I thought I knew a lot about the Koch brothers until I read this (very long) New Yorker article – it’s just staggering to read the scale of their interference in democracy. These are just a few extracts, but if you have the time it’s worth reading it all:
New Yorker: …David and Charles Koch … longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry — especially environmental regulation. These views dovetail with the brothers’ corporate interests.
In a study released this spring, the University of Massachusetts .. named Koch Industries one of the top ten air polluters in the United States. And Greenpeace issued a report identifying the company as a “kingpin of climate science denial”.
….from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid ExxonMobil in giving money to organizations fighting legislation related to climate change, underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups. Indeed, the brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies — from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program — that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Kochtopus.
….Charles Lewis, the founder of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said, “The Kochs are on a whole different level. There’s no one else who has spent this much money. The sheer dimension of it is what sets them apart. They have a pattern of lawbreaking, political manipulation, and obfuscation. I’ve been in Washington since Watergate, and I’ve never seen anything like it. They are the Standard Oil of our times.”
….the Americans for Prosperity Foundation (started by David Koch in 2004) has worked closely with the Tea Party since the movement’s inception..….The Texas branch of Americans for Prosperity gave its Blogger of the Year Award to a young woman named Sibyl West who (on her site) described Obama as the “cokehead in chief”.
…The anti-government fervor infusing the 2010 elections represents a political triumph for the Kochs. By giving money to “educate,” fund, and organize Tea Party protesters, they have helped turn their private agenda into a mass movement….
….In 1977, the Kochs provided the funds to launch the nation’s first libertarian think tank, the Cato Institute. … its experts and policy papers are widely quoted and respected by the mainstream media … When President Obama, in a 2008 speech, described the science on global warming as “beyond dispute,” the Cato Institute took out a full-page ad in the Times to contradict him….
…Soon after Obama assumed office, Americans for Prosperity launched “Porkulus” rallies against Obama’s stimulus-spending measures … also created an offshoot, Patients United Now, which organized more than three hundred rallies against health-care reform. At one rally, an effigy of a Democratic congressman was hung; at another, protesters unfurled a banner depicting corpses from Dachau. The group also helped organize the “Kill the Bill” protests outside the Capitol, in March, where Democratic supporters of health-care reform alleged that they were spat on and cursed at.
…last summer’s raucous rallies were pivotal in undermining Obama’s agenda … they discouraged deal-makers — Republicans who might otherwise have worked constructively with Obama…
…Charles Koch, in a newsletter sent to his seventy thousand employees, compared the Obama Administration to the regime of the Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez….
Full article here
This Mother Jones article is also worth reading (here): ‘Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: Funded by the Koch Bros’
The Obama Diary 
We have to defund the koch. we need to boycott them.
Tulips and everyone,
Please go to the “Don’t Help Fund Right-Wing Extremism” and click on the VIEW LIST option on the following site. You will get a list of all Koch products.
http://www.boycottkochbrothers.com/
http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/55120/the-koch-brothers-may-be-in-your-house-right-now/
I know that some are uneasy about boycotting because it effects the employees of those companies and those that fill that way have every right to abstain from this type of protest. But sometimes when it becomes clear the maniacal intent of a company or Representatives of a company is to rid the middle class and subvert the president of the united states, I think such actions as boycotting are called for.
Wowwwwwwwwwwww Chipsticks, what an Education??? This Is beyobd “CONTROLLING”, I don’t have a word for them, I guess “kochtopus” does best decribes them. Thanks so much for this piece of Info.
Enemies of the country, in my opinion. I don’t know how the people who conspire with these criminals can sleep at night. Their own children will be left a world where the poor massively outweigh the rich, and air quality is substandard for all. The air is no more rarified if you’re rich, and that’s just a fact. The love of money really is the root of all evil.
All these revelations about these disgraceful brothers have made me sadder than I have felt in ages. What is worst is most of MSM knew about this and cosigned along. When I think of how hard the president and we the people have been working for 2 years now just……no words. 😦
Everyone please note these websites. It’s time to start hitting these jerks in their wallets.
Please pass these sites to your friends and post on your FB page. I know that some people have a negative view of boycotting because it puts the workers at risk who have nothing to do with the harmful actions of the company’s owner. But when the monies from these products you buy are going to subvert and destroy the middle class and the president of the United States sometimes these actions are necessary.
http://www.boycottkochbrothers.com/
http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/55120/the-koch-brothers-may-be-in-your-house-right-now/
Some of Koch Products.
Angel Soft toilet paper
Brawny paper towels
Dixie plates, bowls, napkins and cups
Mardi Gras napkins and towels
Quilted Northern toilet paper
Soft ‘n Gentle toilet paper
Sparkle napkins
Vanity Fair napkins
Zee napkins
My goodness, We, President Obama and his supporters are in a “dance with the devil”, literally. I read the entire article and to be honest, it frighten the heck out of me. Only God can rescue this country. These men are far too sinister for President Obama to deal with alone. Without the Lord’s help, he is not strong enough to have this Battle with the Devil. This evil is so much a part of the Republican Party/Tea Party. Do we even stand a chance. Maybe some of my Obama friends here on this Board don’t believe in a heaven or hell, as I do, so please tolerate my concerns right now. This family (Koch) is El Diablo incarnate. If we Believers have ever prayed for our President, now is the time to throw in an extra one that will add to his protection and victory as he gears up for re-election. Those intercessory prayers are so powerful. As I read this article, such a dread swept over me. Perhaps my life has been too sheltered to be able to comprehend how all-consuming the quest for greed and power can be. .
Hey Graciouslady, it was a desperately depressing article – as I mentioned in the post, I thought I knew a lot about the Koch brothers, but I really had no clue just how sinister they are or how instrumental they were in the rise of the Tea Party movement. It’s utterly disgusting.
It was this part of the article, which I didn’t include in the extracts (too long), that really showed me the ‘quality’ of human beings we’re dealing with here:
David Koch was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1991 – “he received treatment, settled down, started a family, and reconsidered his life. As he told Portfolio, “When you’re the only one who survived in the front of the plane and everyone else died—yeah, you think, ‘My God, the good Lord spared me for some greater purpose.’ My joke is that I’ve been busy ever since, doing all the good work I can think of, so He can have confidence in me.”
After that “he became a patron of cancer research, focussing on prostate cancer” … In 2004, President Bush named him to the National Cancer Advisory Board, which guides the National Cancer Institute.
….at the same time that David Koch has been casting himself as a champion in the fight against cancer, Koch Industries has been lobbying to prevent the E.P.A. from classifying formaldehyde, which the company produces in great quantities, as a “known carcinogen” in humans.
Scientists have long known that formaldehyde causes cancer in rats, and several major scientific studies have concluded that formaldehyde causes cancer in human beings … Corporations have resisted regulations on formaldehyde for decades, however, and Koch Industries has been a large funder of members of Congress who have stymied the E.P.A., requiring it to defer new regulations until more studies are completed.
Koch Industries became a major producer of the chemical in 2005 …. David Koch did not recuse himself from the National Cancer Advisory Board, or divest himself of company stock, while his company was directly lobbying the government to keep formaldehyde on the market. (A board spokesperson said that the issue of formaldehyde had not come up.)
James Huff, an associate director at the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, a division of the N.I.H., told me that it was “disgusting” for Koch to be serving on the National Cancer Advisory Board: “It’s just not good for public health. Vested interests should not be on the board.” He went on, “Those boards are very important. They’re very influential as to whether N.C.I. goes into formaldehyde or not. Billions of dollars are involved in formaldehyde.”
*****
What can you say?? Beyond belief.
All I can remind you of Graciouslady, just to try to lift your spirits, is that despite these creatures Barack Obama was elected in 2008 – their money couldn’t buy that election. That has to give us all faith. Yes, they had a major influence on the midterms, but the President’s poll ratings are still fine – 46 to 52 – and there’s still no credible GOP opponent for 2012. Sometimes – not often – good wins out, we have to cling to the belief that it will again in 2012.
I also read that, KOCH bros had a smear campaign going against the New Yorker piece author.
Wow!!! They are pure evil!!!
The things people do in the name of God. It is ironic that many of these holier than thou people in America a mirror images of the ‘radical terrorists’ they rail against!!! All of the crazies: palin, the Koch brothers, limbaugh, Cheney, Beck, Ailes, Murdoch, Beck, coulter, Hannity, O’reilly etc. Same difference!!!
Even Satan believes that God exists. These people are deeply evil – there’s no doubt in my mind. They sleep peacefully at night, and don’t even think twice about the harm they are doing. This is certainly a battle of light versus dark – absolutely.
Some times I feel that war has been declared on us, not by foreign terrorist but by fellow Americans. I wonder what would happen if we shut down cable tv. Would they stop spreading their hate and lies? What if we start making people prove what they say or sue them for libel.
I just accidentqlly deleted my post. Going to start over. Chipsticks,I am so thankful that you brought this article to the forefront It scares the heck out of me but as lovers of our President we need to join hands together and support him in everyway we can.
These are very evil men. They are full of darkness so we need to bring this to the light.
bjw2, thanks for the list. I am going to sign the boycott and stay away from those products. I wish that article had a link to facebook because it is important to read all of it.
We all knew that the 2000 Elections were fixed. This just confirms the dishonesty of the Bush administration.
“During the 2000 election campaign, Koch Industries spent some nine hundred thousand dollars to support the candidacies of George W. Bush and other Republicans. During the Bush years, Koch Industries and other fossil-fuel companies enjoyed remarkable prosperity. The 2005 energy bill, which Hillary Clinton dubbed the Dick Cheney Lobbyist Energy Bill, offered enormous subsidies and tax breaks for energy companies. The Kochs have cast themselves as deficit hawks, but, according to a study by Media Matters, their companies have benefitted from nearly a hundred million dollars in government contracts since 2000.”
I have a place where I can go to Light a Candle. You can light it to send warm wishes, use our combined energies to surround our President with protection, or say a prayer to God/Allah/the Universe or anything thing you want. We need to overflow President Obama with love.
It is http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/groups.cfm?l=eng On this page go down until you see either PBO or Obama and click on and follow the directions.
I have done this every day since President Obama entered the race. It has been my strength and peace and then I found you Chipsticks and BWD. If I don’t anything …….I go to these three links everyday. It makes me feel better and it is nice to share with each other plus keep up with our Man.
Let me add. If you can’t find PBO or Obama listed then go to the top of the page and click on groups. For search groups just type in either site. Thanks.
Hiya Barb, that article had exactly the same effect on me, it made me me feel physically ill.
But this is happening the world over, there are Koch brothers in every ‘corner’ of the damned planet. I know the Wisconsin pizza thing just seemed like a bit of fun, but, for me, it was hugely symobolic – it was a gesture of solidarity from victims of politicians funded by the likes of the Koch brothers on every continent, with Rupert Murdoch giving them an unchallenged voice.
But as I said to Graciouslady, despite this depraved, moneyed opposition, Barack Obama was elected President – and he will, I’m certain, be re-elected in 2012.
Keep the faith Barb, good can triumph over evil: that was proved in 2008. Let’s do it again in 2012.
Wow, that was just what I said……….These guys are worse than Murdoch. You are absolutely right. There is always going to be someone out there. From reading that article it almost sounds like Glenn Beck and Limbaugh get a big printout and just souund off as they read along.
He will be re-elected.
BTW, I sent a letter to the WH and mentioned your site that they might want to take a look at it. LOL
Yep, I really did.
Thank You so much Chipsticks for Your reference to the New Yorker article – just horrifying reading. Also many thanks to bjw2
for Your links – I have from this moment stopped buying products from Kimberly-Clark.
Landslide for President Obama in 2012!
Read about these evil ‘twins’ before. Sad that with the resources they have, they choose to do evil instead of good. The enemy within indeed!!
Thanks for this (mostly horrifying!) article, Chipsticks… just passed it on to my whole mailing list, with credit to you. How can we fight such greed and power, with so much $ behind it? Reading this is like a kick in the stomach… ugh! : )