Mercer up to something: leaves hedge fund, disavows Yiannopoulos, sells Breitbart stake

By artappraiser on Thu, 11/02/2017 - 2:13pm |

@ Axios.com, 2 hrs. ago

[....] Mercer also released a statement on Breitbart, Steve Bannon and Milo Yiannopoulos [....]

URL:

https://www.axios.com/trump-backer-bob-mercer-leaving-hedge-fund-post-2505452336.html

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Taking time off to spend with his lawyer? Rebekah screwed up this week, now part of the investigation.

by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 11/02/2017 - 7:19pm

Anthony De Rosa

Major trump donor Robert Mercer owes the IRS $7 billion in back taxes. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article147454324.html …

12:19 PM - Nov 2, 2017

(Couldn't get tweet to take as media, so just copied it; the tweet is from today but it's a link to a May 1 article.)

by artappraiser on Fri, 11/03/2017 - 12:22am

"Stepping down" because the fund's clients are not happy with his activism; the fund's founder is a Hillary-supporting Dem:

Robert Mercer, Bannon Patron, Is Leaving Helm of $50 Billion Hedge Fund

By Matthew Goldstein, Kate Kelly and Nicholas Confessore @ NYTimes. com, Nov. 2

Robert Mercer, a billionaire investor and top financial backer of conservative causes, is stepping down as co-chief executive of Renaissance Technologies, as the giant hedge fund faces a backlash from some clients who resent Mr. Mercer’s embrace of polarizing political figures.

Discomfort with Mr. Mercer’s political activism — including protests aimed at university endowments, foundations and pension funds with money invested in Renaissance — has showed signs of taking a small but growing toll. The retirement fund for Baltimore’s police and firefighters, for example, last week asked that all of the $33 million it had invested in Renaissance be refunded, said David A. Randall, the retirement fund’s deputy executive director.

The Baltimore fund had been contacted by a local reporter about whether the pension was bothered by Mr. Mercer’s political activities. Seeking to avoid bad publicity, the pension’s directors convened an emergency conference call and decided to pull their money.

That $33 million withdrawal was a rounding error for Renaissance, which has more than $50 billion in assets. But it signaled a growing unease, inside and outside the firm, about Mr. Mercer’s backing of Stephen K. Bannon, the former White House adviser. Renaissance’s founder, James Simons, is a prominent Democratic booster who supported Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign [.....]

by artappraiser on Fri, 11/03/2017 - 1:03am

Rebekah Mercer: Bannon 'took Breitbart in the wrong direction'

By Louis Nelson @ Politico.com, 02/15/2018 07:16 AM EST

[....] “I own a minority stake in Breitbart News (where I have no editorial authority) because I believe it adds an important journalistic voice to the American conversation,” Mercer wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Wednesday night. “Stephen Bannon, its former chairman, took Breitbart in the wrong direction. Now that Mr. Bannon has resigned, Breitbart has the opportunity to refine its message and expand its influence.”

[....] She argued in her op-ed that her “natural reluctance to speak with reporters has left me vulnerable to the media’s sensational fantasies.”

“Some have recklessly described me as supporting toxic ideologies such as racism and anti-Semitism. More recently I have been accused of being ‘anti-science,’” wrote Mercer, whose family donations have previously backed controversial conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos. “These absurd smears have inspired a few gullible, but vicious, characters to make credible death threats against my family and me.”

She declared her support for “a kind and generous United States, where the hungry are fed, the sick are cared for, and the homeless are sheltered” and one “that welcomes immigrants and refugees to apply for entry and ultimately citizenship.”

She professed a desire for smaller, more localized government that she said would more efficiently and responsively serve its constituents. Federal programs, she said, cannot solve societal problems because they are “expensive, ineffective and inflexible.”

“I supported Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign because he promised to tackle entrenched corruption on both sides of the aisle,” she wrote. “I continue to support President Trump, which does not mean I agree with every position he has taken or every thought he has tweeted. I remain hopeful that he will continue striving to fulfill his campaign promises.”

Mercer also expressed a commitment to “research and the scientific method,” pointing to her multiple science-oriented degrees from Stanford University. She wrote that she opposes “politicized science, in which researchers cannot study certain subjects—or even ask certain questions—for fear of career-ending backlash and persecution.”

“We have lost our way. As my family and I know firsthand, America is now a society that threatens, pillories, and harms those who dare to question the status quo,” she wrote. “But questioning the status quo is more important now than ever. America’s future depends on it.”

by artappraiser on Thu, 02/15/2018 - 9:27pm

She's a rich dumbfuck. Congrats she can wrifte an op-ed showing her ideological blindness in pat phrases. I support Manson and Hitler, just not everything they do, but do think people need rooom to live and the trains should run on time. Everything else is fabulist, meaning don't blame me - I just prop them up with my bucks - I can't tell 'em what to do - that'd limit freedom of the press. Make America Gag Again. Just smaller, more incompetent, less qualified, and emboldened to quick riches by the fecklessness of pseudo-moral punters like me.

by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 02/15/2018 - 10:09pm

Mercer up to something: leaves hedge fund, disavows Yiannopoulos, sells Breitbart stake

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