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Charles Koch Says His Partisanship Was a Mistake

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Re: Charles Koch Says His Partisanship Was a Mistake

#221

Post by CameronNemo »

chmod600 wrote: post #113
colinmhayes wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't a conspiracy. It is the organization most at fault for mitch's anti-democratic actions regarding the supreme court that I honestly believe has the potential to completely undermine our government. The supreme court's move to a completely partisan institution is a huge step toward a populist dictatorship. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/supreme-revenge/

The supreme court partisanship is overstated. It's brought out all the time as though the sky is falling, but typically when the court is tilted, side-switching magically appears. Roberts, Gorsuch, Kennedy, O'Connor and Souter all switched sides on major issues. Conservatives switch sides a lot more often, but perhaps because the court has been tilted towards Republican nominees.

>typically when the court is tilted, side-switching magically appears

For people like me, I don't care what "side" a justice is on. The justices literally choose which cases they accept... Of course there will be some debate on them.

What I find absolutely horrid is that the courts are packed with nominees hand selected by a group of US senators who not only cannot represent the majority of the US population/citizenry, but are also actively antagonistic toward people's will to determine their own future (see obstructionism by McConnell during the Obama years).

Re: Charles Koch Says His Partisanship Was a Mistake

#222

Post by nicetryguy »

StreamBright wrote: post #213
Der_Einzige wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a solid 35-40% of the Democratic Party is explicitly anti-corporate, remember occupy wall-street and the success of Bernie Sanders? Remember Warren calling for breaking up big tech? Even Biden and Obama frequently deployed (light) anti-corporate rhetoric in their campaigns and presidency. Trump is a billionaire and a defender of the corporate class. His entire administration consists of ex-corporate wall-street types…

Remember what DNC did to Bernie? https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/23/us/politics/dnc-emails-sa...

Sure do. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was fired over it. They also dismantled the superdelegate system. Changes were made. The media was still heavily biased against Bernie before the pandemic; probably due to half of their commercials being for drug and insurance companies.

I'm just looking forward to a period of relative stability the next four years. #MakePoliticsBoringAgain

Re: Charles Koch Says His Partisanship Was a Mistake

#223

Post by rospaya »

BurningFrog wrote: post #57
EliRivers wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very rough numbers, a bit out of date: Allegedly about 2100 billionaires - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World%27s_Billionaires A couple of years ago all the millionaires put together controlled about 45% of global wealth - https://www.visualcapitalist.com/global-wealth-concentration... Since billionaires are a subset of those, then they cannot possibly control any more than 45%, so certainly less than half. Can'…

Thanks for doing the work! Another angle is that Jeff Bezos, richest man in the world, has $184B. That's $550 per American, or $24 per human. Undeniably a lot of money, but also far from a sum that would change the world if it got redistributed.

His wealth is mostly stock, right? In fact most of the billionaires have their weight in stocks. In a theoretical situation where Bezos goes to unload all of his stocks to end world hunger, who would be there to buy it? Would the stock devalue the moment he starts selling it? It's complicated.

Re: Charles Koch Says His Partisanship Was a Mistake

#224

Post by dnautics »

aniro wrote: post #187
forest_dweller wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It highlights the very important point that activist groups will quite often ignore viable solutions. This is usually because they wish to keep on being activists and keep on continuing the fight. Thus it brings into question anything they claim and all claims should be treated with skepticism.

Have you seen how big the Chernobyl exclusion zone is? are to move your family there? Have you paid any attention to the after effects at Fukushima? Do you care to realize that we are pushing radiation with unknown effects into the largest body of water (and one of the greatest repositories of life) on Earth? That the effects will likely reverberate for a 1000 years or more? What is your solution to the problem of ac…

" Do you care to realize that we are pushing radiation with unknown effects into the largest body of water..."

Real talk: Which do you think is worse, fukushima, or one atmospheric nuclear test?

Re: Charles Koch Says His Partisanship Was a Mistake

#226

Post by civilized »

CalChris wrote: post #208

“Still, his political spending remains almost entirely partisan. Koch Industries’ PAC and employees donated $2.8 million in the 2020 campaign cycle to Republican candidates and $221,000 to Democratic candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.“

I bet he hasn't even stopped funding whatever kooky climate change deniers he can find. I'll be happy when he's dead

Re: Charles Koch Says His Partisanship Was a Mistake

#227

Post by crocodiletears »

StreamBright wrote: post #213
Der_Einzige wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a solid 35-40% of the Democratic Party is explicitly anti-corporate, remember occupy wall-street and the success of Bernie Sanders? Remember Warren calling for breaking up big tech? Even Biden and Obama frequently deployed (light) anti-corporate rhetoric in their campaigns and presidency. Trump is a billionaire and a defender of the corporate class. His entire administration consists of ex-corporate wall-street types…

Remember what DNC did to Bernie? https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/23/us/politics/dnc-emails-sa...

And Gabbard [0, 1], and Yang [2] (the cited individual incidents do not necessarily constitute proof of candidate suppression in and of themselves, but are indicative of broader patterns throughout the primary process).

[0] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dnc-raises-debate-requirements-...

[1] https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/18/politics/hillary-clinton-tuls...

[2] https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/28/politics/andrew-yang-claims-n...

Re: Charles Koch Says His Partisanship Was a Mistake

#229

Post by rootusrootus »

divbzero wrote: post #196
bwanab wrote: post #156

This reminds me of George Wallace’s famous realization that his long term institutionalization of racism in Alabama was wrong when he was getting close to death’s door. It was kind of nice to hear, but lots of damage was done.

Lots of damage done, but for Charles Koch there might be time still to heal some of the polarization.

I am skeptical. I think people like Koch have been fanning the flames for a long time, only to now see that the monster rose up and threatens to eat them. They'd like to put the genie back in the bottle, but it's too late for that.
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