Friday, April 4, 2014

The Kochtopus Spotted in Florida



There is a "Liberty Summit" going on in Florida, right now. Ron Paul will be speaking tonight and tomorrow night, via Skype, Rand Paul will speak. It appears the event is heavily influenced by the Kochtopus.

It should be remembered that the Koch brothers really don't have a lot of use for Ron. They didn't contribute to his 2012 presidential campaign, but they did contribute to Mitt Romney's campaign. But, he is simply too big to completely ignore.

Despite Ron's speaking at the event, it is more of a Koch operation than a libertarian event. Examiner.com reports:
The event will be attended by Republicans, Libertarians and Democrats who are seeking to learn ways to be more effective in the political process to make the nation more freedom oriented - something clearly lacking from the federal government the last 20 years.
Oh yeah, that is going to be a helluva freedom fest with Republicans and Democrats being taught what to say to get into the pockets of libertarian political donors.

Why do I say this is a Koch operation? Take a look at the sponsors list, it is filled with organizations that are funded, in part, by the Kochs:
Young Americans for Liberty, Students for Liberty, Americans for Prosperity, Charles Koch Institute,  Foundation for Economic Education, Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason, Reason.
The Koch brothers don't sponsor events unless they know the agenda for an event will be in line with their goals. What's fascinating is that this is officially a Campaign for Liberty event. Have the Kochs captured C4L?

Outside of Laurence Vance (and Ron Paul), I don't see anyone on the long list of speakers that is likely to take an anti-meddling position with regard to U.S. foreign policy on this list. Sad.

There's that and just too many politicians and political operatives that will be speaking there for this to be called a "Liberty Sommit": U. S. Rep. Ted Yoho, Florida CD3, Ken Cuccinelli, former A. G. Virginia, John Tate and Doug Wead.

A liberty summit? I don't think so.

2 comments:

  1. Murray Rothbard's term has caught on to some degree:

    "Minnesota Sen. Al Franken sent his supporters in a fundraising email titled 'Is Kochtopus really a word?' It read: 'I suppose 'Kochtopus' is as good a name as any for the huge, secretive network of interest groups the Koch brothers masterminded to funnel dark money all over the country."

    http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-democrats-koch-20140404,0,6877752.story#ixzz2xuNbOfRM

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The term "Kochtopus" wasn't invented by Murray Rothbard.
      It was invented by Samuel Konkin III, who also invented the word "minarchist."

      Delete