We can only hope that they will overplay their hand to the point we have real reform.

But based on response to Christie, many people admire bullies.

I keep thinking that these guys are so smart maybe it will eventually hit them that they're spending more on influencing politics than the taxes would be if they just STFU and kept on helping the world go to hell in a handbasket (or, in their case, a leaking barrel). I mean, do they do it just to see their names in print? It's not getting them anywhere -- they keep throwing bad money after bad.

We should just rename the 'Dollar' to the 'Koch' and be done with it.

♫ Too many Koches ♫

lol @4

that's only 1000 times what bill maher spent in 2012. and 10 million times what I spent.

the kochs are at least that many times as important as bill maher and me, so I don't see the problem.

And how much will George Soros spend for the democrats?

The Koches should sell candy. Make a lolipop. They can call it Koch Suckers.

They aren't just spending money so they won't have to pay taxes:

They are spending money so they can continue to destroy the environment, legally.
They are spending money so they can continue to underpay their manual labor force, legally.
They are spending money to continue to get sweetheart deals on leases and government contracts, which increases their profit margins.
They are spending money to strangle local schools (charters) and the Post Office (pension), so they can scoop up publicly owned & developed property for pennies on the dollar.
That's the rigged game. Taxes are just the tip of the iceberg.

From boycottkochbrothers.com
Koch Products & Companies Include:
- Angel Soft
- Angel Soft Ultra
- Brawny paper towels
- Dixie cups (& napkins & plates)
- Insulair cups
- Perfect Touch cups, paper products
- Quilted Northern
- Sparkle paper towels
- Stainmaster
- Vanity Fair napkins & paper towels
- Mardis Gras napkins
- Zee Napkins
- Georgia Pacific products

Home/Office papers:
- Advantage
- Image Plus
- Spectrum

Other:
- American Greetings (Kochs own minority share)
- Guardian Glass (Kochs own 44%)
- Stainmaster
- Lycra
- Teflon

Building supplies:
- Georgia Pacific

Canadian Tar Sands

- Holiday Companies
- Gander Mountain
- American Greetings

Publix house brands
Greenwise brand bath tissue, paper towels, napkins and facial tissue are from Koch-owned Georgia Pacific.
How can I avoid buying Koch gasoline?
If you live in an area where a Koch refinery is located, you probably can't, unless you buy an electric vehicle.

(Note from emma's bee: a lot of products from my beloved Upper Midwest in here. THE SHAME!!)

My guess is that at some point the airwaves get so completely saturated with campaign ads that voters tune them out, mute them, or ignore them.

Not here in WA, where Obama barely bothered to campaign in, and spent little money because it is a solid blue state. But in close battleground states, so much money was being spent in 2012 that it must have been just nonstop campaign ads everywhere you looked for months before the election.

I know if I was faced with that kind of saturation, my mind would just go blank and ignore it after a while. At some point, the law of diminishing returns must kick in for campaign spending.

@11, thanks emma's bee!

@12 - tune out, maybe, but the brainwashing component of the RepubliKoch media strategy --using "frames" & constantly repeating them-- is still effective, because the specifically chained buzzwords affect their thinking.

Come on, guys. All it will take is the entire population of the state of Delaware to donate $100 each to balance out all this free speech.

@2: it's not the taxes that truly motivate the Koch brothers. Sure, they are deeply ideologically anti-tax, public sector pensions, and the usual load of tea-bagger dog whistles, but what they're really after is the ability to treat public waters and the atmosphere as an unregulated sewer. They were first really drawn into big political action when their unfettered ability to dump industrial waste into public water was curtailed and they were fined. And now that there is talk of limiting the ability to treat the atmosphere as a sewer (or to really charge for it) is gaining some amount of traction they are going apeshit.

They would not be billionaires if they actually had to pay for waste disposal.

@11 - So what?

If all it took was money to become president, Steve Forbes and Donald Trump would have at least made it to prior GOP nominations; or even Ross Perot as an independent. If there's no message that voters like, all that money is empty calories in our political diet.

@17: If all it took was a high sugar intake to come down with Type 2 Diabeetus, rates of Diabeetus would be way higher. And yet despite the fact that eating a lot of sugar doesn't necessarily give you Diabeetus, we still say that it causes the condition!
Do you understand the concept of a "contributing factor"? Steve Forbes is too disorganized and Donald Trump's hair is too ridiculous, but there are potential candidates out there who aren't as immediately ridiculous that could be made very dangerous to the nation and to public discourse by the addition of many dollars.

How much did they spend in 2012? Are they stupid enough to think the American people will vote for a republican? There are reportedly as many as 20 wannabes on the republican side, what does that tell you? It will be a very interesting time with sarah palin getting her licks in and donald trump saying he's the best candidate, they will lose the election because they have nobody up to the job of being President.

@20: https://yt3.ggpht.com/-jsDHrr_kuYU/AAAAA…

@17 Steve Forbes isn't all that savvy, it was his dad you know the faggot who had the mojo. Plus Steve, apparently massively traumatized by having cocksucking dad is batshit crazy.

Donald Trump is the forever going bankrupt millionaire, in his best years maybe worth 100-200 million but it's all leveraged. No where near Koch money. Hell he pays his bills playing a cartoon.

Ross Perot again puny money compared to the Koch brothers. Oh and batshit crazy.

@20 http://media.urbandictionary.com/image/p…

@19 "How much did they spend in 2012? Are they stupid enough to think the American people will vote for a republican? "

The question is are the American people stupid enough to vote for a republican. The answer is unfortunately YES. see #17.

This spending level is on par with the entire spending level of both parties combined, so yes Virginia, it's a bad thing.

@16 - interesting point about them being motivated by anti-environmental concerns.

I had assumed the Kochs were motivated by pure spite -- yeah, they could give up and save money by just paying taxes instead of trying to influence politics, but that would mean LOSING.