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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
The question is whether their heirs are as Ideologically Dedicated as they were, or are Only in It for the Money.
Correct me if I'm wrong but weren't the Koch brothers less ideologically dedicated and more just in it for the money?
Hence why they're souring on the fascism they helped spawn while the Mercers as actual ideologues are still 100% committed.
Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Aug 1st 2018 at 12:22:42 PM
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangProbably, but not to any significant degree. They'll just be replaced by heirs who are probably as corrupt and self-interested as they are, thus leading to more reactionaries/fascists being funded.
Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Aug 1st 2018 at 12:43:48 PM
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangOfficials Botched 2020 Census Printing Contract, Report Finds
:
"Our investigation revealed GPO did not do an adequate job of protecting the interests of the Government," concluded former Inspector General Michael Raponi, who authored the report obtained by NPR.
Despite irregularities and what the report describes as a "high degree of disregard for GPO practices and procedures," the GPO's contracting officials awarded the $61 million contract to the printing company Cenveo in October 2017.
Less than four months later, Cenveo filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
GPO contracting officials failed to check whether the company had enough financial resources to complete the job.
In a violation of contracting rules and procedure, the inspector general found GPO contracting officials allowed Cenveo to substantially lower its bid after other bids had been unsealed. Moreover, the agency's Contract Review Board approved the contract "without ensuring the contracting officer had reviewed Cenveo's financial status."
The March 28 report was prepared for the Government Publishing Office's acting general counsel by Raponi, who has since left the agency.
Edited by rmctagg09 on Aug 1st 2018 at 2:35:39 PM
Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.So Jim Jeffries had a segment regarding the James Gunn controversy that I thought was pretty fair, ending with a literal Scape Goat.
Thoughts?
Edited by ironballs16 on Aug 1st 2018 at 11:44:48 AM
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"You may remember that a cardiologist whose patients included Bush senior was shot a few weeks ago in a targeted killing. Turns out that the shooter's mother died while the doctor was operating on her...20 years ago.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/01/us/mark-hausknecht-houston-doctor-suspect/index.html
Remember how I've said the only loyalty Trump has is too himself? We'll he's already Distancing himself from Manafort.
Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and “Public Enemy Number One,” or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement - although convicted of nothing? Where is the Russian Collusion?
Edited by megaeliz on Aug 1st 2018 at 3:56:48 PM
My immediate thought is that the Republican Party would have to shrink as an organization substantially; without the mega donors, I can't imagine the Party gets a lot of small donations like the Democrats do. Most of these Donors would go to a variety of other 3rd Parties, or support Democrats who are willing to support their ideals.
In the short term, the Republican Party would hold on to that 30-40% base, but as that base dies off (and let's face it, it will), it will shrink and shrink (as Millennial Trumpeteers are no where near enough to replace them). In 20 years, Republicans, if they go all in on Trump and keep it, will be a 3rd Party that is only able to compete in State and Local Elections, but not federally.
Of course, living with a Republican Family, I can tell you what's actually going to happen; they'll support Trump blindly for as long as he's in office, then support him for a year or two when he's out. Then, by the next wave of Republican Radicals, they'll be bad mouthing Trump and complaining about all the bad stuff he did in office and how he screwed over the Party and helped the Democrats, and focus on this new ideology and how it's infallible and perfect for the Country. My parents, who used to be die hard Bush Jr. supporters, now condemn him (as well as McCain and Romney). They will do the exact same thing when Trump is a few years out of office, as will almost every other Republican. And if this new ideology is more in line with Reagan then Trump, the Donors will simply come crawling back.
Edited by DingoWalley1 on Aug 1st 2018 at 4:44:00 AM
Huh, the Mainstream Media finally picked up the story of the "Q Anon" conspiracy theory. (From Wa Po)
‘We are Q’: A deranged conspiracy cult leaps from the Internet to the crowd at Trump’s ‘MAGA’ tour
“Tampa rally, live coverage,” wrote “Dan,” posting a link to President Trump’s Tampa speech in a thread on 8chan, an anonymous image board also known as Infinitechan or Infinitychan, which might be best described as the unglued twin of better-known 4chan, a message board already untethered from reality.
The thread invited “requests to Q,” an anonymous user claiming to be a government agent with top security clearance, waging war against the so-called deep state in service to the 45th president. “Q” feeds disciples, or “bakers,” scraps of intelligence, or “bread crumbs,” that they scramble to bake into an understanding of the “storm” — the community’s term, drawn from Trump’s cryptic reference last year to “the calm before the storm” — for the president’s final conquest over elites, globalists and deep-state saboteurs.
What Tuesday’s rally in Tampa made apparent is that devotees of these falsehoods — some of which are specific to faith in the president, others garden-variety nonsense with racist and anti-Semitic undertones — don’t just exist in the far reaches of the Web.
Believers in “Q Anon,” as the conspiracy theory is known, were front and center at the Florida State Fairgrounds Expo Hall, where Trump came to stump for Republican candidates. As the president spoke, a sign rose from the audience. “We are Q,” it read. Another poster displayed text arranged in a “Q” pattern: “Where we go one we go all.”
The symbol appeared on clothing, too. A man and a woman wore matching white T-shirts with the You Tube logo encircled in a blue “Q.” The video-sharing website came under criticism this week for unwittingly becoming a platform for baseless claims, first promoted on Twitter and Reddit by Q Anon believers, that certain Hollywood celebrities are pedophiles. A search for the name of one of those celebrities on Monday returned videos purporting to show his victims sharing their stories.
The prominence of the “Q” symbol turned parts of the audience into a tableau of delusion and paranoia — and offered evidence that Q Anon, an outgrowth of the #Pizzagate conspiracy theory that led a gunman to open fire in a D.C. restaurant last year, has leaped from Internet message boards to the president’s “Make America Great Again” tour through America.
“Pray Trump mentions Q!” one user wrote on 8chan. He didn’t need to. As hazy corners of the Internet buzzed about the president’s speech, his appearance became a real-life show of force for the community that has mostly operated behind the veil of anonymity on subreddits.
Trump himself has at times been a purveyor of conspiracy theories, most notably in refusing for years to back down from his false claim that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. He also asserted without evidence that Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower, peddled the debunked idea that millions of illegal votes cost him the popular vote and associated the father of Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas with the assassin who shot John F. Kennedy.
But viewing their message boards, it’s clear that Q Anon crosses a new frontier. In the black hole of conspiracy in which “Q” has plunged its followers, Trump only feigned collusion to create a pretense for the hiring of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is actually working as a “white hat,” or hero, to expose the Democrats. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and George Soros are planning a coup — and traffic children in their spare time. J.P. Morgan, the American financier, sank the Titanic.
In the world in which Q Anon believers live, Trump’s detractors, such as Republican Sen. John Mc Cain of Arizona and Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, wear ankle monitors that track their whereabouts. Press reports are dismissed as “Operation Mockingbird,” the name given to the alleged midcentury infiltration of the American media by the CIA. The Illuminati looms large in Q Anon, as do the Rothschilds, a wealthy Jewish family vilified by the conspiracy theorists as the leaders of a satanic cult. Among the world leaders wise to satanic influences, the theory holds, is Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Q Anon flirts with eschatology, fascist philosophy and the filmmaking of Francis Ford Coppola. Adherents believe a “Great Awakening” will precede the final storm foretold by Trump. Once they make sense of the information drip-fed to them by “Q,” they will usher in a Christian revival presaging total victory.
The implication is that resolving the clues left by “Q” would not just explain Trump’s planned countercoup. It would also explain the whole universe.
When “Q” is absent for long stretches of time, followers take note.
“Please tell me where to go,” one wrote last month. “I feel lost without Q.”
Some big names have bought into the fantasy. Roseanne Barr, the disgraced star of the canceled ABC revival that bore her name, has posted messages on Twitter that appear to endorse the Q Anon worldview, fixating on child sex abuse. She has sought to make contact with “Q” on social media and has retweeted messages summarizing the philosophy built around the online persona. Among Q Anon’s promoters are also Curt Schilling, the former Boston Red Sox pitcher, and Cheryl Sullenger, the antiabortion activist.
There is a component of Q Anon that can be interpreted as a direct call to action, which has already had real-life consequences.
The Newport Beach Police Department said recently it was looking into the presence of a man outside Michael Avenatti’s law office after a link to the lawyer’s website and images of his office building appeared in Q Anon threads. This spring, armed members of Veterans on Patrol stumbled on a homeless camp and demanded that authorities investigate it as a site of child sex-trafficking, NBC reported. They later thanked Q Anon followers for taking up their cause.
I just thought this was a really good write up. The one thing they don't mention is it's connection to Russian Social Media influence campaigns. They almost do,
" Among the world leaders wise to satanic influences, the theory holds, is Russian President Vladimir Putin"
But they should make that more explicit.
Edited by megaeliz on Aug 1st 2018 at 5:20:31 AM

The Kochs are pulling out of politics.
They won after all.
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