Tag: Koch Brothers

We’ve Reached Peak Libertarianism — And It’s Literally Killing Us

We have now reached peak Libertarianism, and this bizarre experiment that has been promoted by the billionaire class for over 40 years is literally killing us.

Back in the years before Reagan, a real estate lobbying group called the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) came up with the idea of creating a political party to justify deregulating the real estate and finance industries so they could make more money. The party would give them ideological and political cover, and they developed an elaborate theology around it.

It was called the Libertarian Party, and their principal argument was that if everybody acted separately and independently, in all cases with maximum selfishness, that that would benefit society. There would be no government needed beyond an army and a police force, and a court system to defend the rights of property owners. Continue reading.

The Koch brothers’ hellscape utopia is here: A business reporter divulges the ‘secret history’ of the conservative empire

AlterNet logoTraditionally, politics is the study of the affluent and the influential. Charles Koch and his recently deceased brother David are extreme examples of that truism. Each of the Koch brothers had an estimated net worth in excess of $50 billion.Through their various political projects, they wield great power over American politics and society.

On issues ranging from tax policy to the environment as well as labor and trade laws, the Kochs have advanced a far-right libertarian agenda that views the social safety net as something to be destroyed and democracy as the enemy. In their view, every area of human life should be subjected to the destructive whims of  predatory capitalism.

Because so much attention is now focused on the Trump regime, the average American has little if any understanding of how the Koch brothers have shaped their day-to-day lives.

View the complete September 10 post by Chauncey DeVega from Salon on the AlterNet website here.

David Koch leaves behind legacy of dark money political network

Allies and foes agree libertarian billionaire transformed the nation’s politics

Republican mega-donor David Koch, who helped pioneer a network of often surreptitious organizations aimed at influencing elections and public policy, leaves behind a legacy of dark-money groups and a volatile political landscape.

Koch, one half of the Koch Brothers along with his older brother Charles, died at age 79, the billionaires’ company, Kansas-based Koch Industries, said Friday. David Koch had stepped away from business and politics in 2018 for health reasons and had previously battled cancer, though the company did not say the exact cause of death.

Congressional and K Street insiders, whether they agreed with the Kochs’ libertarian-conservative ideology or fought it relentlessly, agreed that David Koch left a lasting imprint on the nation’s politics.

View the complete August 23 article by Kate Ackley on The Roll Call website here.

Here are 11 things the Koch brothers didn’t want you to know

AlterNet logoThe mega-billionaire brothers, David and Charles Koch, stand apart in the world of Republicans.

In 2012, their network of hardcore libertarian political donors spent $400 million on negative campaign ads intended to destroy government safety nets and defeat Democrats. They want to repeal Obamacare, dismantle labor unions, repeal any environmental law protecting clean water and air, roll back voting rights, privatize Social Security, stop a minimum wage increase and more. They don’t care about destroying the checks and balances in American democracy to get their way.

In an updated documentary by Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films, Koch Brothers Exposed: 2014 Edition, we learn many things the Kochs don’t want you to know, from the origin of their radical agenda to other issues they’ve championed that haven’t made the national news, such as resegregating public schools.

Here are 11 things the Kochs don’t want you to know about them.

View the complete August 23 article by Steven Rosenfeld on the AlterNet website here (the story first ran in May of 2014).

Tax Whistleblower Suspects Trump Stopped IRS Probe Of Koch Tax Scheme

Only one of the billionaire Koch brothers supported Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign: William Ingraham Koch. Bill Koch even raised money for Trump, his nearby neighbor in Palm Beach, Fla.

That same year, IRS criminal agents began an investigation after receiving nearly 1,000 pages of documents detailing what were described as multiple tax frauds at Bill Koch’s companies. The documents, which we call the Koch Papers, came from a deeply knowledgeable source: Charles Middleton, who had been one of the companies’ top tax executives.

The IRS investigation went cold after Trump assumed office, documents obtained by DCReport show.

View the complete June 9 article by David Cay Johnston of DCReport on the National Memo website here.

IRS abruptly stopped criminal investigation of Mar-a-Lago member accused of massive tax fraud months after Trump took office

William Ingraham Koch lives five blocks away from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, where he is a member. The only one of the four billionaire Koch brothers to support Trump, Bill Koch even hosted a Trump campaign fundraiser at his Cape Cod vacation home in August 2016. Co-chairs were asked to donate or raise $100,000 for the event; simply attending cost $2,700.

top the invitation to Koch’s home? Trump Finance Chairman Steven T. Mnuchin, now Treasury Secretary of the United States, whose duties include overseeing the Internal Revenue Service. Continue reading “IRS abruptly stopped criminal investigation of Mar-a-Lago member accused of massive tax fraud months after Trump took office”

Paulsen’s Lies Not Limited to TV: Debunked Claims Hit Mailboxes Too

A dark secret: Paulsen and his special interest patrons are waging a disinformation campaign in MN03 mailboxes

EXCELSIOR, MN – Congressman Erik Paulsen’s coordinated negative television campaign has earned him unprecedented scrutiny from local fact checkers, but another tactic has earned him less scrutiny, with dozens of special interest-funded mailers containing the same objectively false claims landing in mailboxes across the Third District.

“Voters in Minnesota’s Third District have been subjected to a barrage of objectively false claims on TV and in their mailboxes thanks to Erik Paulsen and his special interest funders,” said Zach Rodvold, campaign manager for Phillips for Congress. “The pieces are too numerous to track, and have no regard for fact or truth — oftentimes coming from dark money groups who operate with no transparency. Congressman Paulsen and his special interest patrons have shown an unrelenting commitment to buying this election, and embracing Donald Trump’s propensity for lies and personal slander on the campaign trail as much as they have his policies in Washington.”

Congressman Paulsen has raised over $2.7 million from PACs – the fourth most of anyone in Congress – and used the money to run an unprecedentedly negative campaign that has been called inappropriate, reckless, false, distorted, not even in the same time zone as truth, extremely misleading, just plain false, and wildly out of context by independent journalists, community leaders, sexual harassment survivors, and Democrats, independents, and Republicans alike. While the TV ads have been the subject of scrutiny by independent fact checkers, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of deceptive direct mail has gone unnoticed.

Here are just some of the outrageous claims being delivered to mailboxes across the district:

Continue reading “Paulsen’s Lies Not Limited to TV: Debunked Claims Hit Mailboxes Too”

Koch network launches super PAC ahead of midterm elections

The following article by Jonathan Easley was posted on the Hill website September 10, 2018:

Credit: Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce

The political network backed by billionaire activist Charles Koch launched a new super PAC on Monday to elect candidates that share their conservative and libertarian-leaning values.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the political arm of the Koch network, has created AFP Action, which will coordinate with Libre Action, an Hispanic outreach super PAC, and Concerned Veterans for America Action to “advocate for candidates who share our commitment to breaking internal and external barriers that prevent people from realizing their full potential.”

The new super PAC will be able to draw on a deep network of wealthy conservative and libertarian donors, although officials declined to say how much the group intends to spend ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

View the complete article here.

Koch-backed political group unveils House endorsements

The following article by from CBS and the Associated Press was posted on the CBS News website August 30, 2018:

The political network created by the billionaire Koch brothers announced plans to support eight House Republicans on Thursday, pledging financial resources and activists to help re-elect several vulnerable congressmen deemed “principled” conservatives.

The first wave of endorsements includes a handful of sometime-critics of President Trump, particularly on immigration and spending.

The announcement comes a month after Mr. Trump assailed the Koch brothers as “a total joke in real Republican circles.” Days earlier, network patriarch Charles Koch had condemned the increased government spending under the Republican president’s leadership and Mr. Trump’s push for import tariffs. The Koch brothers have also been critical of Mr. Trump’s protectionist trade measures. In July, Tim Phillips, president of the Koch-backed group Americans for Prosperity, told CBSN that the aluminum and steel tariffs implemented by the Trump administration were “misguided.”

View the complete article here.

Charles Koch Takes On Trump. Trump Takes On Charles Koch.

The following article by Jeremy W. Peters was posted on the New York Times website July 31, 2018:

Charles G. Koch, one of the Republicans’ biggest donors, has been critical of President Trump’s protectionist trade policies. Mr. Trump is hitting back, creating tensions that could affect the party in the midterm elections.Published OnJuly 31, 2018CreditImage by Bo Rader/The Wichita Eagle, via Associated Press

Few had better reason to appreciate Mr. Trump’s results than Charles G. Koch, a billionaire industrialist who is one of the Republican Party’s biggest donors.

Yet Mr. Koch’s simmering frustrations with the president over trade and immigration have now spilled over into an ugly public feud with Mr. Trump and candidates who side with him. By calling Mr. Trump’s trade policies “detrimental” and denouncing divisive leadership, Mr. Koch is making a provocative political move that — be it hardball strategy or more of a ploy — threatens to complicate Republican efforts to hold on to their slim congressional majorities in the November midterm elections.

View the complete article here.