Here’s a new story that manages to be both absurd and silly and also pretty outrageous. As part of her 2024 presidential ambitions South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is deploying elements of the state national guard to the Texas boarder to combat the “border crisis” which is mainly an element of the Republican campaign agenda for 2022. And the money to do it is coming from a private donor.
Govs. Abbott (Texas) and Doucey (Arizona) have requested that other Republican governors send law enforcement personnel to deal with the purported border crisis. (To the extent there’s a border issue it seems to have subsided since the Spring. It tends to be seasonal.) Other Republican governors have sent law enforcement personnel. Noem appears to be the only one sending elements of the state national guard.
The deployment is being funded by a GOP megadonor, auto salvage billionaire Willis Johnson, a resident of Tennessee. The donation to fund the troop deployment is being funneled through his family foundation, Willis and Reba Johnson’s Foundation.
