Everyone else can just wait to find out if they are VP material. pic.twitter.com/3CcHbM6QF6
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) July 27, 2015
Never a meteor around when you need one… From that Politico story:
… The gathering – which also will include former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, but notably not Sen. Rand Paul — is hosted by Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the umbrella group in the Kochs’ increasingly influential network of political and public policy outfits. It represents a major opportunity for the candidates at a pivotal moment in the presidential primary…
Freedom Partners’ annual summer conference is set for August 1 through August 3, and is expected to draw 450 of the biggest financiers of the right for sessions about the fiscally conservative policies and politics that animate the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch and many of the donors in their network. Most have the capability to write seven- or even eight-figure checks to the super PACs fueling the GOP presidential primary, and a significant proportion have yet to settle on a 2016 choice, or are considering supporting multiple candidates. That includes Charles and David Koch, as well as Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and hedge fund billionaires Paul Singer, both of whom will be represented at the conference by advisers, and a number of other attendees of past conferences whose 2016 leanings are being closely watched…
In addition to meetings with donors on the conference sidelines, the candidates will appear separately on-stage in individual question-and-answer sessions moderated by POLITICO’s Mike Allen.
The sessions are the second installment this year of Freedom Partners’ Policy Leader Forum series. Like the first forum – which took place in January and featured Sens. Cruz of Texas, Paul of Kentucky and Rubio of Florida – next month’s session will be streamed online to media outlets. And, in another dramatic step towards transparency for a network that has had a reputation for secrecy, Freedom Partners plans to invite some reporters into next month’s gathering to cover the forum and other sessions…
We no longer care what you grubby peons think about us auditioning new sockpuppets for “your” Presidency. What, after all, can you do to stop us?
Notice that, for all the “serious permanent GOP establishment” money he’s raked in already, JEB!’s not too proud to hustle out there and try to persuade David and Charles to stuff a few more millions down his g-string…
… By all accounts, the Koch brothers are still considering providing financial support to Paul, as well as the four rivals attending the seminar. There’s a possibility that the brothers might donate to more than one of those candidates, Charles Koch suggested in April.
But, while the Koch operation intends to spend nearly $889 million in the run-up to the 2016 election, it’s considered increasingly unlikely that it will formally align behind a GOP presidential contender in the primary, owing partly to the divided loyalties of its member donors.
“The Kochs are really careful not to impose their preferences on the seminar, except when it comes to free markets,” said Levin. “So, when it comes to the specific presidential choices, our role is more about giving people exposure to the candidates. We know we can come together when there is a nominee.”…
Because it’s not important to the Kochs, or their robber baron peers, which candidate ends up with the “K” brand on his rump, just as long as the brand is clearly legible.
lamh36
“Heritage not Hate”..yeah right. Fuckers!
Germy Shoemangler
I have to assume the only reporters to get an invite would be “friendlies” . . . I would be interested in seeing who gets in, so I know who NOT to trust.
I mean, Matt Taibbi won’t be invited, for christsake.
Kropadope
The freedom they’re most interested in, of course, is the freedom to destroy everyone else’s property in the form of pollution. If you want to stop them, well, vote with your dollars!!!
CaseyL
Nuke ’em from space. It’s the only way to be sure.
mclaren
How is this different from:
Democratic monkeys dance for MotU dollars — In Public!
The description
also applies to any non-Hillary candidate in the Democratic field.
So I don’t see much of a difference except in the degree of sheer insanity of the Repub candidates (ranging from “off the charts” to “beyond Pluto) and the Repubs’ viciousness (ranging from “Hannibal Lecter” to “Ed Gein”).
Germy Shoemangler
But… but… Soros!
(That was Fred Dicker defending Citizens United when it was first decided. He appears as a regular commentator on my local TV news station)
Kropadope
@mclaren: At least Democrats show something of an interest in reducing the effect of money in the electoral process. Problem is most of that is talked about at the presidential level. Few people give more than half a shit about Congress, where there is generally less buy-in for this idea since the status quo favors incumbents.
Major Major Major Major
I’m so exhausted after the bomb thing last night. Barely slept. I feel terrible.
So of course I have dinner with my parents. I’ll probably cancel.
jl
There going to be an ultimate death cage match? Honor duels with a Lirpa, or whatever the Klingon equivalent is. I see wiki has a pic of a Bat’leth, that’ll do.
daverave
The beauty of all of this confabbing is that they are probably talking mostly about… The Donald.
aimai
Why do they even care which of these morons is the nominee? There isn’t a lickspittles worth of difference between them as far as catering to the Koch brothers and their interests. I mean–its not like any one of them is going to refuse to dance to the tune the Koch brothers play if they were to get elected.
Jeffro
Hmm…Bush, Walker, Rubio, and Cruz…I’m trying to think of where I’ve heard that combination of GOP ‘finalists’ before?
Oh wait, it was me…
mai naem mobile
I hope the Donald makes a big deal about this just so that the Teabagger rubes find out from somebody they trust.
Also, I guess Paul Singer doesn’t give a crap about gay marriage after all, since all of these guys are against gay marriage.
jl
@Jeffro: Maybe the Koch brothers are going to graft the best parts of each together to create their perfect candidate. Need to do some tests on and see the papers for whatever comes out of this confab. The GOP primary is down to Manimal levels of class already, so it could happen.
srv
Pffft, pikers. Obama gave Citi half a Trillion in bailouts.
But of course, that’s different.
Tree With Water
GITTES
I want to know what you’re worth.
Over ten million?
CROSS
Oh, my, yes.
GITTES
Then why are you doing it? How much
better can you eat? What can you buy
that you can’t already afford?
CROSS
(a long moment, then:)
The future, Mr. Gittes. The future.
Jeffro
@aimai: The difference is, they care about which of these morons can beat Hillary, and these clowns are all badly flawed one way or another. I truly think they would have liked for Rubio to be their Obama, except he has about 1% of the poise and gets kind of thirsty during SOTU rebuttals. Oh wait – he’s also an immigration heretic. Well, was…
Scott Walker is a complete doof, but he most certainly tows the party(Koch) lines and then some. If only he had some charisma…
Cruz is so obviously out for himself, his own fellow Senators took time out to spank him in the chamber this week. That NEVER happens. And yet, he certainly has his finger on the pulse of the GOP base…
Which leaves us with Jeb! Poor, tongue-twisted, not-all-that-special Jeb! No different than the rest in terms of positions, and a liability because of the name (but also a plus because of the name)…depending upon which voter/donor group you’re talking about.
Decisions, decisions, Koch-fochs!
(Personally, I think they’re going to go with Walker and either Rubio or Cruz as VP)
Kropadope
@Jeffro: My money’s on Walker too. He hits all the right buttons for the R voters and has the right tone for the R investors.
Major Major Major Major
Wait did I not mention getting stuck in a bomb threat situation last night? Only got held for 20 or so but reactivated rhe PTSD
redshirt
@srv: lol you are actually an anti-Obama troll! Remarkable to see one of you in the wild.
Kropadope
@Major Major Major Major: Couldn’t you have just pulled out your trusty sidearm, taken the bomb-threatening-party prisoner, and beaten a confession out of him?
mclaren
@Kropadope:
Meanwhile, back in the real world:
See The Guardian, 16 July 2015.
How long before Democrats run the first trillion-dollar presidential campaign? I give it 10 years, max…
Anne Laurie
@efgoldman: You think he’s already on the RNC’s dime? Or is he just freelancing, reminding potential employers how loyally he performed last election season?
Kropadope
@srv: Weren’t the bank bailouts authorized under Bush. Wasn’t the no-strings-attached portion of the bailouts administered by the Bush folk? Didn’t Obama come in and start requiring things of the people affected by the portion of the bailout he administered?
Major Major Major Major
@Kropadope: I could probably beat up most people but somebody just left a suspicious bag laying around and all of a sudden here’s the national guard and they won’t let me leave
Anne Laurie
@mclaren:
Look on the bright side. If your previous predictions come true, there won’t be any elections in “10 years, max”.
Jeffro
@Kropadope:
That is a great, great way to put it. A+
RaflW
@Kropadope:
So from the earlier thread, how does left-libertarianism deal with the Kochs? I’m not mocking, I’m just not seeing how it would work – unless we get some seriously not-libertarians onto the SCOTUS in the next few years who would have the guts to undo Citizens United and OK massive campaign finance reform.
Omnes Omnibus
@redshirt: No, srv is a pure troll. S/he will say anything to draw an outraged response. Troll for trolling’s sake. ti’s an ethos.
Steeplejack
@aimai:
Because whichever one they pick has to be mediagenic enough to go through the formality of winning enough votes from the plebes to get elected. Money can’t take them that last mile.
jl
You puny mortals with your puny squabbles amuse me. TRUMP is here! And TRUMP will dominate all, because he is a winner.
Wait, What?
TPM
” The Daily Beast have dug up a rape allegation against Trump himself from a book called Lost Tycoon, The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump, published in 1993. According to the book, Trump assaulted his then-wife Ivana in a freakish rage over a botched surgery on his hair. ”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/wait-what–6
Edit: actually, it was allegedly a botched surgery on his scalp. Trump supposedly suffered a botched ‘scalp reduction’ surgery to remove a bald spot.
What country does not want a president with stories like that? That field has been a wasteland since we lost Silvio.
Chris
@Tree With Water:
Yeah. Without remembering too much of that movie, I think once you reach the astronomical amount of wealth that people like the Kochs have, money becomes an abstraction and simply having more of it doesn’t mean what it used to… so you end up with people looking for other ways to make their mark, to show what a big deal they are. What’s better for that than deciding who’s in the White House?
Kropadope
@RaflW: Pollution is both an assault on the property of others and theft, in that other people are left holding the bill to clean it up. I see no problem with the government stepping in to stop that. For other, less urgent issues, I would prefer the government take a less coercive stance. For example, NYC banned large sugary drinks. I believe that to be a drastic overreach. If there were a way to determine the societal cost of excess sugar intake, I wouldn’t mind a tax being applied there.
Mind you, I would also like to move away from the income tax as the primary means of funding the government.
Omnes Omnibus
@RaflW: I think people are getting hung up on the word libertarian here. This might be helpful. The lower left quadrant encompass groups that would the political compass fold define as a left-libertarians. I fall squarely in the region labeled libertarian socialism every time I take the test.
Kropadope
@jl:
So, that explains it.
Mike E
CSI:srv
GregB
Kochenstein.
Made from the worst stuff.
manyakitty
They’re not even trying to hide it anymore. Those soulless morons will pirouette around, desperate to find the highest bidder, and the Koch’s own the dance hall.
redshirt
I’ve learned a lot in this thread. Thanks, thread!
Kropadope
@RaflW: I hope this helped. I’m not always great at explaining.
rikyrah
So Jeb did an interview on Telemundo all in Spanish…….hmmmm
Omnes Omnibus
@rikyrah: Any reports on how it went?
MomSense
@lamh36:
What in the world??? Only one was arrested on unrelated charges. This is unacceptable.
dogwood
@mai naem mobile:
That was the first thing I thought of. Trump vs the Koch brothers should be epic. The only downside for democrats is that I’m sure they will want to hang the Koch brothers on Scott Walker and probably don’t want to find themselves echoing Trump in the general. But if Trump can eliminate Scott Walker in the primaries, he will have done a great favor for the country. Donald Trump is horrific, but he has never come even close to hurting this country the way the Koch brothers have.
Brachiator
The new stories are coming in on Jeb!’s interview on Telemundo:
On Trump’s comments about illegal immigrants:
Kropadope
@Brachiator:
So, he wants them to stay, but not have full citizenship, therefore not to be covered by our labor laws. He wants them paying taxes, but not able to collect the benefits they are paying for or vote.
rikyrah
@Omnes Omnibus:
He is trying to appear as the adult in the GOP. He did say that he does NOT support a path to citizenship, but that those in the country should get some form of legalization….just without a citizenship possibility.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kropadope: Gastarbeiter.
MomSense
@efgoldman:
I think the lawyers for both sides will present oral arguments on the 31st.
rikyrah
@efgoldman:
The ones opposing the ordinance DID NOT gather enough legal signatures to put this on a referendum….so, they got the court to do it for them.
Kropadope
@Omnes Omnibus: God bless Google translate.
Omnes Omnibus
@rikyrah: I am more interested in what the Latino reaction was than in the substance of what he said.
dogwood
@rikyrah:
if it weren’t for the extremist racist, xenophobic wing of the party who scream loudly and show up in the primaries, he has the perfect republican plan. Legalize them, exploit them, tax them but don’t let them vote.
Brachiator
@daverave:
The fun thing is that if Trump takes on the Koch brothers, he may well set the GOP on fire.
This shit is getting to be as much fun as The Hunger Games. The Republicans originally thought that Trump was entirely one of their own, but he is the crazytown evil reflection of their worst instincts, with his own checkbook.
Kropadope
@dogwood:
I’m sure it’s entirely a coincidence that this is also the worst potential outcome for the American worker. Legitimize a means of paying cheap, borderline-slave wages in order to suppress overall wages. God forbid they were subject to the minimum wage or had any effective bargaining position.
satby
@Major Major Major Major: Hope you get some rest tonight, you will feel better when you finally do.
rikyrah
@dogwood:
I am glad that I am not the only one who sees it that way.
danielx
@Jeffro:
From all evidence so far Walker is the most Nixonian of the lot, and Richard Nixon didn’t walk around bent over double with the burden of charisma he was carrying around. It helps, but if the opponent can be made to look bad enough…etc.
On a more general note, it’s true that the Kochs have more money than anybody except the Pentagon and the Catholic Church. However, I am at a loss to discern how this latest audition in Kochsucking is any more disgusting than the spectacle a few months back of most of these same assholes skying off to Las Vegas to kiss the ring of Sheldon Adelson, aka Jabba the Hunt. As noted, the Kochs, Adelson and their ilk really don’t care which candidate they back as long as the person can be bought and stays bought.
Redshift
@efgoldman: “Judicial activism” has never meant anything other than making decisions conservatives don’t like.
Omnes Omnibus
@danielx: Nixon was one of the most intelligent presidents we have had. I would put him at about number six or seven. Walker doesn’t touch Nixon in brains.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Yes, it wasn’t meant as any form of defense of the man. But he was bright as hell. Walker doesn’t have Nixon’s intellect. Basically, he is a pithed Nixon.
dogwood
@Omnes Omnibus:
Absolutely. Anything that happened in the Nixon administration was on Nixon. His passion was foreign policy, and whatever you think of that policy, its roots were in his own writing and deep thinking. It didn’t come from some cut and paste right wing think tank.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: I don’t think that is enough to make the jump from a mid-sized state to the Majors. The pitchers at his new level are going to be better than anything he has seen
dogwood
@efgoldman:
The Koch brothers are cunning; Walker’s opportunistic.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: the size of the state matters because he has cotten passes on thing that he would have been it with if he were in CA. NY, TX, or FL. I love my state, but we are AAA ball.
RaflW
@Kropadope: I have a reasonable idea of your outlook now.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: My point is really that the level of scrutiny and money involved is much smaller in WI. The oppo research that will be unleashed on him will boggle his mind. No one In WI had the means to do it. He is now up against people who can and will find out every one of his grubby little secrets. And I think that he has a great many.
dogwood
@efgoldman:
Yeah, In Texas and Florida you can get away with just as much if not more than a governor of a smaller state.
RaflW
@efgoldman:
Money.
Power.
What else is there to conserve?
Omnes Omnibus
@RaflW: Purity of Essence?
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Amen.
dogwood
@Omnes Omnibus:
Walker might have a chance if he were running to replace someone like Bill Clinton. While Americans opposed impeachment, they were nonetheless sick and tired of hearing about the intimate details of his affairs. In that case dead-eyed blandness might seem refreshing to a block of voters large enough to make a difference. But a boring guy, with baggage that he won’t have the charm to unload, replacing a president unencumbered by personal scandal? I don’t know about that.
dogwood
Also too, bringing dignity and family values back to the White House, still wasn’t enough to give W a real win. Without the Lewinsky scandal gore would have won easily. If the economy chugs along and nothing monumental occurs, the republicans will have a tough time.
redshirt
Walker has little chance at the White House. He’s Polenty level. Pseudo Santorum.
Another Holocene Human
@lamh36: Ugh, it never ends, does it?
Another Holocene Human
@aimai: The Koch bros don’t have any friends. This is the only way they can have a party and you’re pooh-poohing it. :(
Another Holocene Human
@Kropadope: Income tax is the worst system except for all the others.
Another Holocene Human
@rikyrah: That’s fucked up.
Another Holocene Human
@efgoldman: They don’t actually get away with everything in Florida.
They want to. How they want to.
Chris
@dogwood:
In big picture geostrategic terms, his opening to China, and the de facto alliance against the Soviets that followed from that, more than made up for the Cold War points we lost with Southeast Asia.
Mind you, I tend to think he gets overpraised for that. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see the value of opening up relations with China. Most of our allies had done it a decade earlier, and the only reason we didn’t do it then was because red hunting psychos like Nixon made the political cost of suggesting that too high. (“Only Nixon could go to China” means “only right wing nutjobs can take down the roadblocks that were only there because they put them up in the first place.”)
But, I’m trying to imagine any of our current Republican leaders being capable of doing something like the opening to China and I can’t do it. As their policy towards Iran pretty well demonstrates. So, yeah, Nixon’s foreign policy was quite rational and flexible when compared with where his successors have taken us.
ETA: in some ways, ditto Reagan (or whoever was really making the decisions while the amiable dunce slept) and the glasnost with the Soviets. Yes, talking to Gorbachev was a no brainer and any liberal would’ve had as much sense. But again, I can’t picture any Republican in this generation not brushing away Gorby with a “we don’t talk to evil.” (George W. Bush had a chance at his glasnost moment with Iran, and the response was exactly that).
boatboy_srq
@lamh36: Typical. Can’t have those uppity niCLANGS having any fun when they should be working.
/snark
boatboy_srq
The Vogel headline is telling: “Koch Brothers Summon” the candidates. Nothing like having a pool of potential pResidents that you own outright, is there? How very “old money” of them…
boatboy_srq
@jl: Trump seems one part Berlusconi, one part Boris Johnson and two parts Rob Ford. Apparently to the rabid base that’s what leadership looks like.
boatboy_srq
@Jeffro: The problem for the GOTea is that the nominee has to be at once rabid foaming-at-the-mouth Full Metal Wingnut to appease the Teahad base and groomed and presentable and malleable to please the ownership. As a bunch of the rest of us have been mulling (and referring to Nixon in the process), none of the recent crops of candidates seems up to the same tasks, which appears to be by design: when you’re nothing but the mouthpiece of the folks who bought you, having your own brain – and your own spine – is a liability not an asset since you’ll use that to develop your own agenda which may not synch with what the folks who bought you planned. The last few leading contenders I recall with a semblance of a personal identity that wasn’t completely for sale to the highest bidder were Dole and (to a lesser extent) McCain, and in both cases their proposed agendas were barely distinguishable from what the 0.01% want anyway. Nobody has shown the kind of intelligence, innate statesmanship or general capacity for the job, which to people like the Kochs translates to “malleable” and therefore a desirable set of traits for a candidate and a pResident; and the play to Teahadistan actually accents the exact traits undesirable in a pResident because they’ll do absolutely nothing for geopolitics besides stir things up. I can’t help thinking that the “audience” to which the Kochs “summoned” the latest crop is nothing more than in-person interviews to determine which of the milquetoast ones can be ratched up so they can be marketed to the rabid masses, and which of the rabid ones are actually infected and which are merely acting. I’d like to think that they’ve discounted Cruz already because he’s too much his own wingnut (can’t actually be bought, contrary in the Senate for contrariness’ sake, and too wingnutty already to be effective at anything short of inciting Global Thermonuclear War™).
ETA: sorry for the yooooge paragraph, but it really did come out as a single thought.
PCPABLO
@CaseyL:
Where can I get an F16 loaded with napalm?
Helen
Test
http://tbogg.blogspot.com/2007/04/five-not-for-fighting-willard-mitt.html