Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

We still have time to mess this up!

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Let there be snark.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Koch adds life

Koch adds life

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The Weekly Standard has a McArdle-length article about the persecution of the Koch brothers by liberal extremists. By all means, click through, the more hits this stuff gets, the more right-wing media will feature the Koch brothers.

Conservatives have gotten a lot of mileage out of demonizing George Soros, but at least Soros had the sense to stay out of the spotlight for the most part.

If the Koch brothers go Charlie Sheen on us, it’s a win for Democrats. I think Obama beats whatever aw-shucks cornfed motherfucker the Republicans put up in 2012, but I’m more certain that he wins if he can run against the Koch brothers.

Reader Interactions

50Comments

  1. 1.

    rikyrah

    the poor KOCH brothers, who hide behind phony websites, groups, think tanks….

    all fucking frauds.

    oh yes.

    those poor persecuted Koch brothers.

    fuck them.

  3. 3.

    Spaghetti Lee

    Yes, by all means, right-wing media, come to the rescue of two crooked fascists with more money than sub-Saharan Africa and a shared God complex. I salute you for all you do. And that really is all you do.

  4. 4.

    Suck It Up!

    I don’t think Obama will personally call out the Koch brothers but his team will most likely “encourage” outside groups to do just that.

  5. 5.

    Cat Lady

    It’s time to go all liberal extremist on everybody’s ass. Not sure what that entails exactly, but it’s definitely fucking time.

    +4

  6. 6.

    junebug

    I’ve defended myself for years for working for Soros in Eastern Europe. He was in the former Soviet Republics and satellites building press freedom while the people who deride him were sitting on their thumbs.

  8. 8.

    Zifnab

    It’s damn convenient of the Kochs to set themselves up as the paradigm liberal antagonist. I mean, is there anything these guys represent that a progressive isn’t against?

    Pollution on a national scale.

    More money than God, and the egos to insist they shouldn’t pay taxes on it.

    Libertarian well past a fault – their Dad helped found the John Birch Society for Christ’s sake.

    Anti-Gay

    Anti-Woman

    Anti-Union

    Lily white and old as dirt.

    I could not have invented a more suitable pair of foes for the modern progressive movement.

  9. 9.

    gbear

    I clicked, I wretched, I left.

    You know it’s not the Koch brothers’ fault that they’re filthy stinking rich. I blame their parents.

  10. 10.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    Oh, does my participation here make me a tiny cog in the “left’s lean, mean cyber-vilification machine?” I could be so proud, were it so.

  11. 11.

    WaterGirl

    @Zifnab:

    I could not have invented a more suitable pair of foes for the modern progressive movement.

    I don’t suppose you could find a way to un-invent them?

  12. 12.

    JGabriel

    Matthew Continetti:

    Ask Charles Koch what he thinks about Obama and he looks like he’s just bit into a lemon. “He’s a dedicated egalitarian,” Charles said. “I’m not saying he’s a Marxist, but he’s internalized some Marxist models—that is, that business tends to be successful by exploiting its customers and workers.”
    __
    David agreed. “He’s the most radical president we’ve ever had as a nation,” he said, “and has done more damage to the free enterprise system and long-term prosperity than any president we’ve ever had.”

    New & Impoved Egalitarianism! It’s gone Radical!

    Egalitarianism: the new Marxism.

    Seriously, how much more jibberingly offensive can you get? The idea that people should be treated as equals is what will destroy “the free enterprise system and long term prosperity”?

    Continetti’s apologia fails on the basis that the Koch Brother’s own words, reported by Continetti himself, indict them.

    .

  13. 13.

    Delia

    It’s not the Kochs fault they’re getting so much attention. It was the evil Rachel Maddow, spawn of Olbermann, minion of Soros himself who first drew attention to the grandfatherly brothers. Otherwise they’d probably still be humming away happily in the background, buying the world a Koch without anyone even noticing.

  15. 15.

    junebug

    I see that the Weekly Standard has a capture at the end of that post. Idiots will sign up to comment and them be counted as subscribes.

    Cool.

  17. 17.

    Roger Moore

    @gbear:

    You know it’s not the Koch brothers’ fault that they’re filthy stinking rich.

    If they really wanted to do something about it, they could stop being rich really quickly. Instead, they do their damnedest to make sure that they keep as much of their money as possible. They get full credit/blame for that.

  18. 18.

    Bruce S

    Best line:

    “As the assaults piled up Charles (Koch) couldn’t help thinking of Schopenhauer’s ‘Art of Controversy.’”

    Continetti is a simpering little douchebag, by the way. If anyone was wondering…

  21. 21.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Omnes Omnibus: You got plenty of commas this week? I’m fading fast and will likely bow out soon; but I was kinda watching my use, just in case. :)

  22. 22.

    Delia

    Just lost a good fifteen minutes of my life reading that stupid article, Apparently the Kochs are scientists because they have degrees from MIT and believe in “the science of human liberty.” Isn’t that the Galtian hocus-pocus? Didn’t know MIT had a department in that.

  24. 24.

    Suck It Up!

    RT @BorowitzReport: Michele Bachmann on Ivory Coast: “They are both excellent soaps. What’s the problem?”

  26. 26.

    Cacti

    The life story of the Koch brothers shows that “American meritocracy” isn’t just a myth, it’s a cruel joke.

    And the American right, that supposedly luuurves “meritocracy” hates real life examples of it (Bill Clinton, Obama) while falling on their knees to suck off the scions of unearned privilege: the Bushes, the Kochs, Mitt Romney etc.

  28. 28.

    opie jeanne, formerly known as Jeanne Ringland

    Didn’t one of the other Koch brothers make a scathing comment about them recently?

  29. 29.

    Rich2506

    They address the Jane Mayer New Yorker piece on the Kochs. Jane’s piece is well worth reading, BTW. Major point that the piece makes is that one would do well to be aware of, before one reads the Weekly Standard piece, is that the Kochs do lots and lots and lots of behind-the-scenes crap. So when the WS says they do “only” this and “merely” that, nope!
    She also points out that the Kochs political ideology very, very conveniently just happens to dovetail perfectly with their business interests! Amazing how that happens!
    A year or two back, I had an extensive online debate with someone about the Austrian Economists. Ugh! What a steaming pile of complete and utter rot! The Kochs should be demonized for that crap alone!

  30. 30.

    Chad N Freude

    @Zifnab:

    is there anything these guys represent that a progressive isn’t against?

    Well, they’re Jewish. Progrssives aren’t against that.And they’re Zionists. Oh, wait.

    Beware: That link goes to a truly vile antisemitic website.

  33. 33.

    Earl Butz

    The Koch boys have stuck their dicks into a hornet’s nest and are now crying about how unfair it is that they’re getting stung.

    That article was the best fluffing I’ve seen since the last good porno I watched.

  36. 36.

    Citizen_X

    It tells how their dad learned his anti-communism and Free Market fundamentalism by witnessing the terror of Stalin’s USSR–where he made his fortune by building them 15 oil refineries. The Soviet Union: horrifying, and profitable!

    And I love this vague horseshit:

    Market-Based Management: The words cast a spell on Koch Industries employees…A Koch Industries website defines Market-Based Management (MBM for short) as “a holistic approach to management that integrates theory and practice and prepares organizations to deal successfully with the challenges of growth and change.” MBM does this “by applying the principles that allow free societies to prosper.” It’s hard to get more specific than that, however. Sometimes it seems as though Market-Based Management is whatever Charles Koch says it is. “He’s a teacher,” Rod Learned, director of internal communication for Koch Industries, told me.

    Sound like any cult. Remember these assholes? Those are the young acolytes of the Order of Holy Koch.

  37. 37.

    G Newman

    Charles Koch, David Koch, Richard Mellon Scaife, Howard Ahmanson, Rupert Murdoch, and about 3 others I can’t remember — these are the plutocrats who are calling the shots in America today.

    It used to be a sign of paranoia, or a writer of fiction (e.g. Captains and the Kings) to say that a few white men, behind locked doors, controlled many of the events in the nation.

    But as wealth as become so much more concentrated in America, we have returned to the 1880s, and our plutocrats can follow the quote of financial robber baron Jay Gould: “I can hire one-half of the working class to kill the other half.”

  39. 39.

    CB

    if theres one thing that convinces me that obama will gain a second term, its the fact that everyone has forgotten how just how motherf*cking good the O team can campaign

  41. 41.

    Anne Laurie

    @gbear:

    You know it’s not the Koch brothers’ fault that they’re filthy stinking rich. I blame their parents.

    I’m not forgiving their parents, but Chuck’n’Dave have had moooore than enough time to learn better. Plenty blame to go around, for the whole family.

    (DougJ, much as I admire you, I’m not sure I can stand to get out of the boat.)

  42. 42.

    Sly

    The Paranoid Style in Liberal Politics
    __
    Matthew Continetti is the opinion editor of The Weekly Standard and the author, most recently, of The Persecution of Sarah Palin: How the Elite Media Tried to Bring Down a Rising Star (Sentinel).

    A guy who defends poor persecuted Palin and the poor persecuted offspring of one of JBS’s principal founders co-opts the title of Hofstadter’s seminal anti-Bircher essay. That takes balls.

  44. 44.

    afferent input

    Anger washed over David like a red tide. He’d been victimized by some punk with a political agenda. “It’s really identity theft,” he told me a month later, during an interview at Koch Industries’ headquarters. “And I think it’s extremely dishonest to misrepresent yourself. I think there’s a question of integrity. And the person who would do that has got to be an incredibly dishonest person.”

    I’m sure they would say the same about Andrew Breitbart and Jimmy O’Keefe. Because they’re scientists of human liberty. Or something…

  45. 45.

    gene108

    Starting in the spring of 2009, whenever you turned on MSNBC or clicked on the Huffington Post you’d see the Kochs described in terms more applicable to Lex Luthor and General Zod.

    From the weekly standard article. Gen. Zod fought his own battles. He didn’t hide behind proxies.

    Lex Luther wanted the acclaim of being the world’s greatest criminal master mind. He, too, didn’t always hide behind proxies and try to pretend he was minding his own business.

    The Koch’s, if not for reporting on the astro-turf movement behind the Tea Part and the “summer of rage”, in 2009, would still be safely anonymous.

    The moral: The Koch’s, compared to Gen. Zod and Lex Luther, are cowards, who don’t have the balls to put their behinds on the line.

  46. 46.

    Ron

    @Rich2506: I have a FB friend who was a friend in HS who buys that Austrian Economics crap hook line and sinker. The funniest part is he will quote some economic theory and swear it’s pure fact. He honestly believes economics is a pure science and there is no room for opinion.

  47. 47.

    bob h

    And it will be gratifying to see the Koch’s pour millions into the candidacy of that sacrificial victim cornfed motherfucker who does get the nomination.

  49. 49.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @JGabriel:

    Ahh, Matthew Incontinentti, the young, up and coming ball washer for the right. I hear he offers a hot wax and shave too. But they have to be the right balls. Rich, powerful conservative balls.

    The Mighty Kochsucking Wurlitzer may be worrying that the Koch Boys are being made into a Soros equivalent for the right so they have gone defensive.

    That or they are driving the Koch Machine and making some special deliveries to rustle up some spare cash.

  50. 50.

    joe from Lowell

    @junebug:

    I’ve defended myself for years for working for Soros in Eastern Europe.

    It is profoundly depressing that someone would have to “defend” himself for working for Soros’ civil society efforts in the Eastern Bloc.

    It’s like saying you’ve spent years defending your work for a homeless shelter.

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