Morning Joe Hosts Receive Special Invite To Closed Koch Event, Lavish Koch Brothers With Praise

[Triana]

Sunday night, a conservative political organization that has been called “the Koch Brothers’ secret bank,” hosted a forum for three potential Republican 2016 presidential hopefuls. The “American Recovery Policy Forum,” moderated by ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl, was advertised as closed to the public and closed to the press — though networks did have some access to an Internet video stream.

But while other reporters were not invited, MSNBC’s Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski were in attendance at the Palm Springs event and fawned over their “awesome” weekend — and about the billionaire oil magnates.

Scarborough noted that he had spoken at length with Charles Koch and found him to be a “true believer,” who is “obsessed” with “income disparity and, mainly, crony capitalism.” The former Republican Congressman from Florida added that Charles Koch “has no use for Republicans that support corporate welfare and no use for Democrats,” and “anyone who thinks that they are loyal, faithful Republicans have never talked to them for more than three minutes.” He also claimed that the anti-government activist Kochs are really mainstream social moderates with little patience for those who want “huge bloody battles on social issues” . . .

THE REST:

http://thinkprogress.org/media/2015/01/26/3615661/morning-joe-koch-brothers-awesome/

If you believe what JoeScar says, I have some oceanfront property to sell you in the middle of the Mojave Desert. What the Koch Brothers ARE is the same old extremist John Birch Society and Ayn Rand worshippers they've always been.

[BeyondGeography]

1. Rich kid opposes crony capitalism

and the presstitutes swoon.

So sad.

[Hoppy]

2. Wow! I never knew that about Charles Koch.

I'm gonna join me the John Birch Society.

[spanone]

3. they are all just so full of shit. republicans trying to own income disparity...

[Ino]

4. Dead Intern Joe prostitutes himself (nt)

[freshwest]

5. Got your number, Scar!

Where is the proof that what Joe says in the OP is a lie?

Right here:

BERNIE SANDERS Uncovers 1980 Koch Agenda- "What Do the Koch Brothers Want?"

What else do the Koch brothers want?

In 1980, David Koch ran as the Libertarian Party’s vice-presidential candidate in 1980.

Let’s take a look at the 1980 Libertarian Party platform.

Here are just a few excerpts of the Libertarian Party platform that David Koch ran on in 1980:

“We urge the repeal of federal campaign finance laws, and the immediate abolition of the despotic Federal Election Commission.”

“We favor the abolition of Medicare and Medicaid programs.”

“We oppose any compulsory insurance or tax-supported plan to provide health services, including those which finance abortion services.”

“We also favor the deregulation of the medical insurance industry.”

“We favor the repeal of the fraudulent, virtually bankrupt, and increasingly oppressive Social Security system. Pending that repeal, participation in Social Security should be made voluntary.”

“We propose the abolition of the governmental Postal Service. The present system, in addition to being inefficient, encourages governmental surveillance of private correspondence. Pending abolition, we call for an end to the monopoly system and for allowing free competition in all aspects of postal service.”

“We oppose all personal and corporate income taxation, including capital gains taxes.”

“We support the eventual repeal of all taxation.”

“As an interim measure, all criminal and civil sanctions against tax evasion should be terminated immediately.”

“We support repeal of all law which impede the ability of any person to find employment, such as minimum wage laws.”

“We advocate the complete separation of education and State. Government schools lead to the indoctrination of children and interfere with the free choice of individuals. Government ownership, operation, regulation, and subsidy of schools and colleges should be ended.”

“We condemn compulsory education laws … and we call for the immediate repeal of such laws.”

“We support the repeal of all taxes on the income or property of private schools, whether profit or non-profit.”

“We support the abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency.”

“We support abolition of the Department of Energy.”

“We call for the dissolution of all government agencies concerned with transportation, including the Department of Transportation.”

“We demand the return of America's railroad system to private ownership. We call for the privatization of the public roads and national highway system.”

“We specifically oppose laws requiring an individual to buy or use so-called "self-protection" equipment such as safety belts, air bags, or crash helmets.”

“We advocate the abolition of the Federal Aviation Administration.”

“We advocate the abolition of the Food and Drug Administration.”

“We support an end to all subsidies for child-bearing built into our present laws, including all welfare plans and the provision of tax-supported services for children.”

“We oppose all government welfare, relief projects, and ‘aid to the poor’ programs. All these government programs are privacy-invading, paternalistic, demeaning, and inefficient. The proper source of help for such persons is the voluntary efforts of private groups and individuals.”

“We call for the privatization of the inland waterways, and of the distribution system that brings water to industry, agriculture and households.”

“We call for the repeal of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.”

“We call for the abolition of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.”

“We support the repeal of all state usury laws.”

In other words, the agenda of the Koch brothers is not only to defund Obamacare. The agenda of the Koch brothers is to repeal every major piece of legislation that has been signed into law over the past 80 years that has protected the middle class, the elderly, the children, the sick, and the most vulnerable in this country...

Tomorrow it will be Social Security, ending Medicare as we know it, repealing the minimum wage. It seems to me that the Koch brothers will not be content until they get everything they believe they are entitled to.

Our great nation can no longer be hijacked by right-wing billionaires like the Koch brothers.

For the sake of our children and our grandchildren, for the sake of our economy, we have got to let democracy prevail.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024806298

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/koch-brothers

http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a7980koch

to kpete:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024806298

We've heard these memes for years, Americans have come to believe this is how it has to be.

Another explanation of this here:

How Freedom Became Tyranny

Rightwing libertarians have turned “freedom” into an excuse for greed and exploitation.

George Monbiot - December 19, 2011

Freedom: who could object? Yet this word is now used to justify a thousand forms of exploitation. Throughout the rightwing press and blogosphere, among thinktanks and governments, the word excuses every assault on the lives of the poor, every form of inequality and intrusion to which the 1% subject us. How did libertarianism, once a noble impulse, become synonymous with injustice?

In the name of freedom – freedom from regulation – the banks were permitted to wreck the economy. In the name of freedom, taxes for the super-rich are cut. In the name of freedom, companies lobby to drop the minimum wage and raise working hours. In the same cause, US insurers lobby Congress to thwart effective public healthcare; the government rips up our planning laws; big business trashes the biosphere. This is the freedom of the powerful to exploit the weak, the rich to exploit the poor.

Right-wing libertarianism recognises few legitimate constraints on the power to act, regardless of the impact on the lives of others. In the UK it is forcefully promoted by groups like the TaxPayers’ Alliance, the Adam Smith Institute, the Institute of Economic Affairs and Policy Exchange. Their conception of freedom looks to me like nothing but a justification for greed.

So why have we been been so slow to challenge this concept of liberty? I believe that one of the reasons is as follows. The great political conflict of our age – between neocons and the millionaires and corporations they support on one side and social justice campaigners and environmentalists on the other – has been mischaracterised as a clash between negative and positive freedoms.

More at the link about the meaning of positive and negative freedoms and how the word is being used against us:

http://www.monbiot.com/2011/12/19/how-freedom-became-tyranny/

So, really, what in that platform opposes crony capitalism?

NOTHING. Sending all public assets into private hands is done by crony capitalists!

What in it appeals to moderates who want to keep the social safety net?

NOTHING. It is a manifesto to eliminate that.

Where is the denunciation of ALEX with all its egregrious attacks on Equality and the Public Good?

NOWHERE. Joe and Mika, like Walker, Scott (both of them), Christie, Perry, Paul, Boehner and so many others - are nothing more than paid lackeys for the Kochs.

Even though we've discussed them a good deal on DU, the majority of Americans know little of them or how their agenda affects their well-being, that of their children and future generations. They still believe that news is as fair as it was in the best of the Morrow days, and don't appear to know the Fairness Doctrine has been eviscerated, and the networks aren't required to show boths sides, and don't have to prove they exist in the public interest. That was once a mandatory annual review.

There is so much more wrong in the media, from emotional or psychological brainwashing, the distortion of facts, the denial of human truths... that the American Mind is blown away and doesn't know where to start. Meanwhile, Rush, O'Reilly, Beck, Hannity and the rest of them are paid tens of millions of dollars annually.

And he who pays the fiddler, picks the tune, they'll say anything!

[MADem]

6. He took time off to go witness that sweaty grapple between Bush and McCain in FL.

He was in the front row, clapping and cheering.

Ick. He is what he is, and what he is, is pretty obvious. And not terribly nice.

[Scuba]

7. Yet I know right-wingers who claim that MSNBC is a complete counter-balance to Fox "News".

[butterfly77]

8. K&R..