This comes by way of SooperMexican!
Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine was caught on video by a fan at their April 19 concert in Tucson, Arizona mocking President Obama’s penchant for wearing “mom jeans.” And he used some rather colorful language in doing so!
“I think that I’m very different from the Koch brothers in the sense that I have absolutely no personal interest in what happens except as a citizen of the United States. So whereas they’re representing points of view that are in their personal monetary interests, I’m actually representing the citizens of the whole country in terms of their diffuse interests against concentrated economic interests that the Koch brothers represent.” ~ POWERLINE
(A response to this quote is at bottom)
Some great information about Democratic billionaire activist, Tom Steyer has been added to the collective mind called the blogosphere, via Powerline! If one is not familiar with the issue at hand, you should read a previous post on this issue. A quick recap however, also comes from Powerline who explains the reason behind a bunch of old, outdated politicians doing an all-nighter:
…Tom Steyer, a billionaire who has made a great deal of money on government-subsidized “green” energy projects, has become one of the Democratic Party’s most important donors. On February 18, he hosted a fundraiser at his home that netted $400,000. Harry Reid and six other Senators attended, along with Al Gore and a number of rich environmentalists. At that meeting, plans for last night’s talk-a-thon were already being laid.
The connection is simple: Steyer has pledged to contribute $50 million and raise another $50 million to help Democrats in the 2014 elections. The catch is that they have to emphasize global warming as an issue:
✦ Steyer’s advocacy group, NextGen Political Action, plans to spend at least $50 million of the former hedge-fund manager’s money, plus another $50 million raised from other donors. The group will refuse to spend money on behalf of Democrats who oppose climate regulation, but will not spend money against them either, according to Chris Lehane, a Steyer consultant.
So the Democrats are trying to walk a narrow line. They need to make noise about global warming to keep the cash flowing from Tom Steyer and other deep-pocketed environmental activists (some of whom, of course, are also “green” energy cronies)….
The newest installment in regards to the biggest story lately in Democratic [billionaire] hypocrisy is the recent piece by John Hinderaker on Tom Steyer. Below is part of that article by John as well as an interview of John by Hugh Hewitt:
But Steyer’s hypocrisy goes still deeper. Today, he is a bitter opponent of fossil fuels, especially coal. That fits with his current economic interests: banning coal-fired power plants will boost the value of his solar projects. But it was not always thus. In fact, Steyer owes his fortune in large part to the fact that he has been one of the world’s largest financers of coal projects. Tom Steyer was for coal before he was against it.
A reader with first-hand knowledge of the relevant Asian and Australian markets sent us this detailed report on how Steyer got rich on coal. He titled his report “Hypocrisy & Hedge Funds: Climate Change Warrior Tom Steyer’s Secret Life as Coal Investment Kingpin.” Here it is, in full:
Tom Steyer founded Farallon Capital Management L.L.C. (“Farallon”) in 1986. Farallon has grown to become one of the largest and most successful hedge funds in the United States with over $20bn in funds under management.1 Mr. Steyer’s net worth is reported to be $1.6bn.2
Mr. Steyer left Farallon in 2012 to focus on political and environmental causes and potentially to position himself for public office. He has been described in the press as the “liberals’ answer to the Koch Brothers”3 due to his wealth and his opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline and carbon-based energy in general. He has dedicated some $50 million of his personal fortune to back political candidates who support his position on climate change – and punish those who don’t. Mr. Steyer has led recent campaigns with Bill McKibben to encourage university endowments to divest coal equities.
[….]
The facts, summarized below, might lead one to conclude that:
[….]
Hypocrisy is not in short supply in the political world, but Tom Steyer is in a class by himself. Now that he is enriching himself through “green” cronyism, coal is evil. Sure: like all hydrocarbons, it competes with the solar energy boondoggles on which he is making millions, with the aid of the Obama administration. But where was Steyer’s alleged social conscience when he was one of the world’s biggest investors in coal? And how substantial are his current holdings in coal projects? Is Steyer financing his anti-fossil fuel campaign on profits from past or, perhaps, ongoing investments in Asian and Australian coal? Inquiring minds want to know! Tom Steyer appears to have elevated political hypocrisy to an entirely new level.
Jake Tapper of CNN, one of the few truly fair guys in the legacy media, was also asked by Hugh Hewitt about Tom Steyer and the hypocrisy uncovered by John at Powerline. Hugh also played an American Commitment ad for Jake to get his comment on the topic at hand. Here is THAT interview with the description from my YouTube channel:
Hugh Hewitt interviews Jake Tapper of CNN, the topic? John Hinderaker’s recent piece, “The Epic Hypocrisy of Tom Steyer” (http://tinyurl.com/lro2wow). Tapper is hopeful for a braoder media attention to stories like John broke in regards to rich — hypocritical — millionaires and billionaires that give to the Democratic party. LIKE, the legacy media does, in regards to the Koch brothers and others.
My posts on the Koch brothers and Tom Steyer are as follows:
♚ https://religiopoliticaltalk.com/tag/koch-brothers/
♚ https://religiopoliticaltalk.com/tag/tom-steyer/
Tapper is fair as usual, one of the names in the media I have come to respect.
For more clear thinking like this from Hugh Hewitt… I invite you to visit: http://www.hughniverse.com/
To see more projects and information as well from American Commitment, check out their site: http://www.americancommitment.org/
WOW! I look forward to more on this.
PolitiBrew offers a response to the quote I chose to start this post with, “I think that I’m very different from the Koch brothers…” (top). I will include an upload of Michael Medved speaking about the generosity of the Koch Brothers as well, enjoy:
Tom Steyer is most certainly not the Koch Brothers. Steyer’s hedge fund is tied to a $67 million ponzi scheme that siphoned millions of dollars from foreign investors.
Steyer has also promised to spend $100 million to get democrats elected in 2014.
Meanwhile, the “evil” Koch Brothers donate billions of dollars to many deserving causes but generally give to conservative ones, you know, like all the money they give to M.D. Anderson for cancer research. How conservative is that? I guess they’d like to help conserve lives. How about that they “underwrite research and teaching at Brown, Mount Holyoke, Sarah Lawrence, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Vassar, and some 245 other colleges”? Is that conservative?
Think nothing of the Millions to MIT for cancer research, that’s conservative too, right? Right.
Yes Tom. We can’t deny that you are not the Koch Brothers. You may be able to hold a candle, just not to these Men. May as well blow it out….
These leftists are making it too easy! It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.
Via The Daily Smug:
Fuller audio clip can be found here
“Barbra Streisand she took her Gulfstream to fly into Washington to chew over climate change with the president. And that’s fine if Barbra Streisand and Al Gore does it,” Steyn said. “But the rest of us — we are supposed to be beating our clothes with the native women down by the river … and again there’s a nonsense about this. The Obama administration now wants to regulate bovine flatulence because they claim that is destroying the planet. And again it’s the greatest excuse for big government ever. At their Monday night poker game in hell, Hitler and Stalin and Mao must be sitting around, laughing their heads off, saying, ‘Oh it’s for the future of all our children. If only we thought of that.’ From bovine flatulence, you know, if you went to an 11th century medieval peasant in his barnyard and said, ‘Sorry, peasant. I come from the king. You have to pay a bovine flatulence tax,’ he would say, ‘Get out of here.’ A medieval peasant would know that’s nonsense. Now, we take it seriously.”
PowerLine knocks another one out of the park!
Joel Kotkin writes about the spread of “debate is over” syndrome. It’s a good article, but marred by the author’s surprise that this “embrace homogeneity of viewpoint” finds expression by the American left, “the same people who historically have identified themselves with open-mindedness and the defense of free speech.”
Actually, “debate is over” syndrome expresses a core tenet of American progressivism, and one that has been present from the beginning. It stems from the historicism of the German philosopher Hegel.
Hegel maintained that history unfolds through a “dialectical” process, in which each stage is the product of the contradictions inherent in the ideas that defined the preceding one. Within these tensions and contradictions, Hegel believed, the philosopher can discern a comprehensive, evolving, rational unity. He called that unity “the absolute idea.”
History consists of an inevitable and progressive march to that idea. The modern State is the final fruit of that progressive march.
It is natural for a Hegelian to pronounce a debate “over” even as it continues to rage. Having discerned the comprehensive rational unity — the absolute idea — positions contrary to that idea can be written off as things of the past.
Hegel’s place in Marxist thought is well known. But if anything, the German holds an even more central position in American Progressive thought, thanks mainly to Woodrow Wilson, the intellectual father of American Progressivism. (Theodore Roosevelt was also influenced by the German philosophy of Hegel’s day, as Jean Yarbrough has shown).
Ronald Pestritto demonstrated the connection in his book Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism, which Scott Johnson and I discussed in this Weekly Standard article. Hegel’s historicism was irresistible to Wilson, who wrote, “the philosophy of any time is, as Hegel says, ‘nothing but the spirit of the time expressed in abstract thought.’”
Wilson took Hegel so much to heart that, in a love letter to his future wife, he observed that “Hegel used to search for–and in most cases find, it seems to me–the fundamental psychological facts of society.” And Wilson’s writing about the State, about administration, and about the U.S. Constitution all are founded in Hegel’s historicism.
As Scott and I argued, one can draw a straight line from Wilson’s Hegelianism to liberal constitutional theory. Wilson endorsed the emerging, Darwinian-inspired theory of a “living Constitution” under which that document’s original meaning must take a back seat whenever it stands in the way of the march of History.
Sound familiar?
This important bit of info comes way of Libertarian Republican:
U.S. Republicans beat Africans, Asians, Latin Americans, Euros and even U.S. Democrats. Muslim Middle Easterners the most intolerant of alcohol by far
From Eric Dondero:
Pew surveyed views on hot button social issues, like abortion, divorce, homosexuality, gambling and alcohol. Overall, Americans, both Democrats and Republicans were far more open and tolerant than virtually all other cultures around the world.
A couple of exceptions: Republicans were less respecting of divorce than Europeans, and more pro-life on abortion, and opposed to gay marriage. And the GOP is not as tolerant as it could be on legalized gambling.
[….]
….the gap between Dems and Repubs was significant, a full 5%…
[….]
Bottom line from the libertarian perspective: The Republican Party is consistently the home of anti-prohibitionism and anti-Islamism. Which makes all the sense in the world considering Dems today favor hugely expansive taxes on alcohol, nanny-state regs on bars, opposes lowering the drinking age to 18, and are the party that caters to Muslims.
Christian owned alcohol shops in southern Lebanon receive threats from Muslim groups
Protests have been made and threats issued over recent months against Christian-run shops that sell alcoholic beverages in the South of Lebanon, a ‘feudal’ territory ‘belonging’ to the Shiite Islamic Hezbollah movement and its militias….
Algeria on the verge of closing down all Bars, banning all Alcohol
The two, Hachemi Sahnouni, who helped found the Islamic Salvation Front, and Abderazak Zeraoui Hamadache, said that alcohol is “perverting our youth and destroying our religious morals.”
The call to close all bars recalls the period referred to as the “black decade” in the 1990s when extremists imposed their will on many villages and cities.
Liberal-run city of Portland, OR moves ahead with ban on Beer sales downtown
….If the OLCC gives the city the green light, stores would not be able to sell single containers of malt liquor or domestic beer over 22 ounces, or malt liquor or domestic beer with more than 5.75 percent alcohol. They also wouldn’t be able to sell wine with more than 14 percent.
And this:
Originally, the target area included Old Town, Goose Hollow and the downtown core but now the OLCC is now looking at adding the Pearl District and Northwest 23rd Avenue to the roster
Note – The Portland city council is entirely Democrat. Additionally, the Mayor Sam Adams (yes, that’s his real name) is also a Democrat.
Also, from an old post: “Lift a Pint for Global Warming!” And why many think “Global Warming” is good:
During the Middle ages, from about 800 to 1300, the world went through five centuries of higher temperatures than average…yes, even higher than today. 
During this era, the Vikings traveled around the known world–over land to the East, and by sea to the West. Warmer weather in the North meant less difference in temperature between the North and the Equator, hence fewer and less severe storms on the oceans. The higher temperatures also made it possible to grow grain and other food products in more Northern regions, including Greenland. There was a reason why they called it ‘green’ land: it actually was very green during that period. Since Vikings were ale drinkers, they had ale on their ships, rather high alcohol ale. Because of the warmer global climate, they were able to brew it with local grains from many of the territories to which they traveled. They spread their brewing techniques far and wide, even to Newfoundland (Canada), which the Vikings called Vin-land, since they found grapes over there.
Speaking of grapes, the warmer weather permitted grapes to grow in vineyards as far North as Northern England, the Low-Lands (today’s Belgium and the Netherlands) and vast territories in the East. The consumption of wine and beer mingled amongst the classes. Wine had always been reserved for the wealthy, but its new found abundance allowed it to spread down the hierarchical ladder of society. The line between wine and beer drinkers had also been geographically defined, since locals drank alcoholic beverages made from what was locally available, grapes or grains. That changed: brewers and vintners lived on the same lands now.
Thanks to the abundance of food produced during the constant good weather in that era, the population doubled or even tripled in some places, where it had been constant during the colder era (300-800 a.d.). The abbeys, who were so important in spreading the brewing technique and the cultivation of yeast-strings, became very rich and powerful. Less flooding (less strong storms) allowed them, for example, to create “new land” in vast quantities on the sea in today’s Flanders (Belgium) by building dikes. The cities emerged because each harvest produced more food, and more children stayed alive to become adults thanks to better weather and better food. International trade flourished over land (roads were not washed away as often as in the past) and over sea (less intense storms, more predictable weather). Thanks to the global warming in that era the brewing and consumption of good beer multiplied. More people, more successful people (cities, abbeys), more thirsty people, better grains cultivated in more territories were all factors that contributed in the creation of many new and diverse styles of beer. Wine making and beer brewing techniques influenced each other, especially in today’s Belgium, where rich cities, free from Royal rule, took advantage of the abundance and the freedom to trade.
The overall wealth was so great, optimism so high, food growing so easily, that nobility of the era in Western Europe could look beyond their borders. They were able to take a large number of their men, much of their treasure, and travel to the Middle East in an attempt to liberate the region from the Muslims, who had invaded and enslaved all the Christian lands. Indeed, this was the beginning of the Crusades, and there were many of these organized mass summer trips.
From the Mirror (via IJReview):
Wannabe celebrity Josie Cunningham last night confessed the chance of appearing on TV’s Big Brother was worth more than her unborn child’s life.
Puffing on a cigarette and rubbing her baby bump, the controversial model and call girl – who will have her abortion at a clinic this week – said: “I’m finally on the verge of becoming famous and I’m not going to ruin it now.
“An abortion will further my career. This time next year I won’t have a baby. Instead, I’ll be famous, driving a bright pink Range Rover and buying a big house. Nothing will get in my way.”
Josie, 23, is already 18 weeks pregnant by either an escort agency client or a Premier League footballer. But she claims her late life-or-death decision has nothing to do with who the father is.
She says it is based on the breakdown of negotiations with Channel 5 to appear on the reality show.
Gay Patriot says this about the issue: “I guess she’s just taking Obama’s advice and not letting herself be ‘punished with a baby’.” Hear O say a baby is an STD:
The Daily Mail talks more about this “wannabe,” pointing out the entitlement attitude that overrides sensibility and morals:
…Having already become notorious thanks to the NHS-funded breast enhancement she underwent last year as she attempted to launch her modelling career, the single mother-of-two has sunk to new depths in her bid to snatch a place in the limelight.
Yesterday, she shockingly announced that she will abort her latest pregnancy in the hope of securing a place on the next series of the reality TV show Big Brother.
‘I’m finally on the verge of becoming famous and I’m not going to ruin it now,’ said Cunningham, whose 18-week pregnancy is already clearly visible.
‘Channel 5 were keen to shortlist me, then they found out I was pregnant,’ she said. ‘They went cold on me. That was when I started considering an abortion.
‘After the operation I will be going back to them and asking if they will still consider me.’….
The Daily Mail continues, “Recently she decided she wants her breast implants removed – again paid for by the NHS.” OMG!
Obviously she is not — or the last — girl to have had an abortion to further their career, education, love-life, and the like. But his case is merely showing the sickness in our society, that’s all.
One blog, Eternity Matters, concentrated this story on “nationalized healthcare,” who may pay for the abortion as well?
Socialized Medicine: Money for Fake Boobs as Patients Starve – The title says it all, but it left out the part about gender-reassignment surgery (i.e., self-mutilation) being covered as well:
Why are capitalist countries wealthy and socialist countries poor? Because the free market allocates resources more wisely than bureaucrats. This is how healthcare resources are allocated under Britain’s regime of socialized medicine:
Britain’s National Health Service, the NHS, recently spent £4,800 — about $7,200 — on enormous breast implants for an aspiring model while nearly 1,200 patients starved to death in hospitals over the past four years. Critics say the deaths were caused by neglect due to understaffing.
The NHS provided Josie Cunningham with 36DD implants in January after she told her doctor that being flat-chested was causing emotional distress.
It gets worse:
In addition to the breast implants, the NHS has also spent £25,000 — about $37,000 — on a sex-change operation for a 19-year-old male diagnosed with “gender identity disorder.”
Contrast the above 36DD payed for by tax-payers because of a story about bullies, to, a life saving procedure that could have saved the life of Sophie Thomlinson (pictured to the right), two-years old… who was denied a life changing operation at Leeds General Infirmary. Obama-Care is headed to this end-result:
Breitbart adds a little to this from the transcript:
On Thursday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “The Five,” co-panelist Greg Gutfeld, author of “Not Cool: The Hipster Elite and Their War on You,” used his monologue segment to the hypocrisy in taking a $25,000 a month payout to point out income inequality at the City University of New York, which is a salary eight times what other professors make at the same institution.
“Today the award goes to New York Times blogger and Obama’s favorite economist Paul Krugman, who just got hired by the City University of New York to drop by once in a while,” Gutfeld said. “Apparently the school is going to pay the Krugster 25 grand a month to play a modest role at events dealing with inequality. Let’s recap – Krugs will yack about inequality for 25Gs a month. This is genius for is there no better way to point out the absurd extremes of inequality than getting paid eight times what other professors get? And no teaching. This is pure performance art — a stroke of masterful self-perpetuating employment. It’s like a fireman get paid for arson, a doctor spreading the flu so he can treat it. He creates the problem and arrives on the scene to provide the solution. He’s like alcohol”…. 
The Blaze points out that “CUNY is a publicly funded school… [and] according to Gawker pays its adjunct professors roughly $3,000 per course. Meanwhile, tenured professors make approximately $116,364 per year. Tenured professors are expected to teach, hold seminars and publish.” The Blaze continues:
And people wonder why tuition is sooo high. Because they have to pay elite scumbags like Krugman.
Via HotAir:
Lee Strobel was the award-winning legal editor of The Chicago Tribune and is the best-selling author of The Case for Faith, The Case for Christ, and The Case for a Creator, all of which have been made into documentaries by Lionsgate. With a journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a Master of Studies in Law degree from Yale, Lee wrote 3 Gold Medallion winners and the 2005 Book of the Year with Gary Poole. He and his wife live in Colorado. Visit Lee’s website at: www.leestrobel.com.
Gay Patriot Slam-Dunks This!
I am reasonably confident King George III considered George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson to be “domestic terrorists,” too.
UPDATE (from Jeff): V makes a great point, one that bears repeating and that GP has before documented with links (e.g., here and here).
Moonbattery makes the great point that:
…In stark contrast stand the righteous upholders of law and order, who repeatedly tasered Bundy’s son, threw his sister to the ground, shot his bulls, chased cattle with helicopters, tore up his fences, pointed sniper rifles at American citizens, trampled a sacred turtle burrow, et cetera.
Yet again Reid proves himself to be completely out of step with his constituents, whom he denounces rather than even pretending to represent. It doesn’t matter. As a Founding Father of oligarchical collectivism said, “The people who count the votes decide everything.” Guess who counts the votes in Nevada?
Update your Newspeak dictionaries. The word terrorist has now been redefined to mean “anyone who frustrates our rulers.” This is an improvement, because back when it meant “someone who has committed an act of terror,” the term was offensive to our government’s Muslim allies….