PIMPS FOR BIG BUSINESS
The Kochs are prime examples of deep pocket corporate whoremongers. They fund shady political organizations that take money to lie, royally screwing the U.S. tax payer.
Corporate-funded non-profits, think tanks, and super PACs churn out loads and loads of baloney to feed the bullshit machine that props up our oligarchy, the corrupt political circus and puerile theatrics that pretend to be a thriving democracy and free press.
(David Dayen at The Intercept.com)
"THIS PAST SUNDAY, when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was interviewed on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Jake Tapper quizzed her about the cost to the government of “Medicare for all,” pegged at more than $30 trillion over a 10-year period. CNN’s chyron told viewers the research came from three sources: George Mason University, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and the Congressional Budget Office.
The George Mason paper touched off controversy when it was released in July, because buried in the findings was an estimate that the $32.6 trillion price tag would also result in a $2 trillion savings over national expenditures on health care, relative to the status quo. Designed to create sticker shock for “Medicare for All,” instead the study, produced by the Mercatus Center, which bills itself as part of George Mason, inadvertently proved a point of progressive supporters of single payer."
(David Dayen at The Intercept.com)
"The email addresses are just one of a litany of links between Mercatus and George Mason University. Despite these links, George Mason does not honor public records requests related to Mercatus, instead labeling it “an independent 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization.”
This structure grants Mercatus the imprimatur of an academic think tank, something to be taken more seriously by the media than the flurry of white papers churned out by unaffiliated ideological research groups. However, when asked to abide by the responsibilities of a public university, Mercatus retreats to the position that it is a fully independent organization. The use of the private email server facilitates that, enabling Mercatus employees to use university-affiliated email addresses while carrying on the charade about independence."
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(Democracy Now.org)
"AMY GOODMAN: Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh, speaking last night after President Trump announced his nomination. Ian Millhiser, he was chosen by the Federalist Society. That’s the list that President Trump was using to make his choice. Explain what the Federalist Society is.
IAN MILLHISER: Sure. So, the Federalist Society is an organization of conservative lawyers. It’s been around for a really long time. And what’s interesting about the Federalist Society is it sort of benefits from this cycle where everyone knows if you want a judgeship from a Republican president or if you want a job in a Republican administration, the way to do that is you get a job or you get involved in the Federalist Society when you’re a law student, you ingratiate yourself to them, and then they dole out favors. And so, because everyone knows that they’re the ones that can dole out those goodies, it’s this self-perpetuating cycle, where people get involved with the organization because they know it’s the place to go, and that means that the best conservative lawyers are getting involved with it.
The mechanism this has provided is that the Federalist Society has moved very, very far to the right in recent years. You know, they were one of the incubators for this idea that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. Recently, they’ve grown obsessed with dismantling federal agencies like the EPA or the Department of Labor. And those were all ideas that just weren’t on the table 10 years ago. So what’s happened is, the Federalist Society has become the place where if you’re ambitious and you want to get a good job in a Republican administration and you’re a lawyer, you have to go through them. And they take more and more right-wing positions, which doesn’t just mean that they’re taking those positions. It means that every ambitious Republican lawyer in the country feels like they have to take these extreme positions, or they’re just not going to advance their career."
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It probably won't help, but get out and vote for fresh ideas, not incumbent corruption masquerading as incompetence.