George Carlin is talking about 'dark money' control of America. That is obvious. Read the book. Elections cost money and money decides who runs and often who wins. Wake up folks, it ain't government, it is money that controls and wants you subject to the whims of the free market rich. Look only how a Japanese company Nissan killed the union in Mississippi - a state at the bottom, any wonder why.
"Charles then ticked off the names of the thirty-two donors who had contributed a million dollars or more during the previous twelve months. Nine were billionaires whose fortunes had landed them on Forbes's list of the four hundred wealthiest Americans. Some, like the finance stars Charles Schwab, Ken Griffin, and Paul Singer, as well as Amway's Richard DeVos and the natural gas entrepreneur Harold Hamm, were fairly well-known. Many others, though, were members of the invisible rich-owners of enormously profitable private enterprises that rarely drew public attention. Two among the nine billionaires, for instance, John Menard Jr., whose fortune Forbes estimated at $6 billion, and Diane Hendricks, whose fortune the magazine valued at $2.9 billion, owned private building and home supply companies in Wisconsin and were not well-known outside the state, let alone in it. Many of the nonbillionaires whom Charles recognized were familiar faces in the Kochs' circle. There were the Popes from North Carolina, the Friess family from Wyoming, and the Robertsons of the Texas oil clan, as well as coal barons like Joe Craft and the GilIiams and members of the Marshall family, the only significant outside owners of Koch Industries' stock.
Charles then added, "Ten more will remain anonymous, including David and me. So we're very humble in that," he joked. More seriously, though, he declared that "the plan is, the next seminar, I'm going to read the names of the ten million" not mere one million-dollar donors.
As he read the names of the generous, he made clear what he expected their money to buy. He promised those he referred to as his "partners" that "we are absolutely going to do our utmost to invest this money wisely and get the best possible payoff for you in the future of the country."
Not one of these thoughts were shared with the rest of the country. Far from the Supreme Court majority's assumption in the Citizens United case that political spending would be transparent, the Kochs and their partners took great pains to hide what they were up to. Indeed this was a selling point. Kevin Gentry, vice president of Koch Industries for special projects, who had overseen fund -raising for the brothers for years and who played the role of master of ceremonies at the seminars, assured the donors that weekend, "There is anonymity we can protect."
The Kochs had recently come up with a new and even cleverer way of masking the money. Rather than simply directing the funds through the maze of secretive nonprofit charities himself and his benefactors after the embarrassment of the trick phone call. "We will not step back at all," he proclaimed. "With the Left trying to intimidate the Koch brothers to back off of their support for freedom and signaling to others that this is what happens if you oppose the administration and its allies, we have no choice but to continue the fight." Fink defiantly claimed, "This is a big part of our life's work. We are not going to stop." p 385
Politics today is controlled by money, if you read any book this summer, read "Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right" by Jane Mayer.
"Charles then ticked off the names of the thirty-two donors who had contributed a million dollars or more during the previous twelve months. Nine were billionaires whose fortunes had landed them on Forbes's list of the four hundred wealthiest Americans. Some, like the finance stars Charles Schwab, Ken Griffin, and Paul Singer, as well as Amway's Richard DeVos and the natural gas entrepreneur Harold Hamm, were fairly well-known. Many others, though, were members of the invisible rich-owners of enormously profitable private enterprises that rarely drew public attention. Two among the nine billionaires, for instance, John Menard Jr., whose fortune Forbes estimated at $6 billion, and Diane Hendricks, whose fortune the magazine valued at $2.9 billion, owned private building and home supply companies in Wisconsin and were not well-known outside the state, let alone in it. Many of the nonbillionaires whom Charles recognized were familiar faces in the Kochs' circle. There were the Popes from North Carolina, the Friess family from Wyoming, and the Robertsons of the Texas oil clan, as well as coal barons like Joe Craft and the GilIiams and members of the Marshall family, the only significant outside owners of Koch Industries' stock.
Charles then added, "Ten more will remain anonymous, including David and me. So we're very humble in that," he joked. More seriously, though, he declared that "the plan is, the next seminar, I'm going to read the names of the ten million" not mere one million-dollar donors.
As he read the names of the generous, he made clear what he expected their money to buy. He promised those he referred to as his "partners" that "we are absolutely going to do our utmost to invest this money wisely and get the best possible payoff for you in the future of the country."
Not one of these thoughts were shared with the rest of the country. Far from the Supreme Court majority's assumption in the Citizens United case that political spending would be transparent, the Kochs and their partners took great pains to hide what they were up to. Indeed this was a selling point. Kevin Gentry, vice president of Koch Industries for special projects, who had overseen fund -raising for the brothers for years and who played the role of master of ceremonies at the seminars, assured the donors that weekend, "There is anonymity we can protect."
The Kochs had recently come up with a new and even cleverer way of masking the money. Rather than simply directing the funds through the maze of secretive nonprofit charities himself and his benefactors after the embarrassment of the trick phone call. "We will not step back at all," he proclaimed. "With the Left trying to intimidate the Koch brothers to back off of their support for freedom and signaling to others that this is what happens if you oppose the administration and its allies, we have no choice but to continue the fight." Fink defiantly claimed, "This is a big part of our life's work. We are not going to stop." p 385
Politics today is controlled by money, if you read any book this summer, read "Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right" by Jane Mayer.
