And that's not the only way Fox is trying to organize this race. Don't forget that the nightmare Jeb Bush just went through trying to explain whether he would have invaded Iraq started when he got asked the question by Fox's Megyn Kelly. When Marco Rubio went on Fox News Sunday soon after, Chris Wallace went after him on the same question like a prosecutor questioning a murder suspect. There won't be many more softball interviews for GOP candidates on Fox: Now the network is testing, probing, and challenging them to make sure they're on their game. It's weeding out those who don't measure up.

Fox News chief Roger Ailes' genius has always been in his ability to balance Fox's twin goals: making money and serving the interests of the Republican Party. But at a time like this, the latter goal becomes more complicated to achieve than when Republicans are just fighting with Democrats. And some Republicans who just a few months ago could expect nothing but hugs and applause from the network now aren't getting such friendly treatment.

Once there's a GOP nominee, he'll be praised and defended on Fox News like he was the second coming. But until then, Fox is going to work to find the strongest candidate and get rid of the rest. Because if they don't do it, nobody else can.

read more: http://theweek.com/articles/556439/fox-news-taking-control-republican-primary

Now you might wonder what one does with all this cash — like the US$900 millions from the Kosh brothers (see toon above) — that the various parties are piling up, like an Iraqi weapon dump. By campaign's end the amount of cash for the presidential election spend by the candidates will be around $6 billion. Not to be sneezed at. So what is the cash for? Mainly controlling "advertising" (TV and newspapers) and the "media" (buying editorials) plus things like blue and red balloons, renting halls and buses. Makes a few people rich, including our own Uncle Rupe whose FOX network is more or less controlling the "Republican" debate, without giving an inch to the "Democrats". Should the Democrats get an audience on FOX, it would mostly be to be hit on the head with a pylon-hammer. So in order to bring a bit of decorum in the GOP circus ring, FOX has decided to limit the amount of candidate debating their stuff — or stuff ups:

The requirements for the Republican primary debates are creating problems for some of the new and has-been candidates:

New rules that limit the number of contenders on stage during the first Republican presidential debates are likely to alter the campaign calculations for many of the GOP candidates, forcing them to try to build national name recognition months earlier than planned.

Some of the candidates likely to be excluded from the first debates are new and really are lacking in name recognition, and keeping them out of the debates does make it even less likely that they will have any impact on the race. This is to some degree arbitrary and “unfair,” but it’s also true that the first-time candidates that won’t make the cut add little or nothing to the debate that won’t already be there. Fiorina is a somewhat unconventional candidate, but her views are utterly conventional. Given the large number of hawkish candidates that are sure to be running, Graham’s presence is the race is at best redundant. The party doesn’t miss out on anything if they aren’t included. Moreover, there is no faction that will be shut out of the debates if they are not permitted to participate. There will be more than enough Clinton-bashing and hard-line foreign policy nonsense as it is. There has be a line drawn somewhere, and obviously hopeless ego-driven candidacies should be the first to go. The field might eventually swell to almost 20 declared candidates before it’s all over, and there’s simply no way to accommodate them all without turning the entire process into an even bigger circus than it already is.

read more: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/the-gops-debate-conundrum-ii-2/

Meanwhile some Republican presidential hopefuls are great for the future of the world but they are likely to be rejected forthwith for being decent or for making compost:

Rand Paul took a left turn on his journey to the Republican nomination, and now his hopes seem to be headed south.

The libertarian Kentucky senator’s new book, “Taking a Stand,” came out Tuesday, and it is chock-full of lines that would position Paul well — if he were running against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

On the environment: “You’ll find I’m a tree hugger, literally . . . I’m a Republican who wants clean air, clean water, and the life-extending miracle of electricity. I compost.”

On Wall Street: “Only in a world of crony capitalism would bankers whose faulty decisions caused bankruptcy be allowed to cash out as the middle class absorbs the losses.”

On his party: “Right now, the Republican brand sucks. I promised Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, that I would stop saying the GOP sucks, and I will (except for this last time).”

On racial minorities: “I want a New GOP that resonates with America, that looks like America — white and black. . . . The face of the Republican Party should not be about suppressing the vote but about enhancing the vote.”

read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-decline-of-rand-paul/2015/05/26/10a7b932-03e5-11e5-a428-c984eb077d4e_story.html

One example of this “echo chamber” in action can be found with the Mont Pelerin Society (MPS) – a private membership group of free market protagonists established in the 1940s.

MPS has more than 600 members worldwide and meets regularly in all parts of the globe.

The society doesn’t publish a list of its members, although I have a copy of its 2013 membership list. There are currently about 40 Australian members.

Many have expressed scepticism or worse about climate change science or are part of organisations that push denial, reject the need to act and dismiss renewable energy sources.

These include former Prime Minister John Howard, Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson, Institute of Public Affairs boss John Roskam, former IPA fellow Alan Moran, mining magnate and Mannkal think tank head Ron Manners and conservative columnist Janet Albrechtsen.

Oh yes. Maurice Newman is a member too.

In the US, many MPS members work at think tanks that have campaigned against cuts to greenhouse gases and/or pushed climate science denial.

Charles Koch - one half of the “libertarian” oil billionaire Koch brothers who have pushed millions into campaigns to block action on fossil fuel burning – is a member.

So too is former Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus, who thinks climate science and environmentalism are a threat to people’s freedom.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2015/may/29/freedom-and-liberty-should-not-be-red-flags-for-climate-science-denial-but-they-are

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The Mont Pelerin Society is composed of persons who continue to see the dangers to civilized society outlined in the statement of aims. They have seen economic and political liberalism in the ascendant for a time since World War II in some countries but also its apparent decline in more recent times. Though not necessarily sharing a common interpretation, either of causes or consequences, they see danger in the expansion of government, not least in state welfare, in the power of trade unions and business monopoly, and in the continuing threat and reality of inflation.

Again without detailed agreements, the members see the Society as an effort to interpret in modern terms the fundamental principles of economic society as expressed by those classical economists, political scientists, and philosophers who have inspired many in Europe, America and throughout the Western World.

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This is a powerfully VAGUE statement that does not inspire confidence. It seems very "worthy" yet is unsharp and limited in its understanding of humanity at large, beyond the elements of "business". Nor do these folks have an understanding of the dynamics of this planet. These elements of business can be very misunderstanding of the contrary positions that the business actions can generate in regard to the equation of supply and demand, including destructive forces upon the earth, plus the powerful and often dangerous hocus pocus of advertising, while keeping people in debt in order to keep them "captive".

The "fundamental principles of economic societies" seem to be basically revolving around greed and the management of greed to favour those who can be greedier than most. Classical economy is not a science but an art form which is at best subjectively successful and at worse can let everyone down into the clutches of market manipulations as in the GFC. 

By contrast, the science of global warming and other natural sciences are specific in their equations and understanding of dynamics. It's as simple as that: add more CO2 in the atmosphere and the temperature of the surface of the planet is going to go up. Glaciers are going to melt, storms are going to be more powerful and heat waves will kill more people. And of all things, this is not going to be stopped by burning more fossil fuels. 

Overall, the Mont Pelerin Society has been highjacked by rich dudes and CONservative geezers who like to cultivate the future of this planet with the same "classical" incomplete and somewhat erroneous knowledge as the Romans and the Greeks. Old Sox would be proud of these idiotic foggies.

The just-published book “Dark Money,” penned by New Yorker staff reporter Jane Mayer, reveals that the Koch Brothers hired the former commissioner of the New York Police Department (NYPD) — and his daughter, a former FBI agent — to smear her as a “plagiarist” in the months after the release of her August 2010 bombshell article on the Kochs.

That article, titled “Covert Operations,” served at the time as one of the first in-depth pieces of long-form investigative journalism on David and Charles Koch and the influential right-wing political and climate change denial Tea Party network they had Frankensteined. Mayer's book exposes that the Kochs hired the firm Vigilant Resources International, run by former NYPD head Howard Safir and his daughter Jennifer Safir (the former FBIspecial agent), to do dirty work on their behalf.

The story, as Mayer told it in “Dark Money,” began when she received a January 3, 2011 email from her New Yorker editor, David Remnick. 

“In his e-mail,” to me, Mayer wrote, “Remnick explained that ten minutes earlier he’d received a baffling inquiry about me from Keith Kelly, the reporter who covered the media industry for the New York Post.”

Remnick's query centered around accusations — most likely emanating from somewhere within Koch World and handed to the New York Post and other outlets — that Mayer's journalistic track record, according to their research, was rife with plagiarism. The main issue: it wasn't in the slightest. Mayer has impeccable journalism credentials.

That didn't stop the witch hunt from proceeding and nearly reaching take off mode, though. 

With or without real evidence, the point of the covert campaign was not to find genuine evidence of plagiarism, but rather a classic case of attacking the messenger. 

“Their aim, according to a well-informed source, was to counteract The New Yorker’s story on the Koch brothers by undermining me,” wrote Mayer. “'Dirt, dirt, dirt' is what the source later told me they were digging for in my life. 'If they couldn’t find it, they’d create it.'”

Vigilant Resources International, “Dark Money” details, got a retainer fee to help the effort along according to sources who spoke to Mayer on the condition of anonymity.

“VRI’s Threat, Risk and Vulnerability Assessments focus on safety and value and address a full spectrum of physical security, integrity, intellectual property and other operational risks,” VRI explains of its work on its website.

read more: http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/01/19/jane-mayer-dark-money-book-koch-brothers-nypd-fbi

Guess what? The New York Post is a glorious US rag driven by our very own Rupert Murdoch. Uncle Rupe — who with Jerry Hall is this instant feathering a bird nest — is well known for his support of anything anti-global warming. Uncle Rupe is also well known for his support of war — any wars. Uncle Rupe's business model is to sell sex, sports, fear and deceit. Anyone with similar views will be deemed a hero. Anyone challenging the script will be hanged and quartered.

See toon at top.