The 501(c)(3) tax exempt Thousand Currents and ActBlue Charities are supporting Black Lives Matter (BLM) Global Network, which is campaigning openly against President Trump on its website and also in other venues. BLM leader Patrisse Cullors said openly in a CNN interview, "Trump not only needs to not be in office in November but he should resign now. Trump needs to be out of office. He is not fit for office." "…we are going to push for is a move to get Trump out… Our goal is to get Trump out." 501(c)(3) resources cannot be used legally to influence an election.

A response to the tweet with the Cullors interview says, "Thanks, sending this tweet to the IRS so they can see BLM's 501(c)(3) status should be removed." (BLM itself is not tax exempt, but Thousand Currents and ActBlue Charities are.) Another person posted a screen shot of IRS rules, while another added, "So they want tax exempt status, but they are going to pull this?" People can act on this information via Form 13909. California, where Thousand Currents and the Tides Foundation are domiciled, uses Form CT9, "Complaint to The California Attorney General Regarding a Charity or Charitable Solicitation."

The very end (last ten seconds) of this Cullors video says, “We get Trump out of office by leading with bold and creative action.” There is more than ample evidence that BLM is therefore using tax-exempt resources from Thousand Currents, ActBlue Charities and, as of July, the Tides Foundation, to influence the election. While Form 13909 and CT9 complaints have doubtlessly been filed, there is no guarantee that regulatory agencies will be able to act on them prior to mid-October, when people will start to send in absentee ballots. We therefore need to take this controversy viral so voters can form their own opinions in the meantime.

The Tides Foundation Steps In

The Capital Research Center reported, "Tides Center Takes Control of Black Lives Matter Global Network." I am not familiar with the Capital Research Center but they also posted a letter from Thousand Currents to the California Attorney General.

"We represent Thousand Currents. By this letter, we hereby provide written notice to the California Attorney General in accordance with California Corporations Code §5913 of a proposed transfer (the "Transfer") by Thousand Currents, a California nonprofit public benefit corporation, of all of the assets associated with Thousand Currents' fiscal sponsorship of the Black Lives Matter Global Network project (the "Assets"), constituting substantial assets of Thousand Currents, to The Tides Center, a California nonprofit public benefit corporation ("Tides"), which will serve as the new fiscal sponsor of the Black Lives Matter Global Network project."

I have no way of knowing whether the Tides Foundation was aware of BLM's political activity when it accepted the fiscal sponsorship. That is between the Tides Foundation, Thousand Currents, and Black Lives Matter Global Network. My only concern, and that of the public, involves the use of taxpayer money to campaign against President Trump while engaging in a partisan, and I stress "partisan," get-out-the-vote effort that is emphatically not directed to people in MAGA hats or centrist blue collar Democrats in trade union hats.

Take This Issue Viral

Black Lives Matter Global Network has deceived many people and organizations (including for example Starbucks, the MLB, and the NBA) into believing it is a civil rights movement whose principal objectives are racial equality and police reform. BLM has made it clear that its priorities are instead, "This is the revolution. Change is coming," and "we continue the revolution" in combination with a 501(c)(3)-funded anti-Trump campaign. BLM and its supporters also seem to believe they have the right to "cancel," or destroy the livelihood or academic career of anybody who says one word against them. We must therefore expose BLM's betrayal of the trust of the American people, a fraud backed by the Democratic National Committee, and voters will express their revulsion accordingly on Election Day. Nothing is more devastating to the opposing side than the sense of broken trust among its former supporters.

There is ample precedent for discrediting an opposing movement to cost the other side an election. The 501(c)(3) tax-exempt Million Mom March claimed to be a commonsense gun safety organization in 2000, but it was actually promoting House candidates on its website and running what was called a thinly-disguised campaign rally for Al Gore. Nobody knows whether it would have turned out the additional few hundred votes Gore needed to win Florida because a columnist exposed the issue several months before the election. The MMM's supporters distanced themselves from it within a month of the scandal hitting the fan, and its collapse may well have cost Gore the election due to (1) the MMM's inability to get out the vote as planned and (2) outright alienation of voters whose trust the MMM betrayed.

As but one example, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America withdrew its public-relations support from the MMM when it learned of the electioneering. The Tides Foundation may feel similarly compelled to repudiate its even closer ties with BLM Global Network, which will be a comprehensive humiliation for BLM and all its corporate, academic, political, and organizational supporters.

Readers should therefore take viral this credible argument that Black Lives Matter Global Network is a political campaign disguised as a civil rights movement. Take it to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, talk radio, and your local newspapers to provide others with the evidence provided here that (1) BLM is campaigning openly against Trump and (2) BLM receives 501(c)(3) tax exempt support from the indicated sources. You can see the linked BLM website and Cullors interviews yourself. You don't have to take my word for them, and neither do Mr. and Ms. American Voter.

Civis Americanus is the pen name of a contributor who remembers the lessons of history and wants to ensure that our country never needs to learn those lessons again the hard way. He or she is remaining anonymous due to the likely prospect of being subjected to "cancel culture" for exposing the Big Lie behind Black Lives Matter.