Planet Over Profit's Recent Petulant Protests and Confusing Money Trail
Just who will bail out them out? And where will the money come from? It's a mystery.
Planet Over Profit (POP) is a youth-led “climate justice” and “anti-capitalist organization” dedicated to combating the fossil fuel industry, economic inequality, and systemic racism. Their mission emphasizes direct action against those perpetuating environmental degradation and social injustice, aiming to redirect resources from fossil fuels to community empowerment.
POP describe themselves on their website as , “a youth-led mass movement for climate justice,” and, “We fight for a livable future by taking on the fossil fuel industry, the hoarding of wealth and the racial capitalist system.”
Their direct action tactics such as protests and disruptions include the arrest of their members once found either impeding the freedom of movement of the public, trespassing onto private property or even damaging private or public property.
Such an approach coined misleadingly as “non-violent” aligns with the principles outlined in the Professional Protest Class’s favorite resource, Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox For Revolutionaries.
If this sounds all sounds familiar, that’s because it is:
By targeting influential corporations and financial institutions that are often perceived as the sources of climate crisis, racial, ethnic, or sex inequality, or simply behind “profits,” POP aims to expose and challenge the omnipotent structures that allegedly contribute to these “crisis.“ Such a goal resonates with Andy West’s The Grip of Culture, which examines how cultural narratives shape collective responses to climate change with upmost moral urgency. Their strategy also aligns with
‘s analysis1 of how emotional appeals based on trait empathization and mass movement psychopathology mobilizes such individuals toward activism.The secret to success with POP and other groups is their savior-like focus on the injustices faced by vulnerable populations which taps into psychological drivers such as empathy and moral outrage along with their use of the youth, also mentioned extensively in West’s work. Their performative, Cluster-B driven theatrical protests are fueled by their heightened neuroticism, social media amplification, and the dominance of emotional reasoning over logic.
“Like what you see? We are building a movement against fascism and oligarchs - join us,” tweets the X account of Planet Over Profit under a short video showing protesters getting arrested in New York City, er excuse me, Lenapehoking.
This of course comes after Planet Over Profit stunt where (in their words) hundreds of New Yorkers swarmed a Manhattan Tesla store as part of a series nationwide protests against Elon Musk and his varying businesses. Such “mostly peaceful protests” include the installation of bombs at some Tesla store locations, and even the vandalism of privately owned Tesla vehicles.
Planet Over Profit pushed a fine propaganda video on the X feed and even took the time to add closed captioning for “Frankie,” one of those arrested. The video, below, initially shows several of the participants being pulled out of the store with a shattered glass door in display along with a few of those arrested trying to bask in their moment of performative and petulant narcissism.
Rest assured, they will try to spin “occupying the showroom” into an act of police brutality or some other nonsensical claim. One can see in another post two stills with “Frankie” as the prime subject of the photograph - this is blatant propaganda meant to imply she’s a victim and not a criminal.
However, these idiots were trespassing onto private property, perhaps causing destruction of said property. They were likely asked nicely by the employees of the Tesla store to leave, then politely asked by the NYPD before everything shown in the Planet Over Profit propaganda video occurred. NY has plenty of other things going on far more serious than idiot children’s tantrums, thus placing a burden on the city’s public resources. Those are, of course, inconvenient facts to their martyr narrative left out of their video and subsequent posts.
Planet Over Profit are far more interesting than their website implies especially when trying to follow their non-profit money trail.
A donation being made using the link on their website funnels donations to the New York Communities Organizing Fund, Inc (EIN: 27-2332649) using ActBlue, a common fundraising passthrough entity mainly used left-leaning organizations and the Democratic Party.
The New York Communities Organizing Fund, Inc (NYCOFI) turns out to be a rabbit hole of its own claiming to be, “part of a family of organizations that includes New York Communities for Change (NYCC).” Donations made on their website claim to go to the Jon Kest Legacy Fund in honor of one of Bill DeBlasio’s “grassroots” organizers. No EIN is provided on the donor page for Jon Kest Legacy Fund despite their claim such are tax deductible and this fund isn’t found anywhere on ProPublica’s Non-Profit Explorer.
NYCOFI, per Propublica, operate under the EIN 27-2332649 with a revenue from last year amounting to $3.8 million. The mission statement on their latest Form 990 says they, “EMPOWER LOW AND MODERATE INCOME NEW YORKERS TO HELP THEMSELVES THROUGH PUBLIC EDUCATION, ADVOCACY, RESEARCH, AND DIRECT SERVICES.”
NYCOFI gave out a sizable grant of $860k to “Climate Organizing Hub,” (EIN: 92-1210995) which strangely enough shares the same mailing address as NYCOFI.
Is this the money that will be used to bail out the petulant POP brats?
Or does it come from somewhere else?
It’s worth noting the donation page on Climate Organizing Hub uses EveryAction, a different passthrough entity.
And back to POP, a donation made via the POPs in their X profile goes somewhere else entirely, specifically to a donation page for not just a different organization but one with an entirely different goal: The Hack Foundation.
The Hack Foundation (81-2908499) are based on the opposite coast, 10x’d their revenue over the past decade.
Depending on the source, their Form 990s or their website, The Hack Foundation’s purpose is either to, “INSTRUCTS OR TRAINS TEENAGERS FOR THE PURPOSE OF IMPROVING THEIR CAPABILITIES IN CODING AND STEM. IT ALSO SERVES AS A FISCAL SPONSOR OF A WIDE VARIETY OF CHARITABLE AND EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS, WITH A SIGNIFICANT FOCUS ON STUDENT-LED PROJECTS,” or as another pass through organization for non-profits.
Lastly, their latest Form 990s, unlike the previous organizations give no useful information on where their money goes. Hack Organization’s page for POP however does display a modest account balance with recent donations after the POP stunt in Manhattan and $20k from NYCOF.
But this is likely to be insufficient to cover the legal expenses of even one arrested POP brat.
To be clear, there is no evidence here of any illegal activities by any of the parties involved although it’s not a stretch to argue that endorsing the illegal activities by POP themselves is indeed an issue.
The greater point here is that non-profits’ activities and books are supposed to be open to the public, something some of us are increasingly discovering is more of a fantasy per investigations by
(edit: see link here) and PirateWires, and here for example.
Great post, thank you. The mantra we learned when we were that age was:
1. Invent a problem.
2. Make people afraid of it.
3. Tell them throwing bricks through windows or burning your draft card or your brassiere will solve the problem.
4. Ask for money (to buy beer), OR
4A. Run for office.....
It is really sad that the kids today are so stupid they can't even come up with a new problem.
Excellent 👌 article, thank you
Layer after layer of deception and subterfuge, we must peel back in an unrelenting effort.