3rd Shift… Art Pope’s Civitas Targets Winston-Salem Friends & Neighbors

By Chad Nance

 

“It ain’t me, it ain’t me
I ain’t no millionaire’s son, no, no
It ain’t me, it ain’t me
I ain’t no fortunate one, no…”
– John Fogarty
“Let’s go be bad guys.”
– Jayne Cobb

 

Art Pope, you are a tremendous bastard. No, seriously. Hold onto your seat, bub- I’m about to coarsen the discourse, you unrepentant bully. It isn’t enough that you can hide behind your daddy’s money, you seem to feel the need to reach out and screw with anyone who might be your betters. I got news for you, hero- We’re all your betters. You have crossed a line this time and have passed the point where you deserve any deference, courtesy, forgiveness, or kindness… expect none here. I’m your enemy because you have made me so by attacking my friends and neighbors with your trite and tired bully tactics. Art, you remember how your dad always told you to watch what you say and do or one day you’ll run into someone who is a bigger A-hole than you are? Welcome to the pitch, boy.

“What have I done this time?“ you ask with that dopey, doughy look on your face. Well, you and your minions at Civitas have targeted individual citizens for retribution, political and otherwise, while calling all crazies with your apocalyptic language about “shadowy” conspiracies of left-wingers who have formed a vast and evil network with the express purpose of taking over the state of North Carolina and turning it into a workers’ paradise.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about: Art Pope and Civitas have created a website called Mapping the Left, on which they claim to have identified the funders, organizations, and individual players in a vast, left-wing conspiracy to… well they aren’t exactly clear on that. In Art/Civitas’ own words:

“As we observed the sheer number of groups emerging, we were compelled to look for the common thread that was motivating them to work together for so many different causes. At first we believed it was an association with Blueprint NC, the coordinating hub for the radical liberal Left that is generally credited with the strategy memo in 2013 that called for activists to “cripple” the state’s Republican leaders and “eviscerate the leadership and weaken their ability to govern.” But we have come to understand that Blueprint NC wasn’t the leader, it was merely the action arm of the flagship of the Left in North Carolina: the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.”

That’s right, friends & neighbors, Art Pope has a personal problem with friends of mine and yours. Your racism is showing Art. What does the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation focus on? In their own words:

The Foundation is particularly interested in supporting organizations and projects that engage stakeholders in the development and implementation of strategies that narrow North Carolina’s racial and gender wealth gaps by:

• Increasing, protecting, and stabilizing incomes and assets for women and communities of color;
• Increasing the value of community assets and their control by local communities to enable the economic independence of women and communities of color; and
• Advancing institutional policies and practices that enable wealth creation and diminish asset poverty among women and communities of color.

Can you believe these people?  The nerve!  The unmitigated gall of these people.  How dare they try to help those who are less fortunate.

Art goes even farther attacking people and organizations in Winston-Salem. His toadies targeted at least nine individual citizens here and he named the following Winston-Salem non-profits:

The Winston-Salem Foundation
James G Hanes Memorial Fund
Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation
Kate B Reynolds Charitable Trust
The John W and Anna H Hanes Foundation (which supports local organizations like the Winston-Salem Youth Chorus, Reynolda House, and RiverRun)

With all of the Reynolds and Hanes funds and trusts on Art’s list it really looks like a dumpy little discount grocer may be having a few issues with envy and gnawing feelings of inadequacy. Don’t sweat it, Art- it happens to a lot of guys.

“The Mapping the Left project would not be complete without a Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation network. The Foundation is key to every move made by the political Left in North Carolina. So whether the foundation has provided funds in the way of grants or whether an organization claims an alliance with Z. Smith Reynolds, those groups that are involved will be included in this network.” – Civitas

What Art’s targeting of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation does is clearly illustrate what really gets Art’s goat. Like the Winston-Salem non-profit, the majority of the organizations that Pope named are non-profits that are addressing serious issues like poverty, environmental conservation, homelessness, public education, and issues involving minority and economically marginalized communities.  Art seems to be no big fan of women either.  Many of the organizations are directly targeted at helping mothers, helping women and girls deal with domestic abuse and sexual assault, and particularly those interested in increasing basic health-care availability for poor women and their children.

Art? Isn’t it enough that you make more in a week than the average North Carolinian will make this year? Isn’t it enough that you have used your henchmen to circumvent the state of North Carolina and her democratic processes? You’re on top, bub. Isn’t that enough? Is it that you simply must pick on those who don’t have your money in an effort to make yourself feel superior?

I probably speak for a lot of people in Winston-Salem when I say: Kiss both cheeks of my ass, Art. Oh, and your “Tip” page where you ask North Carolinians to inform on one another and identify “enemies” is morally reprehensible and un-American. If those of us out here in the real world scare you so much then just leave. Go somewhere. I hear Syria is nice this time of year.

Everyone around the state who has seen Art’s little list have been laughing at his impotent attempt to intimidate people, but there is an uglier, underlying reality here. These swine are calling on North Carolinians to report “subversive” activities. To spy on their neighbors. Is this the North Carolina anyone wants to live in? A place where everyone watches everyone else through partially closed curtains?

Is it just that you’re a paranoid little creep terrified of the rest of us, Art? Are you hunched over in your corporate HQ unable to hide your hump any longer and growing more and more afraid of regular people? Is there something else to the timing of the this flaccid attempt at public bullying? Could it be what happened to you a couple of weeks ago when you and your minions forced Tom Ross out of his seat as President of the University of NC? Y’all fumbled that ball so badly that you were forced to sputter out lame nonsense about Ross’ age and then were cornered into saying that you didn’t want the seat. Is this your revenge, Art? Your way to try to show everyone in North Carolina just who’s in charge? Rather than looking like “The Man”, what you look like is a fat, little conspiracy theorist who has more money than brains and a weird streak we’re just beginning to get a real look at. What’s next, tubby? You have a theory about 9/11, Jack Kennedy, or contrails you want to lay on us?

Ok… Confession time, Art. I’m part of this vast network. Hell, we just had a meeting this morning which is why I’m late getting this information up. You know the meetings I’m talking about. All of us North Carolina left-wingers have a video-conference…

Today Rob Schofield from NC Policy Watch told us all about how he was able to stalk, kill, and eat a small kitten over the weekend. Winston-Salem City Councilman Dan Besse did the reading today. First off (as usual) Dan read from the Mao‘s “Little Red Book” in sonorous tones before we all had a good laugh at the bubbas as Dan read from Mike Huckabee’s latest “God, Guns, Grits & Gravy” and just a snippet from “Where Mercy is Shown, Mercy is Given” by Duane “Dog” Chapman. Following Dan’s performance, I led everyone (this is my favorite part) in urinating on photos of Sarah Palin, Chris Kyle, and those Duck Dynasty dudes. (There is a fellow in Chapel Hill who puts his own “spin” on this, but I usually skip those Skype sessions.) Then Rev. William Barber read last week’s meeting minutes in the voice of George W. Bush. He’s does a dead-on drawl you wouldn’t believe. Then we all turned around three-times, did the Hokey Pokey, pledged allegiance to a hammer and sickle flag and forswore our immortal souls to ‘ol Satan himself.

What y’all got wrong, Art, is that we don’t call ourselves a “Shadowy Network”, or a “Left-Wing Conspiracy.” Nope. We call ourselves… The Aristocrats.

Does it seem like I’m making fun of you Art? Does it seem like I’m being a little mean and dismissive? I hope so, because that is exactly what I’m aiming for here. This is supposed to be mean and childish- because that is exactly what you, Art Pope, and your little minions are.

What really burns me up about this thing is that the people Art and his fellow dicks targeted are better people than they are. While Art and his minions are a drain on our state and community, the men and women Art Pope would like to target are out doing the real work that holds Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, and the state of North Carolina together.

One of the people your henchmen targeted is a fire-fighter. That’s right. Art targeted a first-responder who daily works here in Camel City to put out fires and save lives. Did your fat ass ever run into a burning building following screams, Art? No? Then shut the hell up and eat another sandwich.

One person you targeted is a friend. This person is a City of Winston-Salem employee who works tirelessly every day of the week to make this community a better place to live. This person focuses much of their work on the issues of poverty and homelessness. Every day they sweat and struggle to help and protect Winston-Salem’s most vulnerable citizens while you, Art, simply work to exploit or hurt them. You can’t even hold this person’s bookbag, Art, yet you and your elitist little minions target working people like this who on their worst day are better than all of you.

Then there is the African American man you singled out.  You remember Darryl Hunt, don’t you, Art.  A guy who was wrongly imprisoned and framed by racist cops and now spends his time advocating for other falsely accused prisoners of the State of North Carolina such as Kalvin Michael Smith.

Now you claim that y’all did this in response to accusations about a right-wing conspiracy. Art, serious journalists haven’t claimed any “conspiracies” in North Carolina in recent years. What they have pointed out is that you- a single individual- have thrown daddy’s money and energy into the accumulation of political power here in North Carolina. That’s not a conspiracy, bub. Just an arrogant asshole who is rich enough to play out all of his internal psychological needs and struggles in public.

The time for treating Art Pope just like another concerned citizen has passed. He is swine whose only mission is to see just how many people he can bully in his quest for self-validation through the spending of vast sums of his daddy’s money. Treating Art Pope and the trash that work for him at Civitas with civility may have been possible in the past, but this limp attempt at public bullying is a last straw. Screw ‘em. They aren’t part of the solution- they are the problem.
Find out who Art’s henchmen at Civitas are and where you can contact them HERE.

Are you aggravated that you didn’t make Art Pope’s enemies list?  Let him know you want to be on it HERE.