Keith Olberman has been covering them. They are a scary pair with LOTS of power/disposable income.
IIRC the article says that Koch Industries has revenues over $100 billion/year. I believe the Waltons of WalMart fame are of a similar political persuasion, and are similarly wealthy.
Keith Olberman has been covering them. They are a scary pair with LOTS of power/disposable income.
IIRC the article says that Koch Industries has revenues over $100 billion/year. I believe the Waltons of WalMart fame are of a similar political persuasion, and are similarly wealthy.
Don’t they put their contributions in the Conservative camp? I don’t think they are adding to the ‘teabag’ coffers (of course, I may be wrong!).
That New Yorker piece looks like quite the article, at ten thousand words all I could do now was to bootleg it into a word doc. for later reading, I bet it’s going to be even more interesting than the interview, which was pretty good.
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I shouldn’t forget to add that Amy Goodman over at Democracy Now, one of the rare “unimbedded” news services left standing, has reported on the Koch influence since way back. It is nice to see this story finally reaching escape velocity. http://www.democracynow.org/
Candidates’ Trail of Money, February 03, 2000 | We continue with our look at how corporate money has been injected into the presidential campaign, and at the role of corporate-sponsored non-profits and think tanks in the electoral process. …
Sometimes I feel like I have woken up to an American that slipped down the rabbit hole. Tea party activists are like cattle being herded to the edge of a cliff.
Sometimes I feel like I have woken up to an American that slipped down the rabbit hole. Tea party activists are like cattle being herded to the edge of a cliff.
I thought they were more like the herders herding everyone else off the cliff, or at least trying to
I wonder what is in it for them? Armegedden, and the second coning of christ?
I don’t know that their views include wacky versions of Christianity. Their beliefs stem from the general Libertarian ideals of ‘keep the government’s hands off my money’. IOW, pure greed. That’s the common thread in all the stuff they’re funding. Basically, they pay $x to some group that gets people elected to office that is likely to cut their taxes by some large multiple of x.
That’s behind much of the Tea Party, Cato, and the anti-AGW stuff is more of the same: if AGW were true, it’d be necessary for the government to regulate. But government regulations are bad, so AGW must be false, too ...
“You earned your money!! The government is trying to steal it from you!! You have to vote against those evil polticians who are trying to tax you while you are alive and even afterwards by a death tax that steals your money from your children!!! Unfortunately, a majority of the people actually believe this crap. Example, a poll was taken by showing people four names and asking which one is a Supreme Court Justice. Only 28% chose John Stevens. Although that sounds bad, it’s much worse. By guessing the amount would be 25%, so it was really closer to 3%.
We know none of them realize their taxes are paying for their roads, their police and fire protection, education for their children, and at least another dozen services that they would never want to give up.
So, they listen to and love Ken Beck, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News in general, and never examine anything, but just accept is as gospel.
I try to be an optimist, but I really wish you young people luck in the coming decades.
George Soros is a billionaire and gives millions to Liberal groups. But you won’t hear people complaining about that.
It is the prerogative of the Koch’s, Soros, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and all the other billionaires to donate money to whatever cause they like. Or not donate it to anything at all. It’s their money after all.
Occam. - 03 September 2010 04:54 PM
“You earned your money!! The government is trying to steal it from you!! You have to vote against those evil polticians who are trying to tax you while you are alive and even afterwards by a death tax that steals your money from your children!!! Unfortunately, a majority of the people actually believe this crap.
George Soros is a billionaire and gives millions to Liberal groups. But you won’t hear people complaining about that.
It is the prerogative of the Koch’s, Soros, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and all the other billionaires to donate money to whatever cause they like. Or not donate it to anything at all. It’s their money after all.
Nobody is denying their legal right to spend their money as they wish, so long as it’s within the law. The issue is one of ethics. Soros in general uses his money to fight for the disenfranchised and powerless. Koch, Murdoch, etc. use their money to help them make more money by disenfranchising the poor and powerless.
George Soros is a billionaire and gives millions to Liberal groups. But you won’t hear people complaining about that.
It is the prerogative of the Koch’s, Soros, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and all the other billionaires to donate money to whatever cause they like. Or not donate it to anything at all. It’s their money after all.
Nobody is denying their legal right to spend their money as they wish, so long as it’s within the law. The issue is one of ethics. Soros in general uses his money to fight for the disenfranchised and powerless. Koch, Murdoch, etc. use their money to help them make more money by disenfranchising the poor and powerless.
...and convincing them he is doing them a favor. I can’t believe most of those attending those rallies are rich or even ‘comfortable’. To have someone who is poor holding a sign saying they don’t want health care, and a Medicare recipient telling a reporter to ‘Keep government out of Medicare,” is mind boggling.
To have someone who is poor holding a sign saying they don’t want health care, and a Medicare recipient telling a reporter to ‘Keep government out of Medicare,” is mind boggling.
It is entirely debatable whether “liberal” programs either help recipients or just subjugate them to a cycle of dependency and stifle the economy, but I digress.
I just thought that the article was completely one sided. Just digging up a lot of facts and connections doesn’t make a piece of journalism good.
