Why Would The Koch Brothers Need "A Man In Washington" When They Have A Whole Party In Washington?

Pompeo is owned by Koch Industries but he rents himself out from time to time

The Koch family has always been a very foreign, profoundly anti-American operation. The family background is a fetid sewer and looking at it makes clear the genesis of the current generation as the biggest threat to American democracy since Adolf Hitler-- and for many similar-- if not identical-- reasons. To understand why Charles and David Koch are using their billions to assault American democracy-- even teaming up with Iran (the way their father had teamed up with Stalin) to do so-- you have to look back at the history of this demented, hate-filled family. Their Dutch-born Nazi-oriented grandfather, Harry Koch, took part in a multiyear right-wing propaganda campaign to shoot down New Deal programs. "Grandfather and grandsons employ eerily familiar talking points to bash government pension and welfare programs... In a series of early editorials, Harry Koch scoffed at the idea that land rents should be regulated, and ridiculed the plight of heavily indebted farmers, writing that while they might find indebtedness unpleasant, a much bigger problem was their laziness and inability to take care of the farm equipment they had purchased on credit." His son, Fred, another neo-Nazi-- the father of the current generation of social parasites, Charles, David and William (brother Frederick is just a normal billionaire)-- was one of the founders, and chief financier, of the John Birch Society.

The Koch father was as demented and insane as his sons, only more likely to share his obsessive racism and anti-American rants with the general public than the current crop of neo-respectable Koch Nazis do today. The Koch Father claimed that the Democratic and Republican parties were infiltrated by the Communist Party and he was a big time supporter of European fascists, like his hero Benito Mussolini. He wrote that "The colored man looms large in the Communist plan to take over America," and that "Welfare was a secret plot to attract rural blacks to cities, where they would foment a vicious race war." He may sound a lot like Charles Manson-- but he was far more damaging and dangerous for this country than Manson ever was. And now his criminally-rich sons have bought the Republican Party-- lock, stock and barrel. They own it and dictate its every move.

And that's why Logan Smith's story this week in the Palmetto Public Record, Meet SC Rep. Mick Mulvaney. the Koch brothers' "man in Washington", seemed so... odd. No doubt about it... Mulvaney is a 100% bootlicking zombie for the Koch brothers. But how many Republicans, other than maybe Walter Jones, aren't? Not that a single word of Smith;s story is inaccurate:

According to campaign finance data collected by Palmetto Public Record, the Koch brothers’ political action committee has given a total of $85,000 to South Carolina’s congressional delegation over the last eight election cycles. Over a third of that went to the Palmetto State’s two current senators, Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint, and all of it went to Republicans.

While SC-5 Rep. Mick Mulvaney is relatively new to the congressional scene, a new report indicates Mulvaney is a champion for the Koch agenda since his election in 2010. In fact, the report suggests Mulvaney’s willingness to do the Koch brothers’ bidding is so flagrant that he may have broken congressional rules.

Campaign finance data from the Center for Responsive Politics show Mulvaney has received $7,000 directly from the Koch brothers, plus much more funneled into the freshman Republican’s 2010 campaign through secretive, outsider groups. According to Republic Report’s Nick Lyell, the Koch brothers’ investment in Mulvaney is paying big dividends in Congress:

In May, the congressman introduced two bills to suspend certain tariffs on chemicals. According to disclosures, both of Mulvaney’s tariff-exemptions only benefit one company: Koch Industries. As the Wall Street Journal and Politico have reported, targeted tariff-reduction bills are nothing more than earmarks, the legislative giveaways banned by Congress.

The House Republican caucus rules make clear that Mulvaney’s legislative gifts to Koch Industries are in violation of the earmark rule. The rules state that “it is the policy of the House Republican Conference that no member shall request a congressional earmark, limited tax benefit or limited tariff benefit, as such terms have been described in the rules of the House.”

While Koch Industries does indeed have a few assets in the Palmetto State, Mulvaney’s legislation wasn’t aimed at benefiting all, most, or even a few South Carolina businesses. Despite all his “small government” attacks against earmarks Mulvaney’s bill was only written to help one company-- Koch Industries.

And that’s how you buy a congressman.

Like I said-- Smith got it all right... 100%. But Mulvaney is hardly unique among Republican legislators when it comes to serving the economic and ideological interests of the Koch brothers over and above the interests of their own constituents. Take, for example, Kansas political hack Mike Pompeo, who actually penned an OpEd in Politico denouncing people who want to look into the Koch brothers' shady dealing and the danger they are posing to democracy and to America. Pompeo's attacks don't stop with the usual target--President Obama-- but go on to savage Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Congressman Bobby Rush (D-IL) for daring to ask the Koch brothers to send "a representative" of their business for a hearing on the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Charles Koch and David Koch, co-owners of Koch Industries, are U.S. citizens, taxpayers, entrepreneurs and employers. Their businesses employ nearly 50,000 people in the U.S. alone. The company headquarters is in the district I represent, employing 2,600 Kansans. The corporation and its employees are among the most hardworking and generous in our community.

In fact, although Politico let's him get away with not disclosing it in his OpEd, the Koch brothers and their various entities have been especially generous to Congressman Pompeo, even to the point of financing his entire political career. Shamefully, Politico simply IDs him as a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and Power, neither mentioning his shady nature of his relationship to the Kochs nor his role on the committee as their shill.

If anyone is the Kochs' man in Washington, it would be Pompeo. Just about two years ago investigative journalist Lee Fang first broke the story wide open about the nature of the relationship between the Kochs and Pompeo. And the relationship isn't normal and isn't conducive to a democracy-- though it sure explains a lot about Pompeo's shameful behavior in Congress.

Over the weekend, the Kansas City Star published a lengthy article explaining how Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Kansas, has for years maintained a symbiotic relationship with the right-wing oil plutocrats David and Charles Koch and their conglomerate Koch Industries. Alongside Brownback in the Senate, Koch Industries, which is based in Wichita, has counted outgoing Wichita Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) as one of its closest allies in the House of Representatives.

Former Rep. Dan Glickman (D-KS), who was defeated by Tiahrt in 1994, said that Koch Industries funneled resources-- including its employees and funds-- to oppose him. Now, with an open seat in Koch Industries’ backyard, the massive “Kochtopus” network of Koch money and front groups is working to elect a new right-wing Republican to fill the seat: Mike Pompeo. Pompeo isn’t just another Wall Street-friendly, pro-polluter GOP radical (his initial response to the BP oil disaster was to say that he “fervently” hoped the government wouldn’t “overreact”), he is essentially a subsidiary of the Koch brothers’ business empire:

– Pompeo developed much of his wealth from a firm he founded, Thayer Aerospace, which he ran with investment funds from Koch Industries. According to a December 11, 1998 article in the Wichita Business Journal, “[Pompeo's] company’s capital base is drawn in part from Wichita’s Koch Venture Capital, a division of Koch Industries.” Pompeo sold Thayer in 2006.

– Pompeo still relies on Koch for his private wealth. After the sale of Thayer, Pompeo became the President of Sentry International, a business specializing in the manufacture and sale of equipment used in oilfields. Sentry International is a partner to Koch Industries through its Brazilian distributor, GTF Representacoes & Consultoria.

– Pompeo won his Republican primary largely with the support of Koch Industries’ PAC, which gave him one of his largest endorsements in March. Despite the fact that Koch Industries is the recipient of tens of millions in federal contracts, Pompeo boasted about the endorsement: “The employees of the Koch Companies have jobs here in the Wichita because of their own hard work and creativity, not because a federal agency deemed it to be so.”

– With $31,400 in contributions from KOCHPAC, Koch Industries is by far the greatest contributor to Pompeo’s campaign. The second largest contributor, the law firm Bartlit Beck LLP, gave $7,200 to the campaign. As ThinkProgress first uncovered, Koch Industries also works with Democracy Data & Communications, a firm specializing in helping major corporations to activate their employees politically.

– Pompeo has leaned on Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the right-wing Tea Party group founded and financed by David Koch. On August 28, 2009, Pompeo spoke at a large Tea Party rally organized by AFP, and AFP has used its extensive Kansas-based staff to mobilize dozens of other right-wing events in and around the 4th Congressional District. In addition to the rallies and Tea Party events, AFP has touted Pompeo for signing onto its pledge to ignore climate change. The Kansas chapter of AFP was previously run by Alan Cobb, who once served as a chief lobbyist for Koch Industries. Cobb is now coordinating state efforts nationwide for AFP.

– According to his campaign biography, Pompeo’s only substantive political experience appears to be his stint as a trustee of the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy, a Koch-organized front formerly known as the Kansas Policy Institute. The Flint Hills Center for Public Policy is staffed primarily with Koch-funded operatives and economists, like Art Hall. Until recently, George Pearson-- a libertarian activist who began working for the Koch brothers in the early seventies-- chaired the board of the Center. In an interview with the Wichita Eagle, Pompeo said he supports Social Security privatization and explained that his ideas for health reform came from Koch’s Flint Hills Center.

The Koch brothers have historically leaned on their home state Republican members of Congress for lobbying assistance. For instance, Business Week reported on how Koch Industries used then-Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS) to try to suppress an investigation into Koch Industries’ massive theft of oil from Indian reservations. In another case, Koch Industries faced a $55 million civil suit for causing more than 300 oil spills over a five-year period. Again, Dole, a major recipient of Koch money and support, sponsored a bill that would allow Koch to easily defend itself from the oil spill charges. Investigative reporter Robert Parry found that David Koch “also helped Dole achieve majority leader status through his checkbook, contributed mightily to a Dole foundation and even turned his Gatsbyish estate in Southampton, New York, into the site for celebrating Dole’s 72nd birthday in July 1995, raising $150,000 for his campaign.”

Recently, Koch Industries has lobbied aggressively against clean energy jobs legislation and against H.R. 4213, a law closing tax loopholes for companies that ship jobs overseas.

While much attention has been paid to Koch’s role in funding the organizers of the Tea Party movement and its supporting institutions, it should be noted that the right-wing conglomerate is also sponsoring its own candidate for election this November.

And I'm sure it surprises no one to discover that the Koch candidate Pompeo won the seat in 2010 with 59% of the votes, a percentage point higher than McCain's win over Obama in 2008. This year Pompeo has no primary opponent and neither of the two Democrats seeking to take him on, Robert Tillman and Esau Freeman, is given any chance whatsoever. But the Kochs have given the $10,000 maximum contribution to their boy Pompeo, the same amount they gave Speaker John Boehner and $4,000 more than they gave Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

Last cycle Koch Industries contributed $912,000 to Republicans running for the House (and $87,500 to conservative Democrats who serve their interests, like Blue Dogs John Barrow, Collin Peterson, Henry Cuellar, Jim Matheson and Tim Holden, as well as sleazy New Dems like Ron Kind and Dan Maffei). So far this year-- and it's still early-- Koch Industries has given GOP House candidates $769,000. But because almost all of their pet Blue Dogs were defeated in 2010, only $21,000 has gone to Democrats so far-- Barrow and Peterson again, of course (who are both Koch devotees), and the retiring Blue Dogs Dan Boren and Mike Ross. But big bucks for oil industry shills like Justin Amash (R-MI), Bachmann (R-MN), Joe Barton (R-TX), Ann Marie Buerkle (R-NY)-- looks like they switched horses and have abandoned their old pal Maffei-- Mike Coffman (R-CO), Charlie Deny (R-PA), Sean Duffy (R-WI), Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Frank Guinta (R-NH), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Mike Kelly (R-PA), Steven King (R-IA), Dan Lungren (R-CA), Patrick McHenry (R-NC), David McKinley (R-WV), John Mica (R-FL), Joe Pitts (R-PA), Tom Reed (R-PA), Mike Rogers (R-MI), Paul Ryan (R-WI), Aaron Schock (R-IL), John Schimkus (R-IL), Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Fred Upton (R-MI)... and Mulvaney... cheap date-- just $2,000 this year.

Mike Pompeo-- Far Worse Than You Probably Think

On Saturday, Wall Street Journal reporter Vivian Salama wrote that Philip Reeker, the acting assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs "was set to tell House impeachment investigators Saturday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other top officials stymied a show of solidarity for the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine after President Trump had her removed." He's another one who knows are about the quo in Trump's Ukrainian quid pro quo and he's going to prove deadly not just for Trump but for Pompeo as well. Since Trump didn't invent Pompeo, I want to remind you about him if you have a minute. We've been writing about him since 2010, ever since the Koch brothers managed to get him into Congress as another one of their personal emissaries (like Mick Mulvaney) on Capitol Hill. In 2011 the Washington Monthly introduced the newly-elected Kansan as the The congressman from Koch Industries. At the time, Steve Benen presented him as a freshman "trying to kill a consumer-product-safety database, allowing Americans to go online and access free information about the safety records of household products. The measure was easily approved with bipartisan support, but the freshman Republican perceived it as anti-business. After all, if consumers are made aware of potentially dangerous products, Americans might not buy them. How can the manufacturers of those products make a profit under conditions like that? As it turned out, the Koch brothers were the ones who wanted the online consumer-product-safety database scuttled, and Pompeo was happy to do their bidding-- he represents the district where Koch Industries is located, and the Koch brothers and their political action committee were his most generous campaign contributors."

Back then I didn't know much about Pompeo, who most Americans never heard of 'til Trump plucked him out of Congress early in 2017 to run the CIA. Other than the well-established fact that he's a virulent racist, all I knew about him was that he was a multimillionaire Teabagger and total corporate shill who's long been in bed with the Koch Brothers-- his top campaign donors through various front groups they control and fund and who placed one of their employees, Mark Chenoweth, as his chief of staff.

When Trump decided to appoint him Secretary of State in 2018, every Democrat but conservative butt-wipes Claire McCaskill (MO), Joe Manchin (WV), Joe Donnelly (IN), Heidi Heitkamp (ND), Doug Jones (AL) and Bill Nelson (FL) voted against confirmation. McCaskill, Donnelly, Heitkamp and Nelson faced the voters that year and, despite it being a Democratic wave election, all 4, unable to explain votes like that, were defeated for reelection. During his first election, Pompeo called his Democratic opponent, state Rep. Raj Goyle, who was born in Cleveland, Ohio, a "turban topper" who "could be a muslim, a hindu, a buddhist etc who knows." No doubt that kind of vicious racism went into Trump's decision to name him Secretary of State.





Garrett Graff, writing yesterday for Wired reported how the Ukraine mess has derailed Pompeo's out-sized political ambitions. He wrote that anyone watching this month's interview for a Tennessee TV station, "you could almost see Mike Pompeo’s political life flash before his eyes as he sat for seven minutes, almost unblinking, under withering cross-examination by-- of all people, he must’ve thought-- a local Nashville TV reporter."

With question after question, WSMV’s Nancy Amons grilled the increasingly uncomfortable secretary of state about the terrible week he’d been having-- the resignation of a top lieutenant, one of the few career foreign service officers who had steadied Pompeo’s ship at state; President Donald Trump’s surprise decision last week to abandon the Kurdish allies who had helped defeat ISIS in Syria and leave them to face annihilation at the hands of a Turkish invasion; the controversy over the recall of the ambassador to Ukraine, who also that day was testifying on Capitol Hill about the alleged conspiracy theory-laden smear campaign that had ended her assignment in Kyiv early; and about the mysterious role of Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, and his mission this year to get Ukraine to investigate the Biden family, possibly in exchange for US military aid.

It probably wasn’t what Pompeo had expected while he was in Tennessee speaking to a Christian conference-- the type of friendly audience Pompeo has increasingly sought. As he’s traveled the country over the last year, the secretary has made a point of engaging with local media (whose questions are generally friendlier) and, not coincidentally, the encounters have the potential to be more helpful to the political future Pompeo seems to be carving out for himself as Trump’s heir apparent.

During a spring swing through Iowa, he did four local radio interviews and more recently has been courting the local press in Kansas, his adopted home state, where he’s keeping open the possibility of running for US Senate next year. Yet given this fall’s momentous events-- much of which involves a budding impeachment inquiry for Pompeo’s boss that has Pompeo himself in the middle of the scandal-- the local TV news interview was far more challenging. The secretary of state, all but visibly seething, muttered non sequiturs, repeated vacuous talking points, and at one point told Amons it sounded like she was working for the Democratic National Committee. In fact, she was doing journalism, trying to pry the truth from one of the administration’s fiercest defenders.

Last month, as news of a whistle-blower from the intelligence community began to circulate in Washington, it would have been hard to find someone in the Trump orbit whose political future seemed brighter than Mike Pompeo's. The 55-year-old former congressman from Kansas has deftly navigated the chaos atop the executive branch to position himself as the Trump administration’s unicorn-- the almost mythic figure who has lasted inside the president’s inner circle. This is, after all, a government where senior officials come and go sometimes by the week. But Pompeo actually earned a promotion along the way, moving from CIA director to secretary of state.

Nearly three years into the administration, Pompeo effectively is the last man standing, having outlasted and vanquished all rivals for Trump’s ear on foreign policy, the president’s tireless, give-no-quarter chief crusader, a political pugilist in a role normally reserved for thoughtful diplomacy, a happy warrior Trump dispatched to tongue-lash European allies over China and Huawei, to scold Iran over its nuclear ambitions, to glad-hand with North Korea, to boost Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, to reassure Saudi Arabia that its relationship with the Trump administration would remain copacetic, despite the government’s alleged killing of US resident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and to clean up with Denmark in the wake of Trump’s aborted effort to purchase Greenland.

Pompeo learned along the way that there was only one way to survive under Trump: to be as enthusiastic about Trump as Trump himself. Or, as Pompeo summed up his daily job to me in one of our conversations, “you go execute and you do it with all the energy and heart and passion and integrity you can muster.” Anything less, after all, and one might face the ignominious end of his predecessor, Rex Tillerson-- who was reportedly sitting on the toilet when he got a call informing him he was about to be fired by presidential tweet. As one former senior intelligence leader said when I mentioned Pompeo, shaking his head: “He’s made his deal with the devil.”

The deal he’d made, after all, was clear. Pompeo was a man in a hurry, standing uniquely astride the three critical strands of the modern GOP: the Kansas Koch brothers who have funded much of the party’s next generation; evangelical Christians, a group that has remained fiercely loyal to Trump; and Trump’s red-hat-wearing, red-meat-loving MAGA “America First” nationalist base. Before the Ukraine scandal engulfed Washington, it appeared that his loyal service to Trump had left Pompeo, perhaps better than anyone, in first position for the shadow primary to succeed Donald Trump in 2024 as heir apparent.

But when the details of the whistle-blower complaint emerged-- that Trump, working with Giuliani, had been trying to pressure Ukraine to drum up dirt on the Bidens and also to chase a widely debunked conspiracy theory that Ukrainians, not Russians, hacked the 2016 election-- Pompeo’s role in the controversy has grown with nearly every passing day.

After an initially ambiguous statement, the secretary of state finally admitted that he’d listened in real time to the now infamous July 25 telephone call between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, where the US president leaned on Zelensky to help Giuliani and Attorney General Bill Barr smear Hunter Biden. He’d heard, in real time, Trump utter the phrase “I would like you to do us a favor, though,” the smoking-gun utterance that caused such consternation inside the White House, intelligence community, and Justice Department as word spread of Trump’s conversation and tipped House Democrats over the edge to begin a formal impeachment inquiry.

Damning text messages exchanged by two State Department officials added fuel to the controversy, as did the congressional hearing about the State Department’s rushed recall of ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. Pompeo’s decision not to speak out on behalf of those caught up in the scandal and not to defend the integrity of career foreign service officers was reported to have ultimately triggered the resignation this month of Michael McKinley, a State Department lifer whose appointment to Pompeo’s inner circle last year was initially seen inside the department’s Foggy Bottom headquarters as a hopeful sign.

Add in the fact that nearly all of Trump’s foreign policy goals that Pompeo has championed appear unfulfilled-- from Iran, North Korea, and China to the unfolding debacle in Syria that Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence were dispatched last week to calm-- and the growing calls from the intelligentsia in Washington for Pompeo to resign, and it’s hard not to imagine that by the time he sat down to face Amons that Pompeo was wondering whether the implicit deal he’d made with Trump would lead him to the White House-- or, like nearly all others who have served this president, his eventual embarrassing ouster?

Quite the practiced liar, isn't he? More people should get to know what kind of a stinking pile of diarrhea Pompeo is. Lindsay Wise, also writing for the Wall Street Journal, noted that Pompeo had talked with Charles Koch on Friday about quitting as Secretary of State and running for the open Kansas Senate seat. That's him in Nancy Ohanian's drawing-- Disorganized Crime-- third from the left, between William Barr and Señor Trumpanzee himself:

Getting To Know The Republicans Willing To Kill Your Children For Koch Money: Meet Mike Pompeo (R-KS)

The other day we took a look at sleazy Kansas freshman Kevin Yoder. A friend of mine in Wichita e-mailed me that, true Yoder is pure garbage-- and probably easier to defeat in 2012-- but that another Kansas freshman, Mike Pompeo, is an ever more extreme and deranged maniac. I promised I'd look into it and see if we could find something worth writing about in regard to Rep. Pompeo-- other than the old story about him sending out a blog calling President Obama an "evil Muslim Communist usurper," which is just standard right-wing rhetoric in the circles where Pompeo runs.

Other than the well-established fact that he's a virulent racist, all I knew about him was that he's a multimillionaire and total corporate shill who's long been in bed with the Koch Brothers (who are his top campaign donors through various front groups they control and fund and who placed one of their employees, Mark Chenoweth, as his chief of staff to make sure he stays in line). In fact Pompeo's a trustee of their fanatically right-wing Kansas Policy Institute. Then I remembered that even after virtually all the Republicans and all the Democrats had been supporting an "early warning system" for parents in regard to toys regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, it was the Koch Bros who started demanding the congressmen they bought and paid for oppose the whole concept. And it was Pompeo who jumped up screeching first. In fact, the Kochs are so politically powerful now that when Pompeo offered the Koch Amendment to kill the early warning system, all but 10 Republicans voted with him to prohibit the establishment of a database to keep track of dangerous and harmful toys for that parents could look though to help them pick appropriate toys. It passed 234-187, since 7 of the most Koch-oriented and corrupt Democrats joined the GOP across the aisle: Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK), Dennis Cardoza (Blue Dog-CA), Ron Kind (Chamber shill-WI), Larry Kissell (NC), Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC), Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN) and Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC). As for the safety of children... how could that compare to the safety of Koch Industries' bottom line? The Kochs are their wholly-owned congressmembers like Pompeo don't want any databases designed to warn parents about potentially defective products aimed at children around.

It's something Nikki Johns wishes had been around before her infant son died in a drop-side crib: a centralized federal database of people's safety complaints about thousands of products, from baby gear to household appliances and more.

"If I had known there had been children killed in drop-sides, it would have swayed me against them," says Johns, who lost her 9-month-old son, Liam, in a faulty crib that came apart at the side rail and trapped the little boy one night after his mom went to bed at their home in Citrus Heights, Calif., nearly six years ago.

Johns, other parents who have tragically lost children, and consumer advocates are eagerly awaiting March 11, the formal launch date for the government database SaferProducts.gov, where people can share complaints of injury or worse from everyday products such as cribs, high chairs, space heaters and toasters.

But the database, overseen by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, isn't universally popular. Manufacturers and some members of Congress fear such a "crowdsourced" website will be bloated with bogus, inaccurate or misleading reports. One of those lawmakers, freshman Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., sponsored an amendment approved in the House last week to withhold additional funding for the database, which could bring the project to a halt. Prospects for his amendment in the Democratic-led Senate aren't clear.

Despite the Kochs, Pompeo and the rest of the Republican shills, the database went online last week. And here's Rachel, a big Koch fan:

Most Are, But Not Every Congressional Whore The Kochs Use To Sabotage Green Energy Is A Republican

It's very hard to trace the Koch cash sloshing around American politics; it's meant to be hard. They funnel so much money into so many right-wing groups that it would be a full time job to sort it all out. Perhaps it's safe to assume, though, that the recipients of legalistic bribes from Koch Industries directly are among those most devoted to the Koch war against democracy. In the last cycle, Koch Industries alone doled out almost $2,000,000 to candidates for Congress, all but $40,737 of it to Republicans. Koch Industries knew exactly which corrupt Democrats from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party to give a taste:

• John Barrow (Blue Dog/New Dem-GA)- $10,000
• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)- $10,000
• Mark Pryor (AR)- $10,000
• Mike Ross (Blue Dog-AR)- $5,000
• Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK)- $2,000
• Mary Landrieu (LA)- $2,000
• Sanford Bishop (Blue Dog-GA)- $1,250
• Bruce Shuttleworth (VA)- $287
• Rob Wallace (Blue Dog-OK)- $200

Serious money, of course, went to Koch addicts in the GOP like their own personal congressional shill, Mike Pompeo (R-KS) who walked away with $110,000. Their 5 biggest investments in Congress went towards trying to win Senate seats... and all 5 attempts failed miserably:

• George Allen (R-VA)- $45,000
• Connie Mack (R-FL)- $33,500
• Denny Rehberg (R-MT)- $29,000
• Richard Mourdock (R-IN)- $28,500
• Rick Berg (R-ND)- $26,500

So far this cycle, Koch Industries has given $852,100 to congressional candidates, all but 6 to members of the party they already own. The half dozen who received the biggest bribes so far-- and the cycle is young and the spending is just ramping up-- are:

• Mike Pompeo (R-KS)- $48,900
• John Boehner (R-OH)- $20,200
• John Cornyn (R-TX)- $17,900
• Lynn Jenkins (R-KS)- $15,000
• Bill Flores (R-TX)- $13,000
• Fred Upton (R-MI)- $10,500

Blue Dogs and New Dems on the Koch gravy train so far this year were Barrow ($5,000), Jim Matheson ($5,000), Collin Peterson ($2,000), Sanford Bishop ($1,000), Eric Swalwell (not exactly a Blue Dog-CA- $1,000), and conservative Delaware Senator Chris Coons ($250).

Last night the editorial board of the NY Times, in an editorial, The Koch Attack on Solar Energy wrote "At long last, the Koch brothers and their conservative allies in state government have found a new tax they can support. Naturally it’s a tax on something the country needs: solar energy panels." Tuesday we looked at how much Koch money has accomplished in putting the brakes on the development of Oklahoma's green energy industry, even though solar and wind energy are the most cost-efficient alternative source of electricity.

For the last few months, the Kochs and other big polluters have been spending heavily to fight incentives for renewable energy, which have been adopted by most states. They particularly dislike state laws that allow homeowners with solar panels to sell power they don’t need back to electric utilities. So they’ve been pushing legislatures to impose a surtax on this increasingly popular practice, hoping to make installing solar panels on houses less attractive.

Oklahoma lawmakers recently approved such a surcharge at the behest of the American Legislative Exchange Council, the conservative group that often dictates bills to Republican statehouses and receives financing from the utility industry and fossil-fuel producers, including the Kochs. As the Los Angeles Times reported recently, the Kochs and ALEC have made similar efforts in other states, though they were beaten back by solar advocates in Kansas and the surtax was reduced to $5 a month in Arizona.

But the Big Carbon advocates aren’t giving up. The same group is trying to repeal or freeze Ohio’s requirement that 12.5 percent of the state’s electric power come from renewable sources like solar and wind by 2025. Twenty-nine states have established similar standards that call for 10 percent or more in renewable power. These states can now anticipate well-financed campaigns to eliminate these targets or scale them back.

The coal producers’ motivation is clear: They see solar and wind energy as a long-term threat to their businesses. That might seem distant at the moment, when nearly 40 percent of the nation’s electricity is still generated by coal, and when less than 1 percent of power customers have solar arrays. (It is slightly higher in California and Hawaii.) But given new regulations on power-plant emissions of mercury and other pollutants, and the urgent need to reduce global warming emissions, the future clearly lies with renewable energy. In 2013, 29 percent of newly installed generation capacity came from solar, compared with 10 percent in 2012.

Renewables are good for economic as well as environmental reasons, as most states know. (More than 143,000 now work in the solar industry.) Currently, 43 states require utilities to buy excess power generated by consumers with solar arrays. This practice, known as net metering, essentially runs electric meters backward when power flows from rooftop solar panels into the grid, giving consumers a credit for the power they generate but don’t use.

The utilities hate this requirement, for obvious reasons. A report by the Edison Electric Institute, the lobbying arm of the power industry, says this kind of law will put “a squeeze on profitability,” and warns that if state incentives are not rolled back, “it may be too late to repair the utility business model.”

Since that’s an unsympathetic argument, the utilities have devised another: Solar expansion, they claim, will actually hurt consumers. The Arizona Public Service Company, the state’s largest utility, funneled large sums through a Koch operative to a nonprofit group that ran an ad claiming net metering would hurt older people on fixed incomes by raising electric rates. The ad tried to link the requirement to President Obama. Another Koch ad (below) likens the renewable-energy requirement to health care reform, the ultimate insult in that world. “Like Obamacare, it’s another government mandate we can’t afford,” the narrator says.

That line might appeal to Tea Partiers, but it’s deliberately misleading. This campaign is really about the profits of Koch Carbon and the utilities, which to its organizers is much more important than clean air and the consequences of climate change.

Hey Trumpanzee, How's That Chaos Thing Working Out For You Now?

Today President Obama spoke at the Anaheim Convention Center in Orange County on behalf of Southern California candidates Katie Porter, Harley Rouda, Mike Levin, Katie Hill, and Gil Cisneros (AKA- the Lottery Winner). I offered Ammar Campa-Najjar, a former Obama Labor Department official who is running against Drunken Hunter (CA-50) but who the DCCC is not behind and has continued to sabotage (please contribute to his campaign here or, if you hate the DCCC as much as I do, here) a ticket but Obama's office sent him one. [The DCCC staff is made up of such utter jerks. Who hires them?]

His manner and presence alone were a kind of reassurance that no matter how horrific you see Trump as being, he's just a temporary mistake that somehow happened to our country. Aside from making the point that these are "extraordinary" and "dangerous" times he seemed genuinely disturbed by the "crazy stuff" coming out of the Trump Regime, particularly the way Trump has been trying to politicize the Justice Department and the courts. "It should not be a partisan issue," said the President, "to say that we do not pressure the attorney general or the FBI to use the criminal justice system as a cudgel to punish our political opponents. Or to explicitly call on the attorney general to protect members of our own party from prosecution."

Not mentioning Trump rubber-stamps Mimi Walters, Steve Knight and Dana Rohrabacher by name, he obviously found it shocking and disturbing that congressional Republicans have been "utterly unwilling to find the backbone to safeguard the institutions that make our democracy work."

The kind of the thing Obama was so upset about was demonstrated by Trump again yesterday when he started babbling again about how the Department of Justice should try to identify the anonymous member of his own White House who wrote the incendiary NY Times OpEd about Trump's glaring and dangerous shortcomings. In an interview on Air Force One, Trump again tried to pass his problem off as a threat to national security and demanded that Sessions find out who betrayed him and punish The Times for running the OpEd. "Jeff," he insisted, "should be investigating who the author of that piece was because I really believe it's national security." His point is that if the person he hired and gave top security clearance doesn't belong in meetings where security clearance is required, even though there wasn't anything classified in the OpEd.

On Fox News, Trump claimed that whoever wrote the piece "may not be a Republican; it may not be a conservative, it may be a deep state person who has been there for a long time." Members of Congress, as well as members of the press, claim that Trump staffers tell them this same stuff about Trump, albeit off the record, constantly.

Trump seems to have demanded letters from his top officials claiming to have not written the OpEd and he's gotten them from Mike Pence, DNI Dan Coats (both of whom were immediate suspects), Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and from and other Cabinet members. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman was also a suspect and he also wrote Trump a letter saying it wasn't him. What about Chief of Staff Kelly (who Ivanka and Jared say wrote the OpEd) and Jared Kushner? Are they "members of a secret Resistance?" Ex-Libertarian Rand Paul and Rudy Giuliani want them all to take lie detector tests. "Let's assume it's a person with a security clearance," said Giuliani. "If they feel writing this is appropriate, maybe they feel it would be appropriate to disclose national security secrets, too." Why? That makes no sense at all.

You can understand why the last patriot in the Oval office just said "A politics of fear and resentment and retrenchment takes hold and demagogues promise simple fixes to complex problems. No promise to fight for the little guy, even as they cater to the wealthiest and most powerful. No promise to clean up corruption and then plunder away. They start undermining norms that ensure accountability and try to change the rules to entrench their power further. They appeal to racial nationalism that’s barely veiled, if veiled at all." Meanwhile, no one is doing any work in the White House, unless you count sleuthing for Trump's latest enemy "work." Trump also wants Congress to get involved with the hunt for what he refers to as a "traitor." Ryan just rolled his eyes and thought about how he only has a few more months to go before he's out of this horror, but the neo-fascists in Congress, like fringe lunatic Mark Meadows (NC) want a go at it. This is what a Trump government looks like. Putin:

Pam and Russ Martens over at Wall Street on Parade made a good case that whoever wrote the OpEd was a Koch loyalist.

Parsing the phrasing in the OpEd, there is a clear pattern of right-wing ideology-- the kind that comes from Charles Koch, CEO of the fossil fuels conglomerate, Koch Industries, and the sprawling network of tax-exempt front groups that are funded with Koch foundation money. There is this telling phrase in the OpEd: “…the president shows little affinity for ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people.” This is the jargon of the Koch-brand of the libertarian movement which tortuously attempts to equate freedom with the right to pollute the environment with fossil fuels without government interference.

Then there is this sentence in the OpEd: “We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.” The Koch manifesto is that gutting regulations makes America more “prosperous” thus its heavy funding of the front group Americans for Prosperity. This is how the Center for Media and Democracy’s SourceWatch describes Americans for Prosperity: “Americans for Prosperity is a right-wing political advocacy group founded by billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch, the owners of Koch Industries. AFP serves as the Kochs’ ‘grassroots’ operation, also known as astroturf. AFP spends millions on TV ads in election cycles.”

Embedded in the writer’s effort to sell the idea that “many” of the Trump administrations’ policies have “made America safer and more prosperous” is the fact that Koch money, operating through its front group, Freedom Partners, dictated in writing what it wanted the Trump administration to accomplish and got many of those demands met. Repeal the Paris Climate Accord-- done. Tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy-- done. Gutting federal regulations and the Environmental Protection Agency-- much accomplished.

There is one other telling word in the OpEd: the word “republic” as used in this sentence: “But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.” A person operating separate and apart from the Koch network might have said the “health of our democracy” or the “health of our nation” but a libertarian would have chosen the word “republic.”

There’s another reason why we believe this is the handiwork of a Koch-connected “senior official.” Numbers are simply on our side. In November of last year, the watchdog group, Public Citizen, reported that 44 Trump administration officials have been plucked from the Koch network. As of April of this year, SourceWatch reports that 12 people who previously worked at Freedom Partners are working in the Trump administration. Until last month when he stepped down, that included Marc Short, who went from being President of Freedom Partners to Director of Legislative Affairs for Trump, pushing through many items on that list of written demands from Freedom Partners. (As of July, eight of the nine Board Members of Freedom Partners is a current or former Koch company employee. The Board Chair of Freedom Partners is Mark Holden, the General Counsel of Koch Industries: this at a taxpayer subsidized organization.)

Then there is the fact that Koch Industries’ long-time law firm, Jones Day, sent 12 of its lawyers to the Trump administration all on the same day-- January 20, 2017, the day Trump was inaugurated. That includes White House Counsel Don McGahn (who will be leaving this Fall) and his Chief of Staff, Ann Donaldson. Both McGahn and Donaldson previously represented Freedom Partners.

...It is now just 61 days until the midterm election. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released this week showed that “more than 6 in 10 Americans say Trump and the Republican Party are out of touch with most people in the country,” and that “registered voters say they favor the Democratic candidate over the Republican candidate in their district by 52 percent to 38 percent.”

That poll had to set off fire alarms within the Koch network. How can they complete the dismantling of Federal regulations and Federal agencies if their hand-picked Republicans lose control of the House of Representatives and possibly even the Senate.

This is the kind of thing that drives the Kochs and their destructive network off the wall-- and this ad just started running this week in southeast Wisconsin. They won't be able to fulfill their dreams without puppets like Bryan Steil and this isn't some ineffective DCCC ad; this is the Bryce campaign's own work. Watch closely:

Trump's Crazy Extremist Candidate Loses In Kansas GOP Contest For Open House Seat

Estes

With Koch Bros. Congressman Mike Pompeo now ensconced at the CIA, there's an April 11th special election to fill his KS-04 seat, a blood red (R+14) district that takes up the south-central part of the state and is centered on Sedgwick County (Wichita). In 2008, McCain won the district with 59% and 4 years later Romney won it with 62%. This past November, Trump beat Hillary in the district, 60.2% to 33.0%. And Pompeo was reelected 166,998 (60.7%) to 81,495 (29.6%), beating Democrat Dan Giroux who spent $262,986 to Pompeo's $1,447,958.

For a Democrat to win this special election, the revulsion with Trump and Ryan would have to be far greater than it is today. Maybe by 2018... but not likely now. But a Democrat could run now as a prelude to a 2018 campaign. The party will pick their nominee Saturday and there are already 5 Democrats who have declared, including Robert Tillman who ran against Pompeo in 2012-- raising just $22,044 to Pompeo's $1,915,080 and losing 62-31%-- and was beaten by Giroux in the 2016 primary when he tried to run again. Another well-known candidate is Dennis McKinney, former state Treasurer and former Minority Leader of the Kansas House of Representatives. The Berniecrat in the race is Charlie Walker, a police officer. (Some in the party are still trying to draft popular 2-term former Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer, the city's first elected African-American mayor, 2007-15.)

The Republicans picked their nominee this evening and it was neither of the supposed frontrunner. Two-term Kansas state Treasurer Ron Estes won the nomination over Trump Regime pick and Tea Party-endorsed Alan Cobb Sarah and former Congressman Todd Tiahrt. Palin had been running her mouth for deranged Trumpist and former Koch Brothers lobbyist, Alan Cobb but he lost anyone. Even further right than him on the political spectrum is ex-Congressman Todd Tiahrt, who represented the district before he ran an unsuccessful primary campaign for the Senate against Jerry Moran, which opened the House seat to Pompeo. In 2014 Tiahart primaried Pompeo and got killed-- 42,877 (63%) to 25,501 (37%). Many hoped they'd never hear from this whack-job extremist again. But, no... he tried making another comeback-- and was already fighting with Paul Ryan. Tiahrt told the 126 KS-04 district delegates that Ryan promised him his old seat on the House Appropriations Committee and Ryan said Tiahrt is a liar. Aside from Estes, Cobb and Tiahrt, the other candidates tonight were former Hate Talk Radio host Joseph Ashby, Wichita city council member Pete Meitzner (who suddenly withdrew yesterday, and local lawyer George Bruce. Although Trump hadn't personally gotten overtly involved, his political agents had been actively pushing Cobb.

In the first ballot Ashby and Bruce were eliminated and after the second ballot was in, it was clear Estes won. He took 66 votes to 43 for Cobb and just 17 for Tiahrt.

Republicans know Trump could be a problem for them in April any they say they're not taking the district for granted even though they've held it-- basically effortlessly-- since 1994 when Tiahrt beat Democratic Congressman Dan Glickman. Kerry Gooch, executive director of the Kansas Democratic Party, says that the "special election gives people that have been so angry and frustrated with what the Trump administration has been doing since they have taken over, it gives them their first chance to fight back."

Bloody Kansas... Again

So catastrophic were the Republican policies of the 1920s-- basically the Republican policies at the core of what the party was then and what the party still is today-- that FDR even won blood-red Kansas in 1932 and 1936. After those two cycles, though, Kansans were back to their default position-- voting for Republicans. The one brief interlude was in 1964 when Lyndon Johnson beat Barry Goldwater in a national landslide. Kansas gave Johnson 54.09% of its vote. He was the last Democratic presidential nominee to win the state. This past November, Romney won every one of Kansas' 105 counties except Wyandotte (Kansas City) and Douglas (Lawrence), beating Obama statewide 59.71- 37.99%.

Kansas, headquarters of Koch Industries, is pretty hopelessly captured by the John Birch Society wing of the GOP. The Koch's control the state's politics. In the video above you see the Koch's own personal member of Congress, Mike Pompeo talking about how the Sequester is a home run for Republicans. One of the other GOP spokesmodels in the clip is another Koch shill and Kansas extremist lunatic Tim Huelskamp. It seems that whenever we're looking at a Kansas Republican-- from deranged Governor Sam Brownback, his Agriculture Secretary Dale Rodman or virulently racist Secretary of State Kris Kobach to the newest right-wing cutie-pie Rick Brattin, sponsor of the latest bill to teach religion instead of science in public schools, we're looking at the defenders of the past against the unwelcome encroachment of progress and reality. That's Kansas!

And if you're unfortunate enough to be poor in that state and need public assistance, the Republican rulers are going to rub it in your face. They're in the process of mandating drug testing for anyone who applies for welfare... or even unemployment benefits!

Although Democrats were unable to stop a drug-testing measure that supporters say is aimed at preventing state dollars from being used to buy illegal drugs, they were able to insert an amendment in the version that passed the state Senate Thursday intended to better achieve that goal: drug-test lawmakers, also. The Kansas City Star reports:

The proposal calls for drug tests whenever state officials have reasonable suspicion that someone receiving or applying for welfare or unemployment benefits is using drugs.

Suspicion could be raised during addiction screening by the Department for Children and Families or by missed meetings or criminal records. A proposal pushed by Democrats to also test any lawmaker suspected of drug use was added to the bill.

Suspicion of drug use by lawmakers could be identified by the Department of Administration based on criminal records or other complaints.

Benefit recipients who fail the test would lose state assistance until they complete drug treatment and job skills programs. Lawmakers who fail would also have to enter treatment and job skills training.

Of course, there are several gaping differences between the requirements for welfare recipients and lawmakers, including the circumstances that will trigger a drug test, and the fact that lawmakers who fail a test don’t lose their state funding-- their salary-- while they complete drug treatment. But the intent, as Democratic Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau said, is to assert that “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.” Holding lawmakers to the same standard is not something a proponent of Florida’s drug-testing law was willing to do.

The federal appeals court decision blocking Florida’s mandatory drug-testing law made clear that blanket testing of public assistance applicants is likely unconstitutional. In fact, blanket testing of legislative candidates has also been deemed unconstitutional, as is most suspicionless drug testing, absent significant public safety concerns. But the Kansas bill, like legislation passed in several other states over the last two years, is somewhat more selective. It requires “reasonable suspicion”-- the required constitutional standard for performing a police “stop” under the Fourth Amendment-- before a drug test can be performed.

If anyone requires "reasonable suspicion" whether or not Kansas politicians are on drugs... just take a look at statements like Pompeo's about what constitutes a home run. And it isn't like Kansas is immune from the effects of Sequestration. Friday. when President Obama announced that the Republicans refused to stop it he mentioned that Washington is just making things harder for working families and small businesses. "At a time when our businesses have finally begun to get some traction-- hiring new workers, bringing jobs back to America-- we shouldn’t be making a series of dumb, arbitrary cuts to things that businesses depend on and workers depend on, like education, and research, and infrastructure and defense. It’s unnecessary. And at a time when too many Americans are still looking for work, it’s inexcusable... [N]ot everyone will feel the pain of these cuts right away. The pain, though, will be real. Beginning this week, many middle-class families will have their lives disrupted in significant ways. Businesses that work with the military, like the Virginia shipbuilder that I visited on Tuesday, may have to lay folks off. Communities near military bases will take a serious blow. Hundreds of thousands of Americans who serve their country-- Border Patrol agents, FBI agents, civilians who work at the Pentagon-- all will suffer significant pay cuts and furloughs. All of this will cause a ripple effect throughout our economy. Layoffs and pay cuts means that people have less money in their pockets, and that means that they have less money to spend at local businesses. That means lower profits. That means fewer hires. The longer these cuts remain in place, the greater the damage to our economy-- a slow grind that will intensify with each passing day. So economists are estimating that as a consequence of this sequester, that we could see growth cut by over one-half of 1 percent. It will cost about 750,000 jobs at a time when we should be growing jobs more quickly. So every time that we get a piece of economic news, over the next month, next two months, next six months, as long as the sequester is in place, we’ll know that that economic news could have been better if Congress had not failed to act."

A home run in whatever crazy world Mike Pompeo and Tim Hueslkamp hail from. When the president added that "I do know that there are Republicans in Congress who privately, at least, say that they would rather close tax loopholes than let these cuts go through," he wasn't talking about Pompeo or Huelskamp, of course. The week before, the White House had sent a message specifically to Kansas about what the impact of Sequestration would be for people in that state this year.

• Teachers and Schools: Kansas will lose approximately $5.5 million in funding for primary and secondary education, putting around 80 teacher and aide jobs at risk. In addition about 7,000 fewer students would be served and approximately 40 fewer schools would receive funding.

* Education for Children with Disabilities: In addition, Kansas will lose approximately $5.3 in funds for about 60 teachers, aides, and staff who help children with disabilities.

• Work-Study Jobs: Around 310 fewer low income students in Kansas would receive aid to help them finance the costs of college and around 140 fewer students will get work-study jobs that help them pay for college.

• Head Start: Head Start and Early Head Start services would be eliminated for approximately 500 children in Kansas, reducing access to critical early education.

• Protections for Clean Air and Clean Water: Kansas would lose about $1.8 million in environmental funding to ensure clean water and air quality, as well as prevent pollution from pesticides and hazardous waste. In addition, Kansas could lose another $772,000 in grants for fish and wildlife protection.

• Military Readiness: In Kansas, approximately 8,000 civilian Department of Defense employees would be furloughed, reducing gross pay by around $36.7 million in total.

* Army: Base operation funding would be cut by about $78 million in Kansas.

* Air Force: Funding for Air Force operations in Kansas would be cut by about $1 million.

• Law Enforcement and Public Safety Funds for Crime Prevention and Prosecution: Kansas will lose about $149,000 in Justice Assistance Grants that support law enforcement, prosecution and courts, crime prevention and education, corrections and community corrections, drug treatment and enforcement, and crime victim and witness initiatives.

• Job Search Assistance to Help those in Kansas find Employment and Training: Kansas will lose about $322,000 in funding for job search assistance, referral, and placement, meaning around 11,130 fewer people will get the help and skills they need to find employment.

• Child Care: Up to 400 disadvantaged and vulnerable children could lose access to child care, which is also essential for working parents to hold down a job.

• Vaccines for Children: In Kansas around 1,240 fewer children will receive vaccines for diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, whooping cough, influenza, and Hepatitis B due to reduced funding for vaccinations of about $85,000.

• Public Health: Kansas will lose approximately $273,000 in funds to help upgrade its ability to respond to public health threats including infectious diseases, natural disasters, and biological, chemical, nuclear, and radiological events. In addition, Kansas will lose about $610,000 in grants to help prevent and treat substance abuse, resulting in around 900 fewer admissions to substance abuse programs. And the Kansas State Department of Health And Environmnt will lose about $65,000 resulting in around 1,600 fewer HIV tests.

• STOP Violence Against Women Program: Kansas could lose up to $61,000 in funds that provide services to victims of domestic violence, resulting in up to 200 fewer victims being served.

• Nutrition Assistance for Seniors: Kansas would lose approximately $209,000 in funds that provide meals for seniors.

Home run? Pompeo was reelected in November against token and unfunded Democratic opposition-- Robert Tillman raised $22,044 (against Koch-backed Pompeo's $1,915,080)-- 62-31%. Tim Huelskamp didn't have an opponent. And neither did another Sequester champion, Kevin Yoder (whose district includes Kansas City).

  

Nihilism And The Republican Party Establishment-- What Would McKinley And His Backers Say?

Let me introduce the essential video above with a tweet from Sen. Bernie Sanders yesterday: "93% of all new income generated between 2009 & 2010 went to the top 1% while the bottom 99% split the remaining 7%. #Sequester

One of the most memorable moments in the History Channel's rabidly pro-capitalist series, The Men Who Built America, came when predatory titans John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie decided to make Republican Party hack William McKinley president and destroy the political career of populist Democrat William Jennings Bryan ("the Great Commoner," his day's version of Bernie Sanders). J.P. Morgan: "We have to buy our own president." Watch the video above; you'll love it. It sums up the real history of the post-Lincoln/pre-Tea Party Republican Party.

Yes, "pre-Tea Party." Today the party of the predator titans has made a dangerous deal with the devil-- the easily manipulated teabaggers, racists, and paranoids that are now the electoral base of the GOP. They have embraced the studied ignorance and nihilism the titans most feared and loathed. Yesterday, the A.P. asserted in a headline that automatic budget cuts find few fans. That's Boehner's Sequestration they're talking about and while Boehner may (or may not) be a fan, plenty in the GOP base-- in DC and back in the lands that get their information primarily from Fox and Hate Talk Radio-- are eager for the pain and suffering Sequestration will bring. In Washington, these are the nihilists-- like Mike Pompeo, Koch Industries very own congressman... and they shouldn't be in Congress. Pompeo famously refers to the pain and suffering inherent in the Sequester as "a home run." Rockefeller, Morgan and Carnegie might be confused. The Kochs, offspring of the John Birch Society, are certainly just as predatory but a far different-- and more dangerous-- breed of titan. Between Rockefeller, Morgan and Carnegie and then the Koch brothers, we had the full flowering of the penultimate post-slavery right-wing economic system: fascism. Republican governors-- even the most weak-minded, like Arizona featherweight Jan Brewer have figured out that the real world trumps ideology when you try to actually run a state, instead of just destroy the opposing political party.

The automatic budget cuts set to take hold this week were roundly condemned Sunday as governors, lawmakers and administration officials hoped for a deal to stave off the $85 billion reduction in government services.

Suggestions intended to instill a spirit of compromise included bringing all sides to the bargaining table, where they could act like "adults, a presidential summit at Camp David and even a field trip to watch Lincoln.

The alternative, as the White House outlined, is a damaging impact on everything from commercial flights to classrooms and meat inspections.

With Friday's deadline nearing, few in the nation's capital were optimistic that a realistic alternative could be found. Instead of dealing with problem at hand, both sides made assigning blame a priority as the clock ticked down.

"Unless the Republicans are willing to compromise and do a balanced approach, I think it will kick in," said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.

..."It's senseless and it doesn't need to happen," said Gov. Martin O'Malley, D-Md., during the annual meeting of the National Governors Association this weekend.

"And it's a damn shame, because we've actually had the fastest rate of jobs recovery of any state in our region. And this really threatens to hurt a lot of families in our state and kind of flat line our job growth for the next several months."

Some governors said the impasse was just the latest crisis in Washington that is keeping businesses from hiring and undermining the ability of state leaders to develop their own spending plans.

"I've not given up hope, but we're going to be prepared for whatever comes," said Gov. Brian Sandoval, R-Nev. "There will be consequences for our state."

Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy said it is past time for both sides to sit down to help dodge cuts that will hurt all states' budgets.

"Come to the table, everyone. Everybody. Let's work this thing out. Let's be adults," Malloy said.

Obama has not been able to find success for his approach of reducing deficits through a combination of targeted savings and tax increases. House Republicans have said reduced spending needs to be the focus and have rejected the president's demand to include higher taxes as part of a compromise.

...There are fewer signs of urgency among congressional leaders, who have recently indicated their willingness to let the cuts take effect and stay in place for weeks, if not much longer.

"It will kick in, but at a pro rata rate. So, you're not going to see $85 billion all of a sudden shrink from the federal government," Coburn [R-OK] said, suggesting the reality would not turn dire immediately.

The cuts would trim from domestic and defense spending alike, leading to furloughs for hundreds of thousands of workers. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the cuts would harm the readiness of U.S. fighting forces.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called those defense cuts "unconscionable" and urged Obama to call lawmakers to the White House or the presidential retreat of Camp David for a last-minute budget summit.

"I won't put all the blame all on the president of the United States. But the president leads. The president should be calling us over somewhere-- Camp David, the White House, somewhere-- and us sitting down and trying to avert these cuts," McCain said.

Both sides created the sequester problem. Obama gave in to right-wing blackmail over the national debt and went along with the idiotic scheme in which Boehner bragged he had gotten 98% of what he wanted. And now only one side wants to solve it, even if the GOP Establishment understands the danger. Senate Democrats offered a temporary plan that heads it off with spending cuts and increased revenues but the Republicans insist on more and deeper cuts and only cuts and that they double-dare the Democrats to let the economy go down the shitter. Last night, the White House released a detailed look at how Boehner's Sequester will impact each state. Here, in part is what will happen in his own state, Ohio:

Our economy is continuing to strengthen but we cannot afford a self-inflicted wound from Washington. Republicans should compromise and meet the President in the middle. We cannot simply cut our way to prosperity, and if Republicans continue to insist on an unreasonable, cuts-only approach, Ohio risks paying the price.

If sequestration were to take effect, some examples of the impacts on Ohio this year alone are:

• Teachers and Schools: Ohio will lose approximately $25.1 million in funding for primary and secondary education, putting around 350 teacher and aide jobs at risk. In addition about 34,000 fewer students would be served and approximately 100 fewer schools would receive funding.

* Education for Children with Disabilities: In addition, Ohio will lose approximately $22 million in funds for about 270 teachers, aides, and staff who help children with disabilities.

• Work-Study Jobs: Around 3,320 fewer low income students in Ohio would receive aid to help them finance the costs of college and around 1,450 fewer students will get work-study jobs that help them pay for college.

• Head Start: Head Start and Early Head Start services would be eliminated for approximately 2,500 children in Ohio, reducing access to critical early education.

• Protections for Clean Air and Clean Water: Ohio would lose about $6,865,000 in environmental funding to ensure clean water and air quality, as well as prevent pollution from pesticides and hazardous waste. In addition, Ohio could lose another $981,000 in grants for fish and wildlife protection.

• Military Readiness: In Ohio, approximately 26,000 civilian Department of Defense employees would be furloughed, reducing gross pay by around $161.4 million in total.

* Army: Base operation funding would be cut by about $1.9 million in Ohio.

* Air Force: Funding for Air Force operations in Ohio would be cut by about $3 million.

• Law Enforcement and Public Safety Funds for Crime Prevention and Prosecution: Ohio will lose about $455,000 in Justice Assistance Grants that support law enforcement, prosecution and courts, crime prevention and education, corrections and community corrections, drug treatment and enforcement, and crime victim and witness initiatives.

• Job Search Assistance to Help those in Ohio find Employment and Training: Ohio will lose about $1,786,000 in funding for job search assistance, referral, and placement, meaning around 57,100 fewer people will get the help and skills they need to find employment.

• Child Care: Up to 800 disadvantaged and vulnerable children could lose access to child care, which is also essential for working parents to hold down a job.

• Vaccines for Children: In Ohio around 5,040 fewer children will receive vaccines for diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, whooping cough, influenza, and Hepatitis B due to reduced funding for vaccinations of about $344,000.

• Public Health: Ohio will lose approximately $1,102,000 in funds to help upgrade its ability to respond to public health threats including infectious diseases, natural disasters, and biological, chemical, nuclear, and radiological events. In addition, Ohio will lose about $3,310,000 in grants to help prevent and treat substance abuse, resulting in around 4200 fewer admissions to substance abuse programs. And the Ohio State Department of Health will lose about $302,000 resulting in around 7,600 fewer HIV tests.

• STOP Violence Against Women Program: Ohio could lose up to $245,000 in funds that provide services to victims of domestic violence, resulting in up to 900 fewer victims being served.

• Nutrition Assistance for Seniors: Ohio would lose approximately $823,000 in funds that provide meals for seniors.

That's just Boehner's home state-- and McKinley's. Watch the first 10-15 minutes of the video up top again.