Thread by @jamesfourm

Mark Judge writes for Brent Bozell's "Christian" media empire, which is funded by Mercer money.

Cambridge Analytica, which worked for Ted Cruz's presidential campaign before Donald Trump's, was also funded Mercer money.

PLEASE. KEEP. DIGGING. HERE.
slate.com/news-and-polit…

Mark Judge's connection to Brent Bozell's @cnsnews seen in this thread:

https://twitter.com/JamesFourM/status/1046039242768617474?s=20

@cnsnews Brent Bozell endorsed Ted Cruz for president in July 2015:
msnbc.com/msnbc/brent-bo…

@cnsnews Cambridge Analytica joined Ted Cruz's campaign in July 2015 and was funded by Mercer money throughout his campaign.
bloomberg.com/news/features/…

@cnsnews Brent Bozell's right wing media empire has received at least $18,466,420 from the Mercers since 2008.

They do not want you to look here.

SO KEEP LOOKING.

https://twitter.com/JamesFourM/status/1046048290721222657?s=20

@cnsnews Steve Bannon was in charge of Cambridge Analytica.

THIS. IS. NOT. A. COINCIDENCE.
thedailybeast.com/bannon-to-sena…

@cnsnews From earlier this month:

Ted Cruz "has been reaching out to major givers via text message and recently has been in touch with Bekah Mercer, the reclusive conservative megadonor whose father was a primary financier of Cruz’s presidential bid."
politico.com/story/2018/09/…

@cnsnews Ignore their endless spin.

Why did Cruz endorse Trump in 2016? Robert and Rebekah Mercer.

Follow the damn money.

Well, and the circus.
cnn.com/2018/08/31/pol…

Let's have some more.

Brent Bozell also leads a nonprofit called ForAmerica, a group that believes conservatives are “under attack from the moderate wing of the Republican party” and “must be creative, better organized and better funded.”

A common theme on the right, but...

Here are some details the Mercers and Bozells would really rather you didn't know about @ForAmerica, the Bozell-run group which is actively pushing for Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation as I type this.

In 2014, @ForAmerica "reported on its 2014 tax filing spending more than $1.1 million on Cambridge Analytica’s services for 'analytics and marketing.'"

#Shocking
publicintegrity.org/2016/10/07/203…

Cambridge Analytica's parent company (SCL) pitched a project to "carry out $200,000 worth of microtargeting & political campaign work for the conservative organization ForAmerica.org — for 'audience building and supporter mobilization campaigns.'"
techcrunch.com/2018/03/29/her…

But is @ForAmerica a big fan of Ted Cruz, whose presidential campaign used Cambridge Analytica?

You betcha they are.

According to this 2014 article from The Atlantic, ForAmerica deploys what it likes to a call a "digital army" on Facebook. ForAmerica said at the time their "digital army" was 7 million people strong.

Bozell's group used their numbers to attack Obama while elevating Ted Cruz.

But guess who else @ForAmerica works with?

CRC Public Relations "has deep ties to the conservative movement, making it a natural engine for the Bozell's new online venture. ForAmerica paid CRC $1.15 million in 2012 and 2013, tax records show."

Wait...
theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

Yes, *THAT* CRC Public Relations.

Ed Whelan "was reportedly struggling to bring attention to his burgeoning theory, so CRC Public Relations helped him devise a strategy in which he teased that he supposedly had information that would exonerate Kavanaugh."
talkingpointsmemo.com/news/swift-boa…

As you can see, CRC Public Relations' website lists 'ForAmerica' as one of its clients as of today.

Here's an archive of CRC's site taken today:
archive.is/jE7dH

But going back to @ForAmerica...

Can you guess whose articles they've published on their website in the past?

I'm gonna let the president of ForAmerica, @DavidBozell, answer this one for us.

Correct! Mark Judge. The same guy Ted Cruz goes out of his way to prevent from testifying to Congress.

Here's one of Mark Judge's articles published on @ForAmerica's website.

It's archived here:
archive.fo/MGCDc

Here's another:
archive.is/1jTwy

Now go back to where we started this thread. What did Ted Cruz say about Mark Judge again?

Ted Cruz, "speaking at the Committee’s Friday meeting, said such a subpoena would be pointless because even if Judge were called to testify, he’d plead the Fifth."

https://twitter.com/JamesFourM/status/1046422812741836800

⬆️⬆️Cruz said subpoenaing Mark Judge "would make a great political theatrics. It wouldn’t help one iota in the search for the truth."

But given the myriad conflicts of interest I've noted, should we believe Ted Cruz is after the truth? Or is Cruz trying to cover his own ass?

@threadreaderapp unroll

@threadreaderapp Perhaps later today we should talk about this Mercer funded group too. John Bolton sits on the board of Secure America Now (SAN). The same John Bolton who has done extensive work with Cambridge Analytica.

SAN loves them some Ted Cruz & Brett Kavanaugh.

@threadreaderapp How much do they love Ted Cruz? After Putin invaded & illegally annexed the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, Ted Cruz visited Ukraine. The trip was paid for by Secure America Now, "a conservative foreign policy group." Cruz was the only lawmaker on the trip.
businessinsider.com/sen-ted-cruz-u…

@threadreaderapp These days, Secure America Now's latest video on YouTube attacks Ted Cruz's opponent in his close Senate race, @BetoORourke.

SAN also boasts of their "grassroots army." Their website claims the army is 4.3 million people strong.

More to come later...

Here's a look at the advisory board for Secure America Now. As you can see, there's John Bolton, as well as John McLaughlin, a pollster who worked for Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

powerbase.info/index.php/Secu…

Even though Secure America Now is a "non-profit group", they aired what certain look like political ads in swing states only three days before the 2016 election. Open Secrets found that Robert Mercer donated $2 million to Secure America Now in 2016.
opensecrets.org/news/2018/04/e…

In recent years Secure America Now and Harris Media have worked side by side on political campaigns. The groups have been virtually indistinguishable at times. Those ads right before the 2016 election were a collaboration between SAN & Harris.

More here:
dw.com/en/islamic-sta…

For what we're talking about in this thread, here's why it matters. When Ted Cruz first won a Senate seat in 2012, his election was described by the WaPo as "a true grassroots victory against very long odds."

Who led the digital operations for that 2012 campaign? Harris Media.

In addition to Ted Cruz, Harris Media has quite the interesting client list. It includes Rand Paul, Israel's Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, UKIP (Nigel Farage / Brexit) and Germany's far right AfD party, who they worked for during last year's elections.
washingtonpost.com/news/worldview…

However you slice it, Harris Media's clients are big fans of the Kremlin. The AfD, for instance, do not even try to hide their love of Kremlin money or talking points. This is one obvious example:
global.handelsblatt.com/politics/russi…

Even though Harris Media and Cambridge Analytica deny any official relationship (that would be illegal), where one goes, the other has frequently followed.

You may not have heard about Kenya's recent election scandal, but it implicated both companies.
privacyinternational.org/feature/954/te…

When you get down to it, what you've got in this thread are data operations connecting pro-Kremlin groups to far right "Christian" groups. Each deploys its own "digital army."

They use dirty tricks to get what they want.

And Mercer money funds them.

https://twitter.com/JamesFourM/status/1046470093440536576

.@WZRichard pointed out that Chuck Johnson, Mark Judge and John Bolton have the same book publisher, Encounter Books. Their bio pages list them as 'available for media and speaking engagements.'

Now someone I respect pointed out to me this doesn't have to mean anything, and ...

I agree. It doesn't have to necessarily. There are 1000s of titles from Encounter Books, but the themes do lead us to the same ideological right-wing we keep coming back to.

For instance, Encounter Books is celebrating their 20th anniversary by giving Rebekah Mercer an award.

The editor and publisher of Encounter Books is a big fan of Steve Bannon, who again, WAS IN CHARGE of Cambridge Analytica.

Nobody wants to talk about this, but it's a fact. Steve Bannon ran Cambridge Analytica, Breitbart and then Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

The same publisher of Encounter Books, Roger Kimball, published an article calling Bob Mueller's "fishing expedition" against Donald Trump the "biggest scandal in US history."

Riiiight.

Kimball went on to say:

"We should also thank God for the tireless work of Congressmen like Devin Nunes," who is "dragging fact after disreputable fact out from the track-covering clutches of the FBI and DOJ" in the face of "hysterical opposition."

🤔🤔 
spectator.us/2018/09/paul-m…

This ideological wing men like Roger Kimball & Brent Bozell belong to started off as supporters of Ted Cruz but now push conspiracy theories for Donald Trump.

Kimball and Bozell sit on the William F. Buckley Program board together. The group's purpose? Protect "free speech."

Free speech is a good thing, but Steve Bannon isn't a conservative, as the Buckley Program claims. He's a pro-Kremlin propagandist. Saying otherwise is disingenuous at best. It's intentional propaganda at worst.

These people deserve sunlight they're getting now.

Don't stop now.

Because, look, Mark Judge did only write one article for Chuck Johnson's website. That doesn't prove anything does it?

No, but we have to remember something. Chuck Johnson may be a floor pooping troll to most ppl, but in Trump World, he's a policymaker.
forbes.com/sites/mattdran…

Before he was somebody in Trump World, who was Chuck Johnson advising? Ted Cruz.

Chuck denied it, but Cruz wrote a blurb for Chuck's first book. They're friends.

Whether they admit it or not, the GOP has embraced Alt-Right trolling to defend Brett Kavanaugh.

Thank the Mercers.

Remember how Steve Bannon called Breitbart the "platform for the Alt-Right?" And Breitbart was funded by ... the Mercers.

We keep bringing this up because it matters. Pay attention. Please.

https://twitter.com/JamesFourM/status/1043219602338205696?s=20

⬇️⬇️Published October 26, 2016.

Everyone expected Trump to lose. Everyone. Even Trump. Ted Cruz was supposed to be leading the Obstruct Hillary Clinton Party until 2020.

Instead, they're pulling out ALL the stops to get Brett Kavanaugh confirmed. 👌
politico.com/story/2016/10/…

Alt-Right connections to Mark Judge / Brett Kavanaugh. Threads:
threadreaderapp.com/thread/1042447…

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1042422…

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1045360…