Thread Reader helps you read and share Twitter threads easily!
I'm @ThreadReaderApp a Twitter bot here to help you read threads more easily. To trigger me, you just have to reply to (or quote) any tweet of the thread you want to unroll and mention me with the "unroll" keyword and I'll send you a link back on Twitter 😀
— Thread Reader App (@threadreaderapp) November 25, 2017
X thread is series of posts by the same author connected with a line!
From any post in the thread, mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll
Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us easily!
Practice here first or read more on our help page!
Recent
The Sephardic Community of Jerusalem (1/3)
Chapter One: The Sephardic Community of Jerusalem and Jaffa — Before There Was a "Middle East"
[Image: Yosef Eliyahu Chelouche] [Image: Leaders of the Jaffa community, including a family portrait]
There's a city that turned itself inside out without anyone quite noticing when it happened.
A Sephardic City, Almost Entirely
At the start of the nineteenth century, Jerusalem was overwhelmingly Sephardic. According to a census by the Prussian consul Dr. Schultz, in 1845 the city held roughly 7,120 Jews — about 6,000 of them Sephardic, against only about 1,100 Ashkenazi. The Ashkenazi Jews were such a tiny minority that, to complete a prayer quorum for Ashkenazi-rite services in one of the prayer rooms within the Rabban Yochanan ben Zakai synagogue complex, they sometimes had to bring in a paid Sephardic Jew — or even a boy under bar mitzvah age, holding a Torah scroll — just to reach the minyan.
There's an even more striking piece of evidence: Ashkenazi Jews who immigrated to Jerusalem in that period would often join the Sephardic community and present themselves publicly as Sephardic — in the words of the historical record, "so that the Arabs would not recognize them as Ashkenazi." This was, to a significant degree, a matter of personal safety.
Son of Algeria and Baghdad, Born in Jaffa
In 1870, a boy named Yosef Eliyahu Chelouche was born in old Jaffa. His father, Aharon Chelouche, came from Oran in Algeria. His mother, Sarah, was born in Baghdad, from the "Baruch Matzliach" family. Two worlds — North Africa and Babylon — met in Ottoman Jaffa, long before anyone spoke of "communities" as separate categories.
The family home in old Jaffa wasn't only a residence. An entire room was set aside as a house of prayer. There, among others, wandering scholars and resident rabbis were hosted over the years — and in the list young Yosef Eliyahu remembered into old age, one name stands out: Rabbi Marcado Meir, father of the chief rabbi of the Land of Israel, Rishon LeTzion Rabbi Yaakov Meir. That same Rabbi Yaakov Meir would later found "Safah Berurah" — the first organization for the revival of the Hebrew language, before Eliezer Ben-Yehuda ever joined it.
A House That Was a Community Hub
In that house, the names of other scholars were also preserved: Rabbi Eliyahu Mani, the great Kabbalist (father of Judge Malkiel Mani), Rabbi Shlomo Bahbout (father of the rabbi of Beirut), Rabbi Meir Hamburger. This was not an isolated community — it was a waystation, a crossroads through which rabbis passed between Jerusalem, Baghdad, Beirut, and North Africa, all part of a single network.
A Friend From Baghdad, a Friend From Egypt
When Yosef Eliyahu grew older and was sent to study at the "Tiferet Yisrael" school in Beirut, two friends in particular stayed etched in his memory: Reuven Yechezkel Sassoon of Baghdad — who would later serve as Iraq's own finance minister — and Baruch Cohen, of a Karaite family from Egypt. Three children, from three different communities of Eastern Jewry, sitting in the same classroom in Ottoman Beirut.
A Slow Reversal
Throughout the entire nineteenth century, growing waves of Ashkenazi immigration — starting with the "Aliyah of the Vilna Gaon's Disciples" in 1808 — gradually changed the picture. Unlike the small number of Ashkenazim who had come before them, these immigrants did not assimilate into the Sephardic community — they built their own separate, independent communal infrastructure, until it gradually grew to outnumber the Sephardic community itself. By the early twentieth century, Ashkenazim already formed the majority in Jerusalem, and the Sephardic community, which had once been almost the entire city, had become a shrinking minority. This was not a result of 1948, nor even of political Zionism. The split into separate identities — a community building its own structure rather than merging — began decades before anyone had written the word "Zionism." What Zionism did, later, was take a demographic pattern that already existed — and give it, for the first time, a formal governmental structure.
Chapter One: The Sephardic Community of Jerusalem and Jaffa — Before There Was a "Middle East"
[Image: Yosef Eliyahu Chelouche] [Image: Leaders of the Jaffa community, including a family portrait]
There's a city that turned itself inside out without anyone quite noticing when it happened.
A Sephardic City, Almost Entirely
At the start of the nineteenth century, Jerusalem was overwhelmingly Sephardic. According to a census by the Prussian consul Dr. Schultz, in 1845 the city held roughly 7,120 Jews — about 6,000 of them Sephardic, against only about 1,100 Ashkenazi. The Ashkenazi Jews were such a tiny minority that, to complete a prayer quorum for Ashkenazi-rite services in one of the prayer rooms within the Rabban Yochanan ben Zakai synagogue complex, they sometimes had to bring in a paid Sephardic Jew — or even a boy under bar mitzvah age, holding a Torah scroll — just to reach the minyan.
There's an even more striking piece of evidence: Ashkenazi Jews who immigrated to Jerusalem in that period would often join the Sephardic community and present themselves publicly as Sephardic — in the words of the historical record, "so that the Arabs would not recognize them as Ashkenazi." This was, to a significant degree, a matter of personal safety.
Son of Algeria and Baghdad, Born in Jaffa
In 1870, a boy named Yosef Eliyahu Chelouche was born in old Jaffa. His father, Aharon Chelouche, came from Oran in Algeria. His mother, Sarah, was born in Baghdad, from the "Baruch Matzliach" family. Two worlds — North Africa and Babylon — met in Ottoman Jaffa, long before anyone spoke of "communities" as separate categories.
The family home in old Jaffa wasn't only a residence. An entire room was set aside as a house of prayer. There, among others, wandering scholars and resident rabbis were hosted over the years — and in the list young Yosef Eliyahu remembered into old age, one name stands out: Rabbi Marcado Meir, father of the chief rabbi of the Land of Israel, Rishon LeTzion Rabbi Yaakov Meir. That same Rabbi Yaakov Meir would later found "Safah Berurah" — the first organization for the revival of the Hebrew language, before Eliezer Ben-Yehuda ever joined it.
A House That Was a Community Hub
In that house, the names of other scholars were also preserved: Rabbi Eliyahu Mani, the great Kabbalist (father of Judge Malkiel Mani), Rabbi Shlomo Bahbout (father of the rabbi of Beirut), Rabbi Meir Hamburger. This was not an isolated community — it was a waystation, a crossroads through which rabbis passed between Jerusalem, Baghdad, Beirut, and North Africa, all part of a single network.
A Friend From Baghdad, a Friend From Egypt
When Yosef Eliyahu grew older and was sent to study at the "Tiferet Yisrael" school in Beirut, two friends in particular stayed etched in his memory: Reuven Yechezkel Sassoon of Baghdad — who would later serve as Iraq's own finance minister — and Baruch Cohen, of a Karaite family from Egypt. Three children, from three different communities of Eastern Jewry, sitting in the same classroom in Ottoman Beirut.
A Slow Reversal
Throughout the entire nineteenth century, growing waves of Ashkenazi immigration — starting with the "Aliyah of the Vilna Gaon's Disciples" in 1808 — gradually changed the picture. Unlike the small number of Ashkenazim who had come before them, these immigrants did not assimilate into the Sephardic community — they built their own separate, independent communal infrastructure, until it gradually grew to outnumber the Sephardic community itself. By the early twentieth century, Ashkenazim already formed the majority in Jerusalem, and the Sephardic community, which had once been almost the entire city, had become a shrinking minority. This was not a result of 1948, nor even of political Zionism. The split into separate identities — a community building its own structure rather than merging — began decades before anyone had written the word "Zionism." What Zionism did, later, was take a demographic pattern that already existed — and give it, for the first time, a formal governmental structure.
Chapter Two: The Torah That Led Out of Jerusalem (2/3)
[Image: the ornate door of the "Beit El" Kabbalist yeshiva in the Old City]
In Iraq, the chain of Torah scholarship passed through the Sofer family (Rabbi Yaakov Chaim Sofer, author of Kaf HaChaim, and his son Moshe, who carried on his work). In Fez, through Ibn Tzur and Ibn Danan. In Jerusalem, it passed through a single title: the Chacham Bashi.
A Position the Ottoman Empire Itself Recognized
From the mid-nineteenth century, the institution of "Chacham Bashi" — chief rabbi — was united with the title of "Rishon LeTzion" in Jerusalem. This was not a symbolic honor. The Ottoman government recognized the holder of this title as the authorized representative of the entire Jewish community — not only the Sephardim — before the authorities. This granted the Sephardic community a distinctive standing relative to other communities, long before anyone had any notion of a Jewish state.
From Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elyashar to His Grandson
Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elyashar served as Chacham Bashi and Rishon LeTzion at the end of the nineteenth century. Under him, a whole generation of leaders was trained — among them Rabbi Yaakov Meir, whom we've already met: a boy raised in Jerusalem, who studied with the Kabbalists of the "Beit El" yeshiva in the Old City (an ancient Kabbalistic yeshiva founded in 1737 — not to be confused with the modern religious-Zionist yeshiva bearing the same name in the settlement of Beit El), and who by age 23 was already among the founders of the Misgav Ladach hospital.
Rabbi Yaakov Meir was not content with a rabbinic role alone. He founded the "Hitachdut" organization to bring Sephardim and Ashkenazim closer together, and "Safah Berurah" for the revival of Hebrew — and years later, after serving as chief rabbi of the Salonika community for about a decade and helping rescue survivors of a great fire that devastated the city, he returned to Jerusalem and became the first Rishon LeTzion of the Chief Rabbinate — the most senior rabbinic position in a state that did not yet exist.
A Third Generation: The Grandson Who Carried On the Struggle
Eliyahu Elyashar — grandson of Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elyashar — inherited not only the name but the role. He served as president of the Sephardic community committee of Jerusalem, and just as his grandfather had headed the community under Ottoman rule, he headed it under the British Mandate — trying, under far harder conditions, to preserve what his grandfather had built.
An Ancient Institution, by Tradition — Going Back to the Ramban
According to tradition, the Sephardic community committee of Jerusalem was established with the arrival of the Ramban (Nachmanides) in the city in 1267, which, if the tradition is accurate, makes it the only Jewish institution in the Land of Israel to have operated continuously from then until today. Under its auspices, generations of Torah, education, and charitable institutions operated: a Talmud Torah, the "Tiferet Yerushalayim" yeshiva, the "Beit El" Kabbalist yeshiva, the Misgav Ladach hospital, an orphanage, a soup kitchen, an old-age home, and a burial society.
An Unbroken Chain
Three generations, from the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth: Chacham Bashi → students who became chief rabbis → grandsons who carried on the public struggle. This was not leadership appointed from outside. It was a dynasty that grew from within the community itself, generation after generation — exactly as we saw in Baghdad, in Cairo, and in Fez.
[Image: the ornate door of the "Beit El" Kabbalist yeshiva in the Old City]
In Iraq, the chain of Torah scholarship passed through the Sofer family (Rabbi Yaakov Chaim Sofer, author of Kaf HaChaim, and his son Moshe, who carried on his work). In Fez, through Ibn Tzur and Ibn Danan. In Jerusalem, it passed through a single title: the Chacham Bashi.
A Position the Ottoman Empire Itself Recognized
From the mid-nineteenth century, the institution of "Chacham Bashi" — chief rabbi — was united with the title of "Rishon LeTzion" in Jerusalem. This was not a symbolic honor. The Ottoman government recognized the holder of this title as the authorized representative of the entire Jewish community — not only the Sephardim — before the authorities. This granted the Sephardic community a distinctive standing relative to other communities, long before anyone had any notion of a Jewish state.
From Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elyashar to His Grandson
Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elyashar served as Chacham Bashi and Rishon LeTzion at the end of the nineteenth century. Under him, a whole generation of leaders was trained — among them Rabbi Yaakov Meir, whom we've already met: a boy raised in Jerusalem, who studied with the Kabbalists of the "Beit El" yeshiva in the Old City (an ancient Kabbalistic yeshiva founded in 1737 — not to be confused with the modern religious-Zionist yeshiva bearing the same name in the settlement of Beit El), and who by age 23 was already among the founders of the Misgav Ladach hospital.
Rabbi Yaakov Meir was not content with a rabbinic role alone. He founded the "Hitachdut" organization to bring Sephardim and Ashkenazim closer together, and "Safah Berurah" for the revival of Hebrew — and years later, after serving as chief rabbi of the Salonika community for about a decade and helping rescue survivors of a great fire that devastated the city, he returned to Jerusalem and became the first Rishon LeTzion of the Chief Rabbinate — the most senior rabbinic position in a state that did not yet exist.
A Third Generation: The Grandson Who Carried On the Struggle
Eliyahu Elyashar — grandson of Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elyashar — inherited not only the name but the role. He served as president of the Sephardic community committee of Jerusalem, and just as his grandfather had headed the community under Ottoman rule, he headed it under the British Mandate — trying, under far harder conditions, to preserve what his grandfather had built.
An Ancient Institution, by Tradition — Going Back to the Ramban
According to tradition, the Sephardic community committee of Jerusalem was established with the arrival of the Ramban (Nachmanides) in the city in 1267, which, if the tradition is accurate, makes it the only Jewish institution in the Land of Israel to have operated continuously from then until today. Under its auspices, generations of Torah, education, and charitable institutions operated: a Talmud Torah, the "Tiferet Yerushalayim" yeshiva, the "Beit El" Kabbalist yeshiva, the Misgav Ladach hospital, an orphanage, a soup kitchen, an old-age home, and a burial society.
An Unbroken Chain
Three generations, from the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth: Chacham Bashi → students who became chief rabbis → grandsons who carried on the public struggle. This was not leadership appointed from outside. It was a dynasty that grew from within the community itself, generation after generation — exactly as we saw in Baghdad, in Cairo, and in Fez.
Chapter Three: When the Leadership Hit a Wall (3/3)
[Image: Eliyahu Elyashar]
The previous two chapters told the story of a dynasty that grew on its own, from within the community. This chapter tells what happened when that dynasty encountered a new governing apparatus — one it hadn't built, and one that had no interest in making room for it.
Enormous Assets, and Evidence of a Struggle
The Sephardic community committee held endowments and assets of considerable scale — including a massive bequest from Sima Baliliyos, a philanthropist of Baghdadi-Sephardic origin from the community of Calcutta, who in 1926 left 80,000 Palestine pounds for the benefit of Jerusalem's main synagogue. Around this bequest, a prolonged legal battle unfolded between the Sephardic and Ashkenazi communities over whom the donation belonged to — a dispute in which, explicitly and in court, the question underlying this entire chapter was asked: who is the "default" identity of a Jew in the Land of Israel?
An Organization Born Without Money
After the British conquest in 1917, members of the Sephardic community in Jaffa and Jerusalem established public organizations of their own — the "Sephardic Youth Organization," later the "Organization of Eastern Pioneers." Unlike its Ashkenazi counterparts, it received no financial support from the Zionist institutions. It survived for about a decade and closed its doors in 1929 for lack of resources.
The Choice: Join, or Stay Outside
In Mandate-era Jerusalem, the Sephardic community council had to contend with a party-list electoral system, while every party was Ashkenazi and funded from abroad. The result: a Sephardic community that made up a significant share of Jerusalem's Jews received minimal representation in the central institutions.
Eliyahu Elyashar Takes the Wheel
In 1947, Eliyahu Elyashar was elected to head the Sephardic community committee, amid a dire financial situation — debts of thousands of pounds. He worked to restore its finances, renewed ties with Jews of Arab lands around the world, and convened another world conference of Sephardic Jews.
A Press of Their Own
Despite the hardships, members of the community managed to publish periodicals of their own — Al-Sharq in 1942, followed by Hed HaMizrach, edited by Eliyahu Elyashar himself, from 1943. These publications, alongside Bama'araha, edited by David Sitton, dealt with the culture of Arab-lands Jewry and the community's problems — an independent attempt, from within the community itself, to tell its own story in its own words.
What Remains, and What Was Lost
During the War of Independence, between November 1947 and May 1948, the Jewish Quarter of the Old City endured a six-month siege, and eventually fell to irregular Arab forces and the Jordanian Legion. During the fighting and its aftermath, most of the Quarter's buildings were destroyed — among them the offices of the Sephardic community committee, along with the historical material kept inside them: centuries of documents, ledgers, and correspondence.
A significant portion of the committee's own property, including assets and endowments such as the Baliliyos fund, remained on the other side of the armistice line, in territory then controlled by Jordan, beyond the reach of the community that administered it.
Not every claim from this period can be fully verified. But the basic pattern is clear and recurring: an organization without funding, minimal political representation relative to the size of the population, and a community forced again and again to build for itself, through its own effort, what other communities received as a matter of course.
This was not total erasure. This was a community that kept speaking, writing, and leading itself — even when the surrounding apparatus made it no easier, and even when the archive that documented its history burned under fire.
[Image: Eliyahu Elyashar]
The previous two chapters told the story of a dynasty that grew on its own, from within the community. This chapter tells what happened when that dynasty encountered a new governing apparatus — one it hadn't built, and one that had no interest in making room for it.
Enormous Assets, and Evidence of a Struggle
The Sephardic community committee held endowments and assets of considerable scale — including a massive bequest from Sima Baliliyos, a philanthropist of Baghdadi-Sephardic origin from the community of Calcutta, who in 1926 left 80,000 Palestine pounds for the benefit of Jerusalem's main synagogue. Around this bequest, a prolonged legal battle unfolded between the Sephardic and Ashkenazi communities over whom the donation belonged to — a dispute in which, explicitly and in court, the question underlying this entire chapter was asked: who is the "default" identity of a Jew in the Land of Israel?
An Organization Born Without Money
After the British conquest in 1917, members of the Sephardic community in Jaffa and Jerusalem established public organizations of their own — the "Sephardic Youth Organization," later the "Organization of Eastern Pioneers." Unlike its Ashkenazi counterparts, it received no financial support from the Zionist institutions. It survived for about a decade and closed its doors in 1929 for lack of resources.
The Choice: Join, or Stay Outside
In Mandate-era Jerusalem, the Sephardic community council had to contend with a party-list electoral system, while every party was Ashkenazi and funded from abroad. The result: a Sephardic community that made up a significant share of Jerusalem's Jews received minimal representation in the central institutions.
Eliyahu Elyashar Takes the Wheel
In 1947, Eliyahu Elyashar was elected to head the Sephardic community committee, amid a dire financial situation — debts of thousands of pounds. He worked to restore its finances, renewed ties with Jews of Arab lands around the world, and convened another world conference of Sephardic Jews.
A Press of Their Own
Despite the hardships, members of the community managed to publish periodicals of their own — Al-Sharq in 1942, followed by Hed HaMizrach, edited by Eliyahu Elyashar himself, from 1943. These publications, alongside Bama'araha, edited by David Sitton, dealt with the culture of Arab-lands Jewry and the community's problems — an independent attempt, from within the community itself, to tell its own story in its own words.
What Remains, and What Was Lost
During the War of Independence, between November 1947 and May 1948, the Jewish Quarter of the Old City endured a six-month siege, and eventually fell to irregular Arab forces and the Jordanian Legion. During the fighting and its aftermath, most of the Quarter's buildings were destroyed — among them the offices of the Sephardic community committee, along with the historical material kept inside them: centuries of documents, ledgers, and correspondence.
A significant portion of the committee's own property, including assets and endowments such as the Baliliyos fund, remained on the other side of the armistice line, in territory then controlled by Jordan, beyond the reach of the community that administered it.
Not every claim from this period can be fully verified. But the basic pattern is clear and recurring: an organization without funding, minimal political representation relative to the size of the population, and a community forced again and again to build for itself, through its own effort, what other communities received as a matter of course.
This was not total erasure. This was a community that kept speaking, writing, and leading itself — even when the surrounding apparatus made it no easier, and even when the archive that documented its history burned under fire.
🔥🔥The brainwashing of Americas youth! Meet the new More Perfect University. The Obama and radical lefts answer to Turning point. And pushing budding “socialists” like Zohran Mamdani and Bernie Sanders. They seem more like a Mamdani mouthpiece than anything.
The Obama Foundation is a founding partner of, “More Perfect” which is also partnered with Obama’s Change Collective. And George Soros is one of their first funders.
My friend @CCDHWatch and I worked on this together.
The top org, More Perfect Union, is a nonprofit news outlet first led, in part, by Faiz Shakir, the former manager of Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign, and Nico Pitney, a former top editor at The Huffington Post and NowThisNews.
The Socialist poster boy for the official opening of More Perfect University was who other than Bernie Sanders. But Zohran Mamdani seems to be who they push the most. It’s like they have a one track mind.
More Perfect University is a pro Palestine student movement for the ‘99%’ and is being bankrolled by the same billionaire-backed networks it claims to oppose.
They push huge expansion of government programs such as Medicare for All, paid family leave, universal childcare, and higher minimum wages.
Now obviously they are out to further indoctrinate University students here. But the main More Perfect org, has already captured our K-12 schools via the Educating For American Democracy program. Do we really want Obama and the DSA types capturing our youth?
Activism seems to be another key aspect of their org. And at one point, they asked for folks to nominate Big Tech commencement speakers for targeting.
Another commencement targeting that they profiled was a Stanford Commencement walkout organized by Students for Justice in Palestine and No Tech for Apartheid.
They also seem to be concerned with the freedom of speech by Hamas supporters.
More Perfect is also a part of the massive ListenFirst coalition that includes the Mediators Foundation, Bridge Alliance, Better Angels, Horizons project, Trust network, NCDD, plus more including the Otpor coup/resistance trainers called Momentum. ListenFirst was also a part of the pro revolutionary 22’ND Century Initiative.
There will be more on Mamdani later. Now for my sources
The Obama Foundation is a founding partner of, “More Perfect” which is also partnered with Obama’s Change Collective. And George Soros is one of their first funders.
My friend @CCDHWatch and I worked on this together.
The top org, More Perfect Union, is a nonprofit news outlet first led, in part, by Faiz Shakir, the former manager of Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign, and Nico Pitney, a former top editor at The Huffington Post and NowThisNews.
The Socialist poster boy for the official opening of More Perfect University was who other than Bernie Sanders. But Zohran Mamdani seems to be who they push the most. It’s like they have a one track mind.
More Perfect University is a pro Palestine student movement for the ‘99%’ and is being bankrolled by the same billionaire-backed networks it claims to oppose.
They push huge expansion of government programs such as Medicare for All, paid family leave, universal childcare, and higher minimum wages.
Now obviously they are out to further indoctrinate University students here. But the main More Perfect org, has already captured our K-12 schools via the Educating For American Democracy program. Do we really want Obama and the DSA types capturing our youth?
Activism seems to be another key aspect of their org. And at one point, they asked for folks to nominate Big Tech commencement speakers for targeting.
Another commencement targeting that they profiled was a Stanford Commencement walkout organized by Students for Justice in Palestine and No Tech for Apartheid.
They also seem to be concerned with the freedom of speech by Hamas supporters.
More Perfect is also a part of the massive ListenFirst coalition that includes the Mediators Foundation, Bridge Alliance, Better Angels, Horizons project, Trust network, NCDD, plus more including the Otpor coup/resistance trainers called Momentum. ListenFirst was also a part of the pro revolutionary 22’ND Century Initiative.
There will be more on Mamdani later. Now for my sources
You can read more about More Perfect and its partner, Obama’s Change Collective here.
The indoctrination of our K-12 children is near the bottom.
The indoctrination of our K-12 children is near the bottom.
More Perfect University:
“If you're a student attending any of the commencements with pro-AI speakers, we'd love to connect.”
This attached video is the end result. It seems like they were just looking to humiliate folks and stir trouble.
X post archive 👇🏻
archive.is/6l7Yp
“If you're a student attending any of the commencements with pro-AI speakers, we'd love to connect.”
This attached video is the end result. It seems like they were just looking to humiliate folks and stir trouble.
X post archive 👇🏻
archive.is/6l7Yp
🧵EXPOSED: Elizabeth “Zee” Cohen-Sanchez - the Democratic operative behind the “Unf*ck America Tour,” has been amplifying Candace Owens’ conspiracy theories about the Charlie Kirk assassination. That is only the tip of the iceberg!
The shocking truth is that she has been running spoiler operations and self-dealing through her own company and super PAC, an LLC run by her parents, and Actblue!
Part 1 of 4
The shocking truth is that she has been running spoiler operations and self-dealing through her own company and super PAC, an LLC run by her parents, and Actblue!
Part 1 of 4
Background:
She founded Sole Strategies, her for-profit campaign services firm, and National Ground Game PAC, the super PAC she launched in November 2024. Through the PAC she runs the Unf*ck America Tour, positioned as the progressive campus counter to Turning Point USA. Public records, FEC filings, court documents, and her own activity reveal a clear and repeated pattern of deceptive practices: spoiler candidate operations, self-dealing through her own companies, coordination with a family LLC, low-validity signature work on paid contracts, and a revoked non-profit that never filed required IRS forms.
The Self-Dealing Money Pipeline:
National Ground Game PAC received over $20.7 million from ActBlue in roughly 16 months.
FEC records show the PAC then paid nearly $325,000 directly to Sole Strategies, Zee’s own for-profit company, for staffing, travel, and event work tied to the Unf*ck America Tour. Specific payments included multiple $50,000 transfers for “travel and event arrangements,” $95,000 for “voter registration efforts,” $26,900+ for “sole staff time at college tour,” and repeated large chunks labeled for Florida voter registration and tour staffing. The PAC also paid $7,500 each to influencers Dean Withers and Parker Sedgewick as “event headlining fees.”
This created a direct pipeline: progressive donors give through ActBlue > money flows to Zee’s super PAC > hundreds of thousands flow straight to Zee’s private company.
This comes amid ongoing federal investigations into ActBlue over allegations of fraudulent donations, suspicious contribution patterns, and inadequate donor verification on its platform.
Unpaid Taxes:
Zee and her husband have a federal tax lien for unpaid small business and self-employment taxes covering 2022 and 2024, totaling $70,059.43. The lien was recorded in April 2026.
In November 2024, the same month her super PAC launched and began receiving millions, they purchased a $508,000 single-family home in Pahrump, Nevada. They put down $101,600 and took a $406,400 mortgage. The deed of trust lists both Zee and her husband as borrowers.
Part 2 of 4
She founded Sole Strategies, her for-profit campaign services firm, and National Ground Game PAC, the super PAC she launched in November 2024. Through the PAC she runs the Unf*ck America Tour, positioned as the progressive campus counter to Turning Point USA. Public records, FEC filings, court documents, and her own activity reveal a clear and repeated pattern of deceptive practices: spoiler candidate operations, self-dealing through her own companies, coordination with a family LLC, low-validity signature work on paid contracts, and a revoked non-profit that never filed required IRS forms.
The Self-Dealing Money Pipeline:
National Ground Game PAC received over $20.7 million from ActBlue in roughly 16 months.
FEC records show the PAC then paid nearly $325,000 directly to Sole Strategies, Zee’s own for-profit company, for staffing, travel, and event work tied to the Unf*ck America Tour. Specific payments included multiple $50,000 transfers for “travel and event arrangements,” $95,000 for “voter registration efforts,” $26,900+ for “sole staff time at college tour,” and repeated large chunks labeled for Florida voter registration and tour staffing. The PAC also paid $7,500 each to influencers Dean Withers and Parker Sedgewick as “event headlining fees.”
This created a direct pipeline: progressive donors give through ActBlue > money flows to Zee’s super PAC > hundreds of thousands flow straight to Zee’s private company.
This comes amid ongoing federal investigations into ActBlue over allegations of fraudulent donations, suspicious contribution patterns, and inadequate donor verification on its platform.
Unpaid Taxes:
Zee and her husband have a federal tax lien for unpaid small business and self-employment taxes covering 2022 and 2024, totaling $70,059.43. The lien was recorded in April 2026.
In November 2024, the same month her super PAC launched and began receiving millions, they purchased a $508,000 single-family home in Pahrump, Nevada. They put down $101,600 and took a $406,400 mortgage. The deed of trust lists both Zee and her husband as borrowers.
Part 2 of 4
Family LLC Coordination:
Common Sense America sent $20,000 to National Ground Game PAC in November 2024. The PAC refunded the exact amount in February 2025. The timing strongly suggests the transfer functioned as startup capital or an interest-free loan from Zee's mother’s LLC that was later cleaned up on paper, part of the same pattern of using family entities to move money and signatures.
The Patriots Run Project Spoiler Operation:
In September 2024, the Associated Press exposed the “Patriots Run Project,” a secretive effort that recruited pro-Trump independent “spoiler” candidates, many describing themselves as retired or disabled, to run in competitive House districts in Iowa, Nebraska, Montana, Virginia, and Minnesota. The goal was to siphon votes from Republican nominees.
The project had no registered business or FEC committee and operated through a UPS-store P.O. box. The AP found that ballot-access signatures in at least three races were gathered by Common Sense America, a Nevada LLC created in February 2024. Zee told the AP: “We work very closely with Common Sense America.” The LLC’s registered agent is her mother, Lisa Cohen, and her father Joel Cohen’s contact number routes to the same operation.
A draft contract showed Common Sense America was set to be paid $3,300 for signatures in one Nebraska race, with the buyer listed as a Democrat donor. One recruited candidate later withdrew, called it “a dirty trick,” and demanded an investigation. Election lawyer Jason Torchinsky flagged potential “federal and state criminal violations.” The DCCC denied involvement. No charges have been filed.
washingtontimes.com/news/2024/sep/…
Low-Validity Signature Work & O’Hara Lawsuit:
In the federal lawsuit O’Hara v. Cohen-Sanchez, O’Hara for Senate sued Zee @ZeeToTheHill and Sole Strategies over signature canvassing. They were paid $19,798 to collect 2,437 signatures for ballot eligibility. The New York City Board of Elections found only 634 signatures (26%) were valid. While the case ended in summary judgment for the defendants on the narrow contract question, the extremely low validity rate points to systemic problems with the quality and legitimacy of the signature work being sold to campaigns.
casemine.com/judgement/us/6…
Revoked Non-Profit:
Her associated non-profit, Our Sole Purpose Inc, had its license revoked and never filed a required IRS Form 990, another example of operating outside normal compliance standards while presenting as legitimate political infrastructure.
Part 3 of 4
Common Sense America sent $20,000 to National Ground Game PAC in November 2024. The PAC refunded the exact amount in February 2025. The timing strongly suggests the transfer functioned as startup capital or an interest-free loan from Zee's mother’s LLC that was later cleaned up on paper, part of the same pattern of using family entities to move money and signatures.
The Patriots Run Project Spoiler Operation:
In September 2024, the Associated Press exposed the “Patriots Run Project,” a secretive effort that recruited pro-Trump independent “spoiler” candidates, many describing themselves as retired or disabled, to run in competitive House districts in Iowa, Nebraska, Montana, Virginia, and Minnesota. The goal was to siphon votes from Republican nominees.
The project had no registered business or FEC committee and operated through a UPS-store P.O. box. The AP found that ballot-access signatures in at least three races were gathered by Common Sense America, a Nevada LLC created in February 2024. Zee told the AP: “We work very closely with Common Sense America.” The LLC’s registered agent is her mother, Lisa Cohen, and her father Joel Cohen’s contact number routes to the same operation.
A draft contract showed Common Sense America was set to be paid $3,300 for signatures in one Nebraska race, with the buyer listed as a Democrat donor. One recruited candidate later withdrew, called it “a dirty trick,” and demanded an investigation. Election lawyer Jason Torchinsky flagged potential “federal and state criminal violations.” The DCCC denied involvement. No charges have been filed.
washingtontimes.com/news/2024/sep/…
Low-Validity Signature Work & O’Hara Lawsuit:
In the federal lawsuit O’Hara v. Cohen-Sanchez, O’Hara for Senate sued Zee @ZeeToTheHill and Sole Strategies over signature canvassing. They were paid $19,798 to collect 2,437 signatures for ballot eligibility. The New York City Board of Elections found only 634 signatures (26%) were valid. While the case ended in summary judgment for the defendants on the narrow contract question, the extremely low validity rate points to systemic problems with the quality and legitimacy of the signature work being sold to campaigns.
casemine.com/judgement/us/6…
Revoked Non-Profit:
Her associated non-profit, Our Sole Purpose Inc, had its license revoked and never filed a required IRS Form 990, another example of operating outside normal compliance standards while presenting as legitimate political infrastructure.
Part 3 of 4
1/ Anti-science influencers often frame vaccine safety around one misleading demand:
“Show me the placebo-controlled trial.”
That sounds rigorous — but it is often the wrong question.
The better question is:
Which study design has enough statistical power to detect the risk being claimed?
RCTs are extremely important. They are especially useful for initial efficacy testing and for identifying common adverse events. But rare harms often require much larger datasets than most randomized trials can provide.
So when someone says “no placebo = no evidence,” don’t accept the frame.
Reframe it:
Good evidence is not defined by one study design. Good evidence is defined by whether the study design is appropriate for the question being asked.
Source: The Logic of Science
thelogicofscience.com/2026/07/06/ant…
“Show me the placebo-controlled trial.”
That sounds rigorous — but it is often the wrong question.
The better question is:
Which study design has enough statistical power to detect the risk being claimed?
RCTs are extremely important. They are especially useful for initial efficacy testing and for identifying common adverse events. But rare harms often require much larger datasets than most randomized trials can provide.
So when someone says “no placebo = no evidence,” don’t accept the frame.
Reframe it:
Good evidence is not defined by one study design. Good evidence is defined by whether the study design is appropriate for the question being asked.
Source: The Logic of Science
thelogicofscience.com/2026/07/06/ant…
2/ Statistical power matters more than rhetoric.
A small placebo-controlled RCT may be very good at detecting common effects. But it may be poorly equipped to detect rare adverse events.
That is not a conspiracy. That is math.
If a claimed harm is rare, you often need very large datasets to evaluate it properly. That is why vaccine safety science also relies on large cohort studies, case-control studies, and post-licensure surveillance.
Large observational studies are not automatically “weaker” evidence. For rare safety signals, they may be the right tool for the job.
The point is not “RCTs don’t matter.”
The point is:
RCTs answer some questions very well. Large epidemiologic studies answer other questions better.
Demanding only one study design is not scientific rigor. It is a way to dismiss evidence without understanding it.
A small placebo-controlled RCT may be very good at detecting common effects. But it may be poorly equipped to detect rare adverse events.
That is not a conspiracy. That is math.
If a claimed harm is rare, you often need very large datasets to evaluate it properly. That is why vaccine safety science also relies on large cohort studies, case-control studies, and post-licensure surveillance.
Large observational studies are not automatically “weaker” evidence. For rare safety signals, they may be the right tool for the job.
The point is not “RCTs don’t matter.”
The point is:
RCTs answer some questions very well. Large epidemiologic studies answer other questions better.
Demanding only one study design is not scientific rigor. It is a way to dismiss evidence without understanding it.
3/ When responding online, pro-science communicators should model careful scientific language.
Don’t say:
“This proves there is zero risk.”
That is not how science works.
Say:
“Large, well-designed studies have not found an association. That does not prove literal zero risk, but it does show that the alleged risk is not occurring at the large rate being claimed.”
That distinction matters.
It avoids overclaiming, while still making the evidence clear.
Anti-science influencers often try to redefine “good evidence” as only the evidence they demand. Don’t let them.
The stronger framing is:
RCTs are important, but vaccine safety cannot be reduced to placebo-controlled trials alone. The right question is whether the total evidence base is strong enough to detect or rule out the claimed risk.
That is how serious safety science works.
Don’t say:
“This proves there is zero risk.”
That is not how science works.
Say:
“Large, well-designed studies have not found an association. That does not prove literal zero risk, but it does show that the alleged risk is not occurring at the large rate being claimed.”
That distinction matters.
It avoids overclaiming, while still making the evidence clear.
Anti-science influencers often try to redefine “good evidence” as only the evidence they demand. Don’t let them.
The stronger framing is:
RCTs are important, but vaccine safety cannot be reduced to placebo-controlled trials alone. The right question is whether the total evidence base is strong enough to detect or rule out the claimed risk.
That is how serious safety science works.
Damn I figured out I can do this as well 😜😜😜😜
#SurreyRCMP #surreyps #LangleyRCMP #BCRCMP #RCMP #Police #Cops #Canada #BC #BritishColumbia #Langley #LangleyBC #Surrey #SurreyBC #GAWDIWANTAMALECOPSEXUALLY🤤
#SurreyRCMP #surreyps #LangleyRCMP #BCRCMP #RCMP #Police #Cops #Canada #BC #BritishColumbia #Langley #LangleyBC #Surrey #SurreyBC #GAWDIWANTAMALECOPSEXUALLY🤤
@SurreyRCMP @surreyps @LangleyRCMP
@ChrisPentecos @Nncim15 @LangleyResident @BarbaraDoduk @RegretlessBee @Cdnwatcher @Istandtoreason @facepalmchris @trustednerd @felixcruggins @CultureGuard @WaxMyBallsShow @FranLa9 @kfurneaux20 @VernThurston @JonYaniv @JNonsense46242
@ChrisPentecos @Nncim15 @LangleyResident @BarbaraDoduk @RegretlessBee @Cdnwatcher @Istandtoreason @facepalmchris @trustednerd @felixcruggins @CultureGuard @WaxMyBallsShow @FranLa9 @kfurneaux20 @VernThurston @JonYaniv @JNonsense46242
@SurreyRCMP @surreyps @LangleyRCMP @ChrisPentecos @Nncim15 @LangleyResident @BarbaraDoduk @RegretlessBee @Cdnwatcher @Istandtoreason @facepalmchris @trustednerd @felixcruggins @CultureGuard @WaxMyBallsShow @FranLa9 @kfurneaux20 @VernThurston @JonYaniv @JNonsense46242 @threadreaderapp unroll
Damn I figured out I can do this as well 😜😜😜😜
#SurreyRCMP #surreyps #LangleyRCMP #BCRCMP #RCMP #Police #Cops #Canada #BC #BritishColumbia #Langley #LangleyBC #Surrey #SurreyBC #GAWDIWANTAMALECOPSEXUALLY🤤
#SurreyRCMP #surreyps #LangleyRCMP #BCRCMP #RCMP #Police #Cops #Canada #BC #BritishColumbia #Langley #LangleyBC #Surrey #SurreyBC #GAWDIWANTAMALECOPSEXUALLY🤤
@SurreyRCMP @surreyps @LangleyRCMP
@ChrisPentecos @Nncim15 @LangleyResident @BarbaraDoduk @RegretlessBee @Cdnwatcher @Istandtoreason @facepalmchris @trustednerd @felixcruggins @CultureGuard @WaxMyBallsShow @FranLa9 @kfurneaux20 @VernThurston @JonYaniv @JNonsense46242
@ChrisPentecos @Nncim15 @LangleyResident @BarbaraDoduk @RegretlessBee @Cdnwatcher @Istandtoreason @facepalmchris @trustednerd @felixcruggins @CultureGuard @WaxMyBallsShow @FranLa9 @kfurneaux20 @VernThurston @JonYaniv @JNonsense46242
@SurreyRCMP @surreyps @LangleyRCMP @ChrisPentecos @Nncim15 @LangleyResident @BarbaraDoduk @RegretlessBee @Cdnwatcher @Istandtoreason @facepalmchris @trustednerd @felixcruggins @CultureGuard @WaxMyBallsShow @FranLa9 @kfurneaux20 @VernThurston @JonYaniv @JNonsense46242 @threadreaderapp unroll
SHOCKING! - the ACP’s latest tax filing reveals members received a mere $130 for “supplies” while Kyle Pettis, the party’s sole listed officer, awarded more than 45k as a salary to a single employee — himself! 🧵
American Communist Party Inc (the ACP’s 501(c)(4) nonprofit) reported total revenues of $134,565 This was from a mix of donations, membership dues ($15/month minimum for Reservists with little/no active participation) & Red America subscriptions ($15 digital, $25 paper)
For every revenue dollar that came in, ACP reported a whopping 70%+ went to wages/salaries alone - $97,262. Almost HALF of that went to Kyle Pettis, listed as the party’s sole officer. The remaining salary/wage expense is undisclosed.
1/
This afternoon, Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher posted a broadcast about the Somali gang problem in the Twin Cities.
facebook.com/share/v/1CVfuc…
This afternoon, Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher posted a broadcast about the Somali gang problem in the Twin Cities.
facebook.com/share/v/1CVfuc…
2/
Fletcher says there have been 14 Somali homicides in the last two years, and 100+ gang related Somali shootings.
Fletcher says there have been 14 Somali homicides in the last two years, and 100+ gang related Somali shootings.
3/
Fletcher said a group of 300 Somalis were at Juice Time in Arden Hills over the weekend, including "gangsters." Law enforcement curtailed their activity at that location, but he said the same group went to NE Minneapolis and shot somebody.
Fletcher said a group of 300 Somalis were at Juice Time in Arden Hills over the weekend, including "gangsters." Law enforcement curtailed their activity at that location, but he said the same group went to NE Minneapolis and shot somebody.
No matter what you do, you need to realise that there's a version of you in everyone's head that you're not aware of. For some, it's transient, while for others, it's permanent.
No, being a good person alone will not save you in this case.
No, being a good person alone will not save you in this case.
Remember, you can be a beautiful shade of yellow, and you'd still not be dark enough for someone whose favourite colour is brown.
Shine regardless!
🚀🚀🚀
Shine regardless!
🚀🚀🚀
@threadreaderapp unroll
If we want to clean up Trump’s mess and prevent future Trumps from taking power, we must make major changes to our broken political system.
Here are the 10 reforms necessary to get anything done.
Here are the 10 reforms necessary to get anything done.
1. Subject Supreme Court justices to term limits.
Limit the terms of justices to 18 years, after which they must move to courts of appeals or district courts.
Those who are beyond this limit must immediately move to other courts.
Limit the terms of justices to 18 years, after which they must move to courts of appeals or district courts.
Those who are beyond this limit must immediately move to other courts.
2. Prevent conflicts of interest.
End the exemption of the president and vice president from conflicts of interest laws.
Require all federally elected officials to put their investments into blind trusts.
Prohibit all trading of specific shares of stock.
End the exemption of the president and vice president from conflicts of interest laws.
Require all federally elected officials to put their investments into blind trusts.
Prohibit all trading of specific shares of stock.
1/ Today's Ukrainian strikes against a Russian oil refinery in distant Omsk are being greeted with gloom by Russian warbloggers. They say that their predictions of increasingly wide-ranging Ukrainian raids were ignored, but are now coming true. ⬇️
2/ 'Rybar' writes:
"What happened is what was predicted last year: Ukrainian formations were able to reach Omsk, which is more than 2,500 km from the front line, with modernised FP-1 drones.
"What happened is what was predicted last year: Ukrainian formations were able to reach Omsk, which is more than 2,500 km from the front line, with modernised FP-1 drones.
3/ "We believe that against this backdrop, discussions and debates about the involvement of Kazakhstani territory and various saboteurs will start again, but this is just a search for excuses, not a solution.
LMFAO more fake AI funsies 🤣😜🤣😜🤣😜🤣😜
1))
#SurreyRCMP #surreyps #LangleyRCMP #BCRCMP #RCMP #Police #Cops #Canada #BC #BritishColumbia #Langley #LangleyBC #Surrey #SurreyBC #GAWDIWANTAMALECOPSEXUALLY🤤
1))
#SurreyRCMP #surreyps #LangleyRCMP #BCRCMP #RCMP #Police #Cops #Canada #BC #BritishColumbia #Langley #LangleyBC #Surrey #SurreyBC #GAWDIWANTAMALECOPSEXUALLY🤤
LMFAO more fake AI funsies 🤣😜🤣😜🤣😜🤣😜
2))
#SurreyRCMP #surreyps #LangleyRCMP #BCRCMP #RCMP #Police #Cops #Canada #BC #BritishColumbia #Langley #LangleyBC #Surrey #SurreyBC #GAWDIWANTAMALECOPSEXUALLY🤤
2))
#SurreyRCMP #surreyps #LangleyRCMP #BCRCMP #RCMP #Police #Cops #Canada #BC #BritishColumbia #Langley #LangleyBC #Surrey #SurreyBC #GAWDIWANTAMALECOPSEXUALLY🤤
@SurreyRCMP @surreyps @LangleyRCMP
@ChrisPentecos @Nncim15 @LangleyResident @BarbaraDoduk @RegretlessBee @Cdnwatcher @Istandtoreason @facepalmchris @trustednerd @felixcruggins @CultureGuard @WaxMyBallsShow @FranLa9 @kfurneaux20 @VernThurston @JonYaniv @JNonsense46242
@ChrisPentecos @Nncim15 @LangleyResident @BarbaraDoduk @RegretlessBee @Cdnwatcher @Istandtoreason @facepalmchris @trustednerd @felixcruggins @CultureGuard @WaxMyBallsShow @FranLa9 @kfurneaux20 @VernThurston @JonYaniv @JNonsense46242
