#501(c) groups

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

After the arrival of a migrant family to Kalispell this week, Republican elected officials are calling for tighter immigration policy and the immediate deportation of the family, as well as casting blame on a local nonprofit group that provides support to immigrants and refugees in the Flathead Valley. While some officials publicly speculated the nonprofit paid to fly the migrants to Kalispell with the support of the Biden administration, the organization said it did not aid the migrants in traveling to the area.

Montana Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke on Thursday issued a press release describing the arrival of a Venezuelan migrant family and alleging that Kalispell nonprofit Valley Neighbors of the Flathead aided the family in traveling to Kalispell — an allegation the nonprofit denies. Zinke’s office described the nonprofit as a “dark money” group with ties to the Biden administration.

Valley Neighbors is a volunteer-run 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that offers support to refugee and immigrant families in the Flathead Valley. According to tax filings submitted by the organization, it provides families with housing support, legal referrals and funding, medical and dental referrals, language services, educational support and transportation to meetings with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Helena.

According to Valley Neighbors Vice Chair Rebecca Miller, the organization has assisted “on an occasional and limited basis” in helping immigrants who have been released from immigration detention centers relocate to be with family members who already live in the Flathead Valley. The nonprofit has also worked to connect immigrants with sponsors in the Flathead Valley, occasionally providing travel expenses. However, Miller said, Valley Neighbors is not part of any government effort to “bus people in” to the Flathead and “had nothing to do with the family’s arrival” on Wednesday night.

“Dark money” typically refers to 501(c)(4) groups that spend money on political campaigns and do not disclose their donors. Valley Neighbors is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and does not contribute to political campaigns.

Zinke is a racist! Vote for his replacement, Monica Tranel!

According to Flathead County Sheriff Brian Heino, a family from Venezuela arrived at the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday night after flying to Kalispell from New York. The family purportedly crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas before flying to New York and then Kalispell. Heino said they arrived at the sheriff’s office after being turned away at a local homeless shelter, which had no space. Valley Neighbors arrived to offer assistance and hotel accommodations shortly thereafter.

Following the arrival of the family, Zinke on Thursday sent a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding DHS detain and deport the family. The letter included numerous questions for Mayorkas, including whether or not DHS had paid Valley Neighbors to help transport the family and what the department’s plan is to deport the individuals.

In response to the allegations by Zinke and others, Miller provided the following statement: “Valley Neighbors of the Flathead is a small community-supported nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian aid for immigrants in the Flathead Valley. As sometimes occurs, this week, we were made aware of an immigrant family in need after their arrival and responded by providing them assistance in accordance with our mission and the support of our community. We are saddened that our organization and the vulnerable families that we work with are being targeted and used for political gain through ill-informed and false statements made by some of our state’s elected officials.”

Heino on Thursday issued a two-page letter describing a recent increase in “contacts with individuals who have no residency status in the U.S.” The sheriff said his department has struggled to communicate with non-English speakers and to determine individuals’ identities and legal statuses during traffic stops and arrests.

“These, among many other challenges, cause deputies to spend significantly more time handling calls for service and are often unable to obtain a disposition acceptable to our community,” he wrote.

Heino also wrote that the increase in undocumented immigrants is “especially difficult” given the valley’s existing housing shortage and limited emergency resources.

“Our community has grown so fast and our resources have not,” he told the Beacon on Friday.

“I don’t blame anybody for wanting to come to the valley. It’s just, we’re maxed,” he said.

In the press release from Zinke’s office, Flathead County Commissioner Randy Brodehl described the arrival of the migrant family as “a continuation of a trend that has increased in both frequency and intensity over the last two years.”

The sheriff on Friday said the department could not provide exact numbers regarding interactions with undocumented immigrants. Brodehl said the county does not have any records or numbers of how many undocumented immigrants are in the area.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has reported 1.3 million encounters at the southern border since October 2023. Of the 1.3 million, 56% have been single adults, 39% have been members of a family unit and 5% have been unaccompanied minors. Republicans have accused the Biden administration of failing to address the influx of entrants at the border as major cities struggle to accommodate growing migrant populations.

Heino in his letter wrote, “Undocumented and illegal individuals are currently living in the Flathead, and many are working, often under the table, without contributing to the resources designed for those who work and live here legally. By working under the table, they are not paying into Social Security, workers’ compensation, state, or federal income taxes. They are allowed to utilize resources like Medicare, food stamps, housing assistance, and other resources designed to assist our legal citizens in our times of need.”

Under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), a 1996 federal act that established restrictions on welfare access, undocumented immigrants are not eligible for federal public benefits including unemployment, retirement, welfare, disability, food assistance and public housing. PRWORA also bars undocumented immigrants from accessing most local and state public benefits. Exceptions include treatment under Medicaid for emergency medical conditions, immunizations and in-kind services delivered on the community level, such as food from soup kitchens or short-term shelters. Per federal law, undocumented minors are permitted to enroll in public schools.

Correction: Due to incorrect information provided to the Beacon, a previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Valley Neighbors does not aid migrants in traveling to the area. Valley Neighbors offers assistance to migrants relocating to the area to reunite with family on “an occasional and limited basis,” and occasionally supports families relocating who have been connected with local sponsors. The story also indicated that Valley Neighbors receives no funding from the federal government. The organization receives a limited amount of funding from the U.S. Department of State.

[sayruq]

A bipartisan bill would give the secretary of the treasury unilateral power to classify any charity as a terrorist-supporting organization, automatically stripping away its nonprofit status. The bill, H.R. 6408, already passed the House of Representatives in November, and a companion bill, S. 4136, was introduced to the Senate by Sens. John Cornyn (R–Texas) and Angus King (I–Maine) last week. In theory, the bill is a measure to fight terrorism financing. At least, that's what sponsor Rep. David Kustoff (R–Tenn.) claimed. "I urge the swift passage of this legislation that will significantly diminish the ability of Hamas and other terrorist groups to finance their operations and carry out future attacks," he said in a November statement. Financing terrorism is already very illegal. Anyone who gives money, goods, or services to a U.S.-designated terrorist organization can be charged with a felony under the Antiterrorism Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. And those terrorist organizations are already banned from claiming tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code. Nine charities have been shut down since 2001 under the law. The new bill would allow the feds to shut down a charity without an official terrorism designation. It creates a new label called "terrorist-supporting organization" that the secretary of the treasury could slap onto nonprofits, removing their tax exempt status within 90 days. Only the secretary of the treasury could cancel that designation.

[thepromiscuousfinger]

In case you didn't know, GFM does not directly payout to individuals in the Middle East.

Per their requirements for their Trust & Safety verification process:

How can I help support those affected by the conflict?

The fastest, safest, and most helpful way to help those in need is through charities working on the ground. Please consider starting a certified charity fundraiser for a verified organization providing critical support to those affected. Consistent with our long-standing policies, fundraisers are allowed for humanitarian aid and medical supplies to individuals, and for humanitarian aid and medical supplies to registered 501(c)(3) public charities providing support to those affected.

What details do I need to provide to help the fundraiser review process?

To speed up the review process, we recommend you include the following details in your fundraiser description:

All cities where funds and assistance are being sent. Specificity is important here — please include the name of the city, town, or village. We cannot accept generally stated regions or territories, or vague and undefined groups of people.

Clearly detail the purpose of the fundraiser and how the funds will be used. This can include, but is not limited to, humanitarian aid for civilians, a registered 501(c)(3) public charity for medical supplies, or clothing and food for displaced persons.

If you are distributing funds to an organization after withdrawing to your bank account, you must list the organization’s name on your fundraiser and you will be expected to agree, in writing, that you will transfer funds to that organization and that the funds will only be used for humanitarian purposes.

Why do you need my documentation?

As part of our review process to distribute the funds raised, we may need to gather additional documentation to verify your identity or the identity of the recipient, as well as plans to distribute funds. We know getting money to people as quickly as possible is important, however, this is necessary to meet payment processor requirements and help ensure the fundraiser is compliant with our Terms of Service. The information you share is only required for internal GoFundMe verification purposes and will be used in compliance with our Privacy Policy: https://www.gofundme.com/privacy

...

Being cautious of where money is going is common sense. If individuals are receiving money through public charities that are later distributed directly to them, where's the statements to prove it?

[aqlstar]

If you’re talking to your college administration, federal or state reps, governor, or local newspaper about antisemitism in universities and SJP, you might want to reference the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability’s ongoing investigation of National SJP.

National SJP, which is founded and controlled by AMP, is one group claiming to support hundreds of so-called “Palestine solidarity organizations” across the United States.

National SJP, which is founded and controlled by AMP, is one group claiming to support hundreds of so-called “Palestine solidarity organizations” across the United States.

“AMP has substantial ties to Hamas via its financial sponsor, Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundation, Inc. (AJP), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. AJP is currently under investigation by the Virginia Attorney General for violating state charitable solicitation laws and ‘benefitting or providing support to terrorist organizations.’ Reportedly, current AMP board members have been involved in fundraising for Hamas charities… AMP is also linked to the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), which sent approximately $12.4 million outside the U.S. to support Hamas. Like the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP), HLF was founded by members of Hamas senior leadership and was shut down due to five of its officers being convicted for terror financing,”

[interactyouth]

I want to join the interACT youth program so badly, when is that available?

Well, you're 100% allowed to join if you so desire! The youth program is simply a combination of our community spaces (Facebook and Discord) and our advocacy program (such as our yearly advocacy cohort). While our advocacy cohort is application and interview-based, the youth program spaces are accessible to intersex youth ages 13 to 29 after simply answering a demographics questionnaire! interACT is focused on empowering intersex youth to advocate for themselves and their communities--whether interpersonally or against systems, in-person or online, and potentially in solidarity with other advocacy movements--so that's the focus of several of the questions. As a 501(c)3 non-profit advocacy organization, we adhere to different guidelines in running our community spaces. However, if that's not to your preferences, our partners at InterConnect have been hosting all-ages intersex online support group meetings, conferences, and regional hangouts for 25 years that I would highly recommend!

If you're curious about some of interACT's recent accomplishments, we have a 2023 annual report (I'm eager for our 2024 report!) and our Instagram account is actively run by our lovely communications director! We recently hosted a health and wellness retreat in California earlier this month for 20 intersex youth, for instance. <3 This is our Discord invite, and the demographics survey link is also sent to newcomers automatically:

[kp777]

By Jake Johnson

Common Dreams

Jan. 6, 2024

"Billionaires attempting to influence politics from the shadows should not be rewarded with taxpayer subsidies," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse.

Legislation introduced Tuesday by a pair of Democratic lawmakers would close a loophole that lets billionaires donate assets to dark money organizations without paying any taxes.

The U.S. tax code allows write-offs when appreciated assets such as shares of stock are donated to a charity, but the tax break doesn't apply when the assets are given to political groups.

However, donations to 501(c)(4) organizations—which are allowed to engage in some political activity as long as it's not their primary purpose—are exempt from capital gains taxes, a loophole that Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) are looking to shutter with their End Tax Breaks for Dark Money Act.

Whitehouse, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who has focused extensively on the corrupting effects of dark money, said the need for the bill was made clear by what ProPublica and The Lever described as "the largest known donation to a political advocacy group in U.S. history."

The investigative outlets reported in 2022 that billionaire manufacturing magnate Barre Seid donated his 100% ownership stake in Tripp Lite, a maker of electrical equipment, to Marble Freedom Trust, a group controlled by Federalist Society co-chairman Leonard Leo.

The donation, completed in 2021, was worth $1.6 billion. According to ProPublica and The Lever, the structure of the gift allowed Seid to avoid up to $400 million in taxes.

"It's a clear sign of a broken tax code when a single donor can transfer assets worth $1.6 billion to a dark money political group without paying a penny in taxes," Whitehouse said in a statement Tuesday. "Billionaires attempting to influence politics from the shadows should not be rewarded with taxpayer subsidies."

"We cannot allow millionaires and billionaires to run roughshod over our democracy and then reward them for it with a tax break."

If passed, the End Tax Breaks for Dark Money Act would ensure that donations of appreciated assets to 501(c)(4) organizations are subjected to the same rules as gifts to political action committees (PACs) and parties.

"Thanks to the far-right Supreme Court, billionaires already have outsized influence to decide our nation's politics; through a loophole in the tax code, they can even secure massive public subsidies for lobbying and campaigning when they secretly donate their wealth to certain nonprofits instead of traditional political organizations," said Chu. "We can decrease the impact the wealthy have on our politics by applying capital gains taxes to donations of appreciated property to nonprofits that engage in lobbying and political activity—the same way they are already treated when made to traditional political organizations like PACs."

The new bill comes amid an election season that is already flooded with outside spending.

The watchdog OpenSecrets reported last month that super PACs and other groups "have already poured nearly $318 million into spending on presidential and congressional races as of January 14—more than six times as much as had been spent at this point in 2020."

Thanks to the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling, super PACs can raise and spend unlimited sums on federal elections—often without being fully transparent about their donors.

Morris Pearl, chairman of the Patriotic Millionaires, said Tuesday that "there is no justifiable reason why wealthy people like me should be allowed to dominate our political system by donating an entire $1.6 billion company to a dark money political group."

"But perhaps more egregious is the $400 million tax break that comes from doing so," said Pearl. "It's a perfect example of how this provision in the tax code is used by the ultrawealthy to manipulate the levers of government while simultaneously dodging their obligation to pay taxes. We cannot allow millionaires and billionaires to run roughshod over our democracy and then reward them for it with a tax break."

[reality-detective]

The Lawfare Group Crew that filed quite a few lawsuits against Donald Trump since 2017.

Which includes removing him off the Ballot in Colorado not only did so illegally but you are telling me they are Tax Exempt in a Nonpartisan 501-(c)(3) contract?

This also blatantly says they are not supposed to even be participating in any political arena.

Did you know? This opened Pandora's Box because it gives grounds for Clarence Thomas to challenge the 2020 election correct? 🤔

[rafaelsilvasource]

911: LONE STAR | S5 E1 LOGLINES

THE 126 RACE INTO ACTION WHEN AN ARMORED TRUCK IS HI-JACKED; OWEN GRAPPLES WITH HIS BROTHER'S DEATH; CARLOS BEGINS A NEW JOB; A FAMILAR FACE JOINS THE CALL CENTER ON THE ALL-NEW SEASON PREMIERE OF 9-1-1: LONE STAR MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, ON FOX The 126 race into action when an armored truck and its guards are attacked by a group of masked men. Carlos, in his new job as a Texas Ranger, is assigned to investigate the case. Owen attends group therapy with Tommy to deal with his brother Robert's death; Both Marjan and Paul each apply for the open lieutenant position, replacing Judd, who finds himself lost without his old job. Wyatt begins work at the call center and a major train derailment signals tragedy in the all-new "Both Sides, Now," fifth season premiere episode of 9-1-1: Lone Star airing Monday, September 23 (8:00-9:02 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (NLS-501) (TV-14 L, V) Cast: Rob Lowe as Owen Strand; Gina Torres as Tommy Vega; Ronen Rubinstein as T.K. Strand; Jim Parrack as Judd Ryder; Natacha Karam as Marjan Marwani; Brian Michael Smith as Paul Strickland; Rafael Silva as Carlos Reyes; Julian Works as Mateo Chavez; Brianna Baker as Nancy Gillian; Jackson Pace as Wyatt Harris; Skyler Yates as Evie Vega; Kelsey Yates as Izzy Vega Guest Cast: Parker Young as Ranger Sam Campbell; Jessi Case as Leigh Ann; Robyn Lively as Marlene; Alan Autry as Chief Rangers Bridges; Michelle C. Bonilla as Sara Ortiz

[the-eternal-quest-for-balance]

BREAKING: OMG Team infiltrates secret NO MAS MUERTES encampment in the middle of the desert in Aravaca, Arizona near the border.

When the illegal immigrant asked where the Mexican men dressed in military attire associated with the No Mas Muertes nonprofit were from, one responded, “From Sonora,” while another was from Tijuana – notorious Mexican cartel hotbeds.  “I have a friend coming soon.  He will take you to the city,” said one of the cartel-appearing men.  “How much does he charge?” asked the illegal immigrant.  “$300,” responded one of the cartel-appearing men.  Hours later, these cartel-appearing men pointed guns at the illegal immigrant.

In the middle of the Arizona desert over 60 miles southwest of Tucson, O’Keefe Media Group (“OMG”) risked their lives to investigate the shady activity of No Mas Muertes, or No More Deaths, a nonprofit organization claiming to provide humanitarian aid to illegal immigrants but has been raided by US law enforcement and whose members have been arrested by border patrol numerous times.  Posing as donors and land surveyors, and with the help of an illegal immigrant working undercover, OMG recordings show this nonprofit repeating “we are a little paranoid,” refusing to state their names, voicing hostility towards law enforcement, interrogating the undercover illegal immigrant “Why don’t you ask for asylum? Why don’t you ask border patrol for asylum?” and offering to transport the undercover illegal immigrant for $300 cash before pointing guns at him – actions related more to a human trafficking operation than a humanitarian nonprofit.

No Mas Muertes workers refusing to provide their names or identifications stating: “You also don’t need the mask. I only put it on when the military shows up or when those white people show up, so they won’t take my picture” flies in the face of No More Deaths’ obligations as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization to follow the law.  Instead, it seems to skirt immigration laws and traffic humans.  OMG’s exposé of secret illegal immigrant compounds funded by Catholic Community Services of Tucson coupled with this undercover footage of No More Deaths reveals the shocking proliferation of private tax-exempt nonprofit organizations working with the government or potentially dangerous cartels to engage in what amounts to human trafficking into the United States under the guise of humanitarian aid, without any scrutiny or accountability.

Off the outskirts of the tiny town of Arivaca 40 minutes on a dirt road from Interstate 15 at 36455 S Papalote Wash Road, several people wearing construction vests planted flags into the ground as land surveyors would before being approached by someone who told them to leave: “Hey guys, this is private property.”  These people were not, in fact, surveyors.  They were James O'Keefe and members of his OMG team, equipped with hidden cameras to investigate the rise in suspicious nonprofit organizations operating at the U.S.–Mexico border.  The team was outside the secretive location of No Mas Muertes, or No More Deaths.

Couched as a ministry of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson, whose tag line is “a liberal light in the desert,” No More Deaths appears to use its relationship to Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson to evade filing IRS documents of financial transparency (IRS Form 990) under an IRS exemption for religious organizations.  After confirming the location was No More Deaths property, an OMG team member posing as a donor called Mary Weiss, an administrator for the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson.  On the call, Weiss represented No More Deaths was an “organization we actually partner with,” as “a ministry of the church,” located in Arivaca with a staff of 4-5 employees and budget of $400 Thousand.

As the OMG team continued planting flags around the perimeter of the property, they sent a volunteer illegal immigrant with a hidden camera to observe No More Deaths from the inside.  No More Deaths workers welcomed OMG undercover illegal immigrant and explained how they “always have threats” at the camp on account of “bad people” and “the [border] patrols.”  They described wearing masks so they could not be identified or photographed “when the military shows up or when those white people show up” and declared the men at the perimeter to be white supremacists “looking to cause trouble.”  Apparently, government workers, law enforcement, and white people, made them “paranoid” – a very strange mental state for people working at a “humanitarian” nonprofit organization.

Upon the OMG team leaving the area, No More Deaths workers intercepted their car and questioned them.  After O’Keefe mentioned the Unitarian Universalist Church and No More Deaths, the No More Deaths workers denied knowing either organization and never provided their names. 

Back at the “humanitarian” camp, the two military-dressed men from Sonora and Tiuana – cities famous for Mexican cartels, interrogated OMG undercover illegal immigrant.  “Where are you from?”  “Why don’t you ask for asylum?”  “Where did you cross through?”  “Who are they?  Who brought you here?”  “How much did they charge you?”  “Your watch is expensive right, you got a camera in there?”  Ultimately, they offered to find someone to take him to Phoenix…for $300 despite the nonprofit’s budget of $400 Thousand.  OMG undercover illegal immigrant eventually reunited with the OMG team, but not before having guns pointed at him at “humanitarian” No More Deaths camp.

That night in the desert raised more questions than it provided answers.  Why are people at a nonprofit pointing guns at people?  Why is a humanitarian nonprofit adverse to border patrol?  Why does a humanitarian nonprofit have armed cartel-like men offering for-profit smuggling services?  How does an organization which routinely violates the law keep its tax-exempt status?  OMG’s investigation into No More Deaths reveals the growing abuse of nonprofit laws by organizations hiding under the cloak of religious affiliation and potentially profiting off human trafficking.  One thing is clear – men are armed, secrecy is rampant, and fear is wielded by nonprofit organizations running unfettered.

WATCH MORE ON YOUTUBE / ON X

[qidynamics]

“It’s an outlined program for Christian supremacy."

“That’s not a 501(c)(3) activity.”

A network of ultrawealthy Christian donors is spending nearly $12 million to mobilize Republican-leaning voters and purge more than a million people from the rolls in key swing states, aiming to tilt the 2024 election in favor of former President Donald Trump.

These previously unreported plans are the work of a group named Ziklag, a little-known charity whose donors have included some of the wealthiest conservative Christian families in the nation, including the billionaire Uihlein family, who made a fortune in office supplies, the Greens, who run Hobby Lobby, and the Wallers, who own the Jockey apparel corporation. Recipients of Ziklag’s largesse include Alliance Defending Freedom, which is the Christian legal group that led the overturning of Roe v. Wade, plus the national pro-Trump group Turning Point USA and a constellation of right-of-center advocacy groups.

EXCERPTS:

“We are in a spiritual battle and locked in a terrible conflict with the powers of darkness,” says a strategy document that lays out Ziklag’s 30-year vision to “redirect the trajectory of American culture toward Christ by bringing back Biblical structure, order and truth to our Nation.”

Ziklag was the brainchild of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur named Ken Eldred. It emerged from a previous organization founded by Eldred called United In Purpose, which aimed to get more Christians active in the civic arena, according to Bill Dallas, the group’s former director. United In Purpose generated attention in June 2016 when it organized a major meeting between then-candidate Trump and hundreds of evangelical leaders.

After Trump was elected in 2016, Eldred had an idea, according to Dallas. “He says, ‘I want all the wealthy Christian people to come together,’” Dallas recalled in an interview. Eldred told Dallas that he wanted to create a donor network like the one created by Charles and David Koch but for Christians.

The group’s stature grew after Trump took office. Vice President Mike Pence appeared at a Ziklag event, as did former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Sen. Ted Cruz, then-Rep. Mark Meadows and other members of Congress. In its private newsletter, Ziklag claims that a coalition of groups it assembled played “a hugely significant role in the selection, hearings and confirmation process” of Amy Coney Barrett for a Supreme Court seat in late 2020.

The Christian nationalism movement has a variety of aims and tenets, according to the Public Religion Research Institute: that the U.S. government “should declare America a Christian nation”; that American laws “should be based on Christian values”; that the U.S. will cease to exist as a nation if it “moves away from our Christian foundations”; that being Christian is essential to being American; and that God has “called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society.”

The Seven Mountains theology embraces a different, less democratic approach to gaining power. “If the Moral Majority is about galvanizing the voters, the Seven Mountains is a revolutionary model: You need to conquer these mountains and let change flow down from the top,” said Matthew Taylor, a senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies and an expert on Christian nationalism. “It’s an outlined program for Christian supremacy."

A driving force behind Ziklag’s efforts is Lance Wallnau, a prominent Christian evangelist and influencer based in Texas who is described by Ziklag as a “Seven Mountains visionary & advisor.” He was one of the earliest evangelical leaders to endorse Trump in 2015 and later published a book titled “God’s Chaos Candidate: Donald J. Trump and the American Unraveling.”

One key document says that “the biblical role of government is to promote good and punish evil” and that “the word of God and prayer play a significant role in policy decisions.”

Other internal Ziklag documents voice strong opposition to same-sex marriage and transgender rights. One reads: “transgender acceptance = Final sign before imminent collapse.”

A prominent conservative getting money from Ziklag is Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer and Trump ally who joined the January 2021 phone call when then-President Trump asked Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” enough votes to flip Georgia in Trump’s favor.

Mitchell now leads a network of “election integrity” coalitions in swing states that have spent the last three years advocating for changes to voting rules and how elections are run. According to one internal newsletter, Ziklag was an early funder of Mitchell’s post-2020 “election integrity” activism, which voting-rights experts have criticized for stoking unfounded fears about voter fraud and seeking to unfairly remove people from voting rolls. In 2022, Ziklag donated $600,000 to the Conservative Partnership Institute, which in turn funds Mitchell’s election-integrity work. Internal Ziklag documents show that it provided funding to enable Mitchell to set up election integrity infrastructure in Florida, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

EagleAI, which has claimed to use artificial intelligence to automate and speed up the process of challenging ineligible voters.

Now Mitchell is promoting a tool called EagleAI, which has claimed to use artificial intelligence to automate and speed up the process of challenging ineligible voters. EagleAI is already being used to mount mass challenges to the eligibility of hundreds of thousands of voters in competitive states, and, with Ziklag’s help, the group plans to ramp up those efforts.

According to an internal video, Ziklag plans to invest $800,000 in “EagleAI’s clean the rolls project,” which would be one of the largest known donations to the group.

Operation Checkmate

Ziklag lists two key objectives for Operation Checkmate: “Secure 10,640 additional unique votes in Arizona (mirroring the 2020 margin of 10,447 votes), and remove up to one million ineligible registrations and around 280,000 ineligible voters in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and Wisconsin.”

In a recording of an internal Zoom call, Ziklag’s Mark Bourgeois stressed the electoral value of targeting Arizona. “I care about Maricopa County,” Bourgeois said at one point, referring to Arizona’s largest county, which Biden won four years ago. “That’s how we win.”

Targeting Transgender

Operation Watchtower

For Operation Watchtower, Wallnau explained in a members-only video that transgender policy was a “wedge issue” that could be decisive in turning out voters tired of hearing about Trump.

The left had won the battle over the “homosexual issue,” Wallnau said. “But on transgenderism, there’s a problem and they know it.” He continued: “They’re gonna wanna talk about Trump, Trump, Trump. … Meanwhile, if we talk about ‘It’s not about Trump. It’s about parents and their children, and the state is a threat,’” that could be the “target on the forehead of Goliath.”

As preacher and activist John Amanchukwu said at a Ziklag event, “We need a church that’s willing to do anything and everything to get to the point where we reclaim that which was stolen from us.”

“I am troubled about a tax-exempt charitable organization that’s set up and its main operation seems to be to get people to win office,” said Phil Hackney, a professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh and an expert on tax-exempt organizations.

“They’re planning an election effort,” said Marcus Owens, a tax lawyer at Loeb and Loeb and a former director of the IRS’ exempt organizations division. “That’s not a 501(c)(3) activity.”

“It’s an outlined program for Christian supremacy."

“It’s an outlined program for Christian supremacy."

[senilthesynth]

RIP Cohost

Cohost is shutting down the end of the year. While I'm kinda sad because it was a good experiment to see if non-federated social media could be viable that doesn't rely on selling data or anything, I think Anti-Software Software Club just made too many assumptions that didn't or couldn't pan out. Including just... not understanding what they wanted in the end.

(Read more because this was originally a Bluesky post and got long)

Number 1 mostly being them being "blindsided" by Stripe clarifying their policy that, in the end, means ASSC couldn't use them as a way for users to tip each other or the Artists Alley section and such. That policy existed for years, well before Cohost ever existed. For context, ASSC originally wanted to build a Patreon competitor, not a social media site. They would have failed so hard if they stuck to a Patreon competitor on this alone.

And in my opinion, number 2 is their pay. They were paying themselves very well-off all things considered, and everyone was paid the exact same amount (~94k last I heard). That's… a lot of money going towards pay that could've gone to hosting costs. They're a startup. You pay yourselves what you can. I appreciate that they paid themselves well, but again. Startup. You pay what you can, and they were nowhere close to breaking even at any point.

I think their financial model didn't do themselves any favors - they started out with "we got a lot of loan money to do this and now we have to make it profitable" which, yeah, sometimes that's what it takes. But that's venture capitalism. Especially since Cohost's source code WAS the collateral! They acted as a leftist group trying to market themselves as a non-profit/not-for-profit (they're a LLC, they're legally not forced to do either), paying themselves well more than they realistically, and hoped they could get enough people to subscribe monthly to break even.

That… doesn't work.

Not to say this would've fixed things, but I think them registering as an LLC didn't help. That prevented them from bringing on anything resembling a volunteer, and since their whole thing was "everyone gets paid the same" it meant they had to operate with very few people. If I recall correctly, they had one moderator. Maybe two. Maybe. Two developers, an artist, and a moderator. Four people. MAYBE five, I forget the exact number.

This is entering hypothetical territory so everything is unknown and is me guessing a lot of things, but is based on what I do know.

Being a non-profit comes with its own set of problems, but if they could become and maintain a 501(c)3 non-profit, they could pay themselves what they could and have people willing to help volunteer moderate. They could never get code contributors, though, since their source code was their collateral it by nature had to be closed off. Also, donations (recurring or one-off) are tax-deductible for US-members, so while it's not a HUGE benefit it offers at least that small bonus.

I'm glad that they tried, and got as far as they did (even if it meant loan after loan to not die instantly). It showed that it could be possible - that there's hope in this idea. It's just a question of HOW to make it a sustainable reality. I don't think there's a clear answer there, though. Like my non-profit idea hinges heavily on maintaining 501(c)3 status (or similar) and being able to bring on volunteers as-needed. Using a public spec for the back-end (like ActivityPub or ATProto) so the focus can be on implementing it (even if federation is never a thing) instead of doing it raw - which avoids the back-end development time but then means having to work with an existing spec that may or may not change substantially over time.

IDK. I have no idea what would make a medium-form social media such as Cohost viable. Maybe it's the same idea but with lower pay so it's easier to bring new people on as-needed, with the expectation that this is a passion project 'til it gets off the ground. Maybe it takes the "use a public spec for back-end" approach and focuses on the implementation of it with their own additions and flair. ActivityPub is one spec, but you have Mastodon, Pixelfed, Misskey, Wafrn, etc. that all go in different directions. ATProto will likely be the same one day - Bluesky being the obvious "reference" implementation right now.

Maybe it's something else entirely that I could never ever think of. I don't know, but all I do know is that I'm glad they tried. Unfortunately, the writing has been on the wall for months now and honestly? If you didn't expect that, that's on you. People have been saying that Cohost wasn't sustainable for months.

[eretzyisrael]

BY PARK MACDOUGALD

The “movement,” in turn, while it recruits from among students and other self-motivated radicals willing to put their bodies on the line, relies heavily on the funding of progressive donors and nonprofits connected to the upper reaches of the Democratic Party. Take the epicenter of the nationwide protest movement, Columbia University. According to reporting in the New York Post, the Columbia encampment was principally organized by three groups: Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and Within Our Lifetime (WOL). Let’s take each in turn.

JVP is, in essence, the “Jewish”-branch of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, backed by the usual big-money progressive donors—including some, like the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, that were instrumental in selling Obama’s Iran Deal to the public. JVP and its affiliated political action arm, JVP Action, have received at least $650,000 from various branches of George Soros’ philanthropic empire since 2017, $441,510 from the Kaphan Foundation (founded by early Amazon employee Sheldon Kaphan), $340,000 from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and smaller amounts from progressive donors such as the Quitiplas Foundation, according to reporting from the New York Post and NGO Monitor, a pro-Israel research institute. JVP has also received nearly $1.5 million from various donor-advised funds—which allow wealthy clients to give anonymously through their financial institutions—run through the charitable giving arms of Fidelity Investments, Charles Schwab, Morgan Stanley, Vanguard, and TIAA, according to NGO Monitor’s review of those institutions’ tax documents.

SJP, by contrast, is an outgrowth of the Islamist networks dissolved during the U.S. government’s prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) and related charities for fundraising for Hamas. SJP is a subsidiary of an organization called American Muslims for Palestine (AMP); SJP in fact has no “formal corporate structure of its own but operates as AMP’s campus brand,” according to a lawsuit filed last week against AJP Educational Fund, the parent nonprofit of AMP. Both AMP and SJP were founded by the same man, Hatem Bazian, a Palestinian academic who formerly fundraised for KindHearts, an Islamic charity dissolved in 2012 pursuant to a settlement with the U.S. Treasury, which froze the group’s assets for fundraising for Hamas (KindHearts did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement). And several of AMP’s senior leaders are former fundraisers for HLF and related charities, according to November congressional testimony from former U.S. Treasury official Jonathan Schanzer. An ongoing federal lawsuit by the family of David Boim, an American teenager killed in a Hamas terrorist attack in 1996, goes so far as to allege that AMP is a “disguised continuance” and “legal alter-ego” of the Islamic Association for Palestine, was founded with startup money from current Hamas official Musa Abu Marzook and dissolved alongside HLF. AMP has denied it is a continuation of IAP.

Today, however, National SJP is legally a “fiscal sponsorship” of another nonprofit: a White Plains, New York, 501(c)(3) called the WESPAC Foundation. A fiscal sponsorship is a legal arrangement in which a larger nonprofit “sponsors” a smaller group, essentially lending it the sponsor’s tax-exempt status and providing back-office support in exchange for fees and influence over the sponsorship’s operations. For legal and tax purposes, the sponsor and the sponsorship are the same entity, meaning that the sponsorship is relieved of the requirement to independently disclose its donors or file a Form 990 with the IRS. This makes fiscal sponsorships a “convenient way to mask links between donors and controversial causes,” according to the Capital Research Center. Donors, in other words, can effectively use nonprofits such as WESPAC to obscure their direct connections to controversial causes.

Something of the sort appears to be happening with WESPAC. Run by the market researcher Howard Horowitz, WESPAC reveals very little about its donors, although scattered reporting and public disclosures suggest that the group is used as a pass-through between larger institutions and pro-Palestinian radicals. Since 2006, for instance, WESPAC has received more than half a million in donations from the Elias Foundation, a family foundation run by the private equity investor James Mann and his wife. WESPAC has also received smaller amounts from Grassroots International (an “environmental” group heavily funded by Thousand Currents), the Sparkplug Foundation (a far-left group funded by the Wall Street fortune of Felice and Yoram Gelman), and the Bafrayung Fund, run by Rachel Gelman, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune and the sister of Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman. (A self-described “abolitionist,” Gelman was featured in a 2020 New York Times feature on “The Rich Kids Who Want to Tear Down Capitalism.”) In 2022, WESPAC also received $97,000 from the Tides Foundation, the grant-making arm of the Tides Nexus.

WESPAC, however, is not merely the fiscal sponsor of the Hamas-linked SJP but also the fiscal sponsor of the third group involved in organizing the Columbia protests, Within Our Lifetime (WOL), formerly known as New York City SJP. Founded by the Palestinian American lawyer Nerdeen Kiswani, a former activist with the Hunter College and CUNY chapters of SJP, WOL has emerged over the past seven months as perhaps the most notorious antisemitic group in the country, and has been banned from Facebook and Instagram for glorifying Hamas. A full list of the group’s provocations would take thousands of words, but it has been the central organizing force in the series of “Flood”-themed protests in New York City since Oct. 7, including multiple bridge and highway blockades, a November riot at Grand Central Station, the vandalism of the New York Public Library, and protests at the Rockefeller Center Christmas-tree lighting. In addition to their confrontational tactics, WOL-led protests tend to have a few other hallmarks. These include eliminationist rhetoric directed at the Jewish state—such as Arabic chants of “strike, strike, Tel Aviv”; the prominent display of Hezbollah flags and other insignia of explicitly Islamist resistance; the presence of masked Arab street muscle; and the antisemitic intimidation of counterprotesters by said masked Arab street muscle.

WOL’s role appears to be that of shock troops, akin to the role played by black block militants on the anarchist side of the ledger. WOL is, however, connected to more seemingly “mainstream” elements of the anti-Israel movement. Abdullah Akl, a prominent WOL leader—indeed, the man leading the “strike Tel Aviv” chants in the video linked above—is also listed as a “field organizer” on the website of MPower Change, the “advocacy project” led by Linda Sarsour. MPower Change, in turn, is a fiscal sponsorship of NEO Philanthropy, another large progressive clearinghouse. NEO Philanthropy and its 501(c)(4) “sister,” NEO Philanthropy Action Fund, have received more than $37 million from Soros’ Open Society Foundations since 2021 alone, as well as substantial funding from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Ford Foundation, and the Tides Foundation.

[actnowformentalhealth-anmh]

ACTNow for Mental health (ANMH) is a non-profit (501(c)(3)) organization dedicated to expanding access to mental health services and support, while fighting mental & behavioral health stigma forall young adults (ages 17-32). ANMH focuses on communities that have been historically underserved by the health system including LGBTQIA+ and POC populations, people with physical and/or intellectual disabilities, and people who are uninsured or underinsured.

Through the pillars of Advocacy, Compassion, and Treatment, ANMH advocates for systemic policy reforms, implements stigma free campaigns and partnerships with local schools and universities, and provides free telehealth services to young adults in the D.C., Maryland, Virginia areas (DMV) and free support groups to young adults nationwide.

Read more about the work we've been doing through our 2022-2024 Impact Report!

[camp-mithril-lake]

IDW Timeline - Part 1: Pre-War "Modern Times"

I am organizing the comics in chronological order because I have a lot of ideas centered pre-war and needed some reference. Plus I am planning to make a more comprehensive overview one day. I listed dates when I found them and the comic it is in and event notes.

Ex-RID #17: “Shockwaves”

Shockwave choosing a Prime and planting a “seed” in the ruins of Crystal City.

Shockwave became a senator in the wake of Jhiaxus and the others departing. He opens his school at this time.

Reveals Proteus was the one who assassinated Nominus to make Sentinel Prime.

More Than Meets The Eye #38

1st Cycle, 012, Megatron is born in Con Facility 113, the Silver Harvest of Tarn as a miner.

Transformers (v2) #22-23

Megatron may be working at the mine under Nova Point at this point in time in Iacon.

4th Cycle, 499, Megatron is assaulted by Whirl in jail after being arrested in a bar fight. He meets Captain Orion Pax.

There was an attempted assassination attempt on Nominus Prime in the news by a bomber. Orion Pax, Captain of the Dead End area of Rodion. A few hours after Orion arrests Whirl and releases Megatron, Whirl’s friends fight him and Orion Pax pushes his way into the Senate and meets Shockwave.

The Senate is voting on the Clampdown.

Shockwave decides to make Orion the Prime he chose.

More Than Meets the Eye #34

Megatron has been sent to Messatine, partially due to Orion Pax name dropping him in the Senate, and Trepan prepares to Shadowplay him as things have been escalating. He has befriended Terminus who has been smuggling out his writings. Terminus vanishes (saved by Necrobot) and Megatron is racked with guilt about taking his writings instead. He internalizes this later. Terminus was the one pushing for Megatron to be a center figure while Megatron was more for group/community involvement.

51st Cycle, 500

More Than Meets The Eye #9-11: Shadowplay | More Than Meets The Eye #37

“Iacon, 4th Cycle 501-Pre-War. A few cycles earlier, the word ‘Decepticon’ first appeared in connection to the samizdat writings credited to a certain miner from Tarn. Nominus Prime hasn’t been seen since the assassination attempt, and the Clampdown is in full force. Proteus and the increasingly factionalized Senate are struggling to manage a population demanding greater influence over decisions taken in its name. The shanix is trading poorly against the galactic currencies. The Primal Guard is embroiled in the Phobos Controversy. And in sports news, Blurr has won the Ibex Cup for the tenth cycle running.” - Rewind

1st Chord, 4th Cycle, 501

In the news at the time a ex-military former Primal Vanguard member burst into a Relinquishment Clinic and started shooting donors.

Prowl and Chromedome were working in Iacon/Rodion at this point. Macadam’s was in their precinct.

Drift and Ratchet meet in Ratchet's Dead End clinic. Ratchet and Orion are already friends.

Orion and the Outliers steal the fake Matrix and in doing so anger the government.

Senator Shockwave is shadowplayed. Orion Pax goes on the run.

More Than Meets The Eyes #36 | Megatron Origin #1

Orion Pax and the Outliers are on the run and defending the sparks in Alyon.

1st Cycle, 502, for several subcycles has been on the run from Sentinel. Meets Zeta of Sistex he contacts Shockwave’s old allies and outliers and went underground. Orion is delighted to talk to Megatron and invites him to join them. Orion mentions Megatron is older than him but still young.

1st Cycle, 502, having been transferred to Croteus-12 (Mining Outpost C-12) Megatron has been seething since the lose of Terminus and the assault by Trepan. Decimus will be closing them down. Megatron kills this day.

Sentinel orders Prowl to investigate the attack on Decimus because he doesn’t want to.

Megatron Origin #2

Time Skip for Megatron to establish himself.

Prowl has been investigating and uncovered the arena and Megatron. They are moving in on him at the same time Soundwave is meeting him for the first time.

Drit #2 & 3

Megatron recruits and renames Drift at a Decepticon Rally. He is named Deadlock and already has a reputation as a killer.

Ex-RID #17: “Shockwaves”

Megatron recruits Shockwave via Starscream after the Senate meeting about the Energon Crisis. This is during Megatron Origins.

Orion reunites with him on the streets the day before the Senate assassination.

Shockwave visits Dai Atlus to injury him and prevent him from being caught in the destruction.

Megatron Origin #3 & 4

Has Constructicons and Combaticons and the deal with Soundwave in place. Megatron begins moving against the government.

Recruits Starscream and others.

Funeral for the cops.

Seekers attack Decimus’s “recognition of service”. Kidnap the Senator as part of the trap and the cops arrest them all.

Kaon take over. Prowl after seeing Sentinel fall makes executive decision to pullout forces and the Iacon backup turns into evac team.

Additional Notes (Exact Dates Uncertain):

Ratchet and Drift are born before Orion (a little after Megatron) and Megatron (5 million years ago)

Orion is born in Iacon

Rodimus is born half a million years after Megatron

Thunderclash knew Ratchet and helped him when he was studying. They both attended the Iaconian Academy of Science and Technology. Ratchet was attending medical school there and Orion Pax was there and they became friends

Prowl is brought online as a Cold Construct and serves in Petrex, a very prejudice town, where he learns how to get around rules. He eventually gets transferred to Iacon, around Rodion but not Orion's precinct. By the time of Croteus-12 he has transferred to Kaon under Sentinel directly, and seemingly fairly high up given his interactions, ability to give orders, and the presentations he gives.

Following Kaon, Zeta becomes Prime raising a New Senate and the Decepticons begin occupying more territory.

Dominus and Rewind leave Cybertron before war breaks out to pursue Luna-1.

Declaration Day presumably happens following Kaon being taken over and Sentinel being killed.

[bloopington-indiana]

Project 2025, also known as the 2025 Presidential Transition Project, is a political initiative published by the Heritage Foundation that aims to promote conservative and right-wing policies to reshape the United States federal government and consolidate executive power if Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election. The Project asserts a controversial interpretation of the unitary executive theory, according to which the entire executive branch is under the complete control of the president. It proposes reclassifying tens of thousands of federal civil service workers as political appointees in order to replace them with people loyal to the president. Proponents of the project argue it would dismantle what they view as a vast, unaccountable, and mostly liberal government bureaucracy. The project also seeks to infuse the government and society with conservative Christian values. Critics have characterized Project 2025 as an authoritarian, Christian nationalist plan to steer the U.S. toward autocracy. Legal experts have said it would undermine the rule of law, separation of powers, separation of church and state, and civil liberties. Project 2025 envisions widespread changes to economic and social policies and the federal government and its agencies. The plan proposes taking partisan control of the Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Commerce, Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and Federal Trade Commission (FTC), dismantling the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and reducing environmental and climate change regulations to favor fossil fuels. The blueprint seeks to institute tax cuts, but its writers disagree on protectionism. It recommends abolishing the Department of Education, whose programs would be transferred or terminated. Funding for climate research would be cut, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would be made less independent, stopped from funding research with embryonic stem cells or using quotas to promote equal participation by women. The project seeks to cut Medicare and Medicaid, and urges the government to explicitly reject abortion as health care. The project seeks to eliminate coverage of emergency contraception and enforce the Comstock Act to prosecute those who send and receive contraceptives and abortion pills. It proposes criminalizing pornography, removing legal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and terminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and affirmative action by having the DOJ prosecute "anti-white racism". The Project recommends the arrest, detention, and deportation of illegal immigrants. It proposes deploying the military for domestic law enforcement. It promotes capital punishment and the speedy "finality" of those sentences. It hopes to undo "[al]most everything implemented" by the Biden Administration. Although Project 2025 cannot legally promote a presidential candidate without endangering its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, many contributors are associated with Trump and his campaign. The Heritage Foundation employs many people closely aligned with Trump, including members of his 2017–2021 administration, and coordinates the initiative with conservative groups run by Trump allies. Trump campaign officials have had regular contact with Project 2025, and told Politico in 2023 that the project aligned well with their Agenda 47 program, though they have said that the project does not speak for Trump or his campaign. The project's controversial proposals led Trump and his campaign to distance themselves from the project in 2024—saying he knows "nothing about it" and calling unspecified parts of it "ridiculous and abysmal". Some critics have dismissed Trump's claims, pointing to various people close to Trump who helped draft the project, his endorsement of the effort in 2022, the many contributors who are expected to get leadership roles in a future Trump administration, and the 300 times Trump is mentioned in the plans.

[misfitwashere]

Friends, It has been 459 days since the U.S. Congress passed legislation to support Ukraine. 

Russia, supported by arms from Iran and North Korea, is now slowly advancing on the front, bombing front-line cities, and sending scores of missiles and drones at cities throughout Ukraine.  Russia has recently destroyed one major Ukrainian hydroelectrical facility, and as write is targeting two others.  The aim is to bring down the Ukrainian electricity grid.

The U.S. Congress is once again in recess.  Although sizable majorities of Americans and their elected representatives want to support Ukraine, legislation has been blocked by the Putinist wing of the House of Representatives.

What can we do?  In the long run, we can recognize that this is all one struggle.  The war the Ukrainians face every day is the most devastating element of a coordinated effort to bring down democracies.  In the short run, U.S. voters can make phone calls to make sure that American does the right thing.  Mark your calendar for a day next week and a day following week to call your Congressional representative. 

Right now we can make donations that will help Ukrainians defend themselves, survive, and make sense their experience for the rest of us. 

1.  Safe Skies.  This is passive drone-detection system that allows Ukrainians to detect drones and cruise missiles in time to shoot them down.  President Zelens'kyi just posted some photos of that end of the operation.  Thanks to thousands of people, including many of you here, I was able (with support from some great historian colleagues) to raise enough money to protect eight Ukrainian regions with five thousand sensors (map here).  Ukraine needs 12,000 total sensors to protect the entire country, so 7,000 more.  The technology is inexpensive and effective.  I have seen it at work.  It saves lives.  This is a very direct way that you can help Ukrainians protect themselves.  Just go to this page and hit the button "Protect Ukrainian Skies." 

Donate to Safe Skies

2.  Razom for Ukraine.  This is an American 501(c)3 that carries out important policy advocacy work in Washington DC and around the country.  Aside from their terrific advocate team, they have a large group of volunteers who work tirelessly with Ukrainian NGOs to deliver aid and supplies to Ukraine.  I have worked together with their great team on events for years and am always filled with admiration of their energy, efficacy, and devotion.  A donation to them is a very safe bet.  Please visit their page and donate.

Donate to Razom

3.  Come Back Alive Foundation.  More and more I hear from people who wish to help the Ukrainian army directly.  A Ukrainian NGO that supplies soldiers on the front with what they need is Come Back Alive.  They have been doing this job since the first Russian invasion and are very well reputed and highly reliable.  You can see their fundraisers here.

Donate to Come Back Alive

4.  1 Team 1 Fight Foundation.  This is a group with some very active European volunteers who have shown their mettle and devotion in getting supplies to the front in Ukraine.  They are also an American 501(c)3.  You can find their campaigns here.

Donate to 1 Team 1 Fight

5.  Liberty Ukraine Foundation.  Here we have a small group of (mostly) Texans who have done a great job in delivering humanitarian and military aid to Ukrainians.  You can find their current projects here.  They are a US 501(c)3.

Donate to Liberty Ukraine

6.  Documenting Ukraine.  As many of you will know, I helped establish this project to support Ukrainian scholars, journalists, writers, artists, photographers, librarians, archivists, and others who are documenting the war, each according to their own talents and following their own projects.  We have given grants to 360 Ukrainians at this point, and are aiming for 500 by the end of the year.  (One of those 360 was Mstyslav Chernov, the director of 20 Days in Mariupol, which just won an Oscar).  I am proud of this effort to give Ukrainians a voice and to create a record of the war in real time and across multiple media.  You can donate here.  This is also a US 501(c)3.

Donate to Documenting Ukraine

It has been six months since meaningful U.S. aid has reached Ukraine.  You now have a list of six institutions that can help. 

Think of this as the Challenge of Six. 

I am now going to make donations myself.  If you want to join in, please do! Maybe you have give $6, or $60, or even $600? Or another round number that begins with 6? Be creative. Be generous. It matters.

Thank you!

TS 29 March 2024

I'll add my favorite as it supports medics like our late Warrior Medic, Savita Wagner.