I couldn't face up to writing about the McCutcheon decision yesterday. It was just too depressing for me and I begged Ken and he bravely shouldered the task with verve and aplomb… and Andy Borowitz. He also began his post by quoting Bernie Sanders: "Freedom of speech, in my view, does not mean the freedom to buy the United States government." This morning, Bernie was on the air at Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman.
By now you've probably noticed that the Democratic base's antipathy towards the fascist-leaning Koch brothers has been adopted by Harry Reid and is becoming standard fare in Democratic Party strategies against the "Koch-addict" Republicans. If you're wondering what's behind the new-found populism from the Democratic Establishment, Ashley Parker explained it for NY Times readers last week.
At noon today (Pacific Time, so 3pm on the East Coast), Blue America will randomly select 4 "winners" of our Joni Mitchell drawing. It's been a fun little "contest" and we managed to raise around $11,000 for Congress' most essential Member, Alan Grayson, and another $8,000 for California congressional candidate with a similar progressive perspective, Lee Rogers.
This morning the Democrats were unable to break the Republican Party filibuster against extending unemployment benefits for three months, despite Democratic compromises with GOP demands. Harry Reid's attempt to shut down the filibuster through cloture failed 58-40.
Just a little update on Ken's post from last Saturday on everyone's least favorite brothers… Something to keep in the back of your mind while pondering President Obama's State of the Union message of equality from tonight. Clearly, what the Kochs are doing to America in their anti-democratic jihad, is sociopathic. But is it criminal?
"The clandestine influence of the Kochs and their Palm Springs friends would be much reduced if they were forced to play in the sunshine."-- from an editorial in tomorrow's NYT, "The Koch Party"by KenI've noted that the Koch Brothers have turned up in any number of posts from Howie and Noah, and worry that I haven't been wielding my wee cudgel often enough.
Efforts to trace the movement of money contributed, raised, and funneled by the Koch Brothers' "network" during the 2012 electoral cycle have so far produced this org chart. No wait, this is a diagram of the London Underground, which is much, much easier to understand."It is a very sophisticated and complicated structure. It's designed to make it opaque as to where the money is coming from and where the money is going. No layperson thought this up.
Nostradamus I'm not but I have a strong suspicion that decades from now, historians will look back on our generation with contempt for not dealing with Climate Change. How does anyone ever make sense out of two obscenely wealthy brothers, sons of a vicious anti-American fascist-- keeping the world from saving itself so they could increase their wealth?
