This Is a Feature, Not a Bug

Why the fuss over a tiny bungalo?



In news that should surprise none of my reader(s) New York Attorney General Leticia James has sued the right wing racist anti-immigrant group VDARE for misappropriating funds.

Gee, what was the clue, that the founders used money from an alleged non profit to buy a literal castle?

Right wing charities are grifts:

Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, sued the anti-immigration nonprofit VDARE on Wednesday, saying that the husband and wife who run the group had drained more than $1 million from its coffers to pay themselves and to buy a medieval-style castle in West Virginia.

Peter and Lydia Brimelow, VDARE’s leaders, are longtime opponents of immigration whose blog has become a bridge between mainstream Republicans and the more overtly racist elements of the far right. Mr. Brimelow, 77, has referred to himself as the “god-uncle” of the alt-right, the dissident white nationalist movement that emerged during President Trump’s first term.

At the same time, Ms. James said, the pair had treated their tax-exempt charity as a “personal piggy bank,” using its money to pay for club memberships, international travel, home renovations and payments that benefited them and their relatives. She asked a New York state judge to force the Brimelows to pay back what they had taken, plus penalties, then dissolve VDARE and disperse its assets to other charities.

“Charities are intended to serve the public, not to bankroll castles or pad personal fortunes,” Ms. James said in a statement.

Ms. James, a Democrat, regulates charities registered in New York.

………

But Ms. James said that much of the group’s spending was actually funneled back to the Brimelows. She said the nonprofit paid Mr. Brimelow a salary of up to $345,000, rent for office space in the Brimelows’ Connecticut home, and for some home repairs there.

Then, in 2020, the nonprofit bought a castle.

The 9,300-square-foot home in the resort town of Berkeley Springs, W.Va., had been built in the 1880s with a medieval-style turret and battlements. Ms. James said that the Brimelows moved into the castle, using a charitable asset for their personal benefit. She said they did not seek permission from the group’s board, which at the time consisted of relatives and close friends of Peter Brimelow, or disclose that fact in public filings.

 If this story sounds familiar, it is because it's almost identical to the lawsuit against the National Rifle Association and its corrupt former Executive Director Wayne LaPierre.

I'm beginning to see a pattern.