On Randall D. Smith, Alden Global Capital, The Great Commission, Extremism, + Independent News
Updated: 2 days ago
Randall D. Smith this friend is the man behind the curtain [S/O Hasan Menaj for the tip]
What do you think this former Christian Studies, Religious Author, + pastor-turned-investment banker found out during his time in the Middle East that caused him to pivot in this way? Something about the mark of the Beast perhaps? I'm just speculating here though.
For Context:
Debatably Ethical Business Practice by Randall D. Smith and the Tribune via The Nation:
- Why revelations about Alden’s acquisition of Tribune should force a do-over by Dan Kennedy
- An elegant, comprehensive takedown of how Alden pillages local newspapers by Dan Kennedy
-Can the union representing Tribune’s workers stop Alden Global Capital? by Dan Kennedy
-No, the Digital First approach to newspaper ownership is not defensible by Dan Kennedy
-The Denver Post is mad as hell and isn’t going to take it anymore. Will DFM care? by Dan Kennedy
-The rise and fall of Digital First; or, how to get rich plundering newspapers by Dan Kennedy
Randall owns Alden Global Capital with managing director Jason Pecora notably Forbes 'Top Millennial Advisors' of 2023 who owns > Pecora Capital.
The company operates its media holdings through Digital First Media (DFM), which it acquired in 2010 after DMG's parent company, MediaNews Group, declared bankruptcy. With its acquisition of Tribune Publishing in late May 2021, Alden is collectively the second-largest owner of newspapers in the United States, as calculated by average daily print circulation, second only to Gannett. In November 2021, Alden Global Capital made an offer to purchase Lee Enterprises for $24 a share in cash, or about $141 million. Lee owns daily newspapers in 77 markets in 26 states, and about 350 weekly and specialty publications. Newspapers in Alden's portfolio include Chicago Tribune, The Denver Post, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Boston Herald, The Mercury News, East Bay Times, The Orange County Register, and Orlando Sentinel. Alden has a reputation for sharply cutting costs by reducing the number of journalists working on its newspapers. In March 2018, Margaret Sullivan, the media columnist for The Washington Post, called Alden "one of the most ruthless of the corporate strip-miners seemingly intent on destroying local journalism." and Vanity Fair dubbed Alden the "grim reaper of American newspapers.
Alden Global Capital has ONE investment... the Chicago fucking Tribune. Wondering if there's a certain story they need to suppress?
Significant Numerology: 33 + 22
Alfred Family Press Partners
"Randy is a former president of the Society of American Business Writers and Editors (SABEW) and a recipient of the organization’s Distinguished Achievement Award. He played a major role in conceiving the idea and raising the money for the School’s SABEW endowed chair. He is the president and first non-family member of the board of the Alfred and Jean Friendly Foundation. He wrote the book A Kenyan Journey and has lectured in classes in China, Africa and the U.S. Throughout his career Randy Smith has helped promote young minority journalists, and he played a key role in getting Knight Ridder newspapers to adopt the Rotating Internship Program, which placed more than 250 journalists in newspapers during its 20-year run. As an editor, Randy worked with award-winning newsroom teams that earned the profession’s top awards and honors. One won a Pulitzer Prize in 1982 for coverage of the Kansas City Hyatt Hotel skywalks disaster in July 1981. Other staff recognitions include a Sigma Delta Chi award, an Eppy award, a Philip Meyer Award, 12 Missouri Press Association Gold Cups and a Nancy Dickerson Whitehead Award.
He graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism in 1974 and received the Mizzou Alumni Association’s highest recognition, the Faculty-Alumni Award, in 2005.
Randy and his wife Joyce have three children." Source: https://presspartners.org/about-us/board/randall-d-smith/
Christian Travel Study Program
"Dr. Randall Smith along with his wife, Dottie, are the founders of the Christian Travel Study Programs, Inc. developing travel programs around the Mediterranean for four decades. He travels much of the year outside the US, meeting groups in various countries and offering a “how does standing on this spot help you understand God’s Word better” approach to teaching history, archaeology and the Bible at the location of its original events. Randy has three grown children, each with children of their own, and loves to be a “Pop Pop” and spend time with the family." Source: https://christiantravelstudyprograms.net/meet-the-staff
Oyster Enterprises Acquisition Corp.
"Founder of Alden Global Capital LLC and RD Smith & Co., Randall D. Smith presently is Chairman of Oyster Enterprises Acquisition Corp. and Chief of Investments at Alden Global Capital LLC. He previously occupied the position of Partner at Bear, Stearns & Co., Inc. and Principal at Newfield Rocky Mountains, Inc. Mr. Smith received an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania." Source: https://www.marketscreener.com/business-leaders/Randall-D-Smith-00174L-E/biography/
"Randall D. Smith is Alden Global Capital's Chief of Investments. He invests in multiple strategies worldwide including distressed securities, value equities, and real estate. Prior to focusing on principal investing through Alden and Smith Management LLC, he established and ran RD Smith & Co. which was both a principal investor in distressed and a broker dealer for distressed securities. Mr. Smith exited that business in 1991 to focus exclusively on managing assets for himself and affiliated entities. Prior to creating RD Smith & Co., he was a partner at Bear Stearns. Mr. Smith graduated from Cornell University in 1965 and received an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1967. Alden Global Capital is a $2B opportunistic hedge fund based in New York and founded in 2007." Source: http://live.saltconference.com/speakers/smith_randall.html
Randall owns Alden Global Capital > Jason Pecora is the Managing Director, notably Forbes 'Top Millennial Advisors' of 2023 who owns > Pecora Capital. '
Pecora Commission
The Pecora Investigation was an inquiry begun on March 4, 1932, by the United States Senate Committee on Banking and Currency to investigate the causes of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The name refers to the fourth and final chief counsel for the investigation, Ferdinand Pecora. His exposure of abusive practices in the financial industry galvanized broad public support for stricter regulations. As a result, the U.S. Congress passed the Glass–Steagall Banking Act of 1933, the Securities Act of 1933, and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Oversaw by Ferdinand Pecora. Given wide media coverage, the testimony of the powerful banker J. P. Morgan Jr. caused a public outcry after he admitted under examination that he and many of his partners had not paid any income taxes in 1931 and 1932 Historian Michael Perino argues that Pecora's investigation "Forever Changed American Finance by its impact on the financial laws of the New Deal.
Jason Pecora
Who was the former Amazon Prime Video Executive was recently promoted to Executive, Vice President of Distribution at Vertical Partners an investment firm interested in Latin America-based companies operating in property technology, fintech, artificial intelligence, e-commerce, retail technology, mobility & logistics sectors. > David Schwab > David has a 15 year operating background in engineering management at Lockheed Martin, sales management at Sun Microsystems and executive management at Scopus Technology. Dave started his venture career at Sierra Ventures. Dave is active with Amria, Embroker, Concert Health, Inbox Health , Soci, and Zipari.
Do you think Randall would have any interest in connecting with a man whose family has such significant ties to banking and politics?
TRUMP FUNDING
Source: dmfworkers.com
Author: Julie Reynolds (love you queen)
Title: Alden owner is deeply in Trump’s camp now
"Less than two weeks later, Alden Global Capital co-founder Randall Smith gave $50,000 to Donald Trump’s “Trump Victory” fund. The same day, his wife Barbara gave exactly the same amount. Both provided Alden’s office in Manhattan’s Lipstick Building as their address. Alden is the hedge fund most recently described as “the gelatinous cube scouring the news industry’s dungeon.” Or, more simply, as a “destroyer of newspapers.”
It’s also arguably the most secretive news chain owner in the country. As a privately held “vulture” hedge fund, we don’t know who Alden’s investors are. Its funds are based in tax secrecy havens like the Cayman Islands and Delaware. As Nicholas Shaxson, author of “The Finance Curse: How Global Finance is Making Us All Poorer,” recently told DFMworkers.org, Alden is “about the most opaque” hedge fund he’s ever seen."
Source: The Nation
Title: How Many Palm Beach Mansions Does a Wall Street Tycoon Need?
Author: Julie Reynold
Published: September 27th 2017
"In 2013, a reclusive New York tycoon and his wife began buying up expensive Palm Beach real estate—lots of it. First they bought seven mansions for a total of $23 million. Then another four “moderately priced” homes for $8.4 million. Then five more for $23 million. None of them were purchased in the tycoon’s name. They weren’t purchased in his wife’s name, either. Instead, the homes were deeded to limited-liability companies, including L. Jakes LLC and 124 Coconut Row LLC. Think of those luxury homes as the shuttered offices and fired workers of hometown newspapers across the United States, because gutting those newspapers helped make spending $57.2 million on 16 Palm Beach mansions a trifling expense for the tycoon. His spending spree began after the tycoon acquired two firms, the Journal-Register and MediaNews Group, which would merge into one of America’s largest newspaper chains, Digital First Media. It continued under the veil of yet more limited-liability companies that likewise owned luxury homes. The only thing linking all these purchases was the same postal address in Manhattan’s glamorous Lipstick Building. There, within the tycoon’s privately held investment firm, his personal real-estate deals were commingled with the sales of scores of newsrooms, printing plants, and office buildings that previously belonged to small hometown newspapers across the United States. The tycoon behind all this private profit and public destruction is Randall D. Smith, a seasoned Wall Street operator in his mid-70s who shuns publicity. Smith is the founder and chief of investments at Alden Global Capital, which manages $2 billion worth of assets. He has no experience with actually managing a newspaper, and his professional history reflects no interest in journalism beyond profiteering. Rather, he is what is known on Wall Street as a “vulture capitalist.” Or, as he prefers to phrase it in one of the company’s brochures, Smith invests in “distress.”" -Julie Reynold 'How Many Palm Beach Mansions Does a Wall Street Tycoon Need?' https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/how-many-palm-beach-mansions-does-a-wall-street-tycoon-need/
You know who had a vested interest in Palm Beach Florida, JEFFERY EPSTEIN AND DONALD TRUMP
Epstein's mansion > Randall's current Mansion
Source: dmfworkers.com
Author: Julie Reynolds (love you queen)
Title: Alden owner is deeply in Trump’s camp now
According to Amazon Randall D. Smith has 22 Published Books
The Seven Churches Preparation Guide by Dr. Randall D. Smith (Author)
The "letters to the seven churches" found in Revelation two and three recall the story of early churches locked in struggles as they tried to follow Jesus. In just a few short chapters, we examine the setting of each letter, the problems they were facing, and Jesus' prescription to solve their issues. The great benefit of understanding these letters and their settings are the way in which they help us firmly grasp Jesus’ instructions as we seek to follow Him today. Jesus gave them guidance, but preserved the letters as collective encouragement for the church of every age. We continue their story, and we face the same struggles. In each letter, God provided timeless answers.
Dispelling Twelve Myths about the Gospel: Lessons in Galatians by Dr. Randall D. Smith (Author) The Epistle of Paul to the Galatian church may be the most misunderstood writing of the first century collection of the Christian Scriptures. Today, many modern Christians miss the basic message of the book and replace it with some unholy license to act in ways that are at least doubtful and at most heretical. The book has often been used to create a negative view of the Hebrew Scriptures – though the ancient scrolls were clearly called “holy, perfect and righteous” in other places in the Bible. Sadly, many believers have simply been taught a “Law bad, grace good!” view of the Bible based on errant teachings derived from the misunderstanding of the Galatian letter. Yet Paul loved the law and wasn’t trying to “wiggle free” from the Torah at all. Nor was he trying to get the Gentile believers to begin to keep that law – an issue settled in the Jerusalem Council recorded in Acts 15. The central issue of the letter was the careful explanation of how the “good news” of the Gospel should be defined and applied to both Jew and Gentile. Paul argued that God created a new way to breach the gap between man and God caused by man’s rebellion in the Garden of Eden long before. God fully accepted all who completely trusted Jesus’ death to satisfy the judicial judgment of Heaven. Confusion stemmed from the fact that God replaced the well-established atonement system (a continual but incomplete set of sacrifices set up for Israel long before in the Levitical code of the Law) and replaced it with complete justification – no longer covering sin but now removing it forever. Though the complete satisfaction of all debts before God were paid for by the blood of Jesus, there was only one requirement that God still maintained – our surrender to His way of finding Him. No other religious, moral or sacrificial pursuit would be accepted – for that was another exercise of rebellious resistance against solely trusting God’s way to save man.
Paul's Response to the Roman World (I) by Randall Smith (Author)
Every Christian is indebted to the Apostle Paul for his work, his writing and his clear presentation of the Gospel. From his birth in Tarsus to his beheading near Rome we will follow the footsteps of the Jew who started many churches among contemporary Gentiles in pagan cities across the Roman Empire. Our objective it to see more clearly how the Gospel triumphed over pagan thought and life, and how Paul used the Scripture to meet the challenges of ministry.
This volume includes the background materials on the man, his mission and what his Master accomplished in and through his life. After introductory materials, the text leads us to eight formative lessons God taught Paul to prepare him to be the voice of the Good News. We will see Paul from his new birth until he completes the second mission journey – arguably the worst time in his life and ministry. These studies remind us that Paul was an excellent combination of a Roman structured mind, an accomplished Greek reader and speaker, and a throbbing Hebrew heart. God used this unique man to accomplish a mammoth task – explain the Gospel of grace when God replaced the former atonement system with a full justification by a completed work in Messiah.
Christian Travel Study Programs, Inc. Owned by Randall out of Florida > Connected to Kerugma Productions owned by Naas and Marina le Roux of South Africa > Promoted by Great Commission Bible Institute of Florida >
Great Commission Bible Institute > https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/261085513
The core of all GCBI study is the study of hermeneutics (the method of interpreting Scripture). We instruct in a technique called the “Principle Approach to the Bible” in which we use utilizes the literal, grammatical viewpoint with a particular focus on the historical cultural context. Because of that approach, we include our study in Israel as part of our curriculum. We approach the text as God’s Holy Word, and seek to follow Him through timeless truths and principles revealed through the various types of literature that God has revealed and preserved.
Kerugma Productions
Is a faith-based organization. It was founded in 1995 to spread the Word of God by means of high-quality media productions.
TRAIL: https://www.youtube.com/@KerugmaProductions > https://www.kerugma.org/not-my-time-yet > https://randalldsmith.com/randys-dvd-medi/
Great Commission > The Gospel Coalition
In Christianity, the Great Commission is the instruction of the resurrected Jesus Christ to his disciples to spread the gospel to all the nations of the world. The Great Commission is outlined in Matthew 28:16–20, where on a mountain in Galilee Jesus calls on his followers to make disciples of and baptize all nations in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The True Jesus Christ Unknown to Christianity by David C. Pack > As Editor-in-Chief of The Real Truth magazine and voice of The World to Come program, he has reached millions around the globe with the most powerful truths of the Bible, unknown to almost all > The Restored Church of God > COGBF Financial Solutions > COGBF Registered Trademark in 2017 by Sean Michael Crowley > Sean Crowley is an investment banker employed at Benesh in Chicago a structural + civil engineering firm. Expertise was expanded to include railroad and highway bridge design and construction management
Sean Crowley
Sean’s practice includes counseling clients on Section 1031 exchanges and foreign investment in the U.S. Sean’s tax practice also includes assisting sponsors with the structuring of investments in their funds, assisting non-profit organizations in obtaining federal tax-exempt status and representing clients on a wide range of other tax matters, including tax matters related to partnerships, limited liability companies, C corporations, S corporations and REITs.
National Association of Evangelicals > Pastor Harold Ockenga > Attended Wheaton College, IL > Trump campaign supporter > + Comes back around too Randall who also funded the Trump campaign
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops > Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D > Archbishop Broglio attracted national attention when he asserted that servicemembers should be able to receive religious exemptions from a Pentagon mandate that all troops receive Covid-19 vaccinations > Covid denial
THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN RANDALL E. SMITH
