...either Ernst Stavro Blofeld or Auric Goldfinger come true. Maybe both....’ Open Society Foundations is shifting $300 million into the United States, warning that President Donald Trump
...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party...
, the conservative Supreme Court majority, and attacks on "civil society" threaten American democracy and civil rights.
The New York-based organization announced the initiative Tuesday after years concentrating much of its activism overseas, including in Africa and the Middle East.
OSF now says the U.S. has become a frontline political battleground.
"We certainly believe that civil society is essential and must stay on the playing field," Laleh Ispahani, OSF’s managing director for the U.S., told The Guardian.
Ispahani, previously senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, compared current conditions to countries where "autocratic administrations" targeted civic groups.
Soros has donated more than $32 billion to his Open Society Foundation, which funds progressive legal groups, voting-rights organizations, and left-leaning policy initiatives worldwide.
Ispahani said the Trump administration and recent Supreme Court rulings drove the new spending push.
"It’s pretty clear to us that today these rights are being rolled back, including the right to protest, civil rights and voting rights," she said.
She cited the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais voting-rights case, adding: "We’re back to this pre-60s moment in the world."
The initiative will fund litigation efforts, voting-rights advocacy, economic inequality campaigns, affordable housing, childcare, healthcare and wage protections.
The move is likely to intensify criticism from conservatives, who have long maintained that Soros-backed organizations finance progressive prosecutors, immigration activism and Democratic political infrastructure nationwide.