Josh Hawley Is A Traitor-- And So Are The Mercers

None of these billboards are up in Missouri, just in DC. That seems stupid. Still, Data For Progress released new polling data from Missouri late yesterday. Ready for a little poll porn? Topline: "a majority of likely voters (51%) and self-identified independents (52%) believe Senator Josh Hawley should resign. Missouri wasn't close. It was red. 1,718,736 Missouri voters (57.05%) looked at the last 4 years, contemplated the next 4 and voted for Trump.

Now Missouri voters have a less favorable opinion of Trump. A slim 51-48% majority (likely voters) has an unfavorable opinion of Trump (post-insurrection). Among independents-- who decide elections in the state and have been leaning Republican in recent years-- 57% of likely voters have a negative view of Trump and just 40% have a favorable view.

One of the big stories seeping into the collective consciousness of media consumers today-- including in Missouri, of course, was broken by the Washington Post: "Dozens of people on a terrorist watch list were in Washington for pro-Trump events Jan. 6, a day that ended in a chaotic crime rampage when a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, according to people familiar with evidence gathered in the FBI’s investigation. The majority of the watch-listed individuals in Washington that day are suspected white supremacists whose past conduct so alarmed investigators that their names had been previously entered into the national Terrorist Screening Database, or TSDB, a massive set of names flagged as potential security risks, these people said. The watch list is larger and separate from the 'no-fly' list the government maintains to prevent terrorism suspects from boarding airplanes, and those listed are not automatically barred from any public or commercial spaces, current and former officials said. The presence of so many watch-listed individuals in one place-- without more robust security measures to protect the public-- is another example of the intelligence failures preceding last week’s fatal assault that sent lawmakers running for their lives, some current and former law enforcement officials argued. The revelation follows a Washington Post report earlier this week detailing the FBI’s failure to act aggressively on an internal intelligence report of Internet discussions about plans to attack Congress, smash windows, break down doors and 'get violent . . . go there ready for war.'"

There was a lot of talk last night about two crucial investigations:

1. Which members of Congress aided and abetted the terrorists? Top suspects include, Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Q-GA), Lauren Boebert (Q-CO), Gym Jordan (R-OH), Mo Brooks (R-AL), Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Mad Cawthorn (Nazi-NC).

2. Who financed the insurrection? Certainly the Mercer family was a major part of it but were there others-- and how will they be dealt with? I bet there's never been a multibillion dollar fine before.

Matthew Cunningham-Cook, writing for The Intercept Thursday morning, didn't discuss the half million secret Bit-coin slush fund handed out to far right terrorist groups-- and likely traceable back to the Mercers-- but he did write about well-known psychopath and Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward encouraging violence and working directly with the terrorists. "Ward’s role," wrote Cunningham-Cook, "could bring attention to her biggest financiers in politics: hedge fund manager Robert Mercer and his daughter, Rebekah Mercer. The Mercers were the largest donors to Ward’s super PAC in both the 2016 and 2018 election cycles, giving $1.5 million in total as well as over $33,000 in direct contributions to her campaigns. The Mercers have funded numerous other organizations now peddling baseless claims about the election. Rebekah Mercer is a principal investor in the Parler social media network and has an equity stake in Breitbart News, which has propagated false information about the election being stolen, and she is a close associate of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and current Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway as well as Flynn. Robert Mercer was a major investor in Cambridge Analytica, which mined data on behalf of the Trump campaign and shared office space with Mercer-funded conservative advocacy group Reclaim New York. On Monday, CNBC reported that the Black Conservatives Fund, a super PAC that Robert Mercer gave $150,000 to in 2014, promoted the march on Capitol Hill. Ali Alexander, one of the siege organizers, was a former “senior adviser” to the Black Conservatives Fund."

The Mercers have been masters of giving large amounts of money to groups who then funneled the money directly to domestic terrorists. It's what they've been doing for nearly a decade-- with zero accountability.

In 2017, the Mercers gave $200,000 to the Gatestone Institute, which has advanced theories about a stolen election. The following year, they gave $8.1 million to DonorsTrust, which recently donated $1.5 million to white nationalist hate group VDARE, which has also advanced evidence-free theories surrounding the 2020 election results. In 2017, the Mercer Family Foundation donated $1.725 million to the Government Accountability Institute, whose research director, Eric Eggers, appeared on Sean Hannity’s radio show at the end of November, suggesting that fraudulent activity had tilted the election to Joe Biden. In 2018, they followed up with an additional $500,000. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., who has also used violent rhetoric around the election, has received $21,600 in campaign contributions from the Mercer family.

...“The Mercers have been more than willing to finance efforts to blow up the political system altogether. That seems to be part of what they’ve done,” said Brendan Fischer, the director of federal reform at the Campaign Legal Center.

And now Trump is friends with one of their most toxic retainers again, Bannon, which can't lead ti anything but trouble.