You gentlemen, why you all work for me (h/t readers DJ and JG):
Just before the last shareholders meeting, the Koch brothers also nominated –but were unable to elect – eight additional individuals for our board. Those nominees included the executive vice president of Koch Industries, a staff lawyer for Koch Industries, a staff lawyer for the Charles Koch Foundation, a former Director of Federal Affairs for Koch Industries, a former Executive Director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (and who was, incidentally, a McCain bundler), and a lifelong Wichita friend of Charles Koch. Aside from those functionaries, they also nominated a couple of people with public profiles that make the jaw drop:
- John Hinderaker of the Powerline blog, whose firm counts Koch Industries as a client. Hinderaker has written, “It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can’t get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.” Hinderaker supports the Patriot Act and the Iraq War and calls himself a neocon.
- Tony Woodlief, who has been president of two Koch-created nonprofits and vice president of the Charles Koch Foundation. Woodlief has blogged about “the rotten heart of libertarianism,” calling it “a flawed and failed religion posing as a philosophy of governance” while complaining about libertarians “toking up” at political meetings.
Mike Goetz
Mewling libertarians, protesting that the teat’s milk has gone sour.
High comedy!
Scott
It’ll all end in bloodshed.
Hilarious, hilarious bloodshed.
pragmatism
not enough popcorn in the world for this one. i read through the threads at volokh and at the league of ordinary gentlemen and there is a lot of: see, i told you so, we aren’t bought and paid for by the right!
jeezy chreezy.
Chris
It’s the Marxism of our day. Cannot failed, can only be failed; we’ve already spent decades and we’re going to spend decades more throwing wave after wave of human sacrifices at it in the hopes that if we do enough of that it’ll eventually decide to be a good boy and behave.
DougJarvus Green-Ellis
Hey, I’m with the libertarians here. Good on them that they’re fighting this.
I’m not going to laugh at anyone who hast the guts to take on the Koch brothers.
trollhattan
@pragmatism:
Beat me to it! Holy crap, one popcorn moment shall rule them all.
Corey
Sorry, I know the schadenfreude for Cato here will be strong, but I actually sympathize a bit. Yes, they disagree with progressives on a number of things (but not all!) but I’ve never seen anything that suggests their beliefs or disagreement are in bad faith.
I think this episode highlights that, far from being a fully-controlled tentacle of the Kochtopus, they actually were among the more independent voices in the libertarian establishment. I think that if the Crane faction loses, the policy world has lost an independent voice – something that everyone, regardless of ideology, should be worried about.
Outtie 5000.
Groucho48
Cat-o fight!
reflectionephemeral
We should put Cato up for auction in order to let the market decide its most productive use. If the Kochs prevail at auction, it’s only because they value the brand name more than any other potential buyer.
I did like to adopt the libertarian perspective in classroom discussions sometimes, just because their arguments are like Monty Python’s argument clinic– irrelevant and irrefutable.
Yes, I’m kind of obnoxious sometimes.
EDITED TO ADD: Well, Corey, Cato might be more honest than, say, Heritage. But that’s what we call the soft bigotry of low expectations. They’re pleased to lie when they need to, as I’ve addressed before here and here.
DougJarvus Green-Ellis
@Corey:
Me too.
MattF
I’m thinking that one of the Koch Brothers asked a Cato executive to go fetch his dry cleaning, and the Cato exec… after a moment of thought… said… ‘No’.
pragmatism
@Corey: i think this highlights that the koch’s let the cato people have their pet projects (drugs, etc.) so they could provide some cover for the right generally and the kochs specifically. koch no longer sees the utility in this kabuki. this does not excuse the cato peeps for pimping right wing memes relentlessly outside of their pet issues.
Emrventures
Seriously, I’ve been wondering why Hinderaker has been fluffing the Kochs so much on his blog lately.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
You won’t find a more pure grade wingnut than Hindrocket. He is the real deal, right wing wired. Many of these clowns are actors, acting out all the little plays of republicanism. But Hindy, is a true blockhead, when I used to read him. His entire world is cloistered in dogma and ignorance of anything remotely liberal or progressive. It just doesn’t compute for him. He can see the ends of liberal policy, and fiercely opposes it, but cannot imagine why anyone would be for such a thing.
He is the type that I have the least antipathy toward, though not for putting up with his bullshit. But he is winger, naif on all things political, and probably not political, and an all around native of Planet Wingnut.
redshirt
You know what would be truly scary: If there was anyone actually competent in the Wingnut Camp these days. If there were, we’d be a dictatorship in 30 minutes or less.
Never thought I’d say it, but thank FSM for incompetent nitwits.
Catsy
Assrocket?
I mean… the rest is all interesting, but seriously: Assrocket?
There truly is no rock bottom you can hit that will disqualify you from wingnut welfare.
Emrventures
I love when Hinderaker talks about going to the range and shooting guns. Pure tough, like Levi’s denim.
Raven
What’s the best way to fuck with the open primary in Georgia, vote for Santorum?
Martin
@Raven: Let Gingrich win. Nothing is more entertaining than a Republican 3-way.
MattF
@Raven: Anyone but Romney. I know I’d have trouble voting for Noot, though.
Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity
Fuck ’em. They promulgated a FYIGM philosophy and are reaping their just rewards.
@reflectionephemeral: This. Live by the sword, die by the sword.
I hope all of these bastards lose every cent they have and are forced to beg for a living for the rest of their rotten lives. That’s the only just end result that could come of all this.
Death Panel Truck
Memo From Turner.
Martin
@DougJarvus Green-Ellis: Oh, fuck that. Live by the free market, die by the free market.
The Other Chuck
So basically the Kochs are saying Libertarianism is a rotten failed philosophy that depends on magical thinking … okay, I’m with them so far. Of course where I get off the train is that their replacement ideology appears to be fascism.
Alesis
I think the schadenfreude is made infinitely worse because finally CATO is getting a taste of abuse of corporate power that for years they have sworn up and down were simply UNpossible
The Koch’s have a majority share, they fund the place and now the bill’s come due, they have truly been hoisted on their own petard here
That said I too feel a little sympathy, they do seem somewhat intellectually honest, stupid, but honest.
Warren Terra
Anyone know if Assrocket or his Blog Of The Year 2004 have weighed in on this contretemps? And if there was any disclaimer?
@pragmatism:
Volokh may play at being a (relatively) sane Conservative, but his readers are still nuts.
Jay C
The odd man out in all this seems to be Ted Olson: assuming they are talking about THE Ted Olson – it’s a bit disappointing to see him apparently on the Kochs’ payroll for something like this: i.e., their tool on the Board at Cato.
OK, old Ted’s certainly no progressive, but this just seems out-of-character (?).
geg6
It’s Lenin and Trotsky redux. This time with more popcorn and fewer ice picks.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Well they’ve finally entered the show trials stage. As other commentators have said conservatives should be thankful they don’t have the power of actually executing each other during the up coming Galt Terror.
Now they are learning why the Left hates violent revolutions so much.
DougJarvus Green-Ellis
@Death Panel Truck:
For some reason, I started listening to that a few days ago.
JPL
@Raven: Personally, I can’t do it. Let me know how many showers you have to take after voting for him though.
Alesis
One more thing. I appreciate Radley Balko but I’ll bet anything he avoids talking about this like the plague. He’s dead right on police abuses but he’s been running interference for the Koch’s like there’s no tomorrow.
Mark S.
My favorite Stones song ever!
New Yorker
@DougJarvus Green-Ellis:
Amen. I’ve often had the feeling that CATO was a sincere organization with which I had a number of disagreements, but a lot of agreements (see “War in Iraq”, for one) as well.
They must’ve done something to piss the Koch boys off and realize that CATO actually thinks for itself on some issues. Were they about to release a study showing that solar power would be less expensive than fossil fuels if not for wasteful government subsidies? That would seem like the kind of issue that would require packing the board with wingnut hacks.
Origuy
@Martin:
I need to start buying brain bleach at Costco.
pragmatism
@Warren Terra: Eugene lets the mask slip from time to time. you’re right, his commentariat is bonkers.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
The Cato institute exists for no other reason than to help maximize corporate profit, from anything to do with any and all kinds of regulation, taxation, or whatever else they can dream up to add a single fucking penny to things like Koch, Inc.
The so called agreements with liberals on some issues like war and peace, or at least foreign war and peace, and some social issues, are nothing more than hobby horses for the post acne quislings that work there. And to give the place a veneer of respectable philosophical thinking. They are servants to the sharks, when the rubber meets the road, So fuck em, till the cows come home.
Brachiator
@DougJarvus Green-Ellis:
Great thread title. And spot on. The song is in one of my playlists
Memo from Turner.
I wonder whether libertarians will rebel from this obvious ploy to subvert their supposedly pure institutions.
Please keep, “Goodbye, Super Tuesday” in mind for tomorrow
DougJarvus Green-Ellis
@Brachiator:
I will!
geg6
@pragmatism:
This.This.This.
Fuck ’em. It’s the frog and the scorpion. Or the woman and the snake. Or Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. They’re supposed to be libertarians. You’d think they’d be happy to see the results of their philosophy put to a real world test. Wonder how they feel, now that they’ve realized that they’re just another one of the takers, moochers, and parasites that the rest of us are. Heh.
Sad_Dem
What sort of legion of doom boardroom do they have? Press a button, a wall slides back to reveal…
Mike P
A liberal is a libertarian taken over in a hostile fashion by Koch Industries?!?
Schlemizel
@Corey:
But Cato is a creation of the Kock Brothers & was happy doing their bidding under the guise of libertarianism as long as it suited them. Why do you think they are now honest brokers?
Bubblegum Tate
I just love the term “toking up.” It’s so antiquated and funny.
trollhattan
@Brachiator:
Somehow he avoided “weren’t you at the Koch convention?”
(Unless that’s a do-over.)
Corey
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero): Is it possible to be something other than progressive and be a good faith interpreter of politics?
It’s really clear, through this whole episode, that Cato as a whole is a group that yes, while its beliefs diverge from that of progressives, is still an organization attempting to make the world a better place according to their beliefs. That, to me, is cool; we’re not going to have unanimity in the public sphere.
The other arms of the Kochtopus are pretty obviously servants of their funders’ interests. Do the interests of Cato’s funders and their beliefs dovetail? Absolutely (and they should, by definition). But I’ve never seen any evidence that those beliefs are held simply because they match the founders’ beliefs.
Corey
@Schlemizel: Charles Koch co-founded Cato, but has been completely absent from day-to-day management of the organization for over 20 years. David Koch sits on the board but is one of many. I don’t think either have donated any money since 2009 or so.
pragmatism
@geg6: they somehow think that the gulch will require sycophants and they’ll be let in. because our galtian overlords are known for their loyalty to the grist after it has been through the mill.
dollared
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero): This. Fuck them and let them sleep under freeway overpasses, unless and until Waste Management comes up wih a use for the space.
RD
Speaking of Devil Take the Hindmost, I once spent 72 hours of my life trying to sound exactly like Alan Holdsworth.
Schlemizel
@Corey:
see @General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero):
He has it right. I’m sorry that this is one of your causes but really when you look at their body of work I can’t come to any conclusion that they were playing decent guys like you for their real desire.
dollared
@DougJarvus Green-Ellis: It is so cute! They think they are a think tank! Fuck them with a dried corn cob! Seriously – idealistic or not, how many people have died because of their bullshit?
Let’s let the Kochs have them so that we have a clear, public paper trail that discredits them completely. Doug, this is exactly the kind of “kick them when they’re down” moment you were advocating 12 hours ago.
trollhattan
@RD:
Unpossible. But worth the attempt!
Corey
Seriously – idealistic or not, how many people have died because of their bullshit?
Oh, Christ.
pragmatism
@Corey: they killed Christ?
Raven
@JPL: It’s not the act it’s the intention. Cut someone with a knife to hurt them or cut them to remove a tumor.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
@Corey:
The founders of CATO care about one thing, and that is mo money for them. And that is mission numero uno for Cato and its employees. And I don’t need those fuckwits telling me it’s a bad thing to invade countries like Iraq, or to support things like gay marriage, and equality under the law in general. I already know these things, and if they want to join us, then they will have to poney up some Koch dollars for activist pursuits for liberal causes. Not sitting around all day navel gazing on what freedom means, while promoting letting the sharks have their way with us. We don’t need that kind of duplicity in the dem party, or it’s institutions. Which is why Obama and company froze out the DLC, by denying them the largess coming in from ma and pa Kettle as donations, not meant to fatten the wallets of the Mark Penns of the world. Cato, as an institution is in no way a part of the solution, they are part of the problem
trollhattan
@dollared:
Gary Trudeau nailed it in a single comic strip–all the conservative “think tanks” are, in reality, belief tanks. Research to prove preordained outcomes ain’t research. Full stop.
Svensker
@Corey:
100% agree.
dollared
@Corey: Yes, Corey, but they are wrong! Good faith or no, the country is a worse place because of the ridiculous libertarian bullshit Cato people have peddled to the media, and th’ve peddled their bullshit to oppose the sensible things our country needs to do to ensure a better life for its 300 million residents.
This is NFL, Oakland versus Pittsburgh. May they both lose.
trollhattan
@dollared:
Can we make it a three-way fail and add Dallas?
Corey
The founders of CATO care about one thing, and that mo money for them. And that is mission numero uno for Cato and its employees.
I understand that it is election season and people say crazy things. But this manages to completely deconstruct itself. Seriously, we’re discussing the fact that the co-founder of Cato is publicly rejecting the other co-founder, the biggest single donor in the organization’s history, and all his promised money that will come if the organization comes to heel.
It obviously is not all about the money, because if it were, they’d take the money instead of attempting to remain independent.
dollared
@Corey: You don’t think public policy for a country of 300 million people has real life consequences?
dollared
@Corey: Read the Volokh article. Koch gave them no money last year.
Brachiator
@trollhattan:
Hah! You’re right. Perfect.
Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity
@RD: So did I. My guitarist said I sounded like a broken dryer.
dollared
@trollhattan: agreed. Enthusiastically.
Corey
Yes, Corey, but they are wrong!
How can you say, with such certainty, that a belief about politics is wrong? I mean, progressives have evidence for their beliefs, and libertarians have evidence for theirs too. I believe our evidence is generally stronger (although sometimes it isn’t).
By your logic, you’d do away with every organization that doesn’t meet every ideological standard you hold dear. My priorities are different: if you’re a disingenuous shill, you need to go; if you hold opposing beliefs in genuine good faith, then I want to keep you around.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
@Corey:
The funding to operate Cato is irrelevant, as the Koch’s are many times billionaires, and money to operate that shark tank is not an issue. Now I don’t know what all the in fighting is about, and don’t care. The relevant matter is what is their purpose on an activist level. And that is all about deregulating and hyper regressive taxation. It is the one and only thing the Kocks care about. Don’t let them fool you with flack that you approve of. It is flack only. Not substance.
Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity
@Corey: You cannot be serious. The majority of what they espouse they don’t even believe – they were just told to endorse it.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
BTW Speaking of libertarian conspiracies – remember all the talk about Ron Raul running interface for Mittens. Is Ron another Kotch sock puppet?
The Other Chuck
@trollhattan:
Throw Denver in there too.
Jay B.
They can hang this on those fucking assholes’ tomb.
Good faith my ass.
The Other Chuck
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Naw. Ron Paul is a lot of repulsive things, but he’s definitely sui generis.
JerryN
@geg6:
I’m stealing this.
SiubhanDuinne
@Raven:
Me? I’m asking for the Democratic ballot and voting for Obama. Yes, tomorrow.
SiubhanDuinne
@Raven:
Me? I’m asking for the Democratic ballot and voting for Obama. Yes, tomorrow.
SiubhanDuinne
@Raven:
Me? I’m asking for the Democratic ballot and voting for Obama. Yes, tomorrow.
EconWatcher
Interesting analogy to Investor’s Business Daily. In the 90s they were libertarian, and actually had some interesting things to say on crime, drugs, foreign adventures, etc. Then there was some kind of change of control, and they went full metal wingnut.
Interesting (to me) sidenote: I was quoted in an op-ed in IBD in the 90s, and when I recently tried to get a copy, I found out that new management had made all of the 90s’ material unavailable.
Raven
@SiubhanDuinne: Is there an echo in here?
trollhattan
@The Other Chuck:
Done. This meeting of the BJ Committee for Fixin’ the NFL is adjourned. To the pub, gentlemen.
SiubhanDuinne
Heh. Apparently I’m planning to vote THREE TIMES tomorrow. Oh noes, librul voter fraud!!
Sorry for the triple post.
Chuck Butcher
Cato? Really? The market is speaking and they’re deaf? The invisible hand is slapping and they’re crying? What’s this, the concept of private philanthropy means the donor wants a say? Noooo – say it’s not true. Cue EDK to whine…
SiubhanDuinne
@Raven:
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Corey
@Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity: Do these recent events even remotely change this opinion of yours?
pragmatism
@Corey: maybe it just means that this is the last time that the libertarians can plausibly claim they are independent?
Raven
@SiubhanDuinne: Shootin blanks but I understand.
Ozymandias, King of Ants
@Jay C: Olson deserves the credit he’s garnered from the Prop. 8 case, but he’s still Ted Olson–the guy who argued Bush v. Gore for Bush.
That tells you a lot about what kind of person he is.
EDITED FOR GRAMMER
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
From the Volokh article, I could just now bring up and read. why this David Koch coup is happening.
Duh!. they are preparing for political war with dems and liberals, period. We need to do the same. Americans For Prosperity is what it’s name suggests. An all out enterprise to boost corporate profit. Beginning with Koch, industries profits. Think Tank, no more.
geg6
@pragmatism:
Or that they even believe in libertarianism? Because this is it, up close and personal.
And they don’t like it. At all.
pinkpuppy
@Corey:
A far calmer reply then what you were responding to, but I don’t think the evidence is fully in for your side.
Evidently, the Koch brothers haven’t contributed in several years, so there isn’t any money for Crane to take.
So while I personally think Crane is taking a stand at least for the reputation of an organization he helped build, the facts at hand also support the theory he is simply objecting to having to give away the favors he is used to getting paid for.
Jason
The Koch brothers fairly obtained the shares to allow them to control Cato, and now the Catomites are bleating about the owners exercising their property rights to determine the ideological tenor of the board?
Do they know how hypocritical they sound? They love the free market — unless the free market means they lose their cushy ideological sinecure.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
@pinkpuppy:
Really? I thought my comment was blunt and straightforward, but uncalm?
pragmatism
@geg6: they believe in it fervently in the right circumstances
geg6
That said, I would hope the Crane faction would win if only I am convinced that the Kochs are facists and I really don’t care if anyone thinks that is hyperbole. I have spent quite a lot of my life, academic and personal, reading and researching facism and totalitarianism and how such regimes come to be and who it is who runs them and profits from them. The Kochs give me that vibe.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
:
deleted, too not calm
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
@Corey:
“say crazy things” . Too uncalm, next case.
How about some tea and crumpets for our tender sensibilities.
RD
@Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity:
Once you get the legato going, it’s really fun to play that fast.
Creatively, it’s a dead end.
Mnemosyne
@Corey:
As Jay B. pointed out, what “evidence” do they have that climate change isn’t real? That’s not a mere political belief that can be hand-waved away — their support of the anti-climate change side is doing actual, real time damage to the entire globe.
IMO, you can believe whatever wacky thing you want to believe as long as it doesn’t actively harm others. Cato crossed that line when they decided to join the climate change “skeptics.”
dmbeaster
Something to remember – the Koch brothers were founders of Cato, and hold 50% of the control. The current fight is over disposition of a 25% stake held by another deceased shareholder/founder under the shareholder agreement that founded Cato. The Kochs now want to take over, and argue that the 25% stake has to go back to Cato or to the remaining shareholders, which would give them outright control. Seems silly fighting over control of a marginal nonprofit, but the expense is trivial to the Kochs, and they want to militarize all of the right’s voices in the fight against Obama.
Cato may have been somewhat independent, but that was because the Koch brothers previously treated it with benign neglect, and stopped funding Cato. But given that setup, is anyone surprised that it has sucked up to the Koch view over time?
All the resulting yelling and screaming about the “true” path for libertarianism justifies a double purchase of popcorn for the month.
BBA
The term “Kochtopus” was first coined by grassroots libertarians in the ’80s to denounce the “sellouts” at Cato. These conflicts have been around for a long time.
dollared
@Mnemosyne: They crossed that time long ago, when they opposed all manner of useful reforms in our country, beginning with their opposition to single payer health care.
b-psycho
@dollared: Can no one disagree in good faith?
Not to say that’s the case here (I’ve never been a Koch fan, seeing them as corporatist hypocrites who could give half a fuck about a real anti-state agenda), but still. To hear some of you tell it, anyone who has a different view is just either stupid, evil, or both.
lacp
Has the Fonz of Freedom weighed in on this yet?
Mnemosyne
@b-psycho:
As a wise man once said, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not to their own facts. Once someone starts making up or distorting facts to make their case, they’re not disagreeing in good faith anymore.
dollared
@b-psycho: People of good faith can disagree(of course, Cato never qualified). But that doesn’t make those people of good faith any less wrong, it doesn’t make it any less necessary to discredit their POV, and it doesn’t make it any less necessary to beat them at the polling place and in the halls of Congress.
Do you want a better, more competitive, more fair America, or not?
Mark K
great article comparing libertarians to Marxists…a pathology
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/05/new-right-ayn-rand-marx
Omnes Omnibus
@b-psycho: Actually, I frequently have disagreed with dollared over an number of issues. To my recollection, neither of us has ever accused the other of bad faith. Being wrong, being stupid, being an idiot, sure. Bad faith? No. (Anecdote, not data.)
Watson
Old news, guess you were too busy obessing over the latest dumb thing Limbaugh said in order to get a rise out of you.
Corey
Is Cato’s position on AGW actually “global warming isn’t happening”, or is it “we don’t like the government’s ideas thus far on how to address it”? Because those are not the same thing.
dollared
@Corey: Corey. Give it up. You seem like a good guy, take the lesson to heart. Here: “I assert that there is no substantive basis for predictions of sizeable global warming” From Cato. Link: http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv15n2/reg15n2g.html
Chuck Butcher
Cato and good faith…
Yes, if by faith you mean things like parted seas, wine from water, virgin births, flat earth…
A religion sucks as political ideology
redshirt
@EconWatcher: I did regular of work for IBD on behalf of my employer in the early 90’s. I was thinking of it recently, as I had no problem with their publication in the early 90’s, nor did I the WSJ, Forbes, FT, or any major financial publication of the day. I recall them being about money and business, not partisan politics.
I was pondering whether this was because of my mindset at the time, or the publications themselves. I was pretty damn liberal back then too, though I considered myself Republican through all the 80’s, thanks to St. Ronald Reaganus Maximus the Most Awesomest. But I saw the errors of my way (something I share with Cole and respect greatly) and repented greatly of my former thoughts.
So maybe it was me. But I bet it’s them too.
Chuck Butcher
@redshirt:
You must’ve missed the Editorial Page of the WSJ.
Mnemosyne
@Corey:
Their position is that it’s not happening:
As I said, once they cross that line, they’re not arguing in good faith anymore.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
@Corey:
Actually, they are the same thing, in a convoluted way. Whether global warming is occurring, or not, is not what concerns them. It is the solution that concerns them, and the only solution is to not spew as many hydrocarbons into the atmosphere. It means either less production, Ie profit, or expensive tech solutions to address the problem, or finding less polluting energy sources. And the Koch/Cato concern is that government is the only entity that can make that happen, and force them to change their very profitable business interests.
And they know one avenue for them is to deny deny deny, that GW exists, and the other avenue is to install sympathetic public servants in government, as well as create a clearing house for cookie cutter legislation to be implemented in republican favored states. Which is the prime directive of the Kochs Americans For Prosperity org. It really is a full court conspiracy, if you will, and they are going all in. Or, you can call it a strategy, the parts that are public record.
Hob
@EconWatcher: One of my creepiest “hey there’s someone I know on the Internet” moments was in the early ’00s when I found out that my former boss was writing op-eds for them. I had never read it but had heard that it was a libertarianish thing, which sounded like a good fit for him (he was one of those techie entrepreneurs who have concluded that the world is or should be very simple– they’re annoying, but not necessarily insane)… then I started reading and realized it had gone to a whole other level. Brrr.
Corey
I didn’t realize that Cato actually had a position on global warming itself; that’s problematic.
However:
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero): Yes, that is very convoluted.
I think it’s possible to be an honest observer and say, yes, global warming is happening, but I don’t like the idea of heavy-handed government fixes. Indeed I can see a progressive case for exactly that, since the actions of the US government are overwhelmingly likely to be compromised and disproportionately benefit the wealthy. That’s why folks got so excited about various carbon pricing schemes.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
@Corey:
Sigh
brantl
Corey, brain up.
b-psycho
@dollared: would that be a nice outcome? Sure. Do I think it’s remotely possible via mainstream politics? Nope.
I’m sick of arguing over scraps from what belonged to us in the first place. End the systematic robbery & void the gains from it, then we can talk roads & health care.