Two lies about the so-called Tea Party that media created, perpetuate and reinforce.

[No Elephants]

Lie #1: That the Tea Party is indeed a political party, as opposed to a wing of the Republican Party.

Lie #2: That the Tea Party was some kind of spontaneous organization, as opposed to one first conceived by the Koch brothers in the 1980s and funded by the Koch brothers and other conservative moneybaggers.


Heard from Chris Janning of MSNBC's Janning and Co. today:

Senator Mike Lee will give the Tea Party response to the state of the union. No word yet on who will give the Republican Party response.

(Same bs from politico and others.)

:wtf: Senator Mike Lee is a Republican. The Tea Party is Republican. That's two Republican Party responses to one state of the union.

Meanwhile, we traditional Democrats sit idly by, as if posing for Madame Tussaud's. If the Tea Party gets its own response to everything, so should we.

[Enthusiast]

1. I agree.

I believe the Tea Party was a creation of Freedom Works, a right wing think tank. I believe their original funding came directly from the Koch Brothers.

As far as I can remember they first appeared as organized protest against the Affordable Care Act. Well, they started protesting the Act before it was even created. This was done to create an image with the public that there was strong resistance to changing our health care system.

What they accomplished was to give Democrats cover for enacting what is essentially a Republican health care plan. "In the face of all this opposition we gave you the ACA!" It was all part of an elaborate ruse. Don't you think?

[No Elephants]

2. I don't know. That's above my pay grade.

A New Yorker article of a few years back by Jean Mayer said that the Koch Brothers began planning the Tea Party in the 1980s.

The wiki says:

Commentaries on origin

Fox News Channel commentator Juan Williams argues that the Tea Party movement emerged from the "ashes" of Ron Paul's 2008 presidential primary campaign.<65> Others have argued that the Koch brothers were essential in fostering the movement.<66><67> In 2013, a study published in the journal Tobacco Control concluded that organizations within the movement were connected with non-profit organizations that the tobacco industry and other corporate interests worked with and provided funding for,<68><69> including groups Citizens for a Sound Economy (founded by the Koch brothers).<7vv0><71> Al Gore cited the study and said that the connections between "market fundamentalists", the tobacco industry and the Tea Party could be traced to a 1971 memo from tobacco lawyer Lewis F. Powell, Jr. who advocated more political power for corporations. Gore said that the Tea Party is an extension of this political strategy "to promote corporate profit at the expense of the public good."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement


However, also according to the wiki, the Tea Party, as a group using that name, became visible in 2009---visible thanks mostly to Fox, esp. Glenn Beck, and thanks to other media. When I compare how they exaggerated the Tea Party and ignored Occupy Wall Street for as long as they possibly could, I want to punch someone in the eye.

IMTOKIYAC. It's more than OK if you are corporatist.


The Koch brothers were also among the early contributors to the DLC. I wonder if they contributed to Third Way and No Labels as well?

[No Elephants]

3. So, let's see,

Representing the corporatists are the Republican Party, the Tea Party, which we pretend is a political party separate from the Republicans, and the DLC/Turd Way Democrats. Oh, and the media.


Representing the peope are.......??????

[Enthusiast]

4. No one is representing We the People.

With the possible exception of a few rare Democrats like Sherrod Brown, Elizabeth Warren, Alan Grayson and Bernie. There are others that shouldn't go unmentioned. Democrats are finding it hard to oppose the President even when they know he is wrong. Nancy Pelosi was PATHETIC on John Stewart. She needs to hand that seat over to someone with a more agile mind.

[No Elephants]

5. I saw Pelosi on Stewart and I agree.

I did not think about it much as I watched, but, now that you mention it, yes, she was pathetic.

I think she expected him to fawn on her, given he is obviously a Democrat.

I did not watch the extended version of the interview online, though, only the part that was broadcast.

What I thought was really funny: When she said that she did not know the answer to a question that he was asking her and he got up from his chair and said something like, "Maybe I can find the minority leader."

People in D.C. don't need agile minds. They have fan clubs, people who will cheer them on or, at the very least, vote for them, no matter what.

[No Elephants]

6. P.S. Biggest lie she told during that broadcast: That "graduating" into lobbying

was about the Executive Branch, not Congress.


Is she kidding? Then again, I include in the term "lobbyist" members of think tanks, not only industry employees. In fact, tankers may be the most successful of the lobbyists.

AFAIK, no one in the last 50 to 70 years changed Washington more than think tanks like the DLC, Third Way, Progressive Policy Institute, Center for American Progress, etc., and their Republican counterparts. And No Labels, started by a Bushite and full of DLC types.

And guess what? Some of them are funded with taxpayer dollars, like the one that now employs the notorious Jane Harman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson_International_Center_for_Scholars

Now, I just read that DLC alum Podesta is starting a think tank about growing economic inequality.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/podesta-starting-a-think-tank-on-inequality/

Fee, fie, fo fum. I love the smell of sabotage in the morning.

After typing the above, I read that they are going to be researching causes of economic equality like the breakdown of marriage, somethiung the articles notes is more of a rightist issue. Riiiight. I'm sure things like repeal of Glass Steagall and the ton of foreclosures that followed had nothing to do it.

Article also says initial funding will come from the Sandler Foundation. http://www.sandlerfoundation.org/

How does someone like Herb Sandler, born and raised on New York Lower East Side (decades before gentrification of the Lower East Side), who worked in a small NYC law firm, get to donate $1.3 billion to a foundation? Ah, here it is: "Herb and his wife Marion Sandler operated Golden West Financial Corporation from 1963 to 2006."

http://www.herbsandler.com/

Yep, you guessed it. Golden West was in the business of making mortgage loans. http://www.marionsandler.com/ Made so much on mortgages that they had at least $1.3 billion to donate to a foundation. Pretty sure they didn't live modestly, either. And now, the profits from the mortgage industry that brought us global economic collapse in 2008 (Sandlers got out at the right time!) will fund research by Clinton's former chief of staff on why the gap between rich and poor just keeps growing.

Yep. I was right. The smell of sabotage.

Among other odors.

[Enthusiast]

7. Yeah, and outsourcing our decent paying jobs

has not affected income inequality. I'm sure some ultra wealthy assholes sat around in a think tank boardroom and came up with these destructive trade deals. And Gramm-Leach-Bliley, of course, which is mostly responsible for the 2008 collapse. I am at my wits end as to the solution. We have the entire establishment allied against our interests. They have destroyed our democracy. We also have this huge expensive military but they are working at the behest of this massively powerful ultra wealthy establishment. The real enemy is right here.

[No Elephants]

8. The military, Homeland Security, foreign policy, tax policy, immigration policy--all of it is

about the "job creators" and their interest in getting the cheapest labor on the planet, so they can drop $1.3 billion into a foundation named after themselves that will fund research to protect their interests even better.

I used to be awed by stuff like that, even after I found out how people like Charles Revson and his brother started their now multi-billion dollar businesses. Hint: a lot like how The Godfather succeeded in "selling" Genco olive oil, only they were "selling" Revlon nail enamel.
You don't buy it, a brick flies through your storefront in the middle of the night. Then you see the light about which brand of olive oil nail enamel you really meant to buy the day before.

Ah, the good ole days, when a couple of kids with rich grandparents could build a cosmetics empire relatively quickly with nothing but a formula and some money to pay the kind of thugs who would throw bricks.