The Press Herald has been tricked but once more into quoting a left-wing astroturf group that purports to represent modest firms in Maine.
The so-named “Maine Tiny Company Coalition” sounds like a group representing modest firms in Maine. If you only study the Press Herald, you possibly consider that is what it is.
But according to Maine Secretary of State records, the “coalition” is basically a fake name registered to the People’s Alliance of Maine, a left-wing nonprofit funded by international dark dollars.
Press Herald reporter Joe Lawlor gullibly quotes “Selecca Bulgar-Medina, director of the Maine Tiny Company Coalition” in his story about pushing for new taxes to fund Maine’s state paid leave system.
Press Herald reporter quotes bogus company lawyer
A cursory Google search would reveal that Bulgar-Medina is a bogus company group headquartered at 565 Congress St., Suite 200. Portland, Maine 04101.
It takes place to be the precise address and workplace suite of the People’s Alliance of Maine and a host of other liberal front groups.
Such a search would also reveal that Bulgar-Medina has under no circumstances operated a modest company in Maine or anyplace else.
A short assessment of Maine campaign finance would also show that Bulgar-Medina is listed as a “choice maker” and “fundraiser” for a Maine People’s Alliance-backed ballot committee to advance the paid leave tax.
Political groups produced by operatives to seem to be “grassroots” organizations are identified as astroturf.
The Maine Wire has reported on the Maine People’s Association’s deceptive use of astroturf considering that 2013.
For extra than a decade, different motives, funded by contributions from dark dollars, have utilised the name “Maine Tiny Company Coalition” to give the look that modest firms assistance leftist policies, which constantly imply greater taxes.
All the although, Maine’s liberal newspapers have either been complicit in the deception or are also lazy to query the motivations of the persons they quote.
The citation in this case is specifically egregious provided that the People’s Alliance of Maine was the group that organized dozens of activists to come out in assistance of the paid leave tax bill in the course of a committee hearing on the bill.
Maine campaign finance records show that Mainers for Paid Leave BKC, the principal political group backing the ballot initiative, is also registered with the identical Portland workplace suite.
Lawlor basically cites a paid political operative, funded by international billionaires, and participates in the fiction that she is somehow representative of all modest firms in Maine.
Press Herald readers would have no way of figuring out, primarily based on the lack of disclosure, that Bulgar-Medina, get-out-the-vote operatives, Maine People’s Alliance activists (like state Sen. Mike Tipping), all perform in the identical group and are paid by the identical collection of dark dollars donors.
These donors include things like billionaires like George Soros and S. Donald Sussman, former owner of the Press Herald, who gives Arabella Advisors, a left-wing organization.
[RELATED: Swiss Billionaire Funds Tax-the-Rich Liberals in Maine…]
Related Press reporting earlier this year revealed that Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wiss is also amongst the left-leaning donors whose dollars has discovered its way into Maine politics in relation to the Maine People’s Alliance and other groups.
To place this in terms even a Press Herald reporter could recognize: This would be like ExxonMobil forming the “Maine Environmental Coalition” and then lobbying for greater taxes on wind and solar power.
If that sounds silly, that is simply because it is.
You’d have to be a true ruber to invest in into such an clear political scam.