Sunday, March 30, 2014
The liberal obsession with the Koch Brothers
Sounds like a brand of soda pop. I never really heard about the Koch Brothers until liberals started talking about them so much. Conservatives also seem to like to comment on the liberal obsession with the Koch Bros so conservatives have an obsession with their obsession just like they have an obsession with reading NY Times editorials (hey guys they're just editorials, don't let them ruin your day). Charles and David Koch of the Koch Industries have been responsible for much charitable giving to various cultural and medical institutions but Harry Reid and Chuckie Schumer say they're unAmerican for funding anti-ObamaCare ads and for calling for smaller government. BB has a bit of a Koch fetish too so maybe he can explain. The pro-Obama Hollywood tripe that spews out daily is ok though.
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I thought I would donate $50 for every $ million the Kochs did. Since that turned out to be $10,000 a year, I gave up. Let them buy the government, screw it up royally
ReplyDeleteand be proud of themselves. Have you noticed how well reducing taxes on the well to do has done?
They're the only ones BB?
ReplyDeleteBecause you know, when you reduce taxes on the rich, they DEFINITELY will take that money and give it to poor people in the form of raises, living wages, and new jobs.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the Kochs buying?
ReplyDelete"So how did Republicans keep their House majority despite more Americans voting for the other party—something that has only happened three times in the last hundred years, according to political analyst Richard Winger? Because they drew the lines.
After Republicans swept into power in state legislatures in 2010, the GOP gerrymandered key states, redrawing House district boundaries to favor Republicans. In Pennsylvania, Democratic candidates received half of the votes in House contests, but Republicans will claim about three-quarters of the congressional seats. The same is true in North Carolina. More than half the voters in that state voted for Democratic representation, yet Republicans will fill about 70 percent of the seats. Democrats drew more votes in Michigan than Republicans, but they'll take only 5 out of the state's 14 congressional seats."
-they are buying minority rule-
I take it you'd be down if a liberal bought the government. George Soros, yeah he doesn't influence anything.
ReplyDeleteRe reducing taxes on the rich here's how I'd approach it. Can the rich pay more in taxes? no question but the motive for raising taxes on the wealthy shouldn't come from an animus against them. There's the difference in a nut, many liberals have an animus against the rich. You have to approach it on a pure policy level that's all.
ReplyDeleteI don't buy your analysis BB. We live in a representative government and by your estimation if a minority of legislators are against abortion they'll find a way to outlaw it without the consent of the public. Doesn't work that way and anyway gerrymandering is not a new subject and I could spend the better part of a day researching how both parties have done it. I'm not asking you to be a Kochsucker just that you invest them with too much power like two kings with magical scepters, too Games of Thronish imo:)
ReplyDeleteThe bottom line is that in America money equals power. A man who happens to be part of the one percent will face NO JAIL TIME for raping his three year old daughter (and also sexually abusing his infant son) because he "will not fare well" in jail.
ReplyDeleteAre people supposed to "fare well" in jail?
Meanwhile, a lower middle class black woman is going to jail for 25 years for shooting a gun into the air. No one was injured. She did it as a warning shot that she was serious about defending herself.
A wealthy teenager who killed four people in a drunk driving accident will serve no jail time. Instead, he will spend a year in an oceanfront California rehabilitation facility. His lawyers argued that since he grew up privileged he really didn't have an understanding of what he was doing.
Money is the bottom line. If you have it, you can have anything you want. You can rape your own children. You can kill people in drunk driving accidents. You can buy votes, and change laws so that future votes will go your way. You can write your own laws.
That's what's happening today.
You're right as witness George Soros' son Jonathan unduly influencing the NY State Legislature re public financing of campaigns. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
ReplyDeleteNothing personal, I happen to live in a state where the GOP outnumbers Dems and has controlled the guv't for 25 years.
ReplyDelete1. Our highways resemble cow trails
2. We recently forced our colleges to permit concealed weapons, even though
the residents were strongly against
3. We are 50th in average income
4. We are 49th in education
5. We privatized our prisons 20 years ago. Lost millions, now the FBI is
investigating that 'privatization' fiasco
6. We lower corporate taxes almost yearly and make up the difference by
raising taxes on the poor and elderly
7. Club For Growth & the NRA get whatever they want
8. The local Tea Party is chaired by two guys that get disability checks and
complain about others eating at the government trough.
9. They elected a Tea Party guy to the board of education after a school levy
failed, getting only 65% of the vote (the GOP put through a super-majority
rule- you need 66% of the voters to approve anything they dislike: but when
10% of citizens and the NRA want guns in college, that's a lot different.) The
Tea Party guy on the board came up with a plan to use eminent domain and
take homes to expand the high school.
10. The GOP here is ignorant
11. The GOP here cares only for big business
12. The GOP here doesn't give a crap for infrastructure
13. The GOP here is pro-gun, anti-wolf, anti-woman, anti-education, anti-
environment, anti-science, anti-federal government and anti-worker.
14. The GOP here is bought and controlled by out of state wealth.
15. One year, they bought a congressman who was so incredibly bad that
Idaho actually elected a democrat!
I was an Eisenhower Republican, Nixon turned me off and Reagan finished the job.
I yam what I yam, ya know?
What would soapie say?
DeleteMOVE
Here's why I'll never find any common ground with you guys, you view everything through the prism of Republicans are bad and have ruined the country. I say BOTH parties have ruined the country. Here's another reason for no common ground with you two, you seem to feel only Republican fat cat donors are a problem whereas I say it's a problem across the board, across the parties. Now if I were to say the Democrats are anti-self-defense, pro-wolf attacks, pro-abortion, pro-teacher's unions at the expense of good public schools, pro-snail darter at the expense of thousands of good paying jobs, pro-atheism, pro-leviathan gov't and pro-corrupt labor unions you'd say I'm engaging in demagoguery. Just sayin'.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans ARE bad and HAVE ruined the country.
ReplyDeleteCan you prove otherwise?
Any more, it isn't so much what one is for, and what one is against. Blame the negative advertising and fear factor. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer-
ReplyDeleteand it is good. Turning point? When Reagan fired 11,000 air traffic controllers:
hit the books, since then union membership is way down, corporate profits are way up, productivity is way way up and wages have remained the same...and it is good.
But if it's bad, Obama did it.
See this is what I'm talking about. Politics is not about finding common ground but about entrenching our positions. The Democrats have boggled the country with this health-care thing. Can you prove otherwise?
ReplyDeleteAh yes unions. I myself work in a very hostile work environment of late and yet we have a union. Have they made a difference? Is the workplace better? safer? They're sure good at collecting their dues though and they always go up.
ReplyDeleteYou're right- the few unions that are left have little or no clout. Been a long time since I've witnessed a strike. I was never in one, but managed both
Deleteunion and non-union: frankly, I think they get a bad rap, and yes, who wants to pay dues for nothing? Back in the day, there was wide-spread corruption,
bribing, money-laundering: now that is left to the corporations.
Whether it's taxes or union dues I just want more bang for the buck is all. Don't just take the money.
ReplyDeleteCan I prove otherwise about healthcare? Let's ask the people who couldn't afford to see a doctor who can now.
ReplyDeleteNarrower networks and higher premiums in many cases. Just sayin'.
DeleteNo preexistings. No lifetime caps. Many preventative services covered at 100%. Realistic deductibles.
DeleteHealth-care providers getting paid less,many times less brilliant doctors and less prestigious institutions covered in the network. Call it the McDonaldizing of health-care.
Delete"The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation. These views dovetail with the brothers’ corporate interests. In a study released this spring, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute named Koch Industries one of the top ten air polluters in the United States. And Greenpeace issued a report identifying the company as a “kingpin of climate science denial.” The report showed that, from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid ExxonMobil in giving money to organizations fighting legislation related to climate change, underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups. Indeed, the brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies—from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program—that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Kochtopus. "
ReplyDelete_from the New Yorker . These guys represent everything that is wrong
with US big business, they fund just about every anti-Obama organization and if they get their way we will quickly become a third world has-been country. [IMO]
But the point is they're not doing anything illegal far as I can tell and they have the right to do this in a properly functioning democracy even if they're not your cup of tea. Solution is easy: there are just as many lefty millionaires funding causes and groups at odds with the Koch's ideological agenda. Actually I'm not a big fan of either right-wing or left-wing millioinaires trying to influence the government whereas you're just focusing on the Koches.
ReplyDeleteHappy to report that some libertarian blogs I've been on are starting to change their mind on unlimited spending/corporations are citizens/1st Amendemnt, etc. Basically, libertarians want liberty; polling indicates a large majority of voters would like to limit big money in politics. In a democracy, the big majority often gets its way, ya know? Their thinking runs- as an individual, one cannot compete in politics unless you sell your
Deletesoul to some big guy, which means toeing his line. In the case of the Kochs
that would be to deny climate change, shred the EPA, defer to the wealthy and corporations and lower their taxes, making up the difference on those
who hadn't the wherewithal to contribute a few hundred million, do away
with worker safety, frack the hell out of Yonkers, demand we all carry firearms, and generally treat common folk like dirt. T'ain't the America I
grew up in. But then, SCOTUS weren't a bunch of crooks.
Well the SCOTUS under John Roberts has just dealt a huge blow to campaign finance reform. Charles Schumer and Harry Reid are in a dither about it.
ReplyDeleteIndeed SCOTUS has. They answer to no one. And they consistently divide along partisan lines. That is why several states have started a movement to amend the constitution and limit the amount an individual can use to buy politicians. We note from the blog 'Green Eagle'-
Delete"An Interesting Fact About the Most Recent Corrupt Supreme Court Decision
Which extended the ability of the rich to buy our government. In the last election, there were 1200 people who maxed out their campaign contributions under the then-current law. These 1200 are the only people who will benefit from the new rules.
For years, I have been saying that the end game of the Republican party's destruction of our democracy is a situation in which the entire country will be run for the benefit of about 2,000 families. I guess that I can now reduce that number to 1200. IMO this shouldn't even be a political issue: it is one of fairness and leveling the playing field from the vertical one favored by
the 5 members of SCOTUS.
I'm glad we kinda agree on the SCOTUS. For years I've been saying we're supposed to have 3 co-equal branches of the gov't and no one would listen until they came down with a decision to bite libs in the ass. I mean WHY have legislators?
DeleteThe constitution deal seems to be that congress people get elected for
Deletetwo years, senators for 6 years, president for four years and the SCOTUS folk are 1. appointed, not voted for and 2. have the job for
life. I guess the idea originally was that they would be non-partisan and obligated to no one, but as near as I can tell, the very first justices fought with congress, the president and the voters. Dunno, though, it seems to
be getting worse...like who stands up for the average joe?
Everyone has a different judicial philosophy. Here's mine: in the majority of cases I'd give vast deference to our duly-constituted and elected legislators on everything from gay marriage to campaign-finance reform EVEN IF I disagree with the passed law in question. IMO the SCOTUS should only step in if something is such an egregious violation of someone's rights like a return to miscegenation laws but other than that take it easy Roberts & Co. I don't like the SCOTUS constantly striking down things so that's my view in a nutshell.
DeleteBB's Koch fetish; or why he resists the kochsucking kochtopus:
ReplyDeleteDavid Koch ran for president in 1980 on the Libertarian ticket. His platform (beginning 11th paragraph, contains 26 items some of the milder ones being elimination of social security,
converting all public schools to private, banning all usury law and corporate taxes,
well, heck, you can read through all of them and decide if you would recognize the
United States of America as run by and for business.
It's simply Rand in the form of a billionaire. Not my cup of tea but what the heck it's a free country.
DeleteThe Kochs are a rallying point for Dems, sort of like Benghazi/ACA for the right. BTW, what do you think of that rancher in Nevada that runs his
Deleteherd on BLM public land and refused to pay his rent for 15 years. Tea Party and militia showed up armed to the teeth to protect him. IMO, the
guy is a plain squatter on your and my land and has no rights to it whatever; TP and militia thinks the guv is picking on him.
& Charlie Daniels thinks it's the first real test of the military against the citizenry, you know "Obama Went Down to Nevada." I downloaded a good Drudge App to my smartphone the other day and that's the first story I saw that day and really wasn't at all familiar with the story. There's alot going on and I got my head buried in instruction manuals.
DeleteFoxNews, TP and militias think the Bureau of Land Management is the bad guy. IMO, the rancher uses public land (belongs to all citizens) to graze his cattle, just like 16,000 other western ranchers. But the other 15,999 pay a minimal land-use lease, which Nevada Chucky has refused to pay since 1993. So, essentially, he is 'feeding at the public trough' and
Deletehere the organizations that hate those that 'feed at the public trough' is turning out armed and looking for a firefight. Talk about IQ-challenged. I'm gonna go with Shakespeare: "And then is heard no more: it is a tale. Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing"
As MUCH as I'd like to be against the Gov't in this case and I'm against Gov't most of the time your analysis seems quite objective and I can't argue. It's like the TP is reflexively anti-government even when it's not warranted like hating your boss simply because he insists you shave.
Delete