Billionaire Koch Brothers: Tea Party Puppetmasters

[Political Junky]

So much for the Tea Party being grassroots.

The billionaire Koch brothers: Tea Party puppetmasters? - The Week

The New Yorker's Jane Mayer has investigated the political funding networks of Charles and David Koch, two of the wealthiest people in America and generous donors to conservative political causes. In her 6,000-word story, Mayer makes a case that the billionaire brothers have funded and fostered the Tea Party movement as a well-disguised means to pursue their private political agenda. The brothers vehemently deny the claim, and Mayer's story has been written off by conservative bloggers as a "coordinated character assassination." Here are some of the key assertions in the article:

The family has a complicated relationship with Communism
The family business, Koch Industries, was built up by their brothers' father Fred, an "arch-conservative" and member of of the staunchly anti-Communist (some might say "paranoid") John Birch Society. But, ironically enough, the firm's financial success was built on the back of work done in collaboration with the Soviet government under Stalin in the 1930s, according to Mayer. By the 1950s and 60s, Koch Sr. was raising the alarm about Communists infiltrating U.S. society and government. In addition to a vast fortune, says Mayer, the Koch boys also inherited their father's "distrust of the U.S. government."
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[uscitizen]

Interesting, thanks for the post.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

So just because they contribute to conservative causes they are the puppet masters of the tea party? The tea party is not made up of just Conservatives. The tea party is more of a grass roots movement then acorn is or any democratic or liberal pushed movement.

 

[uscitizen]

The tea party is not just made up of republicans, but it is mostly made up of republicans. I would say that 80% of teapartiers voted for bush in 2000 and 2004.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

So just because they contribute to conservative causes they are the puppet masters of the tea party? The tea party is not made up of just Conservatives. The tea party is more of a grass roots movement then acorn is or any democratic or liberal pushed movement.

Jane Mayer the author of this story is not an investigative reporter she is a liberal attack dog that only goes after anything that isn't liberal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Mayer

 

[bigrebnc1775]

The tea party is not just made up of republicans, but it is mostly made up of republicans. I would say that 80% of teapartiers voted for bush in 2000 and 2004.

Failed, not all Republicans are conservatives.

 

[uscitizen]

The tea party is not just made up of republicans, but it is mostly made up of republicans. I would say that 80% of teapartiers voted for bush in 2000 and 2004.

Failed, not all Republicans are conservatives.

correct why I said most of them voted for bush and specifically used republicans instead of conservatives. Plain has a conservative record? no pork, etc?

Very few of the tea partiers are conservatives when it comes to voting either.
they will mostly vote republican whether the candidate is conservative or not.

 

[Guerrilla]

I think our resident "constitutional watchdog" is just struggling with a crisis of confidence, realizing his "grassroots" movement is simply a byproduct of more corporate interests.

Enjoy!

 

[RetiredGySgt]

So just because they contribute to conservative causes they are the puppet masters of the tea party? The tea party is not made up of just Conservatives. The tea party is more of a grass roots movement then acorn is or any democratic or liberal pushed movement.

Notice the same people that trumpet this NEVER mention people like Soros? There is a reason for that.

 

[Political Junky]

The Tea Party claims to be grassroots. It's not.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

The Tea Party claims to be grassroots. It's not.

People all over the country who have never taken the time to get out and actually do anything political and in some cases not even having voted before, have come out to these tea party rallies and they didn't do it because the Koch brothers called them up on the phone and asked them too. It sure sounds like grassroots to me. You can sit there and poo-poo it all you want if that's what helps you sleep at night, but the bottom line is the people you voted for in the last two election cycles are going to get their asses handed to them in a little over two months whether you like it or not and that's just the way it is. The GOP may turn out to not be any better, but there is at least some shred of hope that the new Republicans who will be taking their place will have learned some type of lesson from the past four years. Time will tell, I guess. Sweet dreams.

 

[midcan5]

"The modern conservative [libertarian] is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." John Kenneth Galbraith


Common foes bring together losers, 'David H. Koch and his brother Charles are lifelong libertarians and have quietly given more than a hundred million dollars to right-wing causes.' And money has great power. It is fascinating that the tea party is seen for what it is: tools for the corporation, tools for power, tools against our democratically elected president, just whiners and complainers. Too funny but also too predictable. In the final analysis, the 'contented' hate America values, they want theirs and fluck everyone else.


[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Culture-Contentment-Penguin-economics-Galbraith/dp/0140173668/ref=sr_1_17?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: Culture of Contentment, the (Penguin economics) (9780140173666): John Kenneth Galbraith: Books[/ame]


New Yorker piece below:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer?printable=true


and more investigative reporting:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tea_Party_movement_funding

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[California Girl]

And yet.... it is absolutely fine for Soros to be the puppetmaster behind the POTUS.

Personally, I find that far more important - and far less likely to be acknowledged by the lefties.

 

[jillian]

And yet.... it is absolutely fine for Soros to be the puppetmaster behind the POTUS.

Personally, I find that far more important - and far less likely to be acknowledged by the lefties.

It's not a good compairson. What personal business agenda does soros advance by giving money to dem candidates?

don't you even want to know who's pulling the tea party strings?

 

[midcan5]

Whiners of the world unite, you only need a few billionaires to pull your strings.

Grassroots, yea sure! LMAO

"Koch&#8217;s detractors also like to point out the irony of the so-called grassroots tea-party movement&#8217;s being funded by a billionaire. Koch&#8217;s real motives, they say, are self-serving. In April, Fang posted a dossier on Koch that attributes to his groups a decades-long pattern of &#8220;Astroturfing&#8221;&#8212;funding movements designed to look grassroots, but which in fact represent corporate interests. Richard Fink insists that Koch&#8217;s political activity is about principles, not money. &#8220;I view David as a courageous American who has a set of beliefs that he&#8217;s willing to support consistently over time despite all the flak he gets,&#8221; Fink says. &#8220;Very few people would do that.&#8221;" How Oil Heir and New York Arts Patron David Koch Became the Tea Party's Wallet -- New York Magazine

 

[RetiredGySgt]

And yet.... it is absolutely fine for Soros to be the puppetmaster behind the POTUS.

Personally, I find that far more important - and far less likely to be acknowledged by the lefties.

It's not a good compairson. What personal business agenda does soros advance by giving money to dem candidates?

don't you even want to know who's pulling the tea party strings?

Ya, Soros just did it cause he cares. Get a life you Obama apologist. He drove gas over 100 dollars a barrel cause he cares, right? He gives away millions cause he cares, right?

Maybe if your buddies in the press spent as much time investigating him they would have an answer for you.

 

[midcan5]

Ya, Soros just did it cause he cares. Get a life you Obama apologist. He drove gas over 100 dollars a barrel cause he cares, right? He gives away millions cause he cares, right?

Maybe if your buddies in the press spent as much time investigating him they would have an answer for you.

The 'Moral Scale of Conservatives' could not have a better demonstration. If you can find a grain of sand, compare it to a mountain, and voila equivalency. Morality truth justice and the America way only require this magical scale. It does not matter that something is wrong or just truthful, it only matters that you think something else is wrong. Ah, the comfort of emotion over thought. Must be nice to live in this fantasy world - the corporations thank you.


The Political Brain by Drew Westen

 

[Chris]

The New Yorker's Jane Mayer has investigated the political funding networks of Charles and David Koch, two of the wealthiest people in America and generous donors to conservative political causes. In her 6,000-word story, Mayer makes a case that the billionaire brothers have funded and fostered the Tea Party movement as a well-disguised means to pursue their private political agenda.

The Kochs promote global warming skepticism
During the 1980s and 1990s, the brothers spent more than $100 million creating the "Kochtopus" &#8212; a term coined by critics to describe their "network" of ideologically motived organizations. In 2008, Mayer reveals, the three main Koch family foundations gave money to 34 political and policy organizations, many of which promote a skeptical view of global warming. The Kochs, for instance, funded the launch of the libertarian Cato Institute, which has been a fierce opponent of environmental reform. They also have given large sums to the Heritage Foundation and the Independent Women's Foundation, both doubters on the question of manmade climate change.

They are 'waging a war against Obama'
In 2004, David Koch helped found conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, which Mayer says has been "instrumental in disrupting the Obama Presidency." The Kochs' involvement, she writes, has been "intense"; one source even says it is "micromanaged" by the brothers &#8212; a charge they deny. "By giving money to 'educate,' fund and organize Tea Party protesters, [the Kochs] have helped turn their private agenda into a mass movement," says Mayer. FrumForum's Tim Mak is another conservative to treat this with skepticism. "Try telling a [Tea Party] activist that they're an agent of the Koch family!" he says. "The Tea Party just can't be seriously controlled, only educated."

The billionaire Koch brothers: Tea Party puppetmasters? - The Week threads merged

 

[Chris]

The founder and chairman of Americans for Prosperity is oil baron David Koch, who is one of the richest men in the world because of his oil, chemicals, and manufacturing conglomerate Koch Industries. Koch Industries is a major polluter with an atrocious record of sloppy operations. According to the EPA, Koch Industries is responsible for over 300 oil spills in the US and has leaked three million gallons of crude oil into fisheries and drinking waters. They were fined a record $35 million dollars and an additional $8 million in Minnesota for discharging into streams. But AFP&#8217;s recent crusade against the EPA is just the latest in Koch&#8217;s twenty-year campaign to have unrestricted power to pollute. Below is a timeline with snapshots of Koch&#8217;s long running campaign to distort science, orchestrate fake grassroots campaigns, and defeat environmental protections. Click for the timeline:

Wonk Room From Promoting Acid Rain To Climate Denial: Over 20 Years Of David Koch&#8217;s Polluter Front Groups

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Thread merge on aisle 2

Yeah Koch sends us all a check to pretend we want limited government.

Moron.