November 2, 2017

"Robert Mercer, the hedge fund billionaire who has come under media scrutiny for his role in helping elect Donald Trump, announced today he would step down from his role as co-CEO of Renaissance Technologies."

"The decision, announced in a memo to Renaissance employees, followed a BuzzFeed News exposé revealing the connections of Breitbart News — partially owned by Mercer — to white nationalists and neo-Nazis. Sources familiar with Renaissance informed BuzzFeed News in recent days of significant anger within the company about the report, which revealed that former Breitbart News tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos had cultivated white nationalists and used them to generate ideas and help edit stories on the site."

Buzzfeed.

ADDED: Here's a useful New Yorker article from last March: "The Reclusive Hedge-Fund Tycoon Behind the Trump Presidency/How Robert Mercer exploited America’s populist insurgency," by Jane Mayer. Excerpt:
Mercer is the co-C.E.O. of Renaissance Technologies, which is among the most profitable hedge funds in the country. A brilliant computer scientist, he helped transform the financial industry through the innovative use of trading algorithms. But he has never given an interview explaining his political views. Although Mercer has recently become an object of media speculation, Trevor Potter, the president of the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan watchdog group, who formerly served as the chairman of the Federal Election Commission, said, “I have no idea what his political views are—they’re unknown, not just to the public but also to most people who’ve been active in politics for the past thirty years.”...

Through a spokesman, Mercer declined to discuss his role in launching Trump. People who know him say that he is painfully awkward socially, and rarely speaks. “He can barely look you in the eye when he talks,” an acquaintance said. “It’s probably helpful to be highly introverted when getting lost in code, but in politics you have to talk to people, in order to find out how the real world works.” In 2010, when the Wall Street Journal wrote about Mercer assuming a top role at Renaissance, he issued a terse statement: “I’m happy going through my life without saying anything to anybody.” According to the paper, he once told a colleague that he preferred the company of cats to humans.
I can see why a man like that would withdraw. 

81 comments:

n.n said...

In America, they are Alt-Left. In Germany, they were Left. Today, they are mainstream left that includes diversitists who deny individual dignity and judge people by the "color of their skin".

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Whatever happened to that nice young man Milo? I had heard that he was interested in youth education, but haven't heard anything since.

n.n said...

Neo-National Socialists who advocate for progressive diversity that denies individual dignity, and abortion rites that deny lives deemed unworthy, inconvenient, or profitable.

Sprezzatura said...

Alhouse you do have a milo tag.

As we learned re statues that were installed to protest civil rights, it's bad to erase history.

David said...

I know nothing about Robert Mercer. About to learn, it seems.

J. Farmer said...

I wonder if the folks at Buzzfeed understand that 2+2=4, even if a white nationalist says it does.

YoungHegelian said...

Oh, sure, I believe that white racists willingly worked with a half--Jewish, openly Catholic, gay guy who is very upfront about about his tastes for black men.

I would take the criticisms of the Left about the evils of the Alt-Right a lot more seriously if they evinced any evidence at all that they understood even the basics of Alt-Right ideologies.

Unknown said...

Ah, ARM is here to wish harm on Milo, no doubt.

Don't you love the term "White supremacist?" It sounds so bad, so evil.... but when you look at how it is actually used, and what positions are labeled as "white supremacy" by the ARM's of the world...

Things like "I don't want to import millions of ISIS militants" is "racist white supremacy/anti peaceful Arabs!"

Things like 'welfare reform' are racist white supremacist. Complaining when a black professor calls for the extermination of white people is white supremacy, while the leftist black professor calling for genocide of all white people is not a racist at all, and certainly entitled to keep teaching the very people whom he wants to murder.

It's particularly hypocritical for people who demand that black people, asians, hispanics etc get benefits based only on their skin color (the very definition of racism, in fact--judging people as worthy or not only on their skin color) --these same racists go into hysterics if a white person says "If skin color is how we are to be judged, then I want something because I'm white."

Right ARM? You proudly proclaim your support for "diversity" and giving people stuff and treating them differently solely based on the color of their skin, so why shouldn't white people get something based on their skin color?

--Vance

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. That ruling, and several subsequent ones, removed virtually all limits on how much money corporations and nonprofit groups can spend on federal elections, and how much individuals can give to political-action committees. Since then, power has tilted away from the two main political parties and toward a tiny group of rich mega-donors....

Bullshit.

Citizens United was an attempt by the left to shut down free speech on the "right".
The left would love to ban speech against Hillary Clinton. The media obscure our ability to understand the truth about Clinton Corruption, by refusing to cover it.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The left must target anyone who dares to write a check to anyone NOT a Corruptocrat.

Unknown said...

DB@H does understand Citizen's United. It was a case whether the government could throw people into jail for criticizing Hillary Clinton.

The Supreme Court said no, you can't do that.

Brings a new meaning to Hillary's oft-stated vow to overturn Citizen's United, doesn't it? She was promising to make it illegal to criticize her.

And leftists and their allies were fully invested in just that.

--Vance

Nonapod said...

but in politics you have to talk to people, in order to find out how the real world works.”

Only if you're actually going into politics (running for office). He was just backing a politician.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

I would take the criticisms of the Left about the evils of the Alt-Right a lot more seriously if they evinced any evidence at all that they understood even the basics of Alt-Right ideologies.

11/2/17, 1:40 PM

Tell me about it. The left calls anybody with a MAGA cap on "alt-right" and "white supremacist." Hell anybody who thinks NFL players should stand for the anthem is literally Hitler!!

Milo just married a black guy. That's odd behavior for a white supremacist, just as it's also strange that Orange Nazi has a Jewish daughter and Jewish grandchildren.

And Ben Shapiro has been labeled a "white supremacist" by SJWs.

But ARM gets to talk about Milo again which is nice for him. When he saw the post, he got so excited he had to run off and find a potted plant to jack off on.

David Begley said...

IMO, Jane Mayer is a liberal political hack. Not credible.

Fernandinande said...

I heard that an Alt-right guy pinched a woman's butt.

Fernandinande said...

If the woman was white, it was racist and if the woman wasn't white it was even more racist.

djf said...

So Breitbart is connected to Neo-Nazis. That must explain why it's such a pro-Israel site. //Sarc off

Rigelsen said...

I wonder what kind of story we'd get if someone ever released the same kind of document/email dump on Breitbart that Buzzfeed received, especially if the story were written by someone with as much of an axe to grind as the Buzzfeed story evinces. I mean, get the people you're trying to taxonomize to make sure your taxonomy is accurate? Who'd have thunk it? Of course, it doesn't surprise me that Buzzfeed would rather make unsupported assertions about political and social groups rather than try to make sure their "facts" reflect the actual people they are reporting on.

Just to be clear, I haven't cared for Breitbart in the Bannon era, but Buzzfeed seems to see it as their mission to replace the erstwhile Gawker as Scumminess Prime.

traditionalguy said...
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traditionalguy said...

Once someone accepts the branding of white pro Trump conservatives as fellow travelers with Nazi/Alt-Right/KKK/ Secret Confederate pro-Slavery types, then they are lost.

That is why the CIA owned Propaganda Media have become unmasked as the real hostile Media Army in full attack mode.

Mike Sylwester said...

Milo Yiannopoulos had cultivated white nationalists and used them to generate ideas and help edit stories on the site.

Horrors

Fernandinande said...

The Latino Victory Fund has video documentation of a White Confederate Pickup Driver hunting Children of Color.

Fabi said...

The Latino Victory Fund can lick my chocolate salty balls.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fernandinande said...

But the pickup driver was just trying to get back his car stereo.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Exiled... LOL!

Perfect.

The hive mind left = Anyone not corruptocrat are all racists and white supremacists. All quiet when when actual supremacists surface and kill. Islamic supremacists.

n.n said...

Once someone accepts the branding

Exactly. The national and international left have been engaged in identity, character, and brand assassination for several decades and probably longer.

The right in America, center, really, is characterized by the principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, which are notable for their emphasis of the moral principles: individual dignity and intrinsic value, and reconciliation with natural and personal imperatives. The so-called "alt-right", is therefore composed of people that emphasize the individual over the collective.

The National Socialists in Germany were far left, who, among other things, indulged in social justice adventures (e.g. elective wars, redistributive change, diversity campaigns). The neo-National Socialists in America are mainstream left who embrace religious principles of diversity and viability (a.k.a. spontaneous conception), that deny individual dignity and intrinsic value, respectively. Then there is the clinical cannibalism of Planned Parenthood et al. Pro-Choice, selective, unprincipled, and opportunistic, indeed.

MikeR said...

I tried reading the Buzzfeed devastating expose, but it was just so long, and I never got to the horrible part where they encourage Nazis. It was all about Milo trying to put together a summary of the alt-right.

madAsHell said...

Through a spokesman...
People who know him say....
an acquaintance said....
According to the paper, he once told a colleague....

How many of these do you need to read before you stop reading?

Big Mike said...

I just love how tolerant the left is of people who are different. My world — my former world, before I retired — of mathematics and computer systems development was chock full of people like this man. Very socially awkward, trouble meeting your eyes when he (it’s rarely a she) speaks, but at least two sigma above the norm in what they can accomplish in the right setting. High functioning autistic, perhaps.

But he’s different so lefties get to do their pulling wings off flies routine — that about summarize it for you, ARM?

And just so people understand, to be a successful hedge fund manager at his level of the game, he surely does understand how politics works.

JaimeRoberto said...

I tried reading the article. It sounds like Milo was writing an article about various people in the so-called Alt-Rigth and was guilty of talking to the people he was writing about. How horrible.

Hagar said...

Nazi and KKK are totally discredited terms and have been for 60 - 70 years and more.
Today they are just meaningless name-calling.

n.n said...

Nazi and KKK are totally discredited terms

If only there weren't so many Labels in lieu of character descriptions.

Luke Lea said...

I don't believe Milo is a white nationalist. In fact I know he is not.

Nonapod said...

I'm somewhat impressed with those of you who managed to make it through the article. The last time I tried to read something on Buzzfeed that wasn't about cute dogs, something that was political, it was painful. I could physically feel the mind numbing waves of stupid emanating from the article in pulses, like some sort of radioactive object in deep space.

Hagar said...

Just what the hell is a "white nationalist?"
What does it mean?

Sebastian said...

Look, everybody here is feigning shock and ignorance. When everybody know whites are nationalists and nationalists are white.

Original Mike said...

"Just what the hell is a "white nationalist?""

The boogeyman.

wwww said...


earthquake in Bannon land.

Bob Mercer peers into the math
With algorithmic rigor
Kills off his bad investments
With quite surprising vigor.
-Rick Wilson

n.n said...

Americans are individually colorful, and collectively nationalist.

Perhaps the term "white" is a reference to a full color spectrum assimilated and integrated. Compare and contrast to the "rainbow" concept, where white is diversified into its constituent parts, and exclusive of black and brown.

Then there are the normal genders: masculine and feminine, attributable to male and female, respectively, that have been mischaracterized on the transgender spectrum and a blood spattered canvas of "No Labels" Labels.

The game is afoot.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Rick Wilson is an asshole.

It's nice that he can rhyme words though.

Anonymous said...

exiled: Rick Wilson is an asshole.

Pshaw. The man is highly respected in the highest of cuck circles.

Paul Snively said...

A high-functioning autistic who knows how finance capitalism works and made billions at it put some of it into Breitbart, which is a mouthpiece neither for the DNC nor the RNC? And this is a story how?

Anonymous said...

Hagar:

Just what the hell is a "white nationalist?"
What does it mean?


Right now? Somebody who voted for a Republican candidate.

Next year? A white person.

Synonym: "white supremacist"

Anonymous said...

J. Farmer: I wonder if the folks at Buzzfeed understand that 2+2=4, even if a white nationalist says it does.

The folks at Buzzfeed think that saying 2+2=4 makes you a white nationalist.

Lydia said...

Pretty hard to explain away Yiannopoulos’s penchant for anti-Semitic email passwords:

"In an April 6 [2016] email, Allum Bokhari mentioned having had access to an account of Yiannopoulos’s with “a password that began with the word Kristall.” Kristallnacht, an infamous 1938 riot against German Jews carried out by the SA — the paramilitary organization that helped Hitler rise to power — is sometimes considered the beginning of the Holocaust. In a June 2016 email to an assistant, Yiannopoulos shared the password to his email, which began “LongKnives1290.” The Night of the Long Knives was the Nazi purge of the leadership of the SA. The purge famously included Ernst Röhm, the SA’s gay leader. 1290 is the year King Edward I expelled the Jews from England."

Qwinn said...

I am white.

I am a nationalist, because I believe our nation has borders.

In the parlance of the Left, that makes me a white nationalist.

Ray - SoCal said...

Um, Milo’s Jewish.

His Grandmother was Jewish, which makes his Mother Jewish, that makes him Jewish.

And the Alt White / Nazi’s would like him dead.

Alt Right is not Nazi.

YoungHegelian said...

@Lydia.

Are you saying that Yiannopoulos is a self-hating Jew?

Ya know, like Karl Marx.

Ray - SoCal said...

Milo just had a speech at Cal State Fullerton. It would have been nice to attend, but I was afraid of the demonstrators.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/11/01/milo-yiannopoulos-speech-at-cal-state-fullerton-seven-arrested.html

Jersey Fled said...

I'm kind of confused about this, but as best I can tell a white supremacist is any white person who is not a Democrat.

I'm still working on neo-nazi.

Big Mike said...

@Original Mike, everyone knows the boogeyman is John Wick.

cf said...

Bless this man's heart.

And bless Milo's heart.

It is time to take some deep breaths, and pass around the richest emollient we can find, soothe and soften our blistered righteousness, and look tenderly at all of us wounded in this weird, smearing reputation-carnage going on.


Ray - SoCal said...

You can be a Democrat and be a White Supremacist, if somebody that has more victim hood accuses you White Supremacy. Say like the Canada Professor that refuses to use the correct pronoun for a Trans person. He views himself as a classical liberalism, but is being called an alt right, etc.
https://life.spectator.co.uk/2017/09/jordan-peterson-and-the-transgender-wars/
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2017/11/a-key-player-in-transgender-wars.html

From what I have read, if your born White, your a White Supremacist. You can't help it. Unconscious bias and such, not to mention micro aggressions.

>I'm kind of confused about this, but as best I can tell a white supremacist is any
>white person who is not a Democrat.

wildswan said...

White nationalists have short hair, wear short-sleeved shirts and carry Tiki torches to their get-togethers. They think America should be run by and for themselves. Don't we all? But they are quite pompous about it and hold parades to press their viewpoint. There are about 300 of them, counting paid actors and infiltrators from 17 US intelligence agencies. The 60,000,000 Democrats tremble with terror when the 300 assemble. And then raise money to STOP THE 300. Strangely, no matter whose name is on the fundraising letter, the e-mail or the sidewalk collection, all the money goes to Hillary Clinton. She has way more than 300 friends (FOH) to all of whom she gives money. And this must go on. So one FOH works to organize Tiki-marches so that money can be raised so that Tiki-marches can continue so that money can be raised ... and another works to organize counter-Tiki marches so that money can be raised ... In the old days white nationalists had terrible powers and did terrible things but nowadays they are just a fundraising shtick.

Mark said...

Ray, Milo identifies himself as Christian.

Michael K said...

Jane Mayer is a liar who slimed Clarence Thomas. I would not ask her the time of day.

Michael K said...

Rick Wilson is an asshole.

It's nice that he can rhyme words though.


He also suggested the solution to Trump was to shoot him in the head.

I like him a little less than Jane Mayer.

Sebastian said...

"I can see why a man like that would withdraw." I can see why women saying that would be unlikely to build an outfit like Renaissance.

Sprezzatura said...

"Jane Mayer is a liar who slimed Clarence Thomas."

Nice euphemism for sucking dick.

It's nice to know that Kathy and Ginni weren't the only two who went for that porn and pubic hair jabber.

See Doc Mike et. al., you're totally normal. Those PC police can't keep you from talking to your staff about big cocks in porn. Likewise, why not talk to your staff about ingesting your pubic hairs?

'Murica!

Michael K said...

"Likewise, why not talk to your staff about ingesting your pubic hairs?
"

Are you a retard ? What the fuck are you blabbering about ?

Sprezzatura said...

Doc Mike,

I'm jabberin' about jabberin' about pubic hairs on a Coke can.

http://www.zimbio.com/America's+50+Most+Scandalous+Political+Scandals/articles/20/Clarence+Thomas+Anita+Hill+Pubic+Hair+Can

As they say in Paris: 'That's hot.'

Sprezzatura said...

"Are you a retard ?"

BTW, I prefer 'special.'

Sprezzatura said...

BTW Doc, maybe y'all in the desert aren't up w/ the latest, but this is timely, again:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/anita-hill-on-weinstein-trump-and-a-watershed-moment-for-sexual-harassment-accusations

Nowadays these PC uppity (incl whites) gal workers are making a fuss re being sexual harassed at work. WTF, right?

Ray - SoCal said...

Per Nazi ideology, all that matters for being Jewish is the blood relation, not their identification.

11/2/17, 7:10 PM
Blogger Mark said...
Ray, Milo identifies himself as Christian.

Sprezzatura said...

FTR Doc, I've been assuming that you didn't know about that new Mayer piece.

If you say that you did know about it, I'd assume yur a liar. No offence, but I don't see that level of levels re your comments. Quite the opposite. But, don't feel bad, yur a Doc, so that's somethin'. In most circles.

Fritz said...

Big news in DC today . Somebody is putting up posters in a high school that say "Being White is OK", and it's being treated as a hate crime.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Thomas (allegedly) talked about pubic hairs on Coke cans. He's never been accused of doing any similar by anybody else and not one woman has stepped forward with any accusations of harassment since that delicate flower Hill (who was so offended she followed him to another job) got her 15 minutes of fame.

Bill Clinton raped a woman and Hillary covered for him. And PB voted for both.

PB, do you have to pick Hill's pubic hair out of your teeth? I know she doesn't like men very much - but then, you're not one.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

PB, tell us some more about how the government will protect us from being poisoned. You gave me a good laugh this morning. That's something you do frequently, except when you're actually trying to be funny.

Sprezzatura said...

Exile,

Yur awesome. BTW, have you checked in w/ David Brock since you cemented your "knowledge" of the situation?

Anywho:

http://www.rollcall.com/news/opinion/woman-not-called-clarence-thomas-hearings

https://www.vox.com/identities/2016/10/27/13439992/clarence-thomas-anita-hill-moira-smith-sexual-assault

Sprezzatura said...

Is it just me or do other folks think of Dick Morris when David Brock is mentioned?

There's some sorta ships crossing in the night thing-y gonin' on there, imho.

Anywho, they both seem like sleazeballs, imho, maybe that's the link.

I dunno.

Sprezzatura said...

Okay, I gotta spill the beans on this one. Usually, I'm good w/ chortling on the other end of these tubes.

Answer: The reason that they're two sides of the same coin is that they exemplify the lameness of irrationality overriding reality.

It's all spelled out now. Get it?

Probably not. Ha. It's even funnier!

[Now I feel mean.]


exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

PB, are you drunk? You're even more lame and incoherent than usual.

I've heard AA is a good organization.

Sprezzatura said...

"I've heard AA is a good organization."

The vortex.

Bad Lieutenant said...


anti-de Sitter space said...
"Are you a retard ?"

BTW, I prefer 'special.'

11/2/17, 10:17 PM


Doc, this guy is PBJ and also Shiloh. Set phasers to ignore, he slimes every topic he touches. It's like trying to read used toilet paper. Just flush. You'll never learn anything from him. Really, how can you write like that and not be a crazy person?

Sprezzatura said...

"It's like trying to read used toilet paper."

Ha!

Old material.

narciso said...

Buzz feed, the publication that gubarev will be renaming when Charles harder is through with them, because of the dossier good luck with that.

LakeLevel said...

Off Topic: Here's an interesting, very little known fact just for Althouse readers. I worked for a company that had access to images of a very large number of people taken with very carefully controlled cameras and conditions. We had a task to figure out what was skin and what wasn't in these images. We converted the color to Luminance and Chrominance (Brightness and Color) channels. After doing a statistical analysis on skin color in these images, we discovered that there is absolutely no statistical difference in the Chrominance (Color) of peoples skin by race. That's right, we are all, in fact, the same color. Now why don't we all just shut up about this crap.

Bad Lieutenant said...

True, PBJ, I did use that simile before, but it's terribly apt. Your words are like somebody wiped his ass with a copy of Das Kapital. Does it hurt, to write like you do?

Fernandinande said...

LakeLevel said...
Off Topic: Here's an interesting, very little known fact just for Althouse readers.


It's not interesting and it's probably not a fact and, if it's "just for" anyone it should be "just for" Black Lives Matter dweebs and their ilk because they like made-up shit.

That's right, we are all, in fact, the same color.

Chrominance doesn't mean color - that's why you used the word 'chrominance' instead of the word 'color'.

Now why don't we all just shut up about this crap.

What crap? I don't recall anyone ever mentioning peoples' skin chrominance, and neither does google.