Sex-trafficking website funds Democrat campaigns

On Sunday, the Washington, DC, press reported on the following story:

After California’s then-Attorney General Kamala D. Harris announced felony pimping charges last year against the two owners of Backpage.com — a classified-ad website that is a hub for sex trafficking and prostitution, one of the men cut a $10,000 check to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s super PAC.

Mrs. Pelosi’s political action committee, House Majority PAC, has resisted giving the money back, and an aide to Mrs. Pelosi said the California Democrat knows nothing about the contribution.

The uproar over sexual harassment that began with the Harvey Weinstein scandal has intensified the scrutiny of political contributions linked to Backpage, which law enforcement officials say is the chief platform for activities far worse than harassment, including sexual slavery and child prostitution.

Mrs. Pelosi isn’t the only Democrat struggling to deal with the piles of cash that Backpage’s owners spread around to candidates and state Democratic parties over the years.

Even Ms. Harris, a California Democrat who is now a U.S. senator, ducked the issue. Her office wouldn’t respond to repeated emails about Backpage money going to House Majority PAC and other Democratic organizations.

Since 2010, the owners and their wives have shoveled about $99,000 to candidates and about $95,000 to Democratic parties in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, according to federal campaign finance data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Bowing to mounting pressure, including a bipartisan Senate investigation that found the owners knowingly sold ads to pimps who coerced minors into prostitution, Backpage in January closed down its adult services sections.

The websites, however, continue to be marketplaces for the sex trade.

Read more at: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/dec/17/nancy-pelosis-super-pac-keeps-donations-from-backp/

For too many children, their road into modern slavery began on the Internet.

According to the U.S. Justice Department, as many as 300,000 Americans under 18 are lured into the commercial sex trade every year.  The Internet is the vehicle for 76 percent of the transactions for sex with underage girls. 

The average victim is between 11 and 14 years old.  These victims come from all walks of life -- from every race, social, and economic background.

The problem is made worse by America's fluid borders.  According to the United Nations (UNICEF), 2 million children are trafficked in the global prostitution trade. The U.S. State Department reports that from 600,000 to 800,000 people (mainly women and children) are bought and sold across international borders every year and exploited for slave labor and prostitution.

Human Trafficking has surpassed the sale of illegal arms and is set to surpass the illegal sale of drugs.  The FBI reports that human trafficking is on the rise in all 50 states and represents a multi-billion dollar criminal industry. 

New Jersey is a "hub for human trafficking," according to assistant New Jersey Attorney General Tracy M. Thompson.  "We are easily accessible via Interstate 95, and the proximity to major tourist destinations like Atlantic City and New York City makes us more vulnerable and susceptible," she said. "Our diversity is what makes it so great to be part of this state, but traffickers prey on (people of) their own ethnicity. It makes is so hard for law enforcement to penetrate these activities."

In September, 14 people were arrested in a child-porn and human trafficking operation in Monmouth County.  In October , the FBI announced that it had uncovered and arrested 42 child sex traffickers in New Jersey.  The Star-Ledger reported that the 42 were arrested on charges that included sex trafficking, child exploitation and prostitution.  A total of 84 children were rescued during the operation.  At the beginning of December, 79 suspects were arrested on a host of charges that included sexual assault, using the Internet to send inappropriate images to children, and child pornography. 

And with schools requiring young students to have access to the Internet, it is no longer about the parent.  The government-run education system supplants the parents and requiresthe child to be connected to the Internet.  For many children, it's like requiring them to walk to and from school on a dangerous, traffic-filled highway.

There is legislation that addresses this growing criminal enterprise aimed at our children.  It is a bill championed by Republican State Senator Steve Oroho, and it has attracted substantial bi-partisan support.

The bill is called the Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Prevention Act (S-2928).  And it offers a constitutional way to prevent predators from using the Internet to sexually exploit children.  It requires that those who sell products and services that allow children to access the Internet make their products safe from human traffickers engaged in the modern slave trade.  It is supported by Thorn, an anti-human trafficking group that uses technology to defeat child sex traffickers.

Despite having enough legislators committed to passing this legislation -- either as co-sponsors or supporters, the Democrats who run both chambers of the Legislature have held up passage.  They are listening to objections from the porn industry, who have adopted a "no questions asked" attitude on where their profits come from.  Porn is legal and the corporations who profit from it and their allies are the enablers of human trafficking.

The enablers of human trafficking know that S-2928 has enough votes to pass the Legislature and be signed into law by Republican Governor Chris Christie.  They want to run out the clock until Democrat Phil Murphy takes office on January 16, 2018.  Then the legislative books will be closed and the process will need to start all over again, under a Governor who has not expressed support for S-2928.

The holidays are here.  Christmas is coming.  Right now, in cities and towns across America, anti-human trafficking activists are working to rescue children who were lured into a life of slavery through the Internet.  They are hoping to reunite them with their families in time for Christmas. 

Think of how you would feel at this time of year if your child was in the hands of human traffickers.  Wouldn't you want her back?  Wouldn't you want to hold her?  Wouldn't you want to break the nexus that makes such slavery possible?

Every Democrat politician who sides with human trafficking and puts profits ahead of enslaved children needs to be held to account.   They need to be asked why they are standing with the slavers and against the victims of slavery. 

Christmas Appeal: End Human Trafficking of Children

We have until January 8th to make this happen!

For the victims of human trafficking who will spend this Christmas in the nightmare of sexual slavery, time is running out. Please, help them.

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Christmas Appeal:
End Human Trafficking of Children

For too many children, their road into modern slavery began on the Internet.

According to the U.S. Justice Department, as many as 300,000 Americans under 18 are lured into the commercial sex trade every year. The Internet is the vehicle for 76 percent of the transactions for sex with underage girls.

The average victim is between 11 and 14 years old. These victims come from all walks of life -- from every race, social, and economic background.

The problem is made worse by America's fluid borders. According to the United Nations (UNICEF), 2 million children are trafficked in the global prostitution trade. The U.S. State Department reports that from 600,000 to 800,000 people (mainly women and children) are bought and sold across international borders every year and exploited for slave labor and prostitution.

Human Trafficking has surpassed the sale of illegal arms and is set to surpass the illegal sale of drugs. The FBI reports that human trafficking is on the rise in all 50 states and represents a multi-billion dollar criminal industry.

New Jersey is a "hub for human trafficking," according to assistant New Jersey Attorney General Tracy M. Thompson. "We are easily accessible via Interstate 95, and the proximity to major tourist destinations like Atlantic City and New York City makes us more vulnerable and susceptible," she said. "Our diversity is what makes it so great to be part of this state, but traffickers prey on (people of) their own ethnicity. It makes is so hard for law enforcement to penetrate these activities."

YOU CAN END HUMAN TRAFFICKING OF CHILDREN NOW

In September, 14 people were arrested in a child-porn and human trafficking operation in Monmouth County. In October, the FBI announced that it had uncovered and arrested 42 child sex traffickers in New Jersey. The Star-Ledger reported that the 42 were arrested on charges that included sex trafficking, child exploitation and prostitution. A total of 84 children were rescued during the operation. At the beginning of December, 79 suspects were arrested on a host of charges that included sexual assault, using the Internet to send inappropriate images to children, and child pornography.

So why are the manufacturers of products and services that provide access to the Internet refusing to take responsibility for what they sell?

Every other producer of a product or service is held to account for what they sell. You can't sell an automobile to an 11-year-old, hand her the keys, and let her drive off the lot.

And with schools requiring young students to have access to the Internet, it is no longer about the parent. The government-run education system supplants the parents and requires the child to be connected to the Internet. For many children, it's like requiring them to walk to and from school on a dangerous, traffic-filled highway.

There is legislation that changes this and makes the corporations responsible for the products and services they sell. It is a bill championed by Republican State Senator Steve Oroho, and it has attracted substantial bi-partisan support.

The bill is called the Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Prevention Act (S-2928). And it offers a constitutional way to prevent predators from using the Internet to sexually exploit children. It requires that those who sell products and services that allow children to access the Internet make their products safe from human traffickers engaged in the modern slave trade. It is supported by Thorn, an anti-human trafficking group that uses technology to defeat child sex traffickers.

Please make your tax-deductible donation by December31st for the fiscal year 2017

Despite having enough legislators committed to passing this legislation -- either as co-sponsors or supporters, the Democrats who run both chambers of the Legislature have held up passage. They are listening to objections from the porn industry, who have adopted a "no questions asked" attitude on where their profits come from. Porn is legal and the corporations who profit from it and their allies are the enablers of human trafficking.

The enablers of human trafficking know that S-2928 has enough votes to pass the Legislature and be signed into law by Republican Governor Chris Christie. They want to run out the clock until Democrat Phil Murphy takes office on January 16, 2018. Then the legislative books will be closed and the process will need to start all over again, under a Governor who has not expressed support for S-2928.

The holidays are here. Christmas is coming. Right now, in cities and towns across America, anti-human trafficking activists are working to rescue children who were lured into a life of slavery through the Internet. They are hoping to reunite them with their families in time for Christmas.

Think of how you would feel at this time of year if your child was in the hands of human traffickers. Wouldn't you want her back? Wouldn't you want to hold her? Wouldn't you want to break the nexus that makes such slavery possible?

We have a month to break the power of human trafficking and their enablers.

The human traffickers are counting on them to keep things the way they are. Can we count on you?

Your contribution to the Center for Garden State Families will be used to make sure that every legislator who sides with human trafficking and puts profits ahead of enslaved children is held to account. They will be forced to face the choice of standing with the slavers or with the victims of slavery. We trust that when faced with such a choice, they will do the right thing.

Can you please make your urgent contribution today?

How the Democrats turnout their people to vote.

2013 should have been a blow-out for the Democrats.  Republican Governor Chris Christie romped to victory by an impressive twenty-point margin.  And yet, the Democrats were able to hold on to their legislative majorities and Republicans failed to pick up a single seat in either the Senate or Assembly. 

The following year -- this time in Pennsylvania -- Republicans pulled off a similar feat, capturing 12 legislative seats from the Democrats while the Democrat candidate for Governor was coasting to a ten-point win.  How did they do it?

For some insight into how the Democrats held the Legislature in 2013 and to what Republicans should be doing this year with the possibility of a 2013 in reverse, we need only look to Legislative District 38 and how the Democrats held this seat in the wake of the 2013 Christie landslide.  In a February 2014 article written for Campaigns & Elections magazine, an associate with the political consulting firm, The Campaign Group, explained how they prevented SRM and ARV from capitalizing on the Christie landslide.

The Campaign Group is a Philadelphia-based media firm that has run advertising campaigns for Commerce Bank of New Jersey, Cooper University Hospital, Comcast, Rob Andrews for Congress, and John Adler for Congress.  The article sets the scene:

"In 2011, incumbent state Sen. Bob Gordon eked out the narrowest victory of any state senator, and 2013 promised to be even more competitive, particularly after Christie singled out Gordon for criticism. Voters in each New Jersey legislative district elect one state senator and two assembly members district wide, and both Democrats running for state Assembly in this district were relatively untested: Paramus Borough Council President Joe Lagana and first-term incumbent Assemblyman Tim Eustace, the first openly-gay person elected to an open seat in New Jersey. So it was clear that all three races would be hotly-contested."

The article goes on to helpfully explain that the Democrats  "were rightly concerned the lackluster campaign of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Barbara Buono could lead to decreased Democratic turnout that would sink their candidates."  So they resolved to do something about it by going back to their base:

"They convened focus groups in LD38 of Democrats who were not certain to vote in November’s election. If we could find out what would motivate them to turn out, despite the lack of a competitive gubernatorial campaign, we’d have a real shot at altering the turnout dynamic."

They launched an effort "independent of what the candidates were doing."  The field campaign connected with more than 11,000 voters and generated 803 vote-by-mail applications.  The article continues:

"Field Strategies identified a list of 2,300 households with voters believed to contain only rock-ribbed Democrats. These voters didn’t need to see our ads criticizing the Republican candidates, because there was no way there would vote for a Republican. But many of these voters were not particularly likely to vote in the November elections, so we wanted to build on the existing GOTV messages and use our TV buy to motivate them to get off their behinds and vote."

The trend in New Jersey over the last two decades has been to target fewer and fewer "likely" voters.  You've all heard those references to 4 of 4 voters and 3 of 4, and so on.  What these  Democrats did was to reach out to their "unlikely" voters and persuade them to "change their habits" and come out to vote.  It is what the Republican legislative campaign did in 2014 to produce a pick-up of 12 seats that year in the face of a gubernatorial defeat.

All this happened in 2013 and 2014.  Pennsylvania Republicans used it again in 2016 to pad that "blue" state's Republican legislative majorities -- giving them a 34 to 16 Republican majority in the State Senate, and a 121 to 82 Republican majority in the State House of Representatives.  In contrast, New Jersey Republicans ignored their conservative base in 2015 -- and lost legislative seats.

This year marks yet another in which the lessons of 2013 have not been applied.  Movement conservatives were not called upon until very late in the campaign and at this point, with less than two weeks to election day, have still not been fully mobilized.  In contrast, in 2013 the Democrats had all their base's issues groups activated and with marching orders to begin their voter turnout operation nine weeks prior to election day. 

In Pennsylvania, conservative grassroots activists are part of the party's bloodstream and issues groups form a sharp-pointed "irregular" militia working in general concert with the GOP "regulars."  This has been resisted in New Jersey and, sadly, the prospects for 2017 appear headed for a repeat of 2013 and 2015 -- except with the added sadness that the gubernatorial campaign may be blamed and no lessons learned.

But fight on while the fight is still going.  There is time enough still.