Thursday, April 03, 2014

RETRONUT.

Shorter Charles G. Koch: What's good for Koch Industries is good for the USA.

(You may take this as a reference to the famous General Motors quote, or misquote, but I was thinking of General Bullmoose. Like Ole Perfesser Instapundit I'm a fan of L'il Abner.)

This Wall Street Journal "editorial" has got everything a conservatarian could want from a sugar daddy and his communications department: Much bragging on his own integrity and the accomplishments of his own firm (most of which, as a Crooked Timber commenter spectacularly put it, "can be replaced by 'Koch industries is a very large company'"); an assurance that conservatarianism, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA; invocations of the Founders, and of Alinsky (drink!); and the inevitable, outraged assertion that if anyone speaks roughly of the poor patriotic millionaire, it is "character assassination" of the sort "so many despots have infamously practiced... the antithesis of what is required for a free society," etc.

The only problem with it is, while the copy is bound to wow all the people who worship the Kochs already, normal people will look at it, if they look at it, and think: I wonder how much he paid for that?

UPDATE. At PJ Media Bryan Preston stands up for exalted Kochean standards of discourse by repeating the word "smear" over and over:
...a smear first floated by Austan Goolsbee... the smear is the current regime’s preferred method of kneecapping opponents... Obama himself sets the tone, when he smears opponents of Obamacare... That’s a smear and a lie and he knows it.... there has to be some accountability for all these smears...
It's not shitty writing, it's message discipline! Oh, and in the middle of it Preston mentions that "the Obama administration may have been covering up union shop GM’s deadly ignition switch flaw." He said mother-may-have, so it's not a smear. I was going to say, if lack of self-awareness were money he'd be rich, but in Preston's world I suppose it is money.

UPDATE 2. In comments, whetstone: "Now, to be fair, his daddy renounced the Soviet Union and, furthermore, co-founded the John Birch Society. So it's a family that understands both collectivism and character assassination."

118 comments:

  1. PulletSurprise10:54 AM

    "I'm Fighting To Restore a Free Society" ...and by "free society," I mean the most expensive.

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  2. Millionaires? Pfft. To a Koch, Millionaires are next to hobos.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well, I'm not getting out of the boat this time, because I would really rather not read Charles Koch talk about how awesome he is (and doubly so if it's on WSJ). However, I do find it endlessly amusing that someone involved in the production of that column decided to use a DKos logo as their main image. You know...because there's a flag in it and liberals hate that stuff. Either that or someone was having a little fun with ol' Charlie.

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  4. Al Swearengen11:07 AM

    our critics would have you believe we're "un-American" and trying to
    "rig the system," that we're against "environmental protection" or eager
    to "end workplace safety standards," he continued.



    Against all the evidence of our lying eyes, they think people will actually swallow this horseshit. This is a combination of a couple of asshole CEOs who think that every pronouncement, every memo, of theirs' be followed like the word of Gawd by their cowed workers. And complete enclosure in the Rightwing Bubble that they think anyone outside true believers would buy any of it.

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  5. Al Swearengen11:13 AM

    Well hell, that was me. The system took my edit only after I tried to delete the post.

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  6. FMguru11:27 AM

    Is it wrong that this warms my heart? The Kochs are public figures with some of the worst approval/disapproval ratings in the country, and a key part of the Democratic plan for driving turnout in 2014 is to tie them to the Republican party at every opportunity, so for the Kochs to take the bait and come out with a self-focused high-profile PR campaign has got to have them dancing in the hallways at DNC HQ.

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  7. L Bob Rife11:28 AM

    I'm amazed that Adrisnksy "famously" advocated character assassination, like it was a foreign concept until 1971. Can you imagine the blahs and dirty hippies finding Rules For Radicals and just slapping their heads - "Hey check this out, this guy is on to something big."

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  8. FMguru11:28 AM

    You're talking about the same people who supported Dubya Bush because "he kept us safe".

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  9. L Bob Rife11:30 AM

    Please file all references to the Piranha Brothers under this comment. Thanks.

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  10. PulletSurprise11:40 AM

    Quoth the Koch: More than 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson warned that this could happen. "The natural progress of things," Jefferson wrote, "is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground."

    Which is funny, because Jefferson also said, ""I hope we shall take warning from the example and crush in it’s birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and to bid defiance to the laws of their country."



    Of course, when all you know of Thomas Jefferson comes from Internet memes and brainyquote.com, fundamental misunderstandings are bound to arise.

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  11. Dr. Hunky Jimpjorps12:08 PM

    "Union shop GM's deadly ignition switch flaw", because it was those dastardly union boys who forced the poor management and engineering teams to spend that extra dollar on stogies and hoagies, I guess.

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  12. Spaghetti Lee12:46 PM

    I believe the Jefferson quote that truly holds the most relevance to our times is "Hey man--are you gonna finish that wine?"

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  13. Chairman Pao12:48 PM

    "They engage in character assassination. (I should know, as the bankroll for numerous misleading TV ads meant to garrote the ACA.)"

    Edited for context.

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  14. u character assassinated bro?

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  15. These assholes have been smearing climate scientists without remorse.

    Fuck 'em. Time to load them up on tumbrels.
    ~

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  16. gocart mozart12:51 PM

    The LAW in it's infinite wisdom alows both rich and poor the freedom to buy a congressman.

    ReplyDelete
  17. tell spaghetti what he's won, rod.

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  18. I read that Koch piece in the online WSJ. I think they really mistake people's ability to give a fuck about those fake advertorials that always run on the op ed pages. It lacked the black border and the "A Message From Our Advertisers" (which, by the way, Josh Marshall at TPM has just rediscovered and is proudly displaying with clickable links as his newest toy) but it was recognizable nonetheless. I haven't seen such a display of high dudgeon since Margaret Dumont pointed her formidable bosom at the Marx Brothers. I mean the Alinsky Brothers and their littlest brother, the dark one, Obamo.

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  19. How fitting. A vanity column that is pure vanity.

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  20. They probably have minions to scrub it from the texts and videos that they allow to see the light of day. I would be shocked if they don't refer to him that way in private. And when you are a billionaire that buys a lot of privacy.

    ReplyDelete
  21. The first rule of Disqus is No Backsies.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Jay B.1:01 PM

    "Sometimes it's perfectly fine to hit a man in his dick, provided he's swinging it out for the world to see and is a disagreeable shit." --- Abraham Lincoln on cockpunching the rich

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  23. Chairman Pao1:03 PM

    +1 for invoking Margaret Dumont.


    You're onto something there -- a new categorization for indignant conservative op-eds availing us of big gubmint's lethal powers: "Dudgeon & Dragons".

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  24. Jay B.1:14 PM

    Fucking whining loser. Can't handle criticism and bitches about how unfair it all is when he SHOULD be thanking his lucky stars that Americans don't treat him and his fucking pampered, loathsome cohort like the Italians treated Mussolini after Salo fell. I don't advocate violence, but when Koch finally shuffles off this mortal coil, his remains should be burned in a trash fire, as befitted his life.

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  25. Well, allow me to retort.

    ... What's that? The Wall Street Journal asslickers aren't offering me all the column real estate I wish to develop my side of the argument? Huh, I guess it's my own fault for not inheriting $250 million from the fortune my daddy made doing business with Stalin.

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  26. ...a smear first floated by Austan Goolsbee... the smear is the current
    regime’s preferred method of kneecapping opponents...

    ...also,

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  27. redoubtagain1:35 PM

    I was going to say "says the man who's father did business with infamous collectivist Stalin" but you beat me to it.


    Instead of encouraging free and open debate, collectivists strive to discredit and intimidate opponents. They engage in character assassination. (I should know, as the almost daily target of their attacks.)


    As opposed to people like the Kochs, who engage in actual assassination.

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  28. "(I should know, as the almost daily target of their attacks.)"


    "Fortunately, my complete lack of character means the assassins always miss."

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  29. M. Krebs1:57 PM

    That is beautiful, man.

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  30. (I should know, as the almost daily target of their attacks.)


    Oh, Jesus H. Christ on a popsicle stick, Chuck. Do you need an emergency helicopter ride to Mayo Clinic for your hurt fee-fees? If you can't stand the heat ... well, out-of-control anthropogenic climate change is your fault anyway.

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  31. Glock H. Palin, Esq.2:02 PM

    I want to treat this comment to a dinner of stolen bread and then retire with it to a cardboard boudoir under a bridge.

    ReplyDelete
  32. I knew a guy who was a big shot at one of Georgia Pacific's paper plants. He asked me if I knew why GP didn't give sick days. His answer. "Because the workers would use them".

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  33. whetstone2:06 PM

    Now, to be fair, his daddy renounced the Soviet Union and, furthermore, co-founded the John Birch Society. So it's a family that understands both collectivism and character assassination.

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  34. A must-read since it was first published.

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  35. You know, I'm as guilty as the next person of failing to grasp just how much money the Kochs are spending, and how just everywhere it is. When you read the article keta links to you really have to ask yourself whether there would be any serious right wing opposition to Obama and the Dems absent that money. We are talking people with billions of spite dollars to spend and apparently nothing else to do with it.

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  36. whetstone2:17 PM

    I'd assume they were tweaking liberals if I was assured there were sentient beings at the WSJ editorial page.

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  37. redoubtagain2:20 PM

    Boshaftigkeit Geld

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  38. mgmonklewis2:23 PM

    Margaret Dumont had the distinct advantage of being deadpan funny, and she could belt out an aria to boot. If the right-wing Whiny Brigade had even a fraction of her talent, at least they'd be entertaining.

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  39. mgmonklewis2:25 PM

    When you are finished, I would like to woo that comment myself with a dinner of roast sparrow au jus, followed by dessert of marshmallow flambé à la trashcan.

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  40. merl13:09 PM

    I'm sure I'm not the first to mention this, but what do they call their attacks on George Soros? They make him out to be a Concentration camp kapo.

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  41. Sadly, the article was printed almost four years ago and hey! didn't the Supremes just rule in some McCutcheon case or
    sumpin'?

    My point being that while the cited piece makes you shake your head, events since are enough to consider shaking it to the point of it falling off your shoulders.

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  42. M. Krebs3:13 PM

    Don't character assassinate me bro'! needs to be America's newest catchphrase.

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  43. BG, dismayed leftie3:31 PM

    I wonder if David and Charles Koch are arrogant enough to think they would have made all that money on their own.

    Let's strip them of all their assets and find out what they're really made of.

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  44. dstatton3:55 PM

    Ugh. I'd rather be called resentful and jealous of their money than sucking up to them hoping they'll toss a few coins your way.

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  45. glennisw3:56 PM

    Yes, I saw that too. I wonder why he didn't go whole hog and through in a gratuitous "Benghazi!" reference.

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  46. Helmut Monotreme4:03 PM

    That right there is some grade-A, learned-in-an-MBA-program, totally divorced from reality horseshit. Having sick people at work impairs productivity. Working people at 100% capacity all the time leads to exhaustion and workplace accidents. Staffing to a level that can absorb some people's absence means there is enough staff to do more than just sit on an assembly line 100%. They could do other things, like continuous improvement programs, on the job training, even light cleanup, so there is less for a janitorial service to do.

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  47. David Koch: tl;dr

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  48. smut clyde4:22 PM

    I was shocked to check in "Rules for Radicals" via Google Books and discover that the term "character assassination" does not appear on its pages.
    The adverb "famously" often works as a flag that something didn't happen.

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  49. In a Marx Brother movie the joke is on Dumont, but in a Koch Brothers production the joke is on us.

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  50. Sounds like equal opportunity to me!

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  51. mortimer20004:38 PM

    I'd bet a bunch that this asshole, like all these assholes whose anti-union knees jerk every time GM is mentioned, hasn't a clue that pretty much all Japanese and German auto workers - in their respective countries that is -- are unionized, and earn vastly more in wages and benefits than their American counterparts. You'd think such self-styled patriots would find that cause for concern. Unfortunately, to these fucks, American blue-collar workers are practically moochers.

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  52. I get together with Pap about once a year.

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  53. Shorter Charles G. Koch: What's good for Koch Industries is good for the USA.

    He has a point- both Koch Industries and the USA depended on stealing from Native Americans.

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  54. M. Krebs6:03 PM

    Is there actually a GP plant located anywhere other than some southern shithole where redneck labor is cheap and plentiful?

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  55. montag26:46 PM

    Mind you, this tripe is from the guy who said, as explanation for outright theft of millions of dollars of oil from Oklahoma tribes, "I want my share, and that's all of it."

    This guy and his brothers inherited $330 million each from Daddy Fred upon his demise. He wouldn't know what work is if it bit him in the ass and drew blood. And now, having been adulated in the business press for years as a proper American predatory capitalist, he's now unhappy that people are complaining (the nerve!) about him, principally because he's using his ill-gotten booty to buy politicians at discount rates (well, American pols do sell themselves pretty cheaply).

    This guy's idea of "freedom" is the right to steal his customers and suppliers blind, to clearcut the earth and to dig huge holes in the rest of it, to pollute at will, and to bribe the political system into submission.

    There is no one, I mean no one on this decreasingly green earth who more deserves a 94% topo nominal tax rate and a swift kick in the nuts than Charles Koch.

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  56. 2 Koch Bros. = 35,000 millionaires.

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  57. montag26:52 PM

    Umm, that's under the old calculation. The brothers' combined wealth is now an est. $75 billion, mostly because they've been investing (that's the nice word for it) in interest rate swaps, which has really ballooned their net worth in the last three years or so, in addition to their already bloated returns from Koch Industries.

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  58. Check that. See edit.

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  59. I love it that the WSJ is granting op-ed space so these fucks can outdo each other finding ever more asinine ways to say "Leave billionaires alone!!!."

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  60. Derelict7:08 PM

    Sadly, we long ago crossed the line of having one set of laws for the rich and one for everyone else. The DuPont ruling is just one more on the mountainous pile of rich-people-skate, poor-people-rot justice.

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  61. montag28:01 PM

    Their return is unlikely. We'd find them all dead of arsenic poisoning from trying to extract gold from the Gulch.

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  62. montag28:07 PM

    And where toxic chemicals, oozing sores, immune system diseases and cancer are thought to be "Gawd"s Will?"

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  63. montag28:13 PM

    Funny how people kind of resent fatcat oligarchs buying up their political system as if it were steak by the pound.

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  64. montag28:19 PM

    Y'know, there's a huge pile of tar sands coke in Detroit that the Koch brothers dumped there that would make a fitting funeral pyre for the bastards. Unfortunately, there are laws against open-pit incineration of assholes.

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  65. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person8:45 PM

    The Law? Why, I'll have you know the very foundation of our great Republic, the Constitution Itself, as interpreted by Brother John Roberts just the other day, allows that rich and poor alike have the right to write million dollar checks to the candidates of their choice. People may joke, Sir, but we do, indeed, have the very finest Democracy money can buy!

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  66. JennOfArk9:03 PM

    Don't make him come over there and nail your head to the floor.

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  67. JennOfArk9:05 PM

    I think he's well aware of those facts, which is why he decided he needed to buy the entire political system to make sure it doesn't happen here.

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  68. JennOfArk9:28 PM

    Let me publicly promise here, in this forum, that if I ever win one of those huge lottery jackpots, I'm gonna spend it on trying to pass a constitutional amendment that 1) clearly defines that corporations are not people; 2) outlaws political donations to any candidate or political group from any person who is not a citizen eligible to vote (which would in and of itself take care of corporate political donations); 3) clearly defines limits - low ones, with any increases indexed to inflation - on donations that can be given by any person to any candidate or political group by clarifying that while all citizens have a right to free speech, those with more money do not have more right to be heard or a right to flood the zone and crowd out other voices; 4) allows corporations independent political speech on issues only when done under the corporate name and logo (no more washing money through PACs to hide its provenance) and only when done independently (i.e. no more billionaire/corporate collaboration via 501 c(4) organizations; if Koch Industries wants to pour money into ads advocating that sick people without insurance be allowed to die in the street, the ad will say "this ad paid for by Koch Industries"); 5) clearly states that while individuals and even corporations have a right to free speech, they do not have a right to anonymous paid political speech.


    Yeah, I know. But a girl's gotta have a dream.

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  69. Shakezula10:33 PM

    There's a joke about pap smears here, but I'm too tired to assemble it.

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  70. Tehanu10:38 PM

    The CEO where I worked for a time was the most boring public speaker on earth -- but he thought he was riveting, because every time he opened his mouth everybody in the office gazed worshipfully at him. I always wondered why he never realized that they only gazed worshipfully as long as he controlled the checkbook.

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  71. Tehanu10:46 PM

    The more I read about business schools and MBA's, the more

    I think they are the main source of the crap that is destroying our political system. Makes me long for the good old days of Big Jim McBob and Billy Sol Hurok.

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  72. montag211:05 PM

    I wouldn't give `em even that much. How about making lobbying for profit a felony? Outlaw all political contributions and have public funding of elections (presto, no more dark money, no more PACs, period). A new Constitutional amendment outlawing specific parts of current tax law (offshore tax havens, carried interest, paying companies to offshore jobs, etc.) is long overdue. Clearly delineate that corporations are not citizens, that they are not protected by the bill of rights nor by the 14th Amendment. If they aren't flesh-and-blood, they can't be treated as citizens. (We'd have to put up with a whole lot less crap today if all speech by corporations were treated as advertising subject to truth-in-advertising law.)

    Doesn't take care of everything, but, impeaching four corrupt-to-the-core Supreme Court justices, imprisoning the nation's war criminals, mandating a 94% top nominal rate on all income, regardless of source, over $3 million and ending defense profiteering would take care of a lot of the rest. And, as icing on the cake, eliminate the ability of the Executive to hide bad behavior and wrongdoing behind the classification system.

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  73. RNegron11:05 PM

    The Koch-alorum in chief's essay had his (un)intended effect. I finally installed the BuyCot app. I will never buy anything that can be traced to any of these ass-wipes. Certainly not their ass-wipes.

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  74. RNegron11:07 PM

    look out for Inspector Javert. He is relentless.

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  75. M. Krebs11:12 PM

    I can sort of understand that a Koch might feel somewhat put upon by people saying they're evil rich fucks, but I can't understand how they would think that putting a whiney-ass op-ed in the fucking Wall Street Journal is going going to help their cause. I can only conclude that they are not only evil rich fucks but also stupid rich fucks.

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  76. Mooser11:16 PM

    While those examples featured here may be either more extreme or more amusing, the idea that moral courage consists in standing up for the rich, powerful, and/or intolerant, and that one who does so is taking a stand for 'liberty' or even, Gawd-help-us, egalitarianism, has become a normalized part of our discourse.
    Sure, it's not like being a paid exponent (which, of course, validates the integrity of your position) but it's what the average citizen who wants to help set things right in this country can do.
    People say Americans are sedentary and overweight. Yet they seem sufficiently lissome to stab themselves in the back and kick themselves in the ass all at the same time.

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  77. Mooser11:23 PM

    "(which, by the way, Josh Marshall at TPM has just rediscovered and is proudly displaying with clickable links as his newest toy)"


    Remember that noise that "Lurch" would make, on "The Addams Family", when he felt things were going wrong? Sometimes I want to make that noise.

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  78. DocAmazing12:11 AM

    You're not taking any shit off them, and they're not going to be taking any shit off you.

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  79. Daniel Björkman12:18 AM

    I often find that people are far more perceptive about their enemies than they are about themselves. So is also the case with Ayn Rand. Her depiction of rich moochers who game the system at every turn and stay on top solely because they ended up there by pure luck and have the rudimentary competence of knowing which side the bread is buttered on? That was spot on.


    Her depiction of any other kind of rich person is where she completely parted ways from the real world.

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  80. Daniel Björkman12:25 AM

    The only problem with it is, while the copy is bound to wow all the
    people who worship the Kochs already, normal people will look at it, if they look at it, and think: I wonder how much he paid for that?


    Yep. Also, what is normally a hindrance to our side works in our favour here. He can try to make it sound bombastic all he wants, but what he really does is whining, and people hate a whiner. I should know, a whine a LOT! :P

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  81. PulletSurprise12:34 AM

    "...even the nobles get properly handled."

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  82. FlipYrWhig12:37 AM

    Laws against open-pit incineration of assholes? Aw, but I just bought all these hot dogs.

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  83. AGoodQuestion12:50 AM

    Apparently you can kneecap your opponents with a smear. If I'd know it was that easy...

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  84. AGoodQuestion12:54 AM

    Certainly any of us may write a million dollar check to our or anyone else's congressman. Speaking for myself I will write "FOR FRAMING ONLY, DO NOT CASH" on the front and trust the good representative to honor the instructions.

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  85. AGoodQuestion12:58 AM

    Well, allow me to retort.
    What does the public interest look like?

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  86. davdoodles1:08 AM

    While reading the slimy Koch article, I noticed that Crazy Jesus Lady Margaret "Peggy" Noonan's latest column is titled:

    "Noonan: A Catastrophe Like No Other"

    http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304441304579479700454846082?mod=Opinion_newsreel_1

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  87. AGoodQuestion1:08 AM

    Now that there is truth in advertising.

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  88. montag21:29 AM

    Evidently, the IRA was doin' it all wrong.

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  89. sigyn2:35 AM

    That's an interesting idea. Do you suppose he had to resort to such a public communication because no one will ever take his phone calls?


    If he gets this pissy about the peasants bad-mouthing him, how's he going to feel when he finds out that all the other billionaires talk about him behind his back.

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  90. RHWombat2:39 AM

    litotes!

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  91. montag23:22 AM

    Reminds me of some old, old BBC film scrounged up by Adam Curtis of H.L. Hunt at home--huge house, ol' H.L. serving dinner himself, and not a slave servant in sight. And Bunky Hunt at the dinner table, convincing the entire world in less than thirty seconds that he was just a down-home, countrified jerk.

    Even a shot of H.L. driving himself to the office.

    They want to be seen as utterly normal to the point of Stepfordism, and yet, they're the most amoral, driven, compromised people imaginable, veritable case studies in aberrational psychology textbooks. They're blind to that--they think they're normal, and they're not.

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  92. Wrangler5:07 AM

    Why read when the portrait at the top says everything?

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  93. I know, right? JMM reminds me of the ingenue who is so used to getting by with wide eyed innocence and dewey youth that she doesn't realize she looks ridiculous pulling the same shit at 50. How many times can you change the headlines and the photos associated with the same story, add a quesiton mark, or ask your readers to "take a look...I think this is important..." before people notice that you are simply dressing up AP/UPI feeds with a few of those turkey leg frills?

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  94. If what they are saying about the 1 percent is true--that you are no one until you are in the .01 percent, then I'm not sure that there is any difference, to the Koch brothers, between the 99 percent and the people who read the WSJ. When a multi billionaire is resorting to, essentially, communicating with mere billionaires I think he prefers to simply drop his message in a bottle and throw it overboard like this to avoid contaimnation.

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  95. "Hold it, hold it, Jefferson. I don't go around signing political documentaries just like that, ya know. Even Abe Lincoln, smart as he was, he read the Declaration of Independence before putting his John Hancock on it. " -- Archie Koch Bunker

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  96. Locker room pep talk?


    Probably true. He certainly doesn't give a shit what the other team thinks.

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  97. randomworker7:40 AM

    You're in luck. Somebody already did it for you!

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  98. redoubtagain8:20 AM

    Of course it's "A Catastrophe Like No Other"--vodka martinis are not considered medication in the ACA.

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  99. Shit, that's a more depressing parallel than I intended.

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  100. They're not even considered martinis. Thanks, Obama!

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  101. XeckyGilchrist9:10 AM

    I installed it too. Fun to see that there's a Boycott Koch group with 90,000+ supporters and a Support Koch Industries petulant kneejerk group, whining about supporting liberty and freedom &c, with 600+.

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  102. Jeffrey_Kramer9:37 AM

    I've known men that would pull their own heads off rather than read a Charles Koch advertorial.

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  103. coozledad9:45 AM

    Josh seems to want to be a part of the cocktail weenie circuit. Some of the crap he's published by Tom Kludt is undiluted Politico grade horseshit.


    Kludt's assertion that Democrats would demonize NPR for numbers extrapolated from midterm polls they conducted was a big WTF for me.


    I'm more likely to demonize NPR because they suck Republican daddy ass, and savor it. The career path of most NPR employees is to follow the money straight to Rupert Murdoch's organizations. I'm beginning to think that's where Kludt is headed, too.

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  104. Halloween_Jack10:03 AM

    I love the bit at the end where Nooners finds someone who admits that going into Iraq was a shitty decision, and uses that to insist that probably lots of Democrats have changed their mind about ACA, too.

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  105. To be fair, in their social and professional circles, being an amoral sociopath is totally normal. And since pretty much everyone they know works for them, who's going to tell them otherwise?

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  106. I read that as Pap Shmear. Dammit. Anyone else want this bagel?

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  107. "Unfortunately, there are laws against open-pit incineration of assholes."


    We could get a waiver if we called it a barbecue...

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  108. Mark_B4Zeds11:00 AM

    Look at it this way. He's the kind of guy who, if given the choice between having a nickel today or having millions of children starve in the distant future, would always choose the nickel in the present time. He's sure his own descendants will inherit enough money to live in a protected plastic bubble inside the hellish dystopian future he's helping to create.

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  109. Old joke, but true:

    We'll know that corporations are people the day Texas executes one.

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  110. tigrismus11:16 AM

    He's sure his own descendants will inherit enough money to live in a
    protected plastic bubble inside the hellish dystopian future he's
    helping to create.


    I doubt if he even considers them.

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  111. montag23:32 PM

    At her age, and after spending as much time as she has in close proximity to Reagan's shoes, I'm doubting that remedial logic would be of much help.

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  112. Peniless Moocher3:57 PM

    You know, I'm beginning to think these people really do have a conscience. That they really are human beings underneath that sociopathic exterior. That they are deeply ashamed and guilt-riddled of all the damage they're doing to the US and the world at large.

    Venable introduced Ted Cruz, (...) who told the crowd that Obama was “the most radical President ever to occupy the Oval Office,” and had hidden from voters a secret agenda—“the government taking over our economy and our lives.”

    And this is what they do to put their troubled minds at ease. It's a coping mechanism that can be handily summarized as IT'S ALWAYS PROJECTION.

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  113. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person5:02 PM

    Thieves live in fear that their ill-booten gotty will be taken away.

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  114. parsec12:38 PM

    According to Groucho, she was such a natural because she really didn't get the jokes. Decades later, a Mrs. Miller became a recording star by being energetically oblivious to the fact that she couldn't sing.

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  115. chirisdex10:23 AM

    The only issue with it is, while the duplicate is limited to wow all the individuals who praise the Kochs already, regular individuals will look at it, if they look at it, and think: I wonder how much he compensated for that?

    Spybubble

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