I have been struggling with this post for days, but I have finally figured out how to present the Koch brothers to you in a logical, sort of chronological manner. I have been reading and watching documentaries until my brain is fried and my eyes are crossed but this is how I will lay it all out for you.
The Koch Brothers Family History
What is their true philosophy? Who were their influences? How were these things an influence as the Kochs matured and struck out on their own (I say that lightly as they struck out with an inherited fortune, unlike most of us).
Koch Industries
I will give you as many of their holdings as I have found and explain each one and also report on any problems they have had.
Bankrolling the Right Through Various Foundations
Bankrolling Presidential Candidates. Bankrolling Congress. Bankrolling at the state level. Using Americans for Prosperity to organize and control the Tea Party
Think Tanks and Academia They Bankroll In Order to Exercise Control
Where do the Kochs spread their money in think tanks and academia? How does this money help them and what is the result of their influence in these areas. How do their seats on Corporate Boards give them leverage?
So I will run this in four parts. There is so much on the internet about these brothers but I think the best so far that I have read are Jane Mayer with the New Yorker and Tony Carrk with Center for American Progress who also own Think Progress. Lee Fang and Brad Johnson of Think Progress have done a great job in researching the brothers as well. Tony Carrk, with their help, wrote the most comprehensive single report and I will be using information from his report plus other information that supplements even that superior report. I have tested posting a link to Tony Carrk’s report but the link will not work, I tried finding the report on their site but could not find it either. I will give you the links but you will most likely have to copy and paste to go to the original documents which is in PDF format. I will also recommend documentaries that I have watched that provided the most critical information on the Kochs. I found it rather disingenuous of some right wing think tanks, blogs and individuals criticizing Center for American Progress and Think Progress for their lean toward Democrats and President Obama and I think you will as well when you see all the Right-wing Think Tanks there are out there. Actually it is sad.
I hope you will find this series informational and hopefully it will give you a reference point, along with the other articles, documentaries and reports that I will provide. Up first on Tuesday the 28th of May will be the Koch brothers family history. Please feel free to share your comments or suggestions as I complete this series.
This series will not start until Tuesday. The intro was supposed to be posted tomorrow but I think my email and the submission of the intro must have been crossed in the intrawebs somewhere…..Tuesday.
Just added this info to your post Sue. My internet connection has been in and out. Being fixed this morning.
No problem I thought my warning to each poster would suffice. We all have problems, mine was down on Friday almost all moring. And has been spotty this weekend.
I didn’t get your email Sue, if you ever need to get to me directly, replace the word “admin” with “kalima” at the same address.
Ok, the Internet/phone fixers are here. Later. 🙂
Ok got it. Thanks Kalima
Thanks for adding the Wiki blurb
Sorry, SueInCa…know you’re “Koched Out” but thought I’d put this up here for you to review:
http://www.citizenkoch.com/page/content/trailer
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/05/12118/pbs-killed-wisconsin-uprising-documentary-citizen-koch-appease-koch-brothers
Actually I had been thinking about doing this for awhile but the info you posted here gave me the impetus to move forward. Freedom of the press and freedom from intimidation is very important. The Kochs do not own me and they do not own Planet Pov, thank god. But now I am really curious about this movie, there have been others so what is so bad about this one docu?
I had read similar story the other day and that is what made me get serious. I have been writing about the far right for a few years now. I did a series on the religious right you would probably like. I will try to find it and post it for you.
You REALLY are getting into the weeds 🙂 Bravo!! No one shines a light on the Dominionist bs better than Frank Schaeffer. Check this out.
http://frank-schaeffer.blogspot.com/2011/07/christian-terror-in-norway-i-predicted.html?spref=tw
Thanks so much for posting all the links. Will read them tonight when I get a chance. Thanks for your hard work and investigative reporting!
Too late DesertFlower, I follow his blogposts, am friends with him on FB and liked his FB page. I am all about Frank Schaeffer lol. To me, his parents were not that bad they just let the right influence them too much in later years. They were actually hippy types when they left to go to Europe, or what I would consider commune types. I read his book, Crazy for God. They were weird but not really out there for the times. It seemed later when money was a problem that they got too involved.
🙂 Then you have it covered! I don’t know much about his parents,but his eyes sure opened with regard to the Christian Taliban!
here you go. This has everything to do with the Kochs and the TeaBillies. They are all connected at some point or other, I just did not know how connected when I wrote this, it would have been much darker had I known.
http://planetpov.com/2010/03/09/a-coalition-of-church-and-state-introduction/
http://planetpov.com/2010/03/10/a-coalition-of-church-and-state-part-1/
http://planetpov.com/2010/03/15/a-coalition-of-church-and-state-part-2/
http://planetpov.com/2010/03/22/coalition-of-church-and-state-part-3-the-players-and-organizations/
http://planetpov.com/2010/03/27/coalition-of-church-and-state-the-family/
http://planetpov.com/2010/04/01/coalition-of-church-and-state-the-influence-of-the-rrour-response/
So glad that you’re doing this. Not enough can be said about these takers! I hope that you also include the fact that they are working on buying up the print media (Tribune papers)to pass their deceit around to the public. I have passed this link on to others and look forward to seeing your write up on this. Thanks bunches.
One more thing…this documentary ( that I’m sure you’ve watched) is important for all to see. Here is the trailer for others to watch.
Actually desert flower I have not seen that one yet. I saved it in my queue so when it becomes available I will get first shot at it. Also, fyi this will start on Tuesday. I don’t think Kalima or Adlib got my backup email explaining this.
Hey and welcome, I have not seen you here before. This is a great site.
Thank you for the welcome:) I have come here before, just never left a comment. Came over from TOD and I think that you’ll find other “new friends” that come over for this series on the Koch Bros. Disgusting creatures. I’ll let the TOD folks know that Tues(tomorrow) will be the first installment.
Glad that I could include the link to the documentary that you hadn’t seen yet…hope that helps you out with your info gathering.
Just wanted to add my welcome to The Planet, desertflower!
Thank you so much, AdLib! Nice to be able to comment here. Anxious to see this Koch series and discuss:)
Dang Adlib I finished wednesday’s article and went to copy it from word into a post and that part of the site is down. LOL I will wait patiently for it to come back up. I am surprised I was able to finish it tonight.
Sue, no part of the site is down, what issue are you running into?
It was a quick blurb that said, site down for maintenance. It would not let me get to word press. I just tried again with your comment and I am in now.
Oh, right! My bad, I was just updating site software, that’s why! Sorry about that!
No problem I am in there editing and fixing now.
Adlib
I just submitted it but forgot to add Wiki as a resource. Could you or Kalima put that at the end of the document where the other links are. Just acknowledging them as a resource.
Done Sue.
Ok desertflower, I am sometime dense, what is TOD?
So sorry. The Obama Diary. Posted this info there as well…
So, you are Koched out, Sherlock? Got the monkey on your back? Well, I will go there with you anytime. I look forward to reading all your research on these jerks. I know you have worked hard on it. I’m ready!
Dr. Watson is on call
Sally, I am definitely Koched out and not in a good way lol. It will start on Tuesday though, not Monday. I think you will get a kick out of some of their history.
Sue, these guys are mislabeled. They claim to be conservative. We know they don’t care about conservation. They only care about the almighty dollar! I believe we here are more “conservative” than they ever were. I dislike the labels liberal and conservative. I am socially liberal and fiscally conservative. I was a deficit hawk way before the cons were. Now is the time though to spend on our infrastructure. They only obstruct.
Krugman has said that an independent thinker can’t be a conservative.
Nirek, they are far right libertarians. And even Libertarians are contradictory. I am like you, fiscally conservative but mentally liberal. Krugman, I think, is right. Talking to a rightie these days is like talking to a wall or a ventriloquist’s dummy. They might as well be made of wood because they only know talking points. How someone could stand to be that stupid is beyond me. The funny thing is that they think we have not caught on yet lol.
This will begin on Tuesday.
Sue, I don’t know that they are true libertarians. The Kochs sure like to describe themselves that way but they are big ALEC supporters and behind many laws using government to intrude on the rights of Americans including Voter ID laws.
I’d describe them more as plutocrats cloaking that nasty reality under the auspices of “libertarianism”.
But in the end don’t most libertarians slide into fascism of some sort? Selfishness is another trait. But you could also describe them in your way too. The fact is, they are all over the place.
Sherlock, I say they are TAH (True AssHoles). Or should I say, TAH, TAH. One for each brother. Sounds rather upper class, “Tah, Tah, cheery oh!”
Watson you always get to the point but there are 4 brothers so Tah Tah Tah Tah
See, Sherlock, I need to read your article when it is posted so I can learn how many of those TAH’s there are. So until then, TAH TAH Cheery Oh and TAH TAH Tally Ho! and all the little tah tah’s.
lol
They are nothing more than RWNJ’s masquerading as typical “free market” Republicans. Thought you might like to read this…from another AWESOME blog.
http://thepoliticalpragmatic.blogspot.com/2012/08/if-obama-is-socialist-republicans-are.html
From this piece:
A fascist is one whose lust for money and/or power is combined with an intense intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit to attain his ends.
They poison the channels of public information and use the news to deceive the public. Fascists put money and power ahead of human beings, engaging in the systematic looting of the middle class for the benefit of corporations and the rich; in the same way tax cuts extract from the national treasury and redistributes the wealth of the nation to those who are already wealthy. The Republicans not only fight to continue this standard, but proudly promotes a budget that seeks to perpetuate a path to the poorhouse for millions of Americans.
I think that about covers the Koch’s.
I used to follow the Obama Diary on Twitter.
Thanks for the link and quote, desertflower! I completely agree, the Kochs are fascists and do use their wealth to deceive the public as best as they can (didn’t work so well in the 2012 elections) because the simple fact is, they seek the destruction of America’s democracy and it’s a bit hard to get public support for that.
The term “fascist” has been tossed around so much by the RW at Obama and other Dems, simply as a pejorative, as a synonym of “evil” yet the irony is that fascism is exactly what the sum total of Repub policies are intended to establish. As Merriam Webster defines it:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fascism
The Kochs and the GOP want the country run by white people, they want their religious, economic and social beliefs to dominate all individuals, they want an Imperial Presidency…as long as it’s a Republican) and they would revel at the prospect of forcibly suppressing any opposition.
I am optimistic after last year’s election that Americans are seeing the Kochs and the GOP for who and what they really are. They may be overconfident after their BS worked in previous years but Americans know that they’ve only suffered when the plutocrats get what they want.
Ad, Mussolini was the father of fascism. Hitler designed the Third Reich on Mussolini’s philosophy of fascism. Hitler and Mussolini were great friends.
Adlib that was the premise for my article last summer on the GOP. I took the items from the Nazi Party platform and listed them as Republican, then admitted they were the Nazi Party. I bet most who read it were agreeing the R party was just like that.
Sue, I absolutely remember your clever article laying out the fascist stands of the Nazis as if they were Republican stands, really enjoyed it!
The similarity has only grown as time has gone by. They seem completely oblivious to how they increasingly want government to enforce their absolutist, anti-people policies on the nation while howling out of the other side of their mouth, “We have to shrink government!”
I don’t know how much more absurd it can get with that desperate, collapsing party.
I hear you…..waiting for the big one to blow wide open. I truly think something is going to happen to bring it all to a head. Don’t know what but those people are ineffinsane.