The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Selfish ‘Idealism’

Posted on | April 21, 2014 | 14 Comments

John Hinderaker at Powerline exposes the hypocrisy of hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer, who is willing to spend millions opposing fossil fuel projects like the Keystone XL pipeline. Why? Because Steyer stands to make many more millions in profits from “green energy.”

Most environmentalists are just misguided idiots. It takes a greedy capitalist to turn that idiocy into a profit opportunity.

 

Category: Environmentalism

Comments

14 Responses to “Selfish ‘Idealism’”

  1. M. Thompson
    April 21st, 2014 @ 8:35 am

    Level of surprise: zero.

    There are wealthy who indulge in things soley for their own benefit.

  2. kbiel
    April 21st, 2014 @ 10:17 am

    I strongly disagree. It takes government regulation and cronyism to turn idiocy into profit opportunity.

  3. Meet Crony Capitalist Tom Steyer | Batshit Crazy News
    April 21st, 2014 @ 10:27 am

    […] TOM: Having the right political friends and promoting the “correct” causes can really pay off… […]

  4. Mayor Ford
    April 21st, 2014 @ 12:21 pm

    *ahem* Al Gore

  5. Quartermaster
    April 21st, 2014 @ 12:53 pm

    Crony capitalism at its finest.

  6. kbiel
    April 21st, 2014 @ 12:56 pm

    I find crony capitalism to be as nonsensical as dehydrated water. You can’t have effective cronyism with capitalism; it takes government control of the market to make it work.

  7. Quartermaster
    April 21st, 2014 @ 1:35 pm

    The analogy you try fails miserably. Crony capitalism describes exactly what you posit. The lobby Congress and the bureaucracy to get the law and regulation that benefits them and suppresses their competition.

  8. Quartermaster
    April 21st, 2014 @ 1:35 pm

    A very good example of a crony capitalist.

  9. Cube
    April 21st, 2014 @ 1:40 pm

    As I tell my kids, “Everyone has an agenda. Including me.”

  10. K-Bob
    April 21st, 2014 @ 5:52 pm

    “Capitalism” does not mean “100% Free Markets”

    That’s why we have the term “Free-Market Capitalism.”

  11. K-Bob
    April 21st, 2014 @ 5:57 pm

    Between 2001 and 2008, Powerline was my first read, every day.

    They seem to be doing some good work still. Sort of like how George Will occasionally pens an excellent column.

    But they went out of their way to alienate many Tea Party types, and did so with a will. So I’ll just say I’m glad that they, like George Will, aren’t a total loss.

  12. Adjoran
    April 21st, 2014 @ 5:57 pm

    It is NOT his “green energy” subsidized ventures that makes him a hypocrite. It’s the fact that he and his fund have made a boatload of money investing in foreign coal companies and funding their mergers, and as far as anyone knows, continue to do so.

    So Steyer’s personal War on Domestic Coal is just causing problems for his competition, making his overseas coal investments more valuable. So does the Obama Administration’s refusal to issue permits for exporting coal (and other fossil fuels, including natural gas).

    This guy is walking the line between hypocrisy and outright corruption.

  13. K-Bob
    April 21st, 2014 @ 5:58 pm

    Maybe we need a special term for 100% cronies.

    Crony-ist?

  14. K-Bob
    April 21st, 2014 @ 6:08 pm

    Ahh, that explains the call to Mark Levin the other day about a Power Plant in Connecticut that was shipping in coal from Indonesia