Billionaire GOP donor is funding South Dakota National Guard border deployment

[Kid Berwyn]

Willis Johnson doesn’t live in the state but says he backs Gov. Kristi Noem, a potential presidential candidate who has called migration a “national security crisis.”

by Daniel Lippmann
Politico, June 29, 2021

A wealthy Republican donor says he is funding up to 50 South Dakota National Guard troops whom Gov. Kristi Noem is sending to the U.S.-Mexico border.

“I’m trying to help out the governor and help America,” said Willis Johnson, the billionaire founder and chairman of a global company called Copart Inc., which auctions used, wholesale and wrecked cars.

Johnson, a Vietnam veteran who doesn’t live in South Dakota but rather in Tennessee, told POLITICO in a brief interview that he met the governor at a political fundraiser “a while back.”

Snip…

According to FEC records, he has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Republicans in recent years, including Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Noem’s spokesperson Ian Fury said the Willis and Reba Johnson’s Foundation was providing the financial support for the troops, but declined to give a dollar amount for security reasons.

Continues…

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/29/willis-johnson-us-mexico-border-497080

Nothing like hate of others to get people’s minds off Trickle Down economics. And everything else, like treason.

[Phoenix61]

1. Exactly how is that going to happen?

I’m not aware of states being able to accept donations to bank accounts used for payroll and/or per diem.

[Kid Berwyn]

7. We need to ask Gov. Noem (NURM, mit der Umlaut)

She loves walls and wants to show the deplorables how she expects someone else to pick up the bill.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. You can't get these idiots to pay their fair share of taxes to the IRS and South Dakota,

but they can always scrounge up the money for these little adventures . . . . . .

[Kid Berwyn]

11. Bet Willis knows a tax lawyer who knows how to get this written off.

Aren’t there better things to spend money on than another manufactured distraction?

[pwb]

3. The National guard can be bought?

They better not wear U S issued equipment. We own that shit. Not this Junk car buyer.

[Kid Berwyn]

12. Paying and using are two different things.

Take privatization, please. We the People in Detroit paid for the water utility and its infrastructure and then the Republicans did all they could to sell it to their connected cronies. It would have been sweet for them, weren’t for people in Flint noticing they’d been poisoned.

[Budi]

4. Isn't that "Privatizing our Military"?

I wasn't aware that a millionare or billionare could just buy himself a military that has been trained & funded by the taxpayers.

[SheltieLover]

8. Same here, Budi

Is this legal?

And this is happening with at least 1 other state. Apologies, I can't recall which one. Nebraska, maybe?

[Kid Berwyn]

14. That was in the Before Time.

[Budi]

16. That's a chilling picture!

I almost expect other RED States to follow S.Dakota.
Fist name comes to mind is Erik Prince.
Isn't that what he does in corrupt regimes around the world?
Funds & forms Mercenaries & Private Militias?

[sop]

15. This is third world, war lord stuff. Have we really come to this?

[uponit7771]

22. RIGHT !?!? Is the facts in this story correct ?! What CO green lit this shit !?

[CurtEastPoint]

5. Behold The Willis... an extra-large Sheldon Adelson

[Kid Berwyn]

24. I feel sorry for the guy, all that money.

One of the odd things about big money is discovering how many people like one just because of its presence. Bet he remembers when he didn’t have much money and who was there.

Wonder if he ever thinks about Khalil Gibran these days?

“A man’s true wealth is the good he does in the world.”

[spanone]

6. So if I have the funds, I can rent the National Guard?

[Kid Berwyn]

21. When Money Talks, Pols Listen.

Link to tweet

“Operational Security.” Ja.

[suegeo]

9. This cannot be legal

It has shades of Oliver North, the blue rinse brigade. Iran Contra.

Publicity stunt for sure. A dangerous stunt.

Who pays if soldiers get injured? Medical care. Law suits.
Who pays the families if their kid dies?
What happens if they gun down someone trying to cross?

Are the kid gonna wear junk yard logos?

I hate republicans.

[Hugin]

10. He owns a chop shop, huh?

Maybe someone needs to look into how someone turns a chop shop into a billion dollars.

[keithbvadu2]

13. Mercenaries

[RAB910]

17. So the GOP is now giving the wealthy their own personal armies

[sop]

19. Someone should find out if he bankrolled the 1/6 insurrectionist mob.

[Kid Berwyn]

26. The monied class does all it can to cover those tracks.

Records: Trump allies behind rally that ignited Capitol riot

By RICHARD LARDNER and MICHELLE R. SMITH
AP, January 17, 2021

Members of President Donald Trump’s failed presidential campaign played key roles in orchestrating the Washington rally that spawned a deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol, according to an Associated Press review of records, undercutting claims the event was the brainchild of the president’s grassroots supporters.

A pro-Trump nonprofit group called Women for America First hosted the “Save America Rally” on Jan. 6 at the Ellipse, an oval-shaped, federally owned patch of land near the White House. But an attachment to the National Park Service public gathering permit granted to the group lists more than half a dozen people in staff positions for the event who just weeks earlier had been paid thousands of dollars by Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign. Other staff scheduled to be “on site” during the demonstration have close ties to the White House.

Snip…

Caroline Wren, a veteran GOP fundraiser, is named as a “VIP Advisor” on an attachment to the permit that Women for America First provided to the agency. Between mid-March and mid-November, Donald J. Trump for President Inc. paid Wren $20,000 a month, according to Federal Election Commission records. During the campaign, she was a national finance consultant for Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee between the president’s reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee.

Snip…

Maggie Mulvaney, a niece of former top Trump aide Mick Mulvaney, is listed on the permit attachment as the “VIP Lead.” She worked as director of finance operations for the Trump campaign, according to her LinkedIn profile. FEC records show Maggie Mulvaney was earning $5,000 every two weeks from Trump’s reelection campaign, with the most recent payment reported on Nov. 13.

Snip…

Amy Kremer, listed as the group’s president on records filed with Virginia’s state corporation commission, is “one of the founding mothers of the modern day tea party movement,” according to her website. Her daughter, Kylie Jane Kremer, is the organization’s treasurer, according to the records.

Continues…

https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-donald-trump-capitol-siege-campaigns-elections-d14c78d53b3a212658223252fec87e99

Wealthy greedheads. And traitors.

[Darwins_Retriever]

18. She can't do that, it is illegal

Within the state, she is the CinC and order them to do almost anything. If they go to a different state, they will need DOD approval.

This was an issue on Jan 6th. Some states wanted to send their guard in support of the Capitol police, but needed DOD approval which was slow in coming.

[RicROC]

20. it's bad enough that the US allows mercenary groups...

to fight along with our troops in war areas. But now the National Guard has become mercenaries? NOT GOOD.

That Governor should be arrested for malfeasance in office.

[suegeo]

23. The move by Noem warranted swift backlash from state lawmakers on both sides of the aisle

[link:https://www.kotatv.com/2021/06/29/update-private-donor-paying-sd-natl-guards-mission-border/|]

The move by Noem warranted swift backlash from state lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

“It seems to me like our National Guard soldiers are hired mercenaries and whoever is willing to pay a certain amount of money, they are going to be sent off to go and do... Who knows what,” said State Rep. Aaron Aylward (R-Harrisburg).

“I have reached out to our Legislative Research Council (LRC) first to see if this has ever happened before, and also if this is even legal,” said State Sen. Reynold Nesiba (D-Sioux Falls). “I think this sets a dangerous precedent for a governor to accept a donation for a wealthy person in Tennessee, and respond with the National Guard. I am really concerned.”

A private individual is funding a National Guard mission. That is terrifying.

[crickets]

27. Glad to see at least some pushback.

This should not be allowed to stand as precedent. No way.

[UTUSN]

25. This private funding of governmental functions needs to be ruled against ASAP!