- I awoke last night to the sound of thunder
- How far off, I sat and wondered
- Started humming a song from 1962
- Ain’t it funny how the night moves – Bob Seger, Night Moves
Dogs (of course)
One of the “joys” of dog ownership is companionship. Our Yellow Lab Atticus is the extreme example of that. He isn’t happy unless he’s close by. Like many rescue dogs he has demons, and Atticus’s is separation anxiety. If you’re gone, it’s OK, but if you’re here and out of sight, that’s a different story. He need to see you, to be around you, to be behind you when you turn around, and to make sure he’s “checked in”.
So, not surprisingly, Atticus sleeps with us. That’s fine. On cold nights he’s what my Mother would call a “big hot water bottle”. On warmer nights he takes up his portion of the end of the bed. But he usually sleeps through the night, and so do we.
So it was unusual that he was up last night, wandering the bedroom about 1:30. I am attuned to the sound of dog paws on hardwood floors. So I was awake when he went into my office, and quietly, for him, threw-up.
Kids and dogs: when they throw-up in the middle of the night there’s “things” to take care of. And by the time I was done with all of that, I was wide awake. So I did some middle-of-the-night reading. And I came across an article/opinion on the Fox News app that completely illustrates the central problem America faces today.
Hit Piece
In the journalism business it’s called a “hit piece”. There was no real title, but the sub-title is: Pearl Project investigation exposes 198 Democratic organizations orchestrating Saturday’s #NoKings demonstrations. The opinion article states that someone is trying to “fool” the American public, by calling the movement against the Trump Administration, a “grass roots” movement. The author, Asra Nomani, is the Founder of the “Pearl Project”. That’s her journalism initiative named after the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and murdered by Al Qaeda in Pakistan while investigating the “shoe bomber” in 2002.
Nomani links three pivotal progressive leaders to the “NO KINGS DAY” marches that brought millions into the streets to protest Trump: Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, Al Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network, and Leah Greenberg, founder of Indivisible (the major organizing group behind NO KINGS). She claims that while all three were triumphing the clear success of NO KINGS DAY, they failed to note the underlying political involvement of…wait for it… the Democratic Party!!!!
Tax Exempt
Here’s what she said:
“According to new research by the Pearl Project, the #NoKings protest is being organized by an estimated 198 groups, all of which are aligned with the Democratic Party and many of which claim tax-exempt, “nonpartisan” nonprofit status. Collectively, these groups take in $2.1 billion in annual revenues”.
She goes on to enumerate some of those organizations, dividing them by their tax status. And Nomani says, over and over again, that many of them are listed as 501c3, the IRS status that allows non-profit organizations to avoid paying taxes. They are designated “charitable”. As part of that status, they:
“…are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office” (IRS).
The article implies that she “caught them” violating the tax code: GOTCHA!!!
Exception
What the author fails to note, is that there is a second section to the tax statute, the “exceptions” section.
“Certain activities or expenditures may not be prohibited depending on the facts and circumstances. For example, certain voter education activities (including presenting public forums and publishing voter education guides) conducted in a non-partisan manner do not constitute prohibited political campaign activity.” (IRS).
So, one could argue, that the “NO KINGS” marches were “voter education”, or simply expressing their opinions. And besides, nothing about “NO KINGS” was a political campaign. President Trump is the President, until 2028, and will not run another campaign. In fact, there are no candidates or opponents for 2028, to intervene in, yet. So, for all those 501c3’s, their tax status remains safe.
Nomani also failed to mention that such familiar right-wing political action groups as the Heritage Foundation, the Claremont Foundation, and Hillsdale College, all involved in Project 2025 and electing Donald Trump, are also 501c3’s.
Radicals
But she does go on to explain all of her work to link “progressive” groups to radical Islam.
“The groups include several organizations, including Jewish Voice for Peace and Sarsour’s MPower Change Action Fund, that represent the unholy alliance of Islamist sympathizers and leftists who have fueled fiery protests against the existence of the state of Israel, following the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israelis. I’ve identified 1,500 groups in the anti-Semitism protest industry.”
It’s all an “unholy alliance” of radical groups, trying to upend the Trump Administration. She even drags in the name of a “tycoon”, Neville Roy Singham, who she says funded Chinese Communist propaganda. While she can’t find a connection to “NO KINGS” or other Resistance activities, she says: “While Singham doesn’t yet appear to have his fingerprints directly on the #NoKings protest, the ideological DNA is the same.” Or, another way of saying it is she ain’t got a connection. His name is just in there to say “Chinese Communist Party!!!!”
Silos
Surprise: there were lots of organizations involved in the incredibly successful “NO KINGS” marches. How do you think millions of Americans got the word to go to the streets and demonstrate? Surprise again: a lot of those groups were political. And final surprise (shh): some of them were Democrats!!!
What’s the point? If all you read (or see, or listen to) is Fox News, you now have ABOSOLUTE PROOF that this is all a vast conspiracy, of unions, Democrats, Islamic radicals, Chinese Communists, to violate tax laws and overthrow the US Government!!! No wonder you worry about how poor, poor President Trump can survive. How can all of the foolish protestors be fooled? Either Democrats are evil, or they are so, so, naïve.
That’s what life looks life from the “Fox” silo of information. By the way, the Pearl Project is a 501c3 as well.
It took quite a while to go back to sleep.
