Remember, Remember! and Don’t Forget: Just Who is Co-Opting the Liberty Movement?.
“Remember, remember
The fifth of November
The gunpowder treason and plot.
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.”
That was technically yesterday (Mountain Standard Time), though I when I started this piece I hadn’t gone to bed yet. Today is officially election day. This post is intended to bring a few things to everyone’s attention. Many people already know these things. Some don’t. Either way, as usual, I will put a little of my own spin on it.
First on the election.
On the presidential elections (I still have not voted yet today, but I think I will make it to the polls before they close), voting doesn’t really effect the election outcome unless you are in a battleground state. So I hope most people will be voting their consciences. Voting, however, does send a message, and that message for each voting block is the same REGARDLESS of the outcome. What I mean by this is, if you support someone but vote for someone else, odds are that not only will that vote have no effect on the outcome (unless, as I said, it is a tight race) in terms of who the next president is, but you are also keeping people from knowing what you truly believe. Voting to send a message therefore has much more of an impact than voting to put someone in power.
And now, the rest of the post on ongoing and attempted takeovers of the liberty movement by 1) Occupy Wall Street (this was only a minor and unintended offense on their part), 2) the rank and file of the Tea Party (originally a good thing, but now more or less synonymous with the GOP), and 3) the Kochtopus (who in my conspiratorial mind own Jesse Benton, Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, and a good portion of many Republican, Tea Party, and Libertarian groups, organizations, and individuals, though I do not allege that everyone employed are receiving funds from the Koch Brothers is automatically a blind tool).
407 years ago this night was the Gun Powder plot where a group of English Catholics attempted to Assassinate James I of England. All religious considerations aside (I am not a Catholic), it was an act against oppression and thus a tradition has come down to us today, mainly in England, to celebrate the anniversary. I won’t go into any details about how the Fifth of November, AKA Guy Fawkes Day is traditionally celebrated, but I do want to call attention to the man it was named after. But not the historical man because that is fairly boring. It is to the fictionalized, mythologized, romanticized, and later Hollywoodified version that I will point you. Guy Fawkes is a Robin Hood-like hero in these later accounts, and much the same he has captured many hearts and minds. Like Robin of Loxley, he stands against the existing order, the status quo, and evades the unjust authorities, but perhaps unlike him, the whole idea of tyranny. What more could I ask for?
We’ve all seen the Guy Fawkes masks, the ones that come from the movie V for Vendetta. The first people that used them as activists, perhaps to the surprise of many, were in fact Ron Paul supporters. Not the hackers group Anonymous, and not the Occupy Wall Street movement. Just like with the Tea Party movement.
Speaking of Anonymous, Guy Fawkes, and Ron Paul, check out this “leak” and the video below.
https://cdn.anonfiles.com/1351956247586.pdf
Ron Paul raised $4.3 Million on Guy Fawkes Day in 2007. Why a similar money bomb didn’t occur in 2011 is probably due to former Campaign Manager Jesse Benton’s fear and loathing of anything resembling disorder or fringe or passion.
Most Ron Paul supporters had their suspicions of Jesse Benton. Some smelled a rat early on. Other reserved judgement until it was too late.
Adam Kokesh was one in the former category. [Warning: Foul Language!]
He regarded Jesse Benton and Campaign for Liberty (under Benton’s leadership at the time) with disdain from early one, at first for what seemed to be personal reasons, but later what turned out to be a dead-on instinct.
This all reminds me of an historical episode that occurred between another Jesse Benton, and a man who might be considered Ron Paul’s role model against the Central Bank, President Andrew Jackson.
Campaign for Liberty was perhaps the first real Tea Party organization, although in a sense Dick Armey’s Freedom Works (2004), the Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity (2004) Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform 1985), and the Koch Brothers’ Citizens for a Sounds Economy (1984) all deserve honorable mention.
Even Murray Rothbard can be said to have had a role, albeit a small one.
The New Boston Tea Party – Murray Rothbard
And speaking of Murray Rothbard and the Kochtopus, I suggest you read some of these links I have done many hours worth of research looking for. I have read a number of them myself. There is some really juicy stuff in there. And it should be required reading for any liberty minded person worried about the corrupting influences to be found in politics, even in the libertarian movement. I don’t know entirely what to make of it all other than that the Koch brothers have done many great deeds for which they should be praised, but all for what appear to be the wrong reasons, reasons, which have also caused them to do a great deal of more sinister things. Perhaps enough to outshine their more praiseworthy endeavors. They are corporate fascists and elitists no less than George Soros and Warren Buffet. They just have a different strategy. Perhaps the most clever and dangerous.
1969
Libertarian Cover for the Corporate State by Murray N. Rothbard
1980
The Clark Campaign: Never Again by Murray N. Rothbard
1981
http://mises.org/journals/lf/1981/1981_01-04.pdf
Konkin on Libertarian Strategy – Murray N. Rothbard – Mises Daily
Samuel Edward Konkin III “Reply to Rothbard”
http://mises.org/journals/lf/1981/1981_06-07.pdf
1993
May 28, 2007
Conference on Austrian Economics and the Firm « Organizations and Markets
March 25, 2008
How Libertarian Is the Kochtopus? « LewRockwell.com Blog
April 22, 2008
The Kochtopus vs. Murray N. Rothbard by David Gordon
May 12, 2008
The Kochtopus vs. Murray N. Rothbard, Part II by David Gordon
October 22, 2008
The Board Game of Libertarian Public Policy
January 2, 2009
Tyler Cowen: Statist, anti-Rothbardian agent of the Kochtopus | TIME.com
March 2, 2009
The Kochtopus and Power « LewRockwell.com Blog
March 6, 2009
‘Libertarian’ Hero « LewRockwell.com Blog
August 28, 2009
Cowenian Second-Bestism Smackdown
Good for Pete Boettke « LewRockwell.com Blog
March 30, 2010
Koch Brothers Fund Trey Grayson’s Campaign « LewRockwell.com Blog
re: Koch Brothers Finance Trey Grayson’s Campaign « LewRockwell.com Blog
April 22, 2008
The Kochtopus vs. Murray N. Rothbard by David Gordon
April 16, 2008
‘Reason’-Funder To Host Cheney « LewRockwell.com Blog
August 4, 2010
Radical Roots of Libertarianism by Samuel E. Konkin III | JustLive
August 30, 2010
The Billionaire Koch Brothers’ War Against Obama : The New Yorker
In Defense of the Kochtopus by Justin Raimondo — Antiwar.com
August 31, 2010
Austrians Again « LewRockwell.com Blog
September 3, 2010
David Koch Attacks Alan Grayson « LewRockwell.com Blog
September 15, 2010
October 25, 2010
Good for the Cato Institute « LewRockwell.com Blog
November 24, 2010
Liberty Central: Repo’d by the Koch brothers? | Smart v. Stupid
November 26, 2010
Libertarians Against the Regime by Justin Raimondo — Antiwar.com
January 26, 2011
January 27, 2011
‘Koch Brothers Trot Out Ed Meese To Defend Them’ « LewRockwell.com Blog
EconomicPolicyJournal.com: Koch Brothers Trot Out Ed Meese to Defend Them
Koch conference under scrutiny – Kenneth P. Vogel and Simmi Aujla – POLITICO.com
February 2, 2011
EconomicPolicyJournal.com: Koch Brothers Hire Arnold Schwarzenegger’s PR Operative
February 3, 2011
More Adventures With the Kochs « LewRockwell.com Blog
February 6, 2011
EconomicPolicyJournal.com: Americans for [Koch] Prosperity
February 9, 2011
Monetary Policy Hearing Today: Ron Paul Versus the Kochtopus | Next New Deal
February 24, 2011
February 26, 2011
Wisconsin, Reason, and the National Conversation
March 2, 2011
On Koch Supported Herman Cain by Robert Wenzel
The Koch Bros. Love Herman Cain & Hate Ron Paul | Peace . Gold . Liberty
March 10, 2011
Murray Rothbard on the Kochtopus by David Gordon
April 22, 2011
Gary Johnson: Caveat Emptor by Justin Raimondo — Antiwar.com
May 6, 2011
The Proto-Koch « LewRockwell.com Blog
May 9, 2011
July 3, 2011
The Caravan Keeps Rolling « LewRockwell.com Blog
Their Master’s Voice | Lew Rockwell’s Political Theatre
July 8, 2011
Koch Brothers to Democrats: Stop Asking us For Money
July 22, 2011
Koch Bros. for Higher Taxes (on Their Competitors) | Lew Rockwell’s Political Theatre
July 25, 2011
Do the Koch Bros. Own Bachmann, Too? | Lew Rockwell’s Political Theatre
September 6, 2011
EconomicPolicyJournal.com: HOT: Mother Jones Releases Secret Koch Brothers Tapes
September 29, 2011
October 3, 2011
Update: Austrian economics program denied at Loyola New Orleans
October 13, 2011
Could a Tea Party Occupy Wall Street? by Addison Wiggin
November 6, 2011
That 3rd Koch Brother | Lew Rockwell’s Political Theatre
November 16, 2011
MF Global and the Koch Bros. « LewRockwell.com Blog
January 1, 2012
From Vienna With Love: The Kochtopus Warms Up to Ron Paul
January 31, 2012
What’s wrong with the Cato institute? | Peace . Gold . Liberty
February 16, 2012
“History of the Libertarian Movement” by Samuel Edward Konkin III | Left-Liberty.net
March 1, 2012
Kochs launch court fight over Cato – Mike Allen – POLITICO.com
Koch Brothers sue Cato Institute, president – Think Tanked – The Washington Post
EconomicPolicyJournal.com: Billionaire Koch Brothers Sic Super Lawyer on Widow
Koch Bros. Sue Ed Crane, Cato Institute « LewRockwell.com Blog
The Kochs vs. Cato : The New Yorker
March 2, 2012
EconomicPolicyJournal.com: Will Lew Rockwell Show at the Next Meeting of the Cato Board?
The Volokh Conspiracy » Koch v. Cato
The Cato Putsch | The American Conservative
March 3, 2012
‘Cato Putsch’? « LewRockwell.com Blog
Brad DeLong: Ed Crane and the Cato Institute vs. the Kochtopus!
EconomicPolicyJournal.com: Beltarians versus WaPoists on Koch-Cato
The Volokh Conspiracy » Koch v. Cato — A View from Cato
March 4, 2012
EconomicPolicyJournal.com: Murray Rothbard Haunts Koch-Cato from the Grave
Justin Raimondo on the Latest Cato Broadside « LewRockwell.com Blog
Bob Wenzel on the Lineage of the Cato Shares « LewRockwell.com Blog
March 5, 2012
Libertarian Ed Crane Decides to Act Like a Liberal. Will It Destroy the Cato Institute? | RedState
What Goes Around Comes Around by Skip Oliva
EconomicPolicyJournal.com: What It Takes to Get Big Support from the Koch Brothers
CATO: From Libertarian to Republican? | The American Conservative
March 6, 2012
Is It Charles Koch’s Moral Duty . . . « LewRockwell.com Blog
Charles Koch Makes a Good Point by Thomas DiLorenzo
Cato and the Kochs | The Moral Sciences Club | Big Think
March 7, 2012
EconomicPolicyJournal.com: Where’s LewRockwell.com?
March 8, 2012
Charles Koch: I Am Not Backing Down « LewRockwell.com Blog
Koch vs. Cato — A Guest Post by Brink Lindsey | Bleeding Heart Libertarians
The Battle for Cato « ThinkMarkets
EconomicPolicyJournal.com: MIT Prof: The Kochs Will Not Takeover the World
March 12, 2012
March 19, 2012
EconomicPolicyJournal.com: For the Neocons, It’s Crane over Koch
March 22, 2012
Robert Lawson on Koch ‘n Cato « LewRockwell.com Blog
EconomicPolicyJournal.com: David Koch Gives Ed Crane an Employment Review
March 26, 2012
Family Feud | The Weekly Standard
April 11, 2012
April 16, 2012
April 20, 2012
Digging the Hole Deeper « LewRockwell.com Blog
Independent and Principled? Behind the Cato Myth | The Nation
April 24, 2012
How Not To Change America’s Politics: Set Up a Public Policy Think Tank by Gary North
April 27, 2012
The Think-Tank Mentality by Skip Oliva
July 7, 2012
» Lessons from the UVA, Cato Wars Kleptarchy
August 17, 2012
The Paul Ryan Selection: The Koch Brothers Get Their Man – Roger Stone: The Stone Zone
August 30, 2012
Plutocrat David Koch Not a Libertarian « LewRockwell.com Blog
Two Additional Links I can’t put in the chronology:
Interview With Samuel Edward Konkin III
One of the most interesting things (and there were many) I garnered from reading these is the Kochtopus’ love for Central Banking, despite their roots in Austrian Economics. Evokes memories of Alan Greenspan. And why the Koch Brothers put stock in Herman Cain. And why Rick Perry was derided by so-called conservatives when he called Ben Bernanke a traitor. And why their oh so brief ally Ron Paul is so hated by them and theirs anymore.
And it reminds me further of several graphics I have seen floating around on the various End the Fed sites and blogs. A stream of consciousness post like this would be seriously remiss without tying everything together with a few related images.
Do I need to spell out the connection?
Hydra/Kraken/Squid/Octopus/Kochtopus/Leviathon/Federal Government/Federal Reserve/National Bank/Petrodollar/Koch Industries/Corporations/Military Industrial Complex/Fascism Hello?!?!
Please don’t think I’m going all occult on you or anything (I do admit that I came across some pretty dubious sites looking for some of these images). I just really like mythology and history and metaphors and analogies.
The Libertarian Liquidationist 