David Neiwert: Right-wing sugar daddies

One of the questions that always hovers over hate groups and radical-right organizations is: Where do they get their money? We know that what they're able to collect through memberships and fund-raising devices is only a pittance in the context of the kind of cash flow they seem to generate; and there are many questions about the large startup sums they often have. What we've known, in fact, is that many of these groups have wealthy conservatives -- often building-and-development magnates, or ideologues with inherited wealth -- quietly underwriting their work.

One of the more noteworthy of these is a Seattle-area-based rocket scientist named Walter P. Kistler, whose activities in this regard have just been thoroughly exposed in a pull-back-the-covers report from the Southern Poverty Law Center:

An accomplished rocket scientist has become the sole donor to the Pioneer Fund, which is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.