am 1st works afw

OOPS 3 26 SEE AM FIRST WORKS

MERRI OK

new c4 fronts?!

KUDLOW?

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an ah 1 23

Thanks in part to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the phrase “dark money” is heard a great deal these days in connection with U.S. politics. Citizens United, with its majority opinion by libertarian then-Justice Anthony Kennedy, defined campaign and election spending as a form of constitutionally protected “speech.” And it opened the “dark money” floodgates in a major way.

The Daily Beast’s Roger Sollenberger, in an article published by the Daily Beast on January 19, examines the “dark money machine” of former President Donald Trump. According to Sollenberger,that operation is only getting worse — and is purposely designed to be “confusing.”

“Just when it seemed like former President Donald Trump’s dark money maze couldn’t get any darker, it looks like someone shot the lights out,” Sollenbergerreports. “At least, that’s the impression experts in nonprofit law took away from a pair of previously unreported tax filings from the dark money arm of Trump’s political machine, America First Works. Those experts said it appears from the filings and other incorporation records that the advocacy group — which raised almost no money in 2021 — has closed down its original Virginia entity and opened another one in Washington, D.C. under the same name, with the same board of directors. The question is why — and it comes as Trumpworld is laying the groundwork for a second Trump term.”

On December 21, 2022, Axios’ Lachlan Markay reported that if Trump wins the 2024 election, he “will enjoy a key asset absent from his 2017 White House transition: a sprawling infrastructure already preparing to staff a new administration and immediately enact major policies.” Allies of the former president, Sollenberger notes, cite that infrastructure as a key difference between Trump and a MAGA Republican he may be running against in 2024’s GOP presidential primary: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — that is, if DeSantis decides to run. Firebrand author Ann Coulter, pundits at Fox News and Fox Business and writers for the National Review have all been pushing DeSantis for 2024.

“2021 was essentially a rebuilding year for Trump’s dark money machine,” according to Sollenberger. “That work not only came at a cost, it also appears to have happened in a black box, adding another layer of opacity on top of a fundraising and advocacy network that’s already grown so convoluted even legal experts have a hard time untangling it. In this instance, not only is it hard to follow the money, it’s hard to say for sure whether there’s all that much money to follow in the first place. At least, there appears to be a lot less of it flying around in the fractious 12 months after Trump left the White House.”

Sollenberger goes on to explain why America First Works fits the definition of a dark money operation.

“AFW is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, which are often colloquially called ‘dark money’ groups,” Sollenberger explains. “These groups can raise funds in unlimited amounts, and while they don’t have to disclose their donors’ identities, the organizations can use a chunk of that unattributed money for political activity. According to its 2021 tax filing, which was first obtained by The Daily Beast,AFW — which raised about $51 million the previous year — doled out millions of dollars in transfers and grants. That filing shows that the funds all went to a handful of groups that make up a financial and political support network behind the former president.”

The Daily Beast reporter adds, “Those transactions included a $3 million grant to AFW’s 501(c)(3) counterpart, America First Policy Institute, and an additional $250,000 to Make America Great Again Policies — a lesser-known entity which has reported having a cost-sharing agreement with a new pro-Trump super PAC. AFW also paid another $250,000 for ‘research’ to Republican opposition research firm America Rising, according to the document.”

Sollenberger points out that if Trump’s dark money “maze” is “maddeningly difficult to follow,” that is “almost certainly part of the point,” according to government and campaign finance watchdogs.

Interviewed by the Beast, Brendan Fischer (who serves as deputy director of government for the watchdog group Documented), discussed the drop that occurred with America First Works in 2021 and told the Beast, “America First Works served as the dark money arm of Trump’s campaign in 2020, and it is not uncommon for a politically active dark money group to see a decline in revenue during a non-election year. But this drop is precipitous, and can’t be explained by election cycles alone…. The in-kind contributions of staff time and office space indicate that AFW employees were still working and on the payroll in 2021…. It also would be understandable if AFW was just going to spend down its existing funds and close up shop, but that’s not what’s going on either.”

The “name changes” with Trump-associated “dark money” operations, according to Sollenberger, are designedto be confusing.

“Last December,” Sollenberger reports, “an AFW spokesperson told The Daily Beast it wasn’t a name change; America First Policies had been ‘sold’ to America First Works 'in a private deal’…. However, previously unreported tax filings now show that another ‘America First Works’ was created that same year, this one in Washington, D.C. AFW1 reported a $140,100 grant to the new America First Works (AFW2), which AFW1 cites as a related entity.”

Sollenberger continues, “But The Daily Beast also obtained AFW2’s tax filing, which shows that the two groups share a slate of directors and that the grant comprised all of AFW2’s revenue for 2021. Almost all the money — around $132,000 of it — was spent on a ‘security deposit,’ the document shows, though it discloses no other underlying assets. Again, all of these moves and name changes seem designed to do one major thing: confuse.”

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sched fneutralized public sector unions? note the bill does the opposite of what roy says it does; also thugswarm of action BS orgs c4??

an 7 22

Rep. Chip Roy's introduction Friday of a bill to make federal bureaucratic personnel at-will employees further stoked fears that marginalized workers will suffer discriminatory firings under a future Republican administration or even GOP-controlled Congress.

The Public Service Reform Act "will empower federal agencies to swiftly address misconduct and remove underperforming or ill-willed employees, creating a federal workforce focused on service to the American people," Roy (R-Texas) said in a statement.

The bill "would make all federal bureaucrats at-will employees—just like private sector workers—and claw back the inordinate protections some federal employees grossly abuse," he added.

The proposed legislation comes a week after reports that aides to former President Donald Trump are working to revive a plan to reclassify federal civil service personnel who worked under both Democratic and Republican administrations as at-will workers subject to easier termination.

Don Kettl, professor emeritus and former dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, told Government Executive that "this is obviously a huge and major change, an effort to gear up a major assault on the federal employment system" that "is being helped and aided unquestionably by a set of groups likeAmerica First Works, Heritage Action for America, FreedomWorks, and Citizens for Renewing America, who have endorsed the bill."

"Much of the debate has largely been about if Trump is reelected," he added, "but what this makes clear is the efforts to try to change the civil service aren't just Trump necessarily, and if Republicans take control of Congress following the midterms, this may very well go from idea to specific action."

According to Government Executive:

Although the bill stands nearly zero chance of passing in the current Congress, experts say that it, combined with recent news that conservative political operatives with Trump's endorsement have devised plans to revive Schedule F, a proposal to strip the civil service protections from tens of thousands of federal employees in "policy-related" positions, indicates the civil service system as we have known it for the last 150 years will be under attack under the next Republican administration.

Although Roy says his bill "will provide justice to federal employees who are victims of discrimination or whistleblower retaliation," Kettl warned that the measure "dramatically limits the amount of whistleblowing activity that's possible," noting that "it creates a disincentive to blow the whistle because your retirement benefits could be reduced."

"When you put it together," he added, "it's a very big deal" and "would dramatically change the incentives for individuals who are being dismissed because of whistleblowing."

Author and transgender activist Brynn Tannehill worries that, should at-will employment become reality, "a purge of trans people from federal service" would follow a return of Trump or another Republican president to the White House.

Commenting on the mass firingof progressive staffers by San Francisco's new tougher-on-crime district attorney following Chesa Boudin's recall, socialist organizer Julian LaRosa recently argued for a codified employment termination standard similar to the one realized in the limited laws that labor activists led by Local 32BJ of theService Employees International Unionhelped enactin Philadelphia and New York.

"Can we just get universal just cause in the workplace already?" he asked.

Testifying before New York City Council members in support of that city's 2021 just-cause law, former Chipotle worker Melanie Walker said she was suddenly fired by her manager one day for not smiling, even though there were no customers in the store.

"Everyone who's working needs to have some type of stability in your life," she said. "You should be able to go to work without thinking you have to be on eggshells all day, thinking that you can be fired at any moment for any cause."

"I'm loyal to you as a worker and you should be loyal to me," Walker added. "People still have to feed their families."

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POLITICS

Trump-allied dark money group joins forces with a think tank run by ex-president’s former aides

PUBLISHED MON, NOV 22 20211:48 PM ESTUPDATED MON,NOV 22 2021

Brian Schwartz

@SCHWARTZBCNBC

KEY POINTS

America First Works, a dark money group that once promoted former President Trump’s policies, is joining forces with a think tank headed in part by former key members of his administration.

The think tank, America First Policy Institute, is led in part by former Trump economic advisor Larry Kudlow and former Small Business Administration chief Linda McMahon.

The collaboration comes as Trump considers running for the White House again in 2024. They could provide another platform for Trump and his allies to keep his “America First” agenda in the spotlight.

America First Works is permitted by law to engage in some partisan politics. America First Policy Institute claims to be nonpartisan.

A dark money group that once promoted former President Donald Trump’s policies is joining forces with a think tank headed in part by former key members of his administration, including Larry Kudlow and Linda McMahon.

America First Works launched after Trump’s 2016 victory and was previously known as America First Policies. It was reformed and changed its name after Trump lost his bid for reelection.

Now the group is working directly with another freshly formed nonprofit organization, think tank America First Policy Institute, according to Ashley Hayek, a Trump campaign veteran who has a leadership role at America First Works and is also chief engagement officer for the think tank.

Other leaders at the AFPI think tank include:

CEO Brooke Rollins, who was once the director of domestic policy in Trump’s White House

Board chair McMahon, a former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment who served as Trump’s head of the Small Business Administration

Board vice chair Kudlow, who was director of the National Economic Council under Trump

Neither America First Works nor America First Policy Institute is required by law to publicly disclose their donors. America First Works has given money to a group that claimed to have helped write Georgia’s voting law and another organization that is pushing to amend the Constitution to further impose limits on the federal government’s powers.

The groups’ collaboration comes as Trump considers running for the White House again in 2024. They could provide another platform for Trump and his allies to keep his “America First” agenda in the spotlight. Members of the think tank have been moving ahead with publicly promoting these pro-Trump policies through op-eds, interviews and pre-recorded videos.

While it’s unclear how much cash AFPI has on hand, Axios reported that it has a first year budget of $20 million. It was launched earlier this year. America First Works finished 2020 with just over $7 million in assets, according to their annual 990 tax filing.

America First Works is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, which by law can engage in some partisan politics, while America First Policy Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which by law should be nonpartisan. The group claims on its website that it is nonpartisan despite being aligned with the former president.

Hayek told CNBC that America First Works was formed “as a new organization to work closely with AFPI” and as “an extension of AFPI, it is entirely focused on advancing policy at all levels of government, including to promote economic opportunity, school choice, affordable healthcare, foster care reform, election integrity, and criminal justice reform.”

CNBC Politics

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https://www.cnbc.com › 2021 › 11 › 22 › trump-alumni-think-tank-joins-forces-with-america-first-works-dark-money-group.html

Trump alumni think tank joins forces with America First Works dark ...

Nov 22, 2021America First Works finished 2020 with just over $7 million in assets, according to their annual 990 tax filing. America First Works is a 501 (c) (4) nonprofit, which by law can engage in some...

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