Slate has a couple of new polls showing a precipitous drop for the GOP, click the image for that article. At this point, the number of people who approve of the GOP roughly match only those who identify with the Teaparty. The rest are gone. Although dems showed a very slight down tick in the same category, dems ticked up slightly toward the good on another, related question while Republicans saw a near identical delta in the opposite direction.
Data like this shows the issue is solidly against the Republicans in the minds of the public. Which may help explain why the Kochwhores, under attack for this NYT piece reporting they enabled the shutdown strategy, sent out a tepid release distancing themselves from the shutdown:
There was a comment at the Guardian yesterday about Koch Industries and the Koch family being separate and different. Methinks the paid shills will be forcing this idea into the conversation on a regular basis from now on.
Can we stop accusing people of being paid shills please? It’s possible for two people to look at the same arguments and arrive at different conclusions, and it usually has more to do with things like their prior beliefs, assumptions, values, reasoning abilities, and willingness to consider changing their minds than who is lining their pockets.
It doesn’t contribute anything to the discussion, and judging by how many times I’ve been called a paid shill for defending vaccination and anthropogenic climate change it’s probably not usually true. I know a lot of people who hold strong beliefs in line with Koch, and I’m positive that none of them are being paid by anyone to voice their opinions.
Redpanda, we all know you’re just a paid shill for Big Shill.
What it also shows is that Democrats are near their all-time lows.
Blame for the shutdown? 51% Obama, 61% Democrats, 70% Republicans.
Seriously, that is ground for celebrating? One false move by the Democrats and the false equivalence in the mainstream media will ensure that the figures reverse and Democrats are seen more responsible than the extremists.
It is time Obama stopped caving in, and let this go to a default. Then he gets to decide which of the red states gets to live,
He does not do this, and this shutdown would not have any effect on Nov 2014
…except that paid shills are very much a thing, especially on newspaper comment sections.
This wasn’t about some deep seated belief that people get incredibly partisan about, it was a pointed comment about the difference between Koch industries and the Koch brothers. Until a couple of days ago, I’d never heard that difference being discussed as an important topic anywhere. Now twice, in almost identical formats, one official and the other a pseudonymous commentator.
It sounds like the Kochs are deliberately trying to muddy the waters in regards to their influence, creating some sort of plausible deniability about who paid what to whom. I would absolutely expect the Kochs to have paid shills pushing their newest PR tactics everywhere they can.
Yes, it could all just be a great big coinkidink, but I think that’s the less likely explanation.
The Kochs believe in “eliminating market-distorting subsidies and mandates”? Let’s start with the tax breaks for Big Oil and work outwards from there. They should be pleased.
That disclaimer is from Koch Company Public Sector, LLC.(I.e. the company). The article only mentions what the Koch brothers (i.e. the asshole people) have done. Total nonapplicability.
Molly Ball at The Atlantic:
The Kochs Can’t Control the Monster They Created
Alllriiiiighty then, neither the Kochs, or the 235 million dollars they pumper into the system, nor the GOP, the main recipient of all that money, had any agency in the unfortunate turn of events that have delayed a CR and may well cause the US to default on its obligations. It is obviously just one of those things …
Wow, an entirely new form of right-wing governance; governance by mystical experience. Where nothing ever has a cause, where agency is nonexistent, nobody is ever to blame, where everything just happens. Tide comes in; tide goes out. You just can’t explain it.
I can explain it but I’m not in the congress and if I explain it one particular party might find my explanation hurtful. And nobody wants to make John Boehner cry.