Nice to know that one of these spoiled little sociopaths feels it necessary to go on the defensive.

When you attack a government of the people, you attack the people. He and his ilk aim to destroy our ability to self govern.

If there is a person that has done more damage to this country and killed more Americans than the unholy trinity of Charles Koch, David Koch, and Roger Ailes, I don't know who that person is.

If a foreign born person had helped cause the deaths of 18,000 Americans each year due to lack of health care, spent billions upon billions trying to influence elections, stagnated our wages for 30 years, and crashed our economy we would put that person on trial as a war criminal.

Ayn Rand was Russian, so she qualifies - however, she is currently (tragically) beyond the reach of the justice system.

So hilarious that the graphic in that article is the dailykos logo. Alas, I fear someone at WSJ just got fired. But what a way to go!

"This is what happens when elected officials believe that people's lives are better run by politicians and regulators than by the people themselves."

Interesting to ponder that bit of nonsense in light of recent history on the North Fork of the Stillaguamish.

@2 True true, so true.

This is why I like the ruling on unlimited contributions.

In some sense, we've make ourselves too easy to be bought by price caps.

If they want it so bad, let them pay full price.

Most people already have been condemned to poverty and hopelessness in the Koch Brothers' kleptocracy.

@8 FTW

I know (and care) little about Charles Koch, but I can see why that quote would terrify and infuriate the taker class that makes up dem voter bases. Truth doesn't hurt, if like all lefties you hate it. It absolutely stings.

Hey Fletcher? Democracy is NOT a grant of authority to pick good citizens pockets for the advantage of bad ones. Just thought you should know.

@11

Weird. Neighbors of ours came here from Vietnam with no money and little cultural connection to this great nation. And yet, in this environment where personal success is limited to those born privileged, white and protestant they've done very well. Maybe it's because instead of whining and whimpering about how they can't do it, they just worked hard and did it.

To be clear, at its core lefty thought is based on a premise of individual helplesness, the notion that ONLY government can house, educate, feed, care for the citizen. It stands at direct opposition to the ideals on which this country was founded. It is anti American certainly, but worse it's dehumanizing, destructive and morally depraved.

@7

Charming. Using the grief and loss of family and friends of those lost in Oso to score petty political pints- very well done.

@17: Charming. Using the "too soon" excuse to aid and comfort the past, current, and future perpetrators of avoidable environmental disasters. Very predictably done.

@7:

By that statement, Koch proves either that he hasn't the slightest understanding of the concept of representative democracy, or else he's advocating for classical anarchy.

We just really, really need a little french revolution in this country. just a few hundred people storming Wichita, live on TV, then returning quietly to their homes. Get all those sphincters on 57th St in NYC good and tightened up.

Seriously, this is the only thing that is left to do. Everything in the status quo is owned by these family oligarchies. The government, labor, transportation is all owned, and there isn't anything you can do about it to change it except spilling some blood on prime time television.

Sometimes the herd needs to be culled. Sometimes the only way to train a dog to go outside to crap is to rub its nose in the shit when it goes inside. It is an ugly business, but sometimes it needs to be done.

@18

I owe you a sincere apology. Unless I absolutely know otherwise, the default should be an assumption of shared humanity and compassion for those at Oso and their families.

Having said that, I assume you'll be moving out of Seattle, and advocating for San Francisco and LA to be abandoned. After all, a lax government, corporate conspiracies and citizens being wholesale deceived mean that all these metropolitan areas are built on major fault lines. At some point Seattle will have a major quake and massive loss of life.

But we play the odds sometimes. We say that the chances are slim and we'll live with the risk. Sad and horrible as it is, that's choice the property owners at Oso made.

See, life is risky. It is if you're living anything approaching a worthwhile life anyway. And no matter what liberals tell themselves no government under which free men live can eliminate that risk, even making the insane assumption that they ought to do so at all. Know something else? Mature adults are mature precisely because they took risks, sometimes lost and made the consequences of their loss into something teachable. Or they voted Democrat, never grew up and stayed liberals.

@21

Thank you for being so clear about your criminal sociopathic nature. More liberals should be this honest so that decent citizens know what's truly at stake.

So, the Kochs believe in meaningless slogans and utter claptrap. Good thing they have enough money to force those beliefs on everyone else.

@19

Apples and orange salad for lunch I take it?

A president knowing that men and women working for his administration (such as it is) refused to mobilize military protection on a plane ready to fly and effectively murders those men and women. And a catastrophic slide occurs killing men and women where they chose to live. And in your addled mind these are comparable. You wear shoes without laces and have tags in your clothes identifying inside and out, don't you?

So, academeically speaking, what is false with the quoted statement?

Instead of fostering a system that enables people to help themselves, America is now saddled with a system that destroys value, raises costs, hinders innovation and relegates millions of citizens to a life of poverty, dependency and hopelessness. This is what happens when elected officials believe that people's lives are better run by politicians and regulators than by the people themselves. Those in power fail to see that more government means less liberty, and liberty is the essence of what it means to be American. Love of liberty is the American ideal.

There is nothing in that statement that should bother liberal progressives. It's just another philosophy.

@23 criminal? Did I say I was going to do it? No, I didn't. But I expect it to happen in my lifetime. Taxes or heads, somehow the debt to society will be paid back. When the shit goes down, ya better be ready.

"more government means less liberty"

This is the central idiocy of libertarianism.

More 'liberty' for oligarchs does not equal more liberty for the vast majority of the population. In fact usually the more liberty they have the less liberty everyone else has. Hence, a net loss of liberty.

@15 it cracks me up when you come on here and hold forth about 'moral depravity' and 'decency'. You and your ilk (of which Koch is certainly a member) are about as indecent as they come.

@29: If you are finding what I'm saying phony, well then that can be debated. If you are finding me phony, well then I could return the accusation as ascertaining the "realness" of Slog commentators is a moot point all the way around.

I'll believe him when he gives up his subsidies and tax breaks.

@26,

Yes, it's a different philosophy that the Kochs don't actually live by. I know you're ignorant of politics, particularly anything that pulls back the veil on your perfect 1950s vision of the United States, but the fact of the matter is that the Kochs lobby hard for subsidies, tax breaks, and other protectionism from the government that solely enrich themselves at the expense of their competitors and taxpayers. Look up "hypocrite" in the dictionary. You'll see a photo of Charles Koch.

@28

There was a group of men ready to go in country, a plane to get them to Benghazi, and a president unwilling to authorize protection for his staff. He pretends he didn't know because he was asleep and someone else made the decision to allow the embassy to stay unprotected. Bullshit or an indication of the complete incapacity of your president (since he serves the real American people not at all he sure as hell isn't my president.). Either he slept his way through this crisis or he badly bungled it. Which do you prefer?

It's possible to feel very badly for the deaths by natural disaster of people without blaming either them or anyone else. Bad things happen. Unfair things happen. Sorry, grownups know and accept this. I doubt you'll ever understand that, but there it is.

@34

Whether Charles Koch is hypocritical affects the core truth of the Koch statement not at all.

If you people raise your children with the entire lack of personal responsibility you advocate for in government policy regarding citizens they'll never become capable adults. And as a government matter, we owe each other equal opportunity, not equal outcome.

@37,

Mitt Romney pays 14 percent tax in an election year. In the off years, his tax rate is much lower. He refused to release those tax returns; you do the math.

@36 if 'you people' think that allowing the less fortunate to starve and denying them health care, whether their situation is their fault or not, is in any way, shape or form compatible with any rational idea of what civilization is, you are either all as dumb as a pile of rocks or sociopathic, or both. And if any view point meets the definition of 'morally depraved' that one certainly does.

@36 Classic Seattleblues! Best source of parenting advice on SLOG, easy. Maybe you'll weigh in on the disposable vs. cloth debate next? I'm just glad I finally know what to tell my children regarding the Koch editorial! "You can call him a hypo-Koch, but at least he's Right!"

@22: Actually, advances in modeling, seismology, and structural engineering have made it possible to build cities that can withstand even the strongest earthquakes with minimal structural damage. But what would you know about science? You're Mr. Argument from Incredulity.
@23: You are an admitted criminal who willfully violates the law of the land because he disagrees with it and wants to persecute people even though the law says he can't. You don't have any standing.
@25: Actually, the record shows that troops were mobilized nearly immediately. (It just takes a little while to actually get people places, even with modern technology.) Sorry reality doesn't support your opinions. :(
@35: Objectively false, Seattleblues. Tsk tsk, usually your lies are worded a little more cleverly than that...

HorseKochy.

The one thing one can always say about Auntie Seattleblues is, "She can sink lower."