General Alison Hartson (Director of TYT Army)
Alison was a public high school teacher for 10 years in the working-class community of Garden Grove, CA. She taught English and designed and taught a successful intervention program for students who were at risk of not graduating high school.
Seeing up close how political corruption creates two systems in this country–one for the rich, and one for everyone else–she was inspired to begin volunteering for Wolf-PAC, an organization dedicated to removing the corrupting influence of money in our political system. As a volunteer and full-time teacher, Alison organized thousands of people in California to pass a measure through the state legislature that will begin the process of getting big money out of politics.
Alison went on to repeat this success in other states and soon stepped down from teaching in order to become the National Director of Wolf-PAC where she designed the infrastructure necessary to train and support volunteers throughout the country.
In 2018, Alison stepped down from Wolf-PAC in order to run for U.S. Senate in California as a Justice Democrat and has continued to spend her time helping other candidates and organizations in their fight to prioritize people over profit, policy over politics.
Alison now works full time with TYT as the Community Director, applying her experience of organizing and legislative strategy, teaching and training, as well as dealing with media bias and propaganda in order to help build positive, productive, constructive communities around the world. These teams are working together to be part of the solution for a more compassionate future – today.
Meet our Lookouts leadership team (aka Task Force 1)
Meet our Research and Reporting leadership team (aka Task Force 2)
Meet our Visual Communications leadership team (aka Task Force 3)
Meet our Social Relations leadership team (aka Task Force 4)
LOOKOUTS (TASK FORCE 1)
Our Intelligence team whose mission is to ensure that instances of media bias and propaganda are identified and reported to the TYT Army. We gather intelligence, track news trends, and develop tools to effectively monitor the media. We assess all incoming stories, vet them efficiently and objectively, and provide recommendations to the rest of the TYT Army. Everything we do is aimed to achieve the TYT Army mission so that we can help create the change that we seek.
Apply now to volunteer with Task Force 1!
Colonel Carlos Ramirez III (Lookouts Director)
Carlos is a millennial who graduated college at the start of the Great Recession in 2008. Having received a BA in Computer Science, he was lucky to work in the tech industry which was unaffected by the economic downturn.
Like many, he felt politically apathetic until discovering the progressive movement. Bernie Sanders’s 2016 campaign inspired him and he became a fan of progressive media, including TYT.
When the TYT Army was announced, Carlos was one of the very first volunteers. He uses his experience as a software developer to combat media bias & propaganda. The TYT Army is Carlos’s first experience with political activism. He hopes to show that you don’t need any experience in politics to start volunteering and help make an impact.
Major Brianna Camillucci (Lookouts Deputy Director)
Bri is a millennial who hates labels and irony. She is originally from Montana and went to school at the University of Idaho studying Sociology with a Criminology emphasis. She spent the last few years as a youth counselor at a residential treatment center for teenage girls in Utah. Her husband earned his MFA this past spring, after which they moved to northeastern Pennsylvania and adopted a dog. She works as an Adult Victims/Witness Coordinator for the local district attorney’s office. She is passionate about the TYT Army and creating lasting change.
Bri is also a 3-Star Captain (Organizer) in Task Force 4: Social Relations, and a Sergeant (Member) of Task Force 5: Infantry.
Major Gumshoe (Lookouts Deputy Director)
Gumshoe is an unschooled zillennial. As a child, he attended a protest of the war in Iraq, which sparked his interest in politics. He started watching TYT sporadically around 2012, but really got into it during the 2016 election. A Green Party member at heart, Gumshoe reluctantly joined the Democratic party this year in order to vote for Bernie Sanders in New York’s closed primary.
He has a passion for murder mystery puzzle games like Ace Attorney, which is why he uses the detective character “Dick Gumshoe” as his Slack handle.
He primarily works as an indie game developer, background actor, and music composer, and dedicates his remaining time to the TYT Army and other political activism.
Major Michael Berlind (Lookouts Deputy Director)
Michael is somewhat of a third culture kid, an American born in Cyprus, and raised in France through his high-school years. He grew politically aware during the Bush era and the dawn of the Iraq war, which his parents – a former diplomat and a journalist – were fervently opposed to.
While he cast his first vote in 2012 as a college student, it wasn’t until the 2016 election cycle that he became more educated and critically-minded about the systemic political issues we face. He was particularly inspired by Bernie Sanders’ people-powered campaign and willingness to fight for real change. Now firmly progressive and engaged – and an avid viewer of The Young Turks – Michael has been vocal in supporting progressive policies, media, and candidates. He phone-banked and canvassed for local school board and city council races the following year, and was an early supporter of Justice Democrats like AOC.
In addition to volunteering for Bernie 2020, he is very proud to be working with the TYT Army in their fight against bias and propaganda in our media, which he sees as crucial to changing the political narrative of our lives. Michael has a day-job as a screenwriter and freelance writer.
Major Susanne Talley (Lookouts Deputy Director)
Susanne comes from a family that loves politics. No one ever ran for political office but they kept track of what was happening and had lively conversations around the dinner table. When she was in high school she learned that she was a direct descendant of John Hanson of Maryland, the first President of the Constitutional Convention. Is that why she has such interest in our government?
Retired since 2011, she became a fan of TYT in 2016 and joined the TYT Army in November of 2018. At last she can contribute to the betterment of all of us!
She earned an AA degree in 1980 and a BS in Computer Science in 2001. She worked for Department of Defense contractors and mostly for federal civil service for 35 years in the Information Technology field. She married at 19 in 1964 and has three GEN X children. She is still married to the same wonderful man. For years she attended college at night, worked full time, and raised children with her husband. Armed with all this experience she is ready to make a difference.
RESEARCH AND REPORTING (TASK FORCE 2)
Our Research & Reporting team whose goal is to research, analyze, and report facts concerning stories that have been determined to consist of bias and/or propaganda. We aim to remain conscious of our own biases so that we can provide thorough and objective research and analysis for every topic. We are building a robust research bank of all resources and research so that the TYT Army can respond to stories in a timely manner. Everything we do is aimed to achieve the TYT Army mission so that we can help create the change that we seek.
Apply now to volunteer with Task Force 2!
Colonel Dana Manning (Research and Reporting Director)
Dana runs her own business as a litigation specialist with a primary focus on plaintiff’s medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. She is also on the board of a recently founded nonprofit legal service organization in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, where she lives with her husband.
She was a co-founder of the Colorado Political Revolution (created in 2015), an elected delegate for Bernie Sanders to the Colorado State Convention in 2016, and a member of the organizing committee for the Colorado Working Families Party in 2017. Currently, she is an elected Grassroots Member of the Colorado Working Families Party State Committee (representing CD1), an active member of DSA and Our Revolution, and Director for the TYT Army research department.
Colonel Jessica Cresseveur (Research and Reporting Director)
Jessica Cresseveur has been teaching art history and interdisciplinary humanities to college and university students since 2004. In 2016, she became the first in her family to earn a Ph.D.
A lifelong political junkie and lover of the natural world, Jessica became an environmental activist at the age of 13 after learning about what was then called the greenhouse effect. Since then, she has marched and petitioned for action on climate, made changes to her lifestyle to reduce her carbon footprint, and is now a proud member of a labor union and her local Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) chapter. Frustrated with the lack of coverage about the climate emergency in the establishment media after decades of crystal clear science, Jessica jumped at the chance to join Task Force 2, where she now puts her research skills to work for the greater good.
In Task Force 2, Jessica heads up the Environment and Follow the Money and Background issue teams but also helps with projects in other teams. So far, she has contributed to research into the Green New Deal, the Off Fossil Fuels (OFF) Act, attacks on Medicare for All, a misleading article about the 2020 Democratic primary race, and the crisis in Venezuela, to name a few.
Major Bryce Platt (Research and Reporting Deputy Director)
Bryce is a licensed pharmacist working in healthcare technology and population health management. He has seen the dysfunction and costs of healthcare from the inside, and is currently working to improve that system and make it strong. TOO strong.
Because Bryce is obsessed with strength, another passion of his is strength training, competing in power-lifting competitions for over a decade and securing multiple state records and a national record.
Never really being involved in politics, Bryce became truly aware of the political climate for the first time in early 2016 with the national rise of Bernie Sanders. He then spent some time trying to find how he could fight back as a financially struggling college student. Beginning with Represent.Us in Kansas, Bryce spoke to Congressional representatives at the state capital to get support for bills that root out the corruption of money in politics. Then, one night while listening to TYT on YouTube, the TYT Army was mentioned. The ability to participate in activism from home while increasing his knowledge of the healthcare system that he works in every day sounded like a great opportunity.
Now a volunteer for Task Force 2, Bryce leads the healthcare team, gathering research on why our healthcare system is failing us, and how we can improve it for everyone.
Major Daniel Haverty (Research and Reporting Deputy Director)
Daniel is an expat living in New Zealand, but originally from Northern California. However, as he writes this bio, he is transitioning from his life living on the West Coast of NZ with his Kiwi wife to embark on an overseas adventure with Canada in his sights. He has just finished three and a half years of public service in land management, specifically regulating mining on the conservation estate.
Prior to becoming a lawyer and moving to New Zealand, Daniel was in law school where he participated in a program on counter-terrorism and national security law. This program allowed him to pursue study in refugee/asylum law and international criminal law, enabling him to work on projects and volunteering in these areas. He hopes to begin a career that involves helping those escaping international conflict.
Volunteering for the TYT Army has been an important way for Daniel to be able to participate and engage in the American political process, despite living overseas.
He loves good food, soccer and reading adventure novels.
Major Michael Fredenburg (Research and Reporting Deputy Director)
Mixhael Fredenburg has been interested in activism, organizing, social issues, and politics from a young age. During his school years he participated in many activities and groups, like helping organize multicultural and Xicano middle school assemblies with keynote speakers like Delores Huerta & Edward James Olmos. He helped stage a city-wide High School walkout in Eugene against Oregon’s 2000 anti LGBTQIA+ measure 9 and student sex education. He protested against the war in Iraq after 9/11.
Mixhael found TYT over two years ago. Shortly after that he joined the TYT Army and their Research and Reporting team. Since then, he has been developing his research and organizing skills and gaining more knowledge and understanding of our government and politics, becoming a “Major” of the Civil Rights & Education issue team. He also joined the and Infantry team and has been working to be more involved locally by developing Oregon’s chapter of the TYT Army, with an initial meeting of 25 attendees.
Some issues important to Mixhael are LGBTQIA+ equality as a queer person. The climate change emergency, experiencing the devastation of his community from the arson-caused Almeda fire during Oregon’s and the Western United States’ unprecedented 2020 wildfire season. Criminal justice reform is another issue that hits close to home, having experienced incarceration and the loss of his partner due to failed policing.
Things Mixhael enjoys doing in his free time are making music & beats on Fruity Loops Studio, keyboard & classical nylon guitar, sketching on his drawing pad and CPU, creating cool illustrations & working on his comic ideas. He finds catharsis mucking about in his diversity garden, looking at and listening to the bugs, birds, beasts or possible fae that might show wing. Clearly, exercising the imagination is another enjoyment.
Major Rick Young (Research and Reporting Deputy Director)
Rick Young has always stayed on the outside of national politics. He has done his share of meeting with legislators on a state level. Being a physical therapist for 29 years, politics was thrust upon him in such ways as attempting to overhaul the physical therapy practice act, fighting for the physical therapists’ right to perform dry needling, and being able to perform spinal manipulation without requiring a physician’s order.
More recently, within the past few years, circumstances took a turn, changing his outlook on national politics. He had heard of The Young Turks but had never seen it on YouTube. As luck would have it, he bought a TV that had built in channels, including Pluto TV, where he was able to watch TYT and subsequently found the TYT Army. He has been volunteering on Task Force 2 since joining the TYT Army and has learned tons about research, politics, and researching politics, and made many friends along the way.
Besides owning a physical therapy practice with his wife, he has two grown kids. In his spare time, he plays a couple of stringed instruments and is also a student of the bagpipes, participating in competitions throughout the year.
VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS (TASK FORCE 3)
Our Visual Communications team whose mission it is to develop visual products that help to effectively communicate the organization’s work. We create products such as graphics, memes, and videos that will be relevant to the news cycle in order to reach as many people as possible. Everything we do is aimed to achieve the TYT Army mission so that we can help create the change that we seek.
Apply now to volunteer with Task Force 3!
SOCIAL RELATIONS (TASK FORCE 4)
Our Social Relations team whose mission is to help amplify our influence. To achieve this, we must constantly analyze and strategize how to improve our reach on social media. Everything we do is aimed to achieve the TYT Army mission so that we can help create the change that we seek.
Apply now to volunteer with Task Force 4!
Colonel Eclectic Miscellanea (Social Relations Director)
Eclectic (he/him) has been a TYT viewer since 2016 and TYT Army volunteer since 2019.
He accidentally — but fortunately! — came across TYT one day on YouTube. TYT was a breath of fresh air. Here was a network with billions of views that covered progressive issues and candidates, taking on the corporate establishment echo chamber and speaking truth to power, including both Republican and Democratic leadership. The Young Turks had hosts who actually cared and were passionate about the news.
Eclectic started volunteering for TYT Army in 2019 as part of Task Force 4 (TF4). In TF4, we help break through the wall of corporate media bias and political propaganda on social media. Because Eclectic works at a public institution in a red state, and has some conservative family members, he goes by Eclectic Miscellanea to keep his political and volunteer activity online separate from work and family.
Anyone can become a volunteer online and speak out against establishment bias, and Eclectic feels that he’s proof of this. As an introvert who has struggled with bipolar and anxiety, it took months to work up the courage to post his first live comment during TYT. He was very nervous about joining a volunteer organization. He’s now broken out of his shell and become an active member of the TYT community and a colonel for TYT Army. And thanks to TYT Army and the TYT family online, Eclectic has realized that change is still possible.
When he’s not volunteering or watching shows on TYT Network, Eclectic enjoys spending time with his wife, telling dad jokes to his daughter, watching TV, and listening to music.
INFANTRY (TASK FORCE 5)
Our Infantry team whose focus is to build local chapters (teams) throughout the country. We do this by working with candidates, legislators, organizations, and other influencers who agree with our progressive goals. Everything we do is aimed to achieve the TYT Army mission so that we can help create the change that we seek.
Apply now to volunteer with Task Force 5!