Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
This post is in: Kochsuckers, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver, All Too Normal, Flash Mob of Hate, Our Failed Media Experiment, Teabagger Stupidity, Very Serious People
This @jwpetersNYT retrospective on the Tea Party’s “summer of rage” ten years ago makes not a single, solitary reference to race or racism. Nor does it acknowledge the reality that a good deal of it involved opposing President Obama because he was black. https://t.co/W53ZrpylXr — Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) August 28, 2019 When the Very Serious …
Open Thread: The <em>NYTimes</em> Longs for A Simpler Day…Post + Comments (139)
In early September 2009, Mr. Mulvaney, then a state senator and part-owner of a chain of Mexican restaurants, sat in the back of a town hall in Rock Hill, S.C., a gathering that was typical for that summer. Seven hundred people filled the hall while another 200 listened on portable speakers outside. Constituents grilled the House Budget Committee chairman, John Spratt, a Democrat, and complained about how much the Obama health care plan would add to the nation’s trillion-dollar-plus deficit…
Mr. Mulvaney decided to challenge Mr. Spratt, and on the day he announced his campaign, in November 2009, he accused his opponent of selling out. “People can say a lot about me,” Mr. Mulvaney said at the time. “One thing they can never say is that I’ve sold out my principles.”…
If Mulvaney had any principles other than ‘What’s in it for Mick Mulvaney?’, that would be a genuine news story.
And any notion that the Tea Party failed in its objectives is nonsense. It was all about racial animosity; and now they have a president who legitimizes and feeds that animosity. They don't care about deficits, and never did 3/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) August 28, 2019
What we really needed in this moment in time is looking back on the tea party with warm nostalgia.
— Schooley (@Rschooley) August 29, 2019
The Tea Party was a classic example of right wing astro-turfing. A completely manufactured "mass movement" funded by dark money, intended to mobilize the marginalized far right. And it worked. America got played.
— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) August 29, 2019
This post is in: Kochsuckers, Assholes, Blatant Liars and the Lies They Tell, Clown car, Meth Laboratories of Democracy
Which is to say that there are few people in American politics I loathe so much as the wholly owned Koch subsidiary operating under the name Scott Walker. There are plenty of folks doing more national damage, but few, if any, with the utter, total, almost heroic lack of redeeming qualities as the man Charlie …
Schadenfreude. It’s what’s for breakfast*Post + Comments (177)
This post is in: Kochsuckers, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, Vote Like Your Country Depends On It, Voter Suppression
Wisconsin gets its special elections: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker issued an executive order scheduling special elections to fill two vacant legislative seats Thursday… It wasn’t shame, or a respect for the rule of law that drove the wholly owned Koch subsidiary to this decision. Rather these guys finally got a clue: Senate Republicans abandoned their …
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Election 2018, Free Markets Solve Everything, Kochsuckers, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Ryan Lyin' Weasel, Decline and Fall, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?, Jump! You Fuckers!
Paul Ryan, via pre-recorded video, gives Koch donors credit for passing tax cut. "Because of your help we’ve been able to take the ball and run with it," Ryan says. — Annie Linskey (@AnnieLinskey) January 28, 2018 Kochs super happy. Except for that nagging feeling that it could all go away. https://t.co/tv523xpWAg — Annie Linskey …
Oligarch Open Thread: Koch Bros, Still MonstersPost + Comments (104)
“They stand to benefit by massive amounts more than what they’ve spent,” said TJ Helmstetter, a spokesman for Americans for Tax Fairness.
David Dziok, a spokesman for Koch Industries who attended the weekend events, said he is “skeptical” of the numbers but didn’t say they were wrong…
Mark Meadows manages to toggle fairly well between the House Freedom Caucus, the Trump White House and the Koch world.
— Annie Linskey (@AnnieLinskey) January 28, 2018
It kind of turned into a holy roller session at the end of the Koch Network meeting where donors talked about how great it is to give money to the network.
— Annie Linskey (@AnnieLinskey) January 29, 2018
The Washington Post:
… This weekend is the largest gathering of like-minded donors since Koch began holding the twice-a-year meetings in 2003. About 550 donors who contribute a minimum of $100,000 annually are in attendance, including 160 first-time attendees, said James Davis, a spokesman for the Seminar Network. About 700 donors contribute at that level, Davis said.
The network pointedly declined to endorse a candidate in the 2016 presidential election, but officials have worked closely with the administration. They said they have a lot to celebrate after President Trump’s first year, including deregulation and Justice Neil M. Gorsuch’s confirmation to the Supreme Court…
The Washington Post and other news outlets were invited to cover portions of the three-day seminar, on the condition that donors not be identified without their consent.
Several elected Republicans are attending the meeting: Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, Sen. Todd C. Young of Indiana, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, Rep. Marshal Blackburn of Tennessee, Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt and Mississippi Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves.
The Koch Brothers are defending their shift from opposing Trump to embracing him by citing as their inspiration…Frederick Douglass. https://t.co/fzGBPXNnrH pic.twitter.com/6sSaGTtWhP
— Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) January 29, 2018
Charles Koch co-wrote a WaPo op-ed in favor of passing legislation for Dreamers & then showed absolutely no evidence he’s done a damn thing about it since.
I don’t recall Douglass saying something was important then doing nothing to advance the cause & never mentioning it again https://t.co/AErz1baXPP
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 29, 2018
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Kochsuckers, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, Jump! You Fuckers!, Our Awesome Meritocracy
Congratulations to this Koch heir, who is going to become like $75 billion richer in the next few days. He's going to use it to make very innovative ugly shirts. https://t.co/0NDo5GYYRW — David Roth (@david_j_roth) December 20, 2017 All hail Dave Roth, who first introduced Political Twitter to this remarkable member of the Lucky Sperm …
Thank You, Repubs Open Thread: Poster Boy for the GOP Tax ScamPost + Comments (169)
This post is in: An Unexamined Scandal, C.R.E.A.M., Grifters Gonna Grift, Kochsuckers, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, Assholes, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All
Wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, @GinniThomas, presenting an award to @JamesOKeefeIII today for "defending liberty." pic.twitter.com/bWXFgWa36x — Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) December 6, 2017 At @realDonaldTrump’s hotel in DC. https://t.co/T5JHsFTmXf — David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) December 6, 2017 We have achieved the ratfcking event horizon. https://t.co/OMYpsg8kyd — Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) December 7, 2017 …
Late Night Creepshow Open Thread: Grifters Applaud Their OwnPost + Comments (81)
O’Keefe wasn’t the only one exemplar of conservative principles to be honored. Sean Hannity received the Outstanding Impact Award and delivered the keynote speech. “We the people are going to work harder than ever to get the government back into the hands of American citizens, where it belongs,” said Hannity, inside a hotel from which president continues to profit…
It wouldn't be 2017 if terrible people who do terrible things weren't receiving awards https://t.co/3x1DCJy4cl
— Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) December 7, 2017
Ken Vogel, at the NYTimes, has a good article on O’Keefe’s #FailingUpward history:
… [T]hese should be good times for Mr. O’Keefe. He has an ally in the Oval Office who shares his views. The nonprofit group he started in 2010, Project Veritas, and an affiliated political arm called Project Veritas Action Fund have raised nearly $16 million, according to tax filings, and last year the group paid him $317,000. After years of criticism from across the political spectrum — including from a conservative establishment that has viewed him with suspicion — Mr. O’Keefe would seem well positioned to be more broadly embraced by the right, and feared by the left.
Yet Mr. O’Keefe cannot seem to get out of his own way. And after an attempted sting aimed at The Washington Post backfired in spectacular fashion last month, he has found himself in a familiar position — defending his misleading tactics, uneven results and even his nonprofit’s tax-exempt status, against criticism from across the political spectrum…
In fact, the elite conservative donor class has always mostly kept its distance — at least publicly — from Project Veritas. The primary funding vehicles steered by the billionaire conservative brothers Charles G. and David H. Koch, for instance, have refused entreaties from Mr. O’Keefe’s allies to support his groups, said people familiar with the requests.
Megadonors interested in watchdogging the media have instead gravitated to more cautious groups like Mr. Bozell’s Media Research Center. It has raised $87 million over the last half dozen years — five times more than Project Veritas during that span, according to tax filings. The Media Research Center regularly collects six- and seven-figure checks from some the right’s leading donors, including the families of the New York hedge fund trader Robert Mercer and the Amway co-founder Richard DeVos…
Sure, non-stop humiliating failures would be a problem to donors interested in actually returning our country to the Fifties (either 18- or 19-, depending on the donor). But if what some really want is a conspicuous form of “virtue signalling” — well, O’Keefe’s a master practitioner!
Project Veritas has 40 employees. Even if O'Keefe's little cons blow up in a myriad of comic ways, his big con of getting dupes to write him checks is going smashingly wll.
— Schooley (@Rschooley) December 8, 2017
I'm honestly still often amazed by the sheer number of grifters and hucksters in DC who have convinced donors bases they run groups focused on good government.
— andrew kaczynski?? (@KFILE) December 8, 2017
James O'Keefe is in trouble for lying to NY state regulators so he's arguing that he barely even founded the non-profit he founded https://t.co/b4cwOFM3mj
— Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) December 6, 2017
SCOOP: @JamesOKeefeIII previewed @HillaryClinton foreign-$ sting video for Trump at private Trump Tower mtg days after Trump announced his presidential campaign. Trump then pledged additional $10k to @Project_Veritas. https://t.co/BOVhoBEJo7
— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) December 8, 2017
SCOOP: Memo from @JamesOKeefeIII's @Project_Veritas proposed submitting ACORN videos for Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, then bugging judge's deliberations. https://t.co/0D5qso0aqD
— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) December 8, 2017
As I was saying: Grifter respects grifter!
.@JamesOKeefeIII says that the 2 donors I quoted in my front page story about him have both pledged additional $$$ to his group, @Project_Veritas, which posted this photo of him with today's @nytimes. https://t.co/BOVhoBEJo7 pic.twitter.com/SpWXmT8W1i
— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) December 9, 2017
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Immigration, Kochsuckers, Open Threads, Post-racial America, Repubs in Disarray!, Daydream Believers
NEW: The Koch political network says it will back legislation to codify DACA and protect DREAMers https://t.co/lL9GtBhJ6D — Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) September 7, 2017 This meets my criteria for the epitome of ‘mixed feelings’. Anything involving the Kochs, of course, needs to be critically examined for hidden pitfalls. On the other hand, if even these …