Progressive activists have discovered the perfect business model: Declare a crisis, accuse opponents of violence or genocide, demand emergency powers and funnel money into activist-run nonprofits with virtually no oversight.

The latest example of this comes from the Seattle LGBTQ Commission and a coalition of local left-wing groups, which are demanding that socialist Mayor Katie Wilson declare a civil emergency over what they call a “trans relocation crisis.”

They’re claiming, with no evidence, that tens of thousands of transgender-identifying individuals are fleeing Republican-led states and arriving in Seattle as refugees.

Their proposed solution: a taxpayer-funded bloodletting.

On Saturday, radicals flooded the streets of Seattle to push their newfound cause.

They insisted on publicly funded housing for trans-identifying newcomers and fresh streams of government money for service organizations that they, of course, would get paid to run.

They want Wilson to declare an emergency that will clear the way for medical treatment, legal support, housing and expedited funding pipelines for these claimed new arrivals.

The Seattle LGBTQ Commission’s own letter admits the city has no data showing how many people, if any, are actually relocating to Seattle due to red-state trans oppression.

“The activists want to create a brand-new victim class so they can benefit from taxpayer-funded subsidies,” Jonathan Choe, a reporter who covered Saturday’s protest for Turning Point USA, told me.

“They want perks like rent-controlled apartments and other welfare benefits designated for people who actually need it, like homeless drug addicts who need detox or treatment.”

The Antifa-linked Moto Hooligans are among the groups participating in the pressure campaign .

That organization recently gained attention after organizing firearms training courses for transgender-identifying participants in wooded areas of Washington state.

Choe said he was targeted throughout the day by militant activists who tried to “stifle” his reporting — blocking his way as he walked, bumping into him as he filmed and showering him with racial slurs.

“One white man pretending to be a woman told me I didn’t belong in America and I should go back to Taiwan,” Choe said.

“The problem is, I’m Korean-American, not Taiwanese. So much for the tolerant left.”

Wilson quickly caved to the demands, affirming her “full support” for transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals and pledging to create a new city-backed civil rights team to “fortify critical services” — even though Seattle is facing an estimated $175 million budget deficit.

If all this sounds familiar, it should.

Seattle and King County have spent years creating an ecosystem where militant progressive activists can repeatedly manufacture “emergencies” and then position themselves as the only people qualified to solve them with public money.

Time and time again, taxpayers are told there is no time for scrutiny — because the situation is too urgent, too emotionally fraught or too morally important for accountability.

This is a crisis, they say, holding out their open palms.

Last year, Venezuelan illegal immigrants and their local supporters stormed Seattle City Council meetings and occupied the sport court of a local public school, demanding taxpayer-funded hotel rooms after privately funded lodging arrangements in a nearby city ran out.

In 2020, following the death of George Floyd and the ensuing riots that rocked Seattle, activist pressure campaigns pushed local governments into defunding the police and reallocating the money into rapidly expanding taxpayer-funded “equity” programs with minimal guardrails.

The political message was always the same: Questioning the spending meant you were racist.

The same model has been used to justify keeping addicts and the mentally ill on the streets for years on end, as the problem only worsens.

An independent probe into King County’s Department of Community and Human Services found that “waste, fraud, or abuse” likely occurred in multiple taxpayer-funded youth equity programs launched in 2020 in response to the BLM riots.

Investigators uncovered altered records and nearly $700,000 in questionable costs tied to activist-aligned nonprofits and community organizations.

That potential fraud is being reviewed by law enforcement.

Meanwhile, ordinary Seattle residents are still on the hook for it — while basic city services decline, homelessness worsens, public safety deteriorates and budget deficits balloon.

The trans-refugee campaign is just the latest rebrand of a long-running political racket in which activist groups convert ideological movements into publicly funded industries.

It’s expanding a leftist mode of governance that increasingly operates through emotional blackmail.

Ari Hoffman hosts “The Ari Hoffman Show” on Seattle’s Talk Radio 570 KVI and is the Post Millennial’s West Coast editor.