Sign of the times

In the third and last presidential debate Donald Trump asserted that US election laws are being violated left and right, a claim for which he has been near-universally criticised. What he might better have said is that US election laws are a farce — and he could have pointed to the sign pictured atop this post as his proof.

The billboard, erected by a Chicago political action lobby group that goes by the unlikely name of the Nuisance Committee, purports in its official filings to be “non-aligned”. Directed at Arabic speakers in Dearborn, Michigan, the translation reads:

“Donald Trump, he can’t read this, but he is afraid of it.”

Clearly intended to deliver an anti-Trump message to Dearborn’s large Middle Eastern population it is, however, entirely within the law. As the Nuisance Committee’s most recent filing with the Federal Election Committee states

“This committee will not use those [raised] funds to make contributions, whether direct, in-kind or via coordinated communications to federal candidates or committees.”

Technically speaking, it has honoured that pledge by not explicitly urging Dearborn’s Arabs to vote for Hillary Clinton, yet that message comes through loud and clear. It was certainly not lost on the NBC television network, which bannered its story about the billboard beneath the headline

“Anti-Trump Billboard in Michigan Taunts Candidate — in Arabic”

That story can be read in full via the link below. Nowhere in it will you find the thought that a “non-aligned” PAC’s money is very much aligned with the cause of Trump’s opponent.

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