The Red Tide is Turning

The New York Daily News allowed liberal commentator Bill Press (who is currently a blogger on the Huffington Post) to foam at the mouth in its editorial column about Glenn Beck’s one-man crusade against George Soros and the Tides Foundation.

It seems a man was arrested in Oakland, Calif., after a shoot-out with police. Byron Williams claimed he was on his way to assassinate the board of directors of the Tides Foundation for conspiring with Soros and Pres. Obama (with the help of oil services company Halliburton) to blow up the BP platform in the Gulf of Mexico.

Press hacks away at what he calls a “bizarre” theory that Soros invested a $1 billion in Petrobras (which he did), in addition to the $2 billion the U.S. had loaned to Brazil for ultra-deep water drilling exploration (that’s taxpayer money). Then, the United States hired the evil Halliburton to sabotage the well so that Obama could justify cap and trade and the rest of his environmental hokum.

He further claims that the Tides Foundation is a little-known non-profit organization. Hard to believe that the left-leaning Press never heard of them.  Maybe if the papers like the Daily News did a better job of reporting the news objectively than promoting their favorite candidates and causes, people would have heard of the Tides Foundation.

Tides' mission is:  … to partner with philanthropists, foundations, activists, and organizations across the country and across the globe to promote economic justice, robust democratic processes, and the opportunity to live in a healthy and sustainable environment where human rights are preserved and protected.

We offer an array of services to simplify and amplify your efforts. From donor advised funds to fiscal sponsorship, from green nonprofit centers to programmatic consulting, from grants management to risk management and more, Tides gives you the freedom to focus on the change you want to see.

Each Tides organization pursues a distinct yet related strategy to promote the Tides mission. Tides Foundation works with donors to increase and organize resources for positive social change. Tides Center provides nonprofit management services to over 200 projects across the U.S. working to advance social change. Tides Shared Spaces operates and supports green nonprofit centers.

All these events are factual, common knowledge. But somehow, coming from Beck, the words are “poisonous.” Many notable left-wing politicians are in favor of making criticism of climate change illegal, including (among others) Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Press invokes Bill “I-never-had-sex-with-that-woman” Clinton to remind us that “the words we use really do matter.” According to Williams, “it was the things he exposed that really blew my mind.” Intones Press, “it’s no surprise that an unhinged person might decide to take matters into his own hands.”

Well, if Press is concerned about the impact of words on the “unhinged” and “delirious,” he might want to consider a few of these quotes from George Soros, himself:

“I Fancied Myself As Some Kind Of God.” “A passage in his book, The Alchemy of Finance, published in 1987, distinguishes Soros from all other financiers, ever. ‘I have always harboured an exaggerated view of my self-importance,’ he wrote. ‘To put it bluntly, I fancied myself as some kind of god or an economic reformer like Keynes, or, even better, like Einstein. My sense of reality was strong enough to make me realise that these expectations were excessive, and I kept them hidden as a guilty secret. This was a source of considerable unhappiness through much of my adult life. As I made my way in the world, reality came close enough to my fantasy to allow me to admit my secret, at least to myself. Needless to say, I feel much happier as a result.’”

Soros Admits To Delusions “Of Grandeur” and said that his “Goal is to become The Conscience Of The World.” “He [Soros] admits to what Kaufman calls ‘messianic’ ideals: ‘I have had these illusions, or perhaps delusions, of grandeur and they have driven me.’ He has also said that his ‘goal is to become the conscience of the world.’” (Anthony Gottlieb, “Who Wants To Be A Billionaire?” The New York Times, 3/3/02)

Soros: “So that’s what I’m all about. I am a kind of nut who wants to have an impact.” (Michael T. Kaufman, Soros: The Life And Times Of A Messianic Billionaire, 2002, p. 293)

Soros wrote that the September 11th terrorist attacks “could not have been more spectacular.” “Hijacking fully fueled airliners and using them as suicide bombs was an audacious idea, and its execution could not have been more spectacular.” (George Soros, “The Bubble of American Supremacy,” The Atlantic Monthly, 12/03)

Press claims that Beck has attacked Tides 29 times (is that all?) and “using his trademark blackboard” has accused Soros of using Tides to create “mass organizations to seize power.”

This should prove that Beck and the other right-wingers Press vilifies are crazy. Only Tides’ mission statement and Soros’ own eglomania prove that Beck & Company are absolutely right. They should lock Soros up in a padded room with Lex Luthor and throw away the key.