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CA lawyer & wife of former "Save KPFA" board member Sarv Randhawa Gives Prayer For Trump

by repost
California lawyer and wife of former "Save KPFA" board member Sarv Randhawa an and "Save KPFA" supporter delivered Sikh prayer at GOP convention for Trump "California lawyer and wife of former "Save KPFA" board member supporter delivered Sikh prayer at GOP convention for Trump. He was a big supporter of Brian Edwards-Tiekert and the "Save KPFA" Cabal. This cabal also set up a separate privately run foundation to take over KPFA if Pacifica went bankrupt.
California lawyer and wife of former "Save KPFA" board member Sarv Randhawa an and "Save KPFA" supporter delivered Sikh prayer at GOP convention for Trump "California lawyer and wife of former "Save KPFA" board member supporter delivered Sikh prayer at GOP convention for Trump

Sarv Randhawa has a history of voting on the Pacifica National Board against transparency. Randhawa consistently voted to support the former Executive Director’s fight to stop Director’s Inspections, which is an “Absolute right” per the Bylaws and State law, Corporations Code section 6334. He was joined in these obstructions by the Justice & Unity faction that has control of the WBAI LSB and has almost destroyed WBAI, they need 90+ days of fund drive and they still don’t make their budget. After stalling for two years and threats of lawsuits to stop the obstruction, the former ED resigned and inspections discovered that over $65,000 worth of radio equipment was missing from WBAI. Democratic process and transparency or patronage and cronyism? Which side are you on? Randhawa consistently voted to delay Director’s Inspections. What “progressive” is against transparency?
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-republicans-harmeet-dhillon-20160719-snap-story.html
San Francisco lawyer Harmeet Dhillon delivered a Sikh prayer at the start of Tuesday's session of the Republican National Convention. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
Seema Mehta
When Harmeet Dhillon first ran for vice chairwoman of the California GOP, rivals whispered that the Indian-born Sikh would slaughter a goat at the lectern.

On Tuesday night, Dhillon opened the second night of the Republican National Convention by singing the invocation in Punjabi and then translating it into English.

It’s a first for the RNC. But it’s not the first time the 47-year-old San Francisco lawyer has upended expectations.

Born in Chandigarh, India, she emigrated with her parents to England and then to the Bronx, N.Y. Her father, an orthopedic surgeon, soon moved the family to rural Smithfield in central North Carolina.

Dhillon says she was an awkward, chubby child who didn’t fit in at school.


Republican National Convention 2016 live updates: Uneven mood as Donald Trump is officially nominated
“I had two long braids and a funny name and my mother didn’t dress me in fashionable clothes. I was not popular at all,” said Dhillon.

Now thin with long hair, she wore an Escada jacket and draped a silk navy-and-gold scarf over her long hair when she delivered the prayer Tuesday.

“Please give us the courage to make the right choices, to make common cause with those with whom we disagree, for the greater good of our nation,” she told the delegates.

She was raised as a devout Sikh. “I had a very religious upbringing at home. That was very central to my life from day one,” she recalled.

Her parents supported Republicans after they became naturalized U.S. citizens.

Their politics were driven in part by her father’s contempt for trial lawyers because of medical malpractice lawsuits.

But they also were formed by turmoil in India in the 1970s, when an insurgency in Punjab led to temple raids and attacks on some Sikhs.

Dhillon’s parents hosted fundraisers for Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), a conservative with strong views on foreign policy. He, in turn, spoke out against persecution of Sikhs.

Dhillon attended Dartmouth College, where she wrote for the college’s conservative paper, the Dartmouth Review, and ultimately was named editor.

In October 1988, the weekly made headlines when it published a satirical column likening the college president to Adolf Hitler, and the effects of his campus policies to the Holocaust.

A drawing on the next issue’s cover depicted the college president, who was Jewish, as Hitler.

As condemnation poured in, Dhillon, then editor in chief, denied in an interview with the New York Times that the column was anti-Semitic, saying critics were “trying to twist the issue to their own ends.”


Where California's GOP delegation ranks: a hotel at a water park 60 miles from the convention
She said the column sought to compare “liberal fascism” with other forms of fascism and was not meant to show “callous disregard” for the Holocaust.

''I'm very disturbed about the response to it,'' she said. ''I'm very surprised, very, very surprised.''

Dhillon went to law school at the University of Virginia and worked in New York City and London before she settled in San Francisco.

She grew active in Bay Area politics after hosting debate watch parties for President George W. Bush’s reelection campaign in 2004.

After becoming county party chair, she ran unsuccessfully for the state Assembly in 2008. She met her future husband, Sarv, during that campaign.

In 2013, Dhillon ran for vice chairwoman of the state GOP. Some Republicans castigated her for serving on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Bay Area chapter.

She says she got involved in the ACLU after some Sikhs were abused in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

But some of her opposition at the state GOP was blatantly racist.

Fliers at the convention called her a “Taj Mahal princess.” The goat slaughter rumors spread. The leader of a county GOP women’s group posted on Facebook that Dhillon was a Muslim who would defend beheadings. (The woman was reprimanded by the party and no longer holds the post.) Party leaders came to Dhillon’s defense and she won the election.

Since then, she has become the public face of the state GOP while the chairman, Jim Brulte, worked to rebuild its war chest.

“As she’s proven, she’s a rising star in the party and she’s also a sharp cookie and highly able,” said Charles Munger Jr., a major GOP donor.

“One has to distinguish, she was elected on her merits,” he added. “She got there in spite of being a woman, in spite of being Sikh. She’s the first woman vice chair in party history. There was no royal road paved for her.”


Dhillon also has sharp elbows.

“Harmeet is a very strong-willed personality and she has no problem whatsoever speaking her mind,” said Jon Fleischman, a conservative blogger. “I know I’m an acquired taste. I would submit she is as well.”

Others cite her acerbic wit. Brulte recalled a party fundraiser in 2013 where he saw a thin man receive an award for walking precincts.

"I said to the people at the table, ‘You see, when you walk precincts you lose weight,’" said Brulte, who is not svelte. Dhillon "spun around, looked at me and said, 'You should walk a few.'"

seema.mehta [at] latimes.com

More on Hernandez and Randhawa and their group and the Wellstone Endorsement Process
by Richard Phelps
Sunday Oct 22nd, 2006 10:55 PM
WELLSTONE MEMBERS and others, WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT WHO YOU HAVE ENDORSED FOR THE KPFA LOCAL STATION BOARD?

About three months ago, I and two other LSB members met with John Katz, Kathleen Lilley and Matthew Hallinan to discuss KPFA. We had heard that Sasha Lilley and others had come to you to build a slate to support some of the staff against the listener activists. During the discussion it became clear that much they had been told was not true. Our main concern was with your support of Sarv Randhawa and Mark Hernandez. We don’t know your other candidates.

Both of them vetoed a resolution on the consent calendar supporting the Berkeley Honda Strikers more than once. This was communicated to the trio we met with. Did they tell you this when they asked you to endorse them? At our meeting we were told in no uncertain terms that we would be allowed to speak to your organization prior to any endorsement. We never got a call? Seems more like DNC politics than Paul Wellstone or Pacifica, “Free Speech Radio”. Were they afraid of the facts, wouldn't get the endorsement if they heard from us?

Sarv Randhawa has a history of voting on the Pacifica National Board against transparency. Randhawa consistently voted to support the former Executive Director’s fight to stop Director’s Inspections, which is an “Absolute right” per the Bylaws and State law, Corporations Code section 6334. He was joined in these obstructions by the Justice & Unity faction that has control of the WBAI LSB and has almost destroyed WBAI, they need 90+ days of fund drive and they still don’t make their budget. After stalling for two years and threats of lawsuits to stop the obstruction, the former ED resigned and inspections discovered that over $65,000 worth of radio equipment was missing from WBAI. Democratic process and transparency or patronage and cronyism? Which side are you on? Randhawa consistently voted to delay Director’s Inspections. What “progressive” is against transparency?

On three separate occasions Randhawa has literally gotten in other board members faces at the end of meetings, nose to nose, and wouldn’t back off until several people yelled at him. The first was with La Varn Williams, a slender African-American, then I, and recently Max Blanchet. Max is from Haiti and during his response to Randhawa’s provocation the boy friend of one of Randhawa’s and Hernandez’s allies, Debbie Speer, KFCF Representative, yelled out at Max “are you Ton-Ton Macoute”, the secret police of Papa Doc. Max has lost relatives to them. The man who said it was white. Randhawa has never apologized for any of these provocations nor for the racist comment by his ally’s friend. Is this who progressive democrats want to support?

Randhawa and Hernandez both objected to having “one” listener activist, African-American Joe Wanzala, speak at a KPFA LSB Town Hall Meeting along with several entrenched staff (the people that came to you for help in forming a slate). How Pacifica is this. And apparently that is ok with the Wellstone Club since you didn’t want to hear the other side either before endorsing? Hernandez red baited me during that struggle: below is the e-mail copy from Hernandez. I have the original if anyone wants to see it. He also terrorist baited an Iranian-American during his first year on the LSB. This is not the only time Hernandez has red baited. Hernandez has never self-described as a “progressive”. Did anyone from your group talk to him about his Libertarian politics? The red baiting was reported to the trio we met with. Did they report this before you were asked to endorse?

“What's next? "Busloads of Commies" to keep regular listeners from
attending?” -mh-

Both Hernandez and Randhawa voted to excuse several absences of a staff LSB member long after he stopped working and they knew it. They did this to keep off a progressive Mexican-American activist who was entitled to the seat on the board and supports democratic process and transparency in opposition to them. When the absent member finally announced his resignation his attendance was 41%. He hadn’t been to a meeting since early January.

Hernandez, LSB Secretary, even went so far to protect that seat that he changed the minutes to give the missing member an excused absence when it was not excused. The altered minutes were discovered and changed back at a recent meeting. There is a motion pending before the LSB to remove Hernandez for this violation of trust and his duties as Secretary.


DO THE KPFA STAFF THAT CAME TO YOU WANT A DEMOCRATIC PROCESS?

The e-mail below was found at the station. It has been acknowledged as real by the author. I have contacted in person or by e-mail everyone but one on that strategy group to ask them if they were just recipients of an e-mail that discussed “dismantling the LSB” and other interesting topics or were they active participants and none of them have denied active involvement.

This e-mail was sent shortly after the LSB voted down a staff motion to fire the GM for sexual harassment. It was voted down 15-5. Four of the five votes for it were in this e-mail group. There was NO evidence of sexual harassment found after two separate investigations. It was a racist attempt to fire an African-American GM that wouldn’t toe their line. You will also notice that Brian Edwards-Tiekert, Bonnie Simmons, Rain Geesler and Sherry Gendelman are in this e-list. They are all endorsing the same slate you are endorsing! Their pushing for this unjust firing caused them to lose the majority on the LSB, thus the need for a strategic retreat. This e-mail gives one a view of what these folks really believe in and it isn’t democratic process. Sort of like a Pentagon Paper! Their view is “if we can’t run it let’s ruin it”


From:"Brian Edwards-Tiekert"
Yahoo! DomainKeys has confirmed that this message was sent by gmail.com. Learn more
To:"Lemlem Tekle" , "Bonnie Simmons" ,
LisaRothman [at] kpfa.org
CC:"Sasha Lilley" , "Lemlem Tekle" ,
mawu_mama37 [at] yahoo.com, "Amelia Gonzalez-Garcia" , Rain
Geesler" , "Sherry Gendelman" , "Gary
Niederhoff"
Subject:Re: budget
Date:Thu, 1 Sep 2005 20:58:28 -0700

I'm up for coffee Saturday—Lisa and I can still meet Tuesday afternoon. Also, we need a general strategy session. How about Tuesday night?

Issues include:

How should we be handling the expiration of the union contract—is a strike in order, or is it a really terrible idea?

What's the best way to deal with these layoffs?

Coming up with, and presenting, an alternative budget.

Getting the Roy issue to the national board.

Propping up staff morale.

Strategic retreat on the LSB—how do we make our enemies own the problems that are to come? Alternatively, should we be recalling LSB members/dismantling the LSB?

Dealing with the grievances underway.

Building community support—formation of a labor-community coalition.



--
Brian Edwards-Tiekert
Staff Representative, Local Station Board
KPFA 94.1FM
1929 Martin Luther King Jr. Way
Berkeley CA 94704
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