Pam and Russ Martens — Koch Bros.

Since 2010 we have been investigating and reporting on activities of the billionaire Koch brothers’ political funding network to subvert democracy in the United States.

Wall Street On Parade
Was that a Koch Brothers’ Agent Who Pounded on our Door after We Wrote a Critical Article?
Pam Martens and Russ Martens

See also

They’re spending $20 million to convince voters of the benefits of the GOP’s central achievement.

Bloomberg
Koch-Backed Groups Are Selling Trump’s Tax Cuts Door-to-Door Ahead of the Midterms
John McCormick

Josh Keefe — The Koch Brothers Want To Rewrite The Constitution. They May Succeed.

Explanation of the push to revise the US Constitution.

International Business Times
The Koch Brothers Want To Rewrite The Constitution. They May Succeed.

Josh Keefe

Kevin Robillard — Koch network pledges to defend Republicans who vote against GOP health bill

The Koch brothers' network of well-funded outside groups says it will spend millions to protect Republicans who oppose the party's health care bill from political fallout.
Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Partners, the Koch network's big budget grass-roots activism and advertising groups, are teaming up to create a "seven-figure" reserve fund to support lawmakers who buck President Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan on the health care vote, as the threat of primaries looms over some opponents of the bill. The Koch groups will spend the money on paid media, direct mail and grass-roots canvassing.

Freedom Partners called the GOP bill "Obamacare 2.0" and said it falls short of truly repealing the 2010 law....

The Koch groups argue that the GOP's bills refundable tax credits to make health coverage more affordable are a new entitlement….

The GOP goes to war with itself over purity versus practicality.

Politico

Koch network pledges to defend Republicans who vote against GOP health bill

Kevin Robillard

Eric Draitser — BRICS Under Attack: The Empire Strikes Back In Brazil

Political movements are always funded. Follow the money. Yes, some of it is traceable to the Koch brothers, claims Draitser.

Mint Press News
BRICS Under Attack: The Empire Strikes Back In Brazil

Eric Draitser

See also

Chapter 10: ‘They key purpose of the Cold War … was to block trade’

In this chapter, Ellsberg criticizes common misconceptions about the Cold War period of U.S. history.

“The understanding of the Cold War that 99 out of 100 Americans hold right now … is a fairy tale,” he explained.

While most people believe the United States acted to stop Communism from spreading outward from countries like China and Russia, Ellsberg suggested that the financial domination of global markets was a far more important factor propelling the Cold War.

“The key purpose of the Cold War paradigm, both in Europe and in Asia, was to block East-West trade,” he said.

With NATO and U.S. forces now encircling China and Russia with military bases, East-West tensions are rising anew. The U.S. is also seeking to inflame tensions in Ukraine after supporting a coup there.

America’s ultimate goal, according to Ellsberg, is always to dominate a region in order to put pressure on nearby countries whose interests stand in opposition to American interests. Those maneuvers, he said, are always backed with “the threat of first use of nuclear weapons.”…

Daniel Ellsberg: Most Americans Believe A ‘Fairy Tale’ About The Cold War

Charles Koch — This is the one issue where Bernie Sanders is right

As he campaigns for the Democratic nomination for president, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) often sounds like he’s running as much against me as he is the other candidates. I have never met the senator, but I know from listening to him that we disagree on plenty when it comes to public policy.

Even so, I see benefits in searching for common ground and greater civility during this overly negative campaign season. That’s why, in spite of the fact that he often misrepresents where I stand on issues, the senator should know that we do agree on at least one — an issue that resonates with people who feel that hard work and making a contribution will no longer enable them to succeed.

The senator is upset with a political and economic system that is often rigged to help the privileged few at the expense of everyone else, particularly the least advantaged. He believes that we have a two-tiered society that increasingly dooms millions of our fellow citizens to lives of poverty and hopelessness. He thinks many corporations seek and benefit from corporate welfare while ordinary citizens are denied opportunities and a level playing field.

I agree with him.…

The "rigged system" is one of Bernie's key key ledes, so this is significant as a basis from which to start. In my view, it is foundational. It is therefore the starting point of any agreement.

The Washington Post — Opinion
Charles Koch: This is the one issue where Bernie Sanders is right

Charles G. Koch | chairman and chief executive of Koch Industries

Lee Fang — Former Koch Industries Official Says He Ghostwrote Letters On Behalf of Congressmen

Richard Tucker, a former communications manager at Koch Industries from August 2010 through March 2012, wrote in his LinkedIn profile that he was responsible for “op-eds and letters to the editor that were signed by company leaders, members of congress and citizen activists.” Tucker, a writer and editor for a number of conservative websites, said he also wrote “regular blog posts for company employees to help explain important Washington policy debates” and was a member of the “crisis communication team that produced swift responses to negative press coverage.”

Way more than access.

The Intercept
Former Koch Industries Official Says He Ghostwrote Letters On Behalf of Congressmen

Lee Fang

Jeffrey Sommers and Michael Hudson — The Koch Brothers’ Governors

The Koch Brothers are the closest thing the United States has to Russia’s oligarchs.

You get the gist. But this is not even the half of it. The Koch Bros. have captured the state government is virtually all the red state at least to some degree, since there are other interests involved in the capture, too.

Michael Hudson
The Koch Brothers’ Governors
Jeffrey Sommers, associate professor at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee and visiting faculty at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, and Michael Hudson, visiting distinguished research professor at the University of Missouri – Kansas City

Mike Allen and Kenneth Vogel — Inside the Koch data mine

The Koch brothers and their allies are pumping tens of millions of dollars into a data company that’s developing detailed, state-of-the-art profiles of 250 million Americans, giving the brothers’ political operation all the earmarks of a national party. 

The move comes as mainstream Republicans, led by Mitch McConnell, are trying to reclaim control of the conservative movement from outside groups. The Kochs, however, are continuing to amass all of the campaign tools the Republican National Committee and other party arms use to elect a president.

The Koch network also has developed in-house expertise in polling, message-testing, fact-checking, advertising, media buying, dial groups and donor maintenance. Add mastery of election law, a corporate-minded aggressiveness and years of patient experimentation — plus seemingly limitless cash — and the Koch operation actually exceeds the RNC’s data operation in many important respects.

Move over, Karl Rove.

Politico
Inside the Koch data mine
Mike Allen and Kenneth Vogel

Think Tank Memories — Karl Fitzgerald interviews Michael Hudson

Michael Hudson tops himself in this one. Sort of oldie, but goodie.

Later, think tanks began to be formed on the right-wing. A military think tank, the RAND Corporation, was founded in California. Herman Kahn came from there, and then the Department of Defense funded his ideas at the Hudson Institute at Croton-on-Hudson, New York. He was the model for Dr Strangelove. I joined him as the number two man and economist in 1972, just as my Super-Imperialism was published. It proved to be a big hit with the Defense Department in Washington, which used it as a “How to do it” book. My first job was to explain just how America was using monetary imperialism to get a free ride from other countries. Herman said that this was part of the “good news” that he wanted to spread. 

Herman and I actually disagreed on almost every policy. We’d go around the country together arguing. He’d talk about the glass being half-full and he said I talked about it being half-empty, but I said, “No, you guys are peeing in it.” So then he talked about the economy being an expanding pie – he was into calculating GDP growth at doubling times to show that in time every economy could become a leisure economy. My job was to ask, “Who’s actually making the pie? And who’s going to eat it?” He didn’t focus much on distribution and polarization of wealth.

Michael Hudson
Think Tank Memories
Karl Fitzgerald interviews Michael Hudson

Joan McCarter — Koch brothers freak out in response to Rolling Stone expose

Tim Dickinson's fantastic expose of the Koch brothers in the latest issue of Rolling Stone has gotten plenty of attention. For very good reason: it's a well-sourced, deep dive into the very toxic—literally toxic—business that earned the Kochs enough money to buy up an entire political party. That and the wrongful death judgement, six felony and numerous misdemeanor convictions, the tens of millions of dollars in fines, and the trading with Iran are all included in the story, well worth your time. 

No one has given it more attention, it seems, than the notoriously thin-skinned Kochs. In typical Koch fashion, they don't argue the facts of Dickinson's story. They attack Dickinson, who responds here. Here's the nut of his detailed response. 

Daily Kos
Koch brothers freak out in response to Rolling Stone expose
Joan McCarter | Daily Kos staff

The Koch stealth candidate for retiring Tom Harkin's seat senate seat has pulled ahead in the race.

[Joni] Ernst, a state senator running against Democrat Bruce Braley for the open U.S. Senate seat, was recorded in June speaking on a panel at a conference sponsored by the political activists Charles and David Koch. 

In her remarks, Ernst said "the exposure to this group and to this network and the opportunity to meet so many of you – that really started my trajectory. And it started a very strong victory that we've progressive, progressively built upon throughout the campaign cycle. 

The MoveOn ad plays an edited clip of Ernst saying, "This group … really started my trajectory" twice in the space of 20 seconds and accuses Ernst and the donors she was speaking to of wanting to "privatize Social Security, cut Medicare and eliminate the minimum wage." 

Democrats and liberal activists have seized on the surreptitious recording as evidence that Ernst is beholden to billionaires who have spent millions backing conservative candidates in recent election cycles and contributed to Ernst herself this year. 

"A secret recording made at a posh Koch brothers retreat in California confirms that the real Joni Ernst was groomed by the oil billionaire Koch brothers from day one to represent their interests over Iowa's," Iowa Democratic Party spokeswoman Christina Freundlich said in a statement released Wednesday, shortly after the Huffington Post broke the news of the tape.

Bernie Sanders — What Do the Koch Brothers Want?

In 1980, David Koch ran as the Libertarian Party’s vice-presidential candidate in 1980.

Let’s take a look at the 1980 Libertarian Party platform.

Here are just a few excerpts of the Libertarian Party platform that David Koch ran on in 1980:

• “We urge the repeal of federal campaign finance laws, and the immediate abolition of the despotic Federal Election Commission.”
• 
  “We favor the abolition of Medicare and Medicaidprograms.”
• 
  “We oppose any compulsory insurance or tax-supported plan to provide health services, including those which finance abortion services.”
• 
  “We also favor the deregulation of the medical insurance industry.”
• 
  “We favor the repeal of the fraudulent, virtually bankrupt, and increasingly oppressive Social Security system. Pending that repeal, participation in Social Security should be made voluntary.”
• 
  “We propose the abolition of the governmental Postal Service. The present system, in addition to being inefficient, encourages governmental surveillance of private correspondence. Pending abolition, we call for an end to the monopoly system and for allowing free competition in all aspects of postal service.”
• 
  “We oppose all personal and corporate income taxation, including capital gains taxes.”
  “We support the eventual repeal of all taxation.”
• 
  “As an interim measure, all criminal and civil sanctions against tax evasion should be terminated immediately.”
• 
  “We support repeal of all law which impede the ability of any person to find employment, such as minimum wage laws.”
• 
  “We advocate the complete separation of education and State. Government schools lead to the indoctrination of children and interfere with the free choice of individuals. Government ownership, operation, regulation, and subsidy of schools and colleges should be ended.”
• 
  “We condemn compulsory education laws … and we call for the immediate repeal of such laws.”
• 
  “We support the repeal of all taxes on the income or property of private schools, whether profit or non-profit.”
• 
  “We support the abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency.”
• 
  “We support abolition of the Department of Energy.”
• 
  “We call for the dissolution of all government agencies concerned with transportation, including the Department of Transportation.”
• 
  “We demand the return of America's railroad system to private ownership. We call for the privatization of the public roads and national highway system.”
• 
  “We specifically oppose laws requiring an individual to buy or use so-called "self-protection" equipment such as safety belts, air bags, or crash helmets.”
• 
  “We advocate the abolition of the Federal Aviation Administration.”
• 
  “We advocate the abolition of the Food and Drug Administration.”
• 
  “We support an end to all subsidies for child-bearing built into our present laws, including all welfare plans and the provision of tax-supported services for children.”
• 
  “We oppose all government welfare, relief projects, and ‘aid to the poor’ programs. All these government programs are privacy-invading, paternalistic, demeaning, and inefficient. The proper source of help for such persons is the voluntary efforts of private groups and individuals.”
• 
  “We call for the privatization of the inland waterways, and of the distribution system that brings water to industry, agriculture and households.”
• 
  “We call for the repeal of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.”
• 
  “We call for the abolition of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.”
• 
  “We support the repeal of all state usury laws.”

What Do the Koch Brothers Want?
Bernie Sanders
United States Senator from Vermont

Brendan DeMelle — Study Confirms Tea Party Was Created by Big Tobacco and Billionaire Koch Brothers

A new academic study confirms that front groups with longstanding ties to the tobacco industry and the billionaire Koch brothers planned the formation of the Tea Party movement more than a decade before it exploded onto the U.S. political scene.

Far from a genuine grassroots uprising, this astroturf effort was curated by wealthy industrialists years in advance. Many of the anti-science operatives who defended cigarettes are currently deploying their tobacco-inspired playbook internationally to evade accountability for the fossil fuel industry's role in driving climate disruption.

The study, funded by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institute of Health, traces the roots of the Tea Party's anti-tax movement back to the early 1980s when tobacco companies began to invest in third party groups to fight excise taxes on cigarettes, as well as health studies finding a link between cancer and secondhand cigarette smoke.

Published in the peer-reviewed academic journal, Tobacco Control, the study titled, 'To quarterback behind the scenes, third party efforts': the tobacco industry and the Tea Party, is not just an historical account of activities in a bygone era....

Mind-bloggling article. This is not being orchestrated just in the US but globally.

Finally, this report might serve as a wake-up call to some people in the Tea Party itself, who would find it a little disturbing that the "grassroots" movement they are so emotionally attached to, is in fact a pawn created by billionaires and large corporations with little interest in fighting for the rights of the common person, but instead using the common person to fight for their own unfettered profits.

Nah, they aren't that smart.

The Huffington Post
Study Confirms Tea Party Was Created by Big Tobacco and Billionaire Koch Brothers
Brendan DeMelle | Executive Director, DeSmogBlog.com