Today's Cartoon And Read - The Fat Cats Candidate Cattle Show

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(Tom Toles, once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle)

The Republican fat cats (led by the ultra-right Koch brothers) had their candidate cattle show over the weekend, and they seem to think they're on the right side of history:

Five Republican presidential candidates [Fiorina, Walker, Rubio, Cruz and Bush] wooed donors at a weekend retreat where billionaire industrialist Charles Koch warned America is “done for” if conservatives don’t rally others to their cause by demanding a smaller, less-intrusive government.

“History demonstrates that when the American people get motivated by an issue of justice, that they believe is just, extraordinary things can be accomplished,” he said on Sunday, going on to reference the American Revolution, abolition of slavery and women’s and civil rights movements. “We, too, are seeking to right injustices that are holding our country back.”
 
Listening intently inside a tightly guarded luxury resort in Southern California were 450 business leaders — many among them top political contributors — and the elected officials who receive that largesse. They’ve been strategizing with officials at the education, policy and activist groups that Koch and his brother David have spent years building up and funding.
 
That network has a budget of $889 million through the end of 2016 — and much of it will be directed at electing a Republican to the White House.  (our emphasis)

We wonder what "injustices" the Kochs and their 450 fellow oligarchs would like to right.  The tyranny of Medicare and Social Security?  The obscenity of clean air and clean water?  Voting rights for minorities?  A Democrat ever holding national office again?

Make no mistake;  beyond their election-season rhetoric (and the one issue they're apparently in synch with Democrats - criminal justice reform), these one per centers have zero interest in seriously addressing issues such as income inequality, living wages, climate change, regulating pollutants, safeguarding minority voting rights, etc.  These are people with the darkest of motivations and goals, and anyone foolish enough to take at face value their obscene attempt to liken what they're up to with the civil rights and anti-slavery movements is in desperate need of adult supervision.

BONUS:  Our noble media took the pledge not to reveal any of the oligarchs at the cattle show... because Morally and Professionally Obtuse!

Republicans Line Up To Kiss Some Koch Ass

From Politic-ho:

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.

It's not just the ultra-right Koch brothers who will get a slavish tongue bath at the candidates' try-out;  representatives of Likudnik Smelly Shelly Adelson and hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer will also attend, along with approximately 450 Republican high-rollers.  The slobbering and groveling is expected to be intense and non-stop, so candidates, please apply your Chapstick generously.

Koch Brothers Casting Call: Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (Candidate)?

From Bloomberg News:

In a Saturday interview on the Larry Kudlow Show,  a nationally syndicated radio broadcast, David Koch let it slip that the roughly $900 million that he and his brother, Charles, plan to lavish on the 2016 presidential race could find its way into the hands of more than one GOP contender. 

"We are thinking of supporting several Republicans," David Koch said, adding, "If we're happy with the policies that these individuals are supporting, we'll finance their campaigns." (our emphasis)

[Sarcasm alert] Since, according to Justice Anthony Kennedy in Citizens United, "... [I]ndependent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption," the notion that Republican presidential hopefuls will be tailoring their positions to make certain they match those of the plutocrat Kochs (cut taxes on corporations and the wealthy, cut programs for the poor and middle classes, weaken environmental regulations, etc.) to get as much of that plutocrat dough as they can, there can't be the slightest appearance of a quid pro quo because those candidates won't owe anything to the Koch brothers =cough= $900 million =cough=, no siree!  Plus money is speech and corporations are people, my friends.

Meanwhile, at the New York Effing Times and once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle, the hunt for the smoking gun Clinton e-mails and charitable donations continues apace by their  Republican-wired, Clinton hating intrepid reporters and pundits.

BONUS:  Charles P. Pierce elaborates.

Today's Tomorrow Cartoon - The Flight of American Democracy Edition

Where'd it go?!

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It wasn't just Sheldon Adelson's tuchas that got trench rot from all the wet Republican lips;  the recent New Hampshire Freedumb Summit/ Plutocrat Fest co-sponsored by Citizens United and the Koch brothers' Americans for Plutocrat Prosperity attracted Tailgunner Ted Cruz, Aqua Buddha Paul, Rump Trump, and Rev. Huck (who managed to jump the shark, if that's even possible in today's Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid Party).  That's some sucking up, you betcha!

(Tom Tomorrow, via gocomics.com)