#non-profits

IRS And Treasury Coming For Trump's Opposition...This Is How Tyrants Self-Destruct--

Wendy A. Lawrence writes a column on Substack called "Glass Empires," and she is excellent. We've corresponded, shared, and "liked" each other's work. I've been reading her for months and have found only common ground, and very important, her sourcing is solid. I also love the fact that she illustrates her articles with famous prints of drawings by the great Spanish artist Francisco Goya in order to highlight the various levels of irrationality that prevails in too much of today's world.

This piece needs to be read and shared. She discusses Trump's NSPM-7, one of his most dangerous moves against the constitution so far. It empowers the Treasury Department, led by Epstein enabler Scott Bessent, to go after non-profits, advocacy organizations, so-called foreign actors and state actors by targeting them for investigation and prosecution on contrived financial crimes.

They can use the IRS, freeze bank accounts, and seize assets among other things to silence their opposition.

This, according to Wendy, is already operational, not theoretical. Bessent is quoted saying, "it's well under way."

This was why the federal indictment of Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) was so important when I wrote about it two months or so ago. That was the first of many, a test case. Stephen Miller is obsessed with shutting them down in order to defend his white supremacist allies.

Remember that Peter Theil's hatchet-boy J.D. Vance was made "Fraud Commissar" a couple of months ago pursuant to their political attacks on tle DFL in Minnesota over Somalian immigrants "fraud claims." Then more of the same in California to dismantle their safety net.

I would add to Wendy's analysis that the transition to Vance to replace the dying president has been quietly creeping in the background, and their intention is to consolidate his power to do things just like this.

Those two Blue State strongholds have Governors who are prospective presidential candidates, so there should be no mystery as to why those states were targeted. Trump is using the blackmail threat of prosecutions to demand states relinquish their voters lists and other data.

Every day is a struggle against despair, passivity and the "I give up syndrome." Ultimately their strategy of exhausting us is the crux of Trump's power, that and their ability to weaponize federal law enforcement agencies. Don't get used to it. They are lashing out in dangerous fashion because they are weakening, and losing their grip on their base little by little as the overall situation worsens.

So, there are organizations and advocacy groups standing up. We need to support them as well as our candidates. It's all of us now who are on the block. And the reason they are going after these organizations is to stop people from giving. Don't give the enemy what they want.

(A note, people should NOT comment here on their donations to whomever. It is good that you do, but better to keep that to yourselves. TY)

https://open.substack.com/pub/wendy664/p/the-government-can-freeze-all-of?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=29ti17

In the immediate wake of the shooting, President Trump baselessly pinned the violence on the “radical left,” vowing to hunt down organizations that he claims “support” violence or “go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country.” Earlier this week, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller similarly promised to pursue “an organized strategy to go after left-leaning organizations” that supposedly promote violence.

Attorney and commentator Norm Eisen—who runs one such group, Democracy Defenders Action—has circulated a draft open letter, titled “An Open Letter Opposing Threats by the Administration Against Nonprofits & Charities,” among allies, reported Gabe Kaminsky, of the conservative digital publication The Free Press, on Friday.

The statement, which begins by condemning the murder, goes on to say:

"It is un-American and wrong to use this act of violence as a pretext for weaponizing the government to threaten nonprofit and charitable organizations, other perceived adversaries, or any class of people. They did not commit this murder, and the vast powers of the government should not be abused to threaten their constitutionally-protected free speech and other rights."

by Andrew Bernard

“It has become clear that the explosion of antisemitic activity on college campuses has been supported and encouraged by bad actors who, in many cases, have used tax-exempt organizations for those purposes,” he said. “The violence and hatred directed at Jewish Americans and in support of terrorist organizations like Hamas are not some organic uprising.” 

“There are well-orchestrated efforts by anti-American and anti-Jewish organizations within the United States that provide financial and logistical support to those who harass and threaten Jewish students,” he added.

Students for Justice in Palestine, American Muslims for Palestine, the Tides Foundation and the People’s Forum were among the groups that Smith and others listed as playing a particularly pernicious and potentially illegal role in supporting both anti-Israel protests and Hamas.

“I’ve made a formal request to the IRS demanding they revoke the tax exempt status of an organization named the People Media group,” Smith said. “This organization funds a publication by the name of the Palestine Chronicle that employed a so-called journalist, who was caught actually imprisoning Israeli hostages in Gaza.”

In June, the Israel Defense Forces rescued two hostages, who were found to be held by Abdullah al-Jamal, a contributor to the Palestine Chronicle and an occasional spokesman for Hamas. 

Another crooked far right Republican.

Republicans become outraged at the thought of raising the minimum wage. But the fanatically pro-Trump Republican National Committee committeewoman from California Harmeet Dhillon paid herself $120,000 for a two-hour work week. And that's just the tip of a corrupt iceberg.

Since becoming an RNC committeewoman for California in 2016, she made hundreds of appearances in conservative media, predominantly Fox News. From 2019, these appearances were often based on lawsuits sponsored by that non-profit she helms, the Center for American Liberty (CAL), and aimed at rightwing bugbears like Covid restrictions, leftist street protesters and gender-affirming healthcare. The Guardian has found that at least $1.32m has been transferred from the CAL to her law firm, Dhillon Law Group, in a move one charity expert described as “problematic”. Additionally, state and federal filings show Dhillon takes a $120,000 salary from CAL for a two-hour work week. Meanwhile, the non-profit has entered into a close relationship with a well-heeled rightwing foundation whose financial generosity has been matched by a seat on the non-profit’s board. CAL was founded in 2018, initially under the name Publius Lex, by California lawyers with extensive connections to Republican politics and rightwing legal organizations, according to state and federal filings.

There a variation of "double dipping" going on here.

Dhillon’s position as CEO in a non-profit whose biggest contractor is Dhillon Law Group is a “conflict of interest”, according to Joan Harrington, a fellow at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at the Santa Clara University, and an expert on non-profit law and ethics. Harrington added that non-profits can navigate this, and that “the board can accept conflicts of interest if they are brought to the board’s attention annually”. But another ethical problem “the board can’t fix”, Harrington said, is the issue of compensation.

In the world of Trump-style business practices, ethics is for losers.

For many years their pressmark was the Chinese word for poetry, 诗*. The reason given was that the character combines the concepts of "word" and "temple", which is not true at all and most likely derives from orientalist bullshit and incorrect interpretation of characters as ideograms.

It was the 70s in rural Washington, of course there was going to be this sort of hippie nonsense. It was certainly not meant maliciously, and in the greater scheme of things you roll your eyes and move on with your life.

But. As part of their ongling DEI initiative, stakeholders elected to embark on a multi-year process to design a new pressmark, one that is more abstract and inclusive without the orientalist and appropriative vibes of the original. Their Racial Equity Work Plan details some of the thinking behind why they did this.

It can seem like bikeshedding to people who aren't in the know, and if that was the only thing that changed, it absolutely would be. But the Press is putting in the work, and adding updates as they follow through on list items. This is the sort of transparency other non-profits, especially those who have been taken to task about stated timelines and opaqueness, should strive to emulate.

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*My Chinese name is 丽诗, which means "beautiful poem". My grandma came up with it, also to align with my English name.