blexit
10/20 --> generic node black astro-turf
an 10 22
According to a report from the Daily Beast's Kelly Weill, the Blexit Foundation created by rightwing provocateur Candace Owens for the purported purpose of converting Black Americans into conservatives, is seeing donations dry up-- dropping now to a third of the amount taken in compared to last year.
However, as the report states, that hasn't stopped Owen from increasing her pay while running up expenses.
As Weill wrote, "Founded in 2018, Blexit urges African-Americans to leave the Democratic Party, preferably to take up conservative politics. Amid racial justice protests in 2020, the Blexit Foundation reaped more than $7 million in donations. Now the organization is back in the public eye after its sometimes-collaborator Kanye West kicked off a firestorm of antisemitic comments, shortly after posing in 'White Lives Matter' shirts with Owens, and pledging to buy Parler, the rightwing social media site Owens’ husband runs."
With that in mind, Weill wrote that despite the collapse of fundraising, Owens jumped her pay up over $250,00 this year -- up from $230,000 from 2 years ago -- while other execs working for the foundation are also raking in six-figure salaries.
"Blexit’s most recent filing suggests. Last year, the foundation received $2,342,820 in contributions, less than a third of what it raised the previous year," the Beast report states. " Despite that, the org spent nearly $1 million more than it earned, with its total payments to employees nearly doubling. A sizable payment, $250,000 plus benefits, went to Owens. Another $612,000 went to fundraising, and $205,708 went to travel, some of which was first-class or charter."
Asked to respond, Owens issued a statement explaining, "In short, yes we raised money and proudly dispersed money for and to black businesses and continue to do so. Our filings are public, timely, and entirely comprehensive.”
The report notes that she refused to answer specific questions about disbursements, with Weill adding, "In 2021, the Blexit Foundation reported giving away just $4,000 in grants or other assistance. The recipients are unclear; on public tax filings, nonprofits that have not donated more than $5,000 are not required to fill out additional information about recipients.
Owens repeatedly declined to clarify to The Daily Beast how much Blexit had given to Black-owned businesses."
https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/fake-black-trump-supporters-with-tens-of-thousands-of-followers-purged-on-social-media
Matthew Chapman and Raw Story October 14, 2020
On Wednesday, Forbes reported that Twitter is suspending several fake accounts posing as Black supporters of President Donald Trump, saying that they violate the guidelines on spam and account manipulation.
Many of these accounts used identical language over and over, like "YES I'M BLACK AND I'M VOTING FOR TRUMP". Some used images of real Black people without their knowledge or permission. According to Clemson University communications professor Darren Linvill, two dozen of these fake accounts have been retweeted or promoted over 265,000 times.
"Social media platforms are scrambling to tighten and enforce policies on misinformation and disinformation in the runup to November 3, as they seek to avoid a repeat of the 2016 poll that saw Russia interfere through troll accounts, and other tactics, on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube," reported Isabel Togoh. "Twitter has banned all political ads on the platform and is flagging misleading posts and content more prominently (including President Trump's), while Facebook has succumbed to pressure from lawmakers and campaigners and made a lastminute U-turn on certain forms of misinformation spreading, including those related to Covid-19, Qanon, and Holocaust denial."
[[twt
Darren Linvill
@DarrenLinvill
·
Oct 13, 2020
Pleased to have worked on this great piece with @craigtimberg & @isaacstanbecker. This network really points to the difficulty the platforms have playing whack-a-mole with disinformation accounts. 1/5
Fake Twitter accounts posing as Black Trump supporters appear, reach thousands, then vanish
Fake accounts from supposed Black Trump supporters gain thousands of followers in just a few days before Twitter can take them down.
washingtonpost.com
Darren Linvill
@DarrenLinvill
Most of these accounts were using "digital black face" and pretended to be Black American #MAGA supporters. They used images of real Americans in their profiles. Several had tens of thousands of followers and received many thousands of retweets and likes. 2/5]]
Kanye West makes an exit from ‘Blexit’
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2018/10/12/heres-every-word-kanye-wests-bizarre-meeting-president-trump/1609230002/
bromance with President Donald Trump might be over. West, the controversial rapper who has become one of Trump's highest-profile celebrity supporters, said he has become a political pawn. "I’ve been used to spread messages I don’t believe in," West tweeted. His latest revelation came after a series of tweets where West sought to clear his name after the “Blexit” campaign revealed a line of shirts and hats that tout, "Design by Kanye West." "Blexit" is short for "Black Exit," urging black voters to leave the Democratic Party. "I never wanted any association with Blexit,” West said.
https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/some-among-trumps-white-house-south-lawn-audience-were-paid-to-be-there
hunter kos
Donald Trump has always been a game show kind of guy, so it's maybe not a surprise that his first public rally after his hospitalization for COVID-19 symptoms turned into a game show itself, of sorts.
Do you like prizes, kids? Do like prizes enough to listen to Donald Trump talk? Do you like prizes enough to risk your life during a deadly pandemic to listen to Donald Trump talk? Well then, you are in luck! Because conservative weirdo Candace Owens is handing out free travel and lodging to anyone willing to put on an oversized blue T-shirt and risk pandemic death on the White House's South Lawn.
Yeah, that's right. Donald Trump's White House rally on Saturday, the one that was absolutely not a campaign event, the one that featured Trump addressing an adoring teal-shirted and mostly maskless crowd wedged shoulder to shoulder, the scene right out of Evita 2: Mar-a-Lago Boogaloo, the ol' balcony Mussolini routine—an unknown number of those folks were paid to be there. ABC News reports that Owens' fake grassroots "BLEXIT" group offered to cover travel and lodging expenses for a "limited" number of people who showed up and were willing to wear the light blue T-shirts. Owens' group was already organizing a separate fake grassroots Washington, D.C., event on the same day; the White House crowd was gathered from there.
What seems to have happened, reading between the lines, is that Donald Trump was going absolutely stir-crazy and wanted to get back out on the campaign trail, contagious or not contagious, and like the previous "drive once around the hospital while unnecessarily exposing my Secret Service agents to my deadly illness," this was the hurried compromise offered to him by his staff and doctors. Bring an audience to him so that he would stay in the building a few more days rather than taking his coronavirus-infected, pneumonia-having self on a road trip.
Don't worry, though: It wasn't a campaign event. Just an event specifically for far-right voters, ones specifically gathered to encourage Black Americans to vote for Trump and Trump's allies, to hear a Donald Trump speech about "law and order," by which he means crushing the Black Lives Matter demands for police reform, with guest expenses paid by one of Trump's more visible and conspiracy-adjacent allies out of whatever slush fund first birthed the idea for their Washington, D.C. rally to begin with—one that Owens explicitly called an "anti-Black Lives Matter event," just in case people weren't clear about what the agenda was.
Eh. At this point it would be more surprising if some stunt Trump pulled wasn't a fake-ass reality show moment. The South Lawn just recovered from the totally nonpartisan (checks notes) Republican National Convention; now it's going to need repair again. It's you and me that will be paying for those repairs this time, by the way. Because all involved are insistent that this was a presidenting speech, not a campaign speech.
We do, however, have our answer. Yes, there are people willing to risk COVID-19 to see Typhoid Hitler lie to them in person, and especially so if somebody else is paying their bills. Seeing it on television is one thing, but if you go in person you can always hope that the man's spittle will land directly on you, infecting you with Dear Leader's own, um, pandemic superpowers.
Whatever. You do you, Trump supporters. Preferably over there—as far away as possible. The American version of the worldwide pandemic is slowly morphing into a partisan disease, a disease spreading most aggressively among Trump-supporting states and communities while Dear Leader rants about everything being a hoax and ... sigh. Whatever.
ref
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/candace-owens-blexit-group-pays-attendees-travel-trumps/story?id=73531036
no lnx pix vid
some guests for Saturday's White House event on the South Lawn, which will be President Donald Trump's first since testing positive for the coronavirus, had their travel and lodging paid for by controversial conservative activist Candace Owens' group BLEXIT, according to emails obtained by ABC News.
Supporters, who are also scheduled to attend a separate BLEXIT event earlier in the day, were invited to attend a "HUGE outdoor rally" by the group and asked to fill out a form that notified them that BLEXIT, a campaign urging Black Americans to leave the Democratic Party, will be covering travel costs.
Guests were later informed they would be receiving an invitation from the White House to attend an event with Trump.
In an email from Owens, obtained by ABC News, attendees were told "EVERYONE MUST BRING A MASK TO BE ALLOWED ENTRY ONTO THE WHITE HOUSE GROUNDS." and that "absolutely no exceptions" will be made.
[MORE: Trump planning to host 1st in-person event since diagnosis at White House on Saturday: Sources]
Still, wearing a face mask will not be required. Attendees will have to submit to a COVID-19 screening the morning of the event, which will consist of a temperature check and a brief questionnaire.
Guests will first attend a "BLEXIT Back the Blue event" on the Ellipse between the White House and the Washington Monument before heading over to the South Lawn for the president's remarks, according to a schedule obtained by ABC News.
When reached for comment, Owens told ABC News, "We are not interested in participating in your obvious media angle here to slander/attack the President regarding Covid-19." She added that Saturday's event "is about supporting law enforcement in minority communities." It is not immediately clear how many of those set to attend the event had their travel costs covered.
White House spokesman Judd Deere told ABC News the White House "is not involved in covering any cost."
Following Trump's remarks, the BLEXIT group is also planning a demonstration at Black Lives Matter Plaza showing "support for law enforcement," according to the schedule.
The White House plans to host an event on Saturday featuring Trump with hundreds of supporters and guests from Owens' group on the South Lawn discussing "law and order," ABC News previously reported.
MORE: 2nd presidential debate between Biden and Trump canceled]
"All attendees must bring a mask with them and will be instructed to wear it on the White House Complex. All attendees must submit to a COVID-19 screening tomorrow morning. This will consist of a temperature check and a brief questionnaire. The health and safety of all attendees is our priority and following CDC guidelines is strongly encouraged," a source with knowledge of the group's planning told ABC News.
Trump will deliver "remarks to peaceful protesters for law and order," according to an invite obtained by ABC News and confirmed by two White House sources familiar with the planning. The move underscores an effort to deliver the president a packed crowd of supporters for the event as he struggles with support among Black voters. Joe Biden led Trump, 88% to 9%, among Black registered voters, according to a Sept. 26 ABC/Washington Post poll.
Owens, who founded BLEXIT in 2018, told ABC News it is an organization "with the purpose of educating minorities about conservative principles (free markets, entrepreneurship, capitalism, etc) -- concepts and theories that can truly transform and uplift our communities."
[PHOTO: Political commentator Candace Owens introduces President Donald Trump, not pictured, during the Young Black Leadership Summit 2019 event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., Oct. 4, 2019.
Political commentator Candace Owens introduces President Donald Trump, not pictured, during the Young Black Leadership Summit 2019 event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., Oct. 4, 2019.]
"We stand in unapologetic, stark contrast to leftist ideologies that have destroyed our communities for decades," Owens said.
In an Instagram post last week, Owens promoted what she called an upcoming "anti-Black Lives Matter event," and urged followers to submit to attend in person. "We are giving away a limited amount of travel stipends to those that really them," she said in the post.
MORE: Trump itching to get back to campaign trail, but he and White House evasive on health questions]
"Our president doesn't want us to be fearful or scared," one person planning to attend Saturday's events told ABC News. "Look how he came out of it. He popped right back. We have got to stop being afraid of this."
"We got to take this mask off, we have to unmask America," the person added.
Attendees for Saturday's event were also told, "EVERYONE MUST WEAR A BLEXIT T-SHIRT (Which will be given to you ahead of the event) -- no exceptions."