Koch Industries

Koch Industries and the Subversive Legacy of America’s Most Powerful Private Empire
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David Koch was liberal in his support for abortion rights, gay rights, drug legalization, and open borders for cheap labor. The Kochs support Van Jones' Cut50 project, which aims to halve the prison population over the next decade. The Kochs also support censorship.

A few weeks ago, I had dinner with an old friend, an author who had recently interviewed David Koch for a book he's working on. He told me the Koch brothers planned to support Democrats as well as Republicans this cycle. We went back and forth about that and then let it drift. Then, on Friday the news started filtering out that the Kochs are indeed looking to gain influence inside the Democratic Party, the way they have inside the Republican Party.The Kochs are willing to finance Democrats "in step with Koch policies?" Don't be deceived by the Koch affinity for DREAMers.

Flanked by former Exxon executive, now Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting., June 12, 2017. (AP/Andrew Harnik)
MINNEAPOLIS– The oil and gas industry has spent over $36 million lobbying Congress so far this year, a massive figure that speaks to the fossil fuel industry’s weight in Washington. Among the top spenders so far have been ExxonMobil, Chevron and Koch Industries, which have spent well over $3 million dollars apiece.

Over the weekend, NY Times reporters Coral Davenport and Eric Lipton traced a metamorphosis inside the upper echelons of the Republican Party. They looked at how GOP dogma went from dealing rationally with Climate Change to obstinate science denialism formerly only embraced by complete crackpots like House Science Committee chairman Lamar Smith of Texas. The are good reasons why the crazy far right fringe was the first part of the GOP to embrace Trump and Trumpism.

We all feel the seemingly oppressive impact of the conservative force that has taken over the United States, but feel hard-pressed to identify where it started and the specific entities responsible. Most of us suspect that it was no accident. We can be most certain that it isn’t.

The link in Mark Ruffalo's tweet is to the above-referenced petition, organized by a new outfit called The Natural History Museum, which "is free from ties to the fossil fuel industry, calls out climate science deniers and culprits obstructing a

Last week we talked about how Republicans were unleashing a barrage of attack ads against weak conservative Democrats, like John Barrow, for voting with Republicans. Democrats who crossed the aisle to vote with Republicans to cut Social Security benefits for retired people are now being bombarded with ads-- that are true, regardless of the disingenuous source-- pointing out that they are the enemies of working people.

Most of their wealth comes from oil and gasThis morning, you may have read that just one of the arms of Koch brothers' political Dark Money assault against democracy, a shady proto-fascist outfit called Americans for Prosperity, plans to spend a minimum of $125 million on the midterm elections.

It's very hard to trace the Koch cash sloshing around American politics; it's meant to be hard. They funnel so much money into so many right-wing groups that it would be a full time job to sort it all out. Perhaps it's safe to assume, though, that the recipients of legalistic bribes from Koch Industries directly are among those most devoted to the Koch war against democracy.