Here are the clips to watch:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#43571292
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#43571315
The right likes to whine that liberals make too much of the Koch brothers.
Shockingly, they're wrong.
They're not the only force in the right wing, but they are a major force with very disproportionate political power compared to what's healthy for the country.
What would political corruption in this country look like, if it were bad?
You might think it involves some major corporate special interest - let's make it one that's harmful, say with lots of pollution - and an agenda to gut regulation against that pollution.
Then you might have them with a very large behind the scenes role in politics around the country influencing all kinds of races - putting people in power who seem to have more loyalty to the special interest that put them there than the people they govern, who might be treated with contempt. They might fund everything from propaganda machines to elections to staging political activities to change opinion.
Maybe they'd be able to just summon governors to command performances with their masters. Let's have the governors go to these meetings secretly, to hide the contact.
That describes the Koch brothers.
Where was Rick Scott last weekend? His public calendar had nothing for the first time since he was governor - and his staff would not say where he was.
Hm, Rick Perry missing too, where was he? No info available.
Both of them were tracked down to a secret meeting in Colorado hosted by the Kochs (tracking the tail number of a plane Perry was known to use that belongs to a donor).
The far-right Governor of Virginia? He was there too, but didn't hide it.
(This is recounting the intro in the first link above so far).
This isn't how it's supposed to work, governors and others put into power with the critical support of billionare special interests who want to get regulation so they can pollute more - already with thousands of violations - where the behavior of these governors seems to be following a Koch agenda rather than the public interest - policies they did not run on that are very unpopular, Rick Scott with an approval rating in the 20's IIRC.
We remember the phony Koch call to Scott Walker - a man the Kochs were the biggest donor for - though they spent even more on Perry.
Elections with unlimited funding by the side with the big bucks is not healthy for democracy.
And the US is not supposed to be run by right-wing tycoons who control politics around the country, destroying unions to help themselves politically, pushing a national campaign to supress voting (37 states now are pushing bills to do so IIRC, in what's called the biggest voter suppression effort in a century).
The second clip has Howard Dean being quite straightforward about this, describing the Kochs as a threat to the country. He has good comments on this.
They further discuss how political activity itself is shifting to be 'privatized' where limits are removed - 'get out the vote' becoming an activity of private organizations with unlimited donations they can take, as these private groups whose donors do not need to be disclosed as the donors to candidates do pass the parties in funding.
This is not good - it's highly corrupt, the agenda of powerful private interests defeating democracy. The attacks are going to get stronger.
This is a taste of where things are headed with the changes put in place in elections.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#43571292
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#43571315
The right likes to whine that liberals make too much of the Koch brothers.
Shockingly, they're wrong.
They're not the only force in the right wing, but they are a major force with very disproportionate political power compared to what's healthy for the country.
What would political corruption in this country look like, if it were bad?
You might think it involves some major corporate special interest - let's make it one that's harmful, say with lots of pollution - and an agenda to gut regulation against that pollution.
Then you might have them with a very large behind the scenes role in politics around the country influencing all kinds of races - putting people in power who seem to have more loyalty to the special interest that put them there than the people they govern, who might be treated with contempt. They might fund everything from propaganda machines to elections to staging political activities to change opinion.
Maybe they'd be able to just summon governors to command performances with their masters. Let's have the governors go to these meetings secretly, to hide the contact.
That describes the Koch brothers.
Where was Rick Scott last weekend? His public calendar had nothing for the first time since he was governor - and his staff would not say where he was.
Hm, Rick Perry missing too, where was he? No info available.
Both of them were tracked down to a secret meeting in Colorado hosted by the Kochs (tracking the tail number of a plane Perry was known to use that belongs to a donor).
The far-right Governor of Virginia? He was there too, but didn't hide it.
(This is recounting the intro in the first link above so far).
This isn't how it's supposed to work, governors and others put into power with the critical support of billionare special interests who want to get regulation so they can pollute more - already with thousands of violations - where the behavior of these governors seems to be following a Koch agenda rather than the public interest - policies they did not run on that are very unpopular, Rick Scott with an approval rating in the 20's IIRC.
We remember the phony Koch call to Scott Walker - a man the Kochs were the biggest donor for - though they spent even more on Perry.
Elections with unlimited funding by the side with the big bucks is not healthy for democracy.
And the US is not supposed to be run by right-wing tycoons who control politics around the country, destroying unions to help themselves politically, pushing a national campaign to supress voting (37 states now are pushing bills to do so IIRC, in what's called the biggest voter suppression effort in a century).
The second clip has Howard Dean being quite straightforward about this, describing the Kochs as a threat to the country. He has good comments on this.
They further discuss how political activity itself is shifting to be 'privatized' where limits are removed - 'get out the vote' becoming an activity of private organizations with unlimited donations they can take, as these private groups whose donors do not need to be disclosed as the donors to candidates do pass the parties in funding.
This is not good - it's highly corrupt, the agenda of powerful private interests defeating democracy. The attacks are going to get stronger.
This is a taste of where things are headed with the changes put in place in elections.
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