference between freedom and submission, between the American experiment and theocratic or totalitarian rule.

Rights are not gifts from the state. They are gifts from God, secured by reason, protected by law, and defended by the people. Every American must understand this. Because when rights come from government instead of the Creator, freedom disappears.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

POLL: Is Gen Z’s anger over housing driving them toward socialism?

NurPhoto / Contributor | Getty Images

A recent poll conducted by Justin Haskins, a long-time friend of the show, has uncovered alarming trends among young Americans aged 18-39, revealing a generation grappling with deep frustrations over economic hardships, housing affordability, and a perceived rigged system that favors the wealthy, corporations, and older generations. While nearly half of these likely voters approve of President Trump, seeing him as an anti-establishment figure, over 70% support nationalizing major industries, such as healthcare, energy, and big tech, to promote "equity." Shockingly, 53% want a democratic socialist to win the 2028 presidential election, including a third of Trump voters and conservatives in this age group. Many cite skyrocketing housing costs, unfair taxation on the middle class, and a sense of being "stuck" or in crisis as driving forces, with 62% believing the economy is tilted against them and 55% backing laws to confiscate "excess wealth" like second homes or luxury items to help first-time buyers.

This blend of Trump support and socialist leanings suggests a volatile mix: admiration for disruptors who challenge the status quo, coupled with a desire for radical redistribution to address personal struggles. Yet, it raises profound questions about the roots of this discontent—Is it a failure of education on history's lessons about socialism's failures? Media indoctrination? Or genuine systemic barriers? And what does it portend for the nation’s trajectory—greater division, a shift toward authoritarian policies, or an opportunity for renewal through timeless values like hard work and individual responsibility?

Glenn wants to know what YOU think: Where do Gen Z's socialist sympathies come from? What does it mean for the future of America? Make your voice heard in the poll below:

Do you believe the Gen Z support for socialism comes from perceived economic frustrations like unaffordable housing and a rigged system favoring the wealthy and corporations?

Do you believe the Gen Z support for socialism, including many Trump supporters, is due to a lack of education about the historical failures of socialist systems?

Do you think that these poll results indicate a growing generational divide that could lead to more political instability and authoritarian tendencies in America's future?

Do you think that this poll implies that America's long-term stability relies on older generations teaching Gen Z and younger to prioritize self-reliance, free-market ideals, and personal accountability?

Do you think the Gen Z support for Trump is an opportunity for conservatives to win them over with anti-establishment reforms that preserve liberty?

Americans expose Supreme Court’s flag ruling as a failed relic

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

In a nation where the Stars and Stripes symbolize the blood-soaked sacrifices of our heroes, President Trump's executive order to crack down on flag desecration amid violent protests has ignited fierce debate. But in a recent poll, Glenn asked the tough question: Can Trump protect the Flag without TRAMPLING free speech? Glenn asked, and you answered—thousands weighed in on this pressing clash between free speech and sacred symbols.

The results paint a picture of resounding distrust toward institutional leniency. A staggering 85% of respondents support banning the burning of American flags when it incites violence or disturbs the peace, a bold rejection of the chaos we've seen from George Floyd riots to pro-Palestinian torchings. Meanwhile, 90% insist that protections for burning other flags—like Pride or foreign banners—should not be treated the same as Old Glory under the First Amendment, exposing the hypocrisy in equating our nation's emblem with fleeting symbols. And 82% believe the Supreme Court's Texas v. Johnson ruling, shielding flag burning as "symbolic speech," should not stand without revision—can the official story survive such resounding doubt from everyday Americans weary of government inaction?

Your verdict sends a thunderous message: In this divided era, the flag demands defense against those who exploit freedoms to sow disorder, without trampling the liberties it represents. It's a catastrophic failure of the establishment to ignore this groundswell.

Want to make your voice heard? Check out more polls HERE.

Labor Day EXPOSED: The Marxist roots you weren’t told about

JOSEPH PREZIOSO / Contributor | Getty Images

During your time off this holiday, remember the man who started it: Peter J. McGuire, a racist Marxist who co-founded America’s first socialist party.

Labor Day didn’t begin as a noble tribute to American workers. It began as a negotiation with ideological terrorists.

In the late 1800s, factory and mine conditions were brutal. Workers endured 12-to-15-hour days, often seven days a week, in filthy, dangerous environments. Wages were low, injuries went uncompensated, and benefits didn’t exist. Out of desperation, Americans turned to labor unions. Basic protections had to be fought for because none were guaranteed.

Labor Day wasn’t born out of gratitude. It was a political payoff to Marxist radicals who set trains ablaze and threatened national stability.

That era marked a seismic shift — much like today. The Industrial Revolution, like our current digital and political upheaval, left millions behind. And wherever people get left behind, Marxists see an opening.

A revolutionary wedge

This was Marxism’s moment.

Economic suffering created fertile ground for revolutionary agitation. Marxists, socialists, and anarchists stepped in to stoke class resentment. Their goal was to turn the downtrodden into a revolutionary class, tear down the existing system, and redistribute wealth by force.

Among the most influential agitators was Peter J. McGuire, a devout Irish Marxist from New York. In 1874, he co-founded the Social Democratic Workingmens Party of North America, the first Marxist political party in the United States. He was also a vice president of the American Federation of Labor, which would become the most powerful union in America.

McGuire’s mission wasn’t hidden. He wanted to transform the U.S. into a socialist nation through labor unions.

That mission soon found a useful symbol.

In the 1880s, labor leaders in Toronto invited McGuire to attend their annual labor festival. Inspired, he returned to New York and launched a similar parade on Sept. 5 — chosen because it fell halfway between Independence Day and Thanksgiving.

The first parade drew over 30,000 marchers who skipped work to hear speeches about eight-hour workdays and the alleged promise of Marxism. The parade caught on across the country.

Negotiating with radicals

By 1894, Labor Day had been adopted by 30 states. But the federal government had yet to make it a national holiday. A major strike changed everything.

In Pullman, Illinois, home of the Pullman railroad car company, tensions exploded. The economy tanked. George Pullman laid off hundreds of workers and slashed wages for those who remained — yet refused to lower the rent on company-owned homes.

That injustice opened the door for Marxist agitators to mobilize.

Sympathetic railroad workers joined the strike. Riots broke out. Hundreds of railcars were torched. Mail service was disrupted. The nation’s rail system ground to a halt.

President Grover Cleveland — under pressure in a midterm election year — panicked. He sent 12,000 federal troops to Chicago. Two strikers were killed in the resulting clashes.

With the crisis spiraling and Democrats desperate to avoid political fallout, Cleveland struck a deal. Within six days of breaking the strike, Congress rushed through legislation making Labor Day a federal holiday.

It was the first of many concessions Democrats would make to organized labor in exchange for political power.

What we really celebrated

Labor Day wasn’t born out of gratitude. It was a political payoff to Marxist radicals who set trains ablaze and threatened national stability.

Kean Collection / Staff | Getty Images

What we celebrated was a Canadian idea, brought to America by the founder of the American Socialist Party, endorsed by racially exclusionary unions, and made law by a president and Congress eager to save face.

It was the first of many bones thrown by the Democratic Party to union power brokers. And it marked the beginning of a long, costly compromise with ideologues who wanted to dismantle the American way of life — from the inside out.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.