The layered PAC strategy behind pro-Israel election spending in the US
www.aljazeera.com
Al Jazeera analyses how pro-Israel lobby group has relied on shell PACs with deceptive names to defeat Israel critics.
  • its_me_xiphos@beehaw.org
    6·
    15 days ago

    Hey there! I have a crazy story about this.

    I met a PhD candidate a few years back at a conference in the UK. Being one then too, we got to talking about our research. Her research was the coolest and most depressing shit I have encountered. And I study disaster recovery (failures mainly) so believe me when I say this.

    She studied financial funneling for Christian fundamentalist think tanks from the US to Africa. Her work basically followed the money and was uncovering how mega churches and neutrally named nonprofits were funding anti anything but straight evangelical laws in Africa. Quick aside. If you encounter an org named with either Freedom or Love or Heritage or something seemingly innocuous its usually the worst kind of evil and somehow connected to Hobby Lobby. Anyways…

    Religious nonprofits are their own kind of untouchable in US financial law. The IRS doesn’t have the same audit rules for them and is actually banned from audits under many conditions (https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/churches-religious-organizations).

    So they can funnel money through the collection plate to donate it to a religious nonprofit who sends it to a religious NGO often doing aid work (where I came into the conversation was this topic). That aid org builds some water pumps and gets donations too buts its like a mafia front. But it primarily funds anti gay legislation, traditional family laws, and freedom of Christian religion only laws. The work focused on Christian orgs, so I an unaware but would rationally suspect, other religions do this too.

    Since its religion based no politician or investigative authority has the clout to do anything about it, especially in the US and especially in the South (usually Texas).

    So next time you see the T-shirt laden with psalms happy fun church group flying to Burundi to help, the late teens and early 20 something’s are likely oblivious to the really bad shit their parent org are doing. But they are part of a horrible system.

    Edit: If I kept our email exchange I’ll look for it and try to find the dataset associated with this.

  • t3rmit3@beehaw.org
    2·
    15 days ago

    Anyone who thinks that an open propaganda arm is going to cease operation when it becomes publicly unpopular, rather than becoming a covert propaganda arm, is hopelessly naive.