Module 4: Series Song, RUSSIAN DOLL
SERIES SONG — MODULE 4: “RUSSIAN DOLL” Persona: IRONWOOD (Dark Country / Outlaw Americana) Source: Module 4 — “The Russian Doll” — Entity Laddering
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[Intro: Single acoustic guitar, finger-picked, descending minor, slow and deliberate] [4 bars. Then voice enters.]
[Verse 1 — The Stack] There’s a storefront on a D.C. street with a plate-glass door And a brass nameplate with a donor’s cause that you’ve heard of before Walk inside and the lobby’s got a desk and a potted plate And four more doors behind the desk each one a different gate The first one says Education — that’s the (c)(3) wing Got a Federal Tax ID and the right to deduct anything Second door says Advocacy — that’s the (c)(4) back Donors stay anonymous and the lobbying’s in the stack Third door says Elections — that’s the PAC on the floor They disclose who writes the checks but the checks come through the door Fourth door’s got no sign at all — just a number on the frame That’s a Delaware LLC and it’s never got a name Same key opens every door Same landlord owns the building Same name on the billing
[Pre-Chorus] One stack Four rungs One operator with a hundred different tongues
[Chorus] Russian doll on the table brother open every one There’s another shell inside it every time you think you’re done They pass the dollar hand to hand and change its legal kind Deductible then undisclosed then dark and unassigned Russian doll You open the shell Russian doll And who can tell Who’s inside
[Verse 2 — The Money Walks] Donor writes a six-figure check to the (c)(3) at the front Gets his deduction takes a seat the charity does the stunt Charity pays the (c)(4) next for research services rendered That transfer’s on the 990 but the purpose is unclear and tender (c)(4) pays the LLC then for consulting on a plan LLC pays the vendors and the trail ends like a man Who walked into the desert and the wind erased his tracks At the top a PAC gets funded by the (c)(4) not the facts FEC says disclose your donors the PAC obliges fine Top line on the disclosure is the (c)(4) on the line The human who started the money Is gone from every sheet You got four filings on the table And they never meet
[Pre-Chorus] One stack Four rungs Every rung a different disclosure with a different set of lungs
[Chorus] Russian doll on the table brother open every one There’s another shell inside it every time you think you’re done They pass the dollar hand to hand and change its legal kind Deductible then undisclosed then dark and unassigned Russian doll You open the shell Russian doll And who can tell Who’s inside
[Verse 3 — Red Ladder Blue Ladder] On the right there’s a judicial shop where the (c)(4) ran the board One point six billion dollars over three years in and stored Into ads and nominations into ballot box debates Nobody public ever knew who paid for what it creates On the left there’s a consulting firm in a D.C. office suite Forty pop-up (c)(4)s sharing addresses down the street Three point five billion dollars moved through the dark-money rung Every pop-up got a name that matched a slogan on a tongue Same ladder Different paint Same opacity at the transitions the same architectural restraint The rules don’t pick a side the rules just let you climb If you can hire the firm and pay for filing time
[Bridge: Everything drops. Voice and a single low guitar note. Quiet. Close mic.] Eighty-two thousand (c)(4)s in the country Twenty-five hundred Super PACs on the wire Two hundred fifty thousand Delaware LLCs a year rolling off the fire One point eight billion dollars In dark money since oh-ten Going to the ladders Going to the rungs again The original donor Is a ghost in a drawer And the fourth shell opens To a room with no floor [Bass SLAMS back. Full arrangement.]
[Chorus — Final] Russian doll on the table brother open every one There’s another shell inside it every time you think you’re done They pass the dollar hand to hand and change its legal kind Deductible then undisclosed then dark and unassigned Russian doll You’ve opened the shell Russian doll Now you can tell Who’s inside Nobody’s inside That’s the design
[Outro: Spoken, over dying guitar, slow and deliberate] Four rungs One operator Same address No name on the last page That’s the architecture Now you know what you’re looking at [Silence. 3 seconds. End.]