The Koch Brothers’ twisted beauty pageant: The disturbing way they’re choosing which GOP candidate t

[applegrove]

The Koch Brothers’ twisted beauty pageant: The disturbing way they’re choosing which GOP candidate to buy

by Heather Digby Parton at Salon

http://www.salon.com/2015/07/31/the_koch_brothers_twisted_beauty_pageant_the_disturbing_way_theyre_choosing_which_gop_candidate_to_buy/

"SNIP.................



People who regularly read my byline will recall that back in April I wrote about poor Scott Walker making a huge gaffe just as it seemed like the Koch brothers, his presumed benefactors, were ready to go all-in on his campaign. This resulted in a postponement of any endorsement in the GOP primary in favor of an “audition” among other candidates later in the summer.



Well, the big day is upon us. Politico reported this week that a handful of candidates have made the final cut and have been invited to make one last tryout for the starring role in the Kochs’ big 2015 Summer Super-Pageant:


Four leading GOP presidential candidates – Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Scott Walker – are traveling to a Southern California luxury hotel in coming days to make their cases directly to the Koch brothers and hundreds of other wealthy conservatives planning to spend close to $1 billion in the run-up to the 2016 election. The gathering – which also will include former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, but notably not Sen. Rand Paul — is hosted by Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the umbrella group in the Kochs’ increasingly influential network of political and public policy outfits. It represents a major opportunity for the candidates at a pivotal moment in the presidential primary.


The crowded field of GOP contenders is competing aggressively for the support of uncommitted mega-donors as the campaign hurtles towards its first debates in what’s expected to be a long and costly battle for the Republican nomination. Freedom Partners’ annual summer conference is set for August 1 through August 3, and is expected to draw 450 of the biggest financiers of the right for sessions about the fiscally conservative policies and politics that animate the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch and many of the donors in their network.



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[Stinky The Clown]

1. Not sure how well this will work this cycle.

Most people know who and what the Koch brothers are. They're no longer "shadowy."

[applegrove]

2. I think going to a billion dollars in election funding from two brothers, who want to forestall

renewable energy as long as possible so that they can have 60 or 100 billion dollars vs. 10 Billion, while tlhey are in their late 70s and will not face horrid climate change themselves,s is shadowy. It is also dark, gloomy and doomy for democracy. What made human beings so great was their ability to see a problem and cooperate to do something to fix it. The Koch brother not only don't want to do anything to fix it they also don't want people to see the problem. Pretty damming. Anti democratic. Anti human.

[Fred Sanders]

3. All people know what money is and all people watch ads paid for by money, even dark money...you miss the point.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Respectfully, Fred, I think yiou're the one missing a point.

A billion dollars to buy the presidency.

Just say it out loud.

A lot.

It fits on a bumper sticker.

It makes a nice teevee ad.