OH MY HEAVENS! Where Did YOU Come From?

[kpete]

[Fuddnik]

1. Charles Koch’s Frankenstein Problem: He Created the Tea Party Monster

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/charles-kochs-frankenstein-problem-he-created-tea-party-monster-and-now-hes

Charles Koch’s Frankenstein Problem: He Created the Tea Party Monster — and Now He’s Horrified With the Results
The Koch network gave rise to the rabid right. But now Charles Koch wails about a 'lack of substance and civility.'
By Sean Illing / Salon October 27, 2015


I’m a big fan of irony, which is why I enjoyed this Wall Street Journal profile of Charles Koch so much. In an interview with Patrick O’Connor, Charles – evidently the more diplomatic half of the two most politically active Koch brothers – spoke somberly about the tone of the 2016 presidential race and of political discourse more generally. “It’s mainly about personalities and ‘your mother sucked rotten eggs,’” he lamented to O’Connor.

On the one hand, I understand Charles’s frustration. After all, he and his brother are looking to invest $750 million on this election. When a man, his brother, and 450 wealthy donors build a national network of umbrella organizations in order to dictate political outcomes via dark money, they expect to get the results they want.

Here’s the problem: The Koch brothers, whether they know it or not, got exactly what they paid for. If the tone of our politics has sunk to Cro-Magnon levels, it’s because the process has been flooded with money and propaganda and rabid right-wingers who’ve coarsened the discourse and made compromise impossible.

Everything about our politics took a dark turn around the time of Obama’s election in 2008, which is precisely when the Koch brothers’ political machine exploded into being. As O’Connor writes:

In 2003, Mr. Koch convened about a dozen like-minded conservatives in Chicago with the goal of becoming more overtly political. Those efforts took hold early in Barack Obama’s presidency amid voter unease with the bank bailout signed by President George W. Bush and with the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Groups financed by the Kochs and their alliance spent more than $400 million in 2012…In that year’s presidential election, Americans for Prosperity and two other Koch-financed groups spent a total of more than $50 million on television ads.

(snip)

[erronis]

5. Very well stated. Altho I think the turn to the dark happened in the Nixon era.

Dirty politics and yellow journalism (now easily identified with Fux) has also been around for centuries, probably predating the Greeks. But the ability of a handful of filthy-rich snobs to influence a democracy has never been easier.

[JDPriestly]

16. Yes. 1970 -- two years after Nixon's election -- was the big turning point in our economy

and for everything.

Somehow the extreme right-winig managed to erase from American history the reality of the sense of community, the working together, the one-for-all and all-for-one that really built America and made it possible to develop our frontier. They just obliterated.

My husband and I watched PBS program on the building of the sewers in Chicago. It is fascinating and a perfect illustration of the cooperative, democratic socialist if you will, efforts that have made our cities and our national civilization possible.

The Koch brothers and the extreme right-wing deny all that.

I remember how my grandfather and the farmers in his area joined together to decide which farm would be harvested first, how they would participate and share in the scheduling of the huge equipment that harvested their crops, how they worked together to build schools and churches and take care of each other.

There is a huge lie out there about the history of our country, that we were made great by a few selfish types. That may have been true in the cities of the Northeast and the nearly feudal culture of the South, but it certainly was not true in the Midwest. The Midwest was built on cooperation and community. So be it.

[erronis]

17. Even in the early colonies it was necessary to cooperate

Once a few landed gentry owned a lot more than the rest of their compatriots it became another example of greet-trumps-public benefit.

Your examples of cooperative sharing of resources, community barn raisings, harvesting, caring for others seems to disappear when the filthy lucre becomes the goal. I don't think the western pioneers were any more or less altruistic or greedy. I do think that entrenched "old money" conservatives become so worried about their McDuck holdings that they work against the common interest. And eventually against the interest of their spawn.

[JDPriestly]

23. I live in a big city, but the people in my neighborhood cooperate, socialize and are really great

to live around.

[panader0]

2. The cartoonist, David Fitzsimmons, draws for the Tucson paper.

The Arizona Daily Star used to be more liberal (as opposed to the Phoenix paper, the Arizona Republic)
but was recently purchased by some righties. There are complaints all the time about Fitzsimmons,
calling for him to be fired.

[ffr]

11. OpenING peoples' eyes to the obvious should be a fireable offense

I see where the RWNJ's would be coming from.

"This is too true, Fitzsimmons. STOP IT OR YOU'RE FIRED!"

[malaise]

15. Great toon

Thanks

[DesertRat]

30. David Fitzsimmons is one of my favorites!

He's always spot on.

[Amimnoch]

3. Perfect... K&R (nt)

[PatSeg]

4. Exactly

The GOP created a monster it can't control. Consequences can be a bitch!

[ffr]

12. So true, but we should agree to not tolerate it any longer

If we could just sweep these idiots out of office over the next several election cycles we'd all breath easier. And I don't mean just the FC, I mean all Republis.

Here's my message...as though our lives depended on it.

[erronis]

18. And don't let it be stolen!

There seems to be some large disconnects between what the public says it wants and how the votes end up. Wonder why?

[PatSeg]

20. That is for sure

In spite of all the evidence of election fraud since 2001, it seems that nothing gets done about it.

[PatSeg]

19. And it is vital that Democrats

vote in mid-term elections, not just presidential elections. It is a major weakness with Democrats, as if the president doesn't need the House and Senate.

[SoapBox]

6. Exactly!

[niyad]

9. what flavour pizza do you like?

[hifiguy]

25. PePPeRoni, apparently.

[niyad]

28. looks like that incarnation did not last long.

[niyad]

8. even "blowback" doesn't cover the stupidity of the hate-mongers on this one.

[ChazInAz]

10. H.P. Lovecraft had an expression.

In "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward", an ancient warlock advised his student: "Never summon up what you cannot put down".

[ffr]

13. Sure, that's obvious to you, but

that would require reading and comprehension. Consider your audience. I don't get the impression that RWNJs read nor comprehend. They're more into reacting after letting someone else determine all that.

[Gothmog]

14. Great cartoon

[Paka]

21. Great toon!

[Martin Eden]

22. Nevertheless, they keep pouring toxins into the kettle.

Let's hope the monster devours its maker, but not the rest of us.

[hifiguy]

24. Hey, doc, you built that monster,

you own it. Too bad it's pulling the castle down around you. Too bad, so sad.

[Demeter]

26. If it was a squid, I'd say Goldman Sachs

But since it isn't, Koch Bros. is the most likely source.

[Thespian2]

27. the Kochs really

screwed the pooch...again...

[EEO]

29. "VOTE GOP 2016 OR DIE" New Republican Party Slogan

This is not far from the truth...

"VOTE GOP 2016 OR DIE" New Republican Party Slogan

WASHINGTON (The Nil Admirari) - This morning, the Republican National Committee (RNC) announced the GOP was adopting the slogan "VOTE GOP 2016 OR DIE." RNC Chairman Reince Priebus explained the new Republican slogan best summarized the current discourse of the party's members, especially its presidential candidates.

And...

"Hate, fear, paranoia, and perceived victimization are the Four Horsemen of the Republican Party, and they have been for decades. I have no doubt they will bring us victory in 2016. Scott Walker recently said we should build a wall on our border with Canada, because of terrorism. That's right, Canada," explained Pribeus.