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#Post#: 198--------------------------------------------------
The Koch Brothers Exposed!
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: April 4, 2022, 6:15 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]The 🦕🦖 Koch Brothers Exposed![/center]
1,935 views
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/sOx7UCKt1bA[/center]
Thom Hartmann Program
Published on Aug 15, 2019
The story of the Koch Brothers and why they refused to lose
control of a company and Charles Koch with his political
attitude.
The Koch’s want to own capitalism and control it entirely their
own way. How has that affected the affluence of Americans for
good or bad.
Christopher Leonard joined Thom to discuss the Koch Brothers.
[center]📽️ WATCH NEXT: Kochland: The Secret
History of 🦕🦖 Koch Industries[/center]
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/N-1SWWql5j4
[/center]
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Category News & Politics
#Post#: 199--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Koch Brothers Exposed!
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: April 4, 2022, 6:16 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
August 23rd, 2019
[center]TRNN Documentary: Trump, The 🦕🦖 Koch
Brothers and Their War on Climate Science[/center]
May 23, 2018
We replay this TRNN documentary on the Koch Brothers and their
war on climate science, on the occasion of David Koch's death on
August 23rd, 2019. Narrated by Danny Glover, this documentary
special reveals how climate change science has been under
systematic attack.
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/Nqx2P40tbHk[/center]
[center]Story Transcript[/center]
DANNY GLOVER: 2016 was the hottest year on record, topping a
decade of increasingly warm years. Powerful storms, heat waves,
rising sea levels, melting glaciers, declining ice caps, and
droughts stalk the planet.
MICHAEL MANN: There’s anywhere from 97% to 99% consensus among
the world’s scientists studying this problem, that climate
change is real and human caused.
DONALD TRUMP: The office of President of the United States.
DANNY GLOVER: Yet how did a climate change denier get elected
President of the United States?
CHARLIE CRAY: Trump’s win has created a fossil fuel field day.
DANNY GLOVER: Donald Trump has claimed that climate change is an
expensive hoax. This summer, he announced the United States was
pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord.
DONALD TRUMP: The bottom line is that the Paris Accord is very
unfair at the highest level to the United States.
DANNY GLOVER: Even before that dramatic move, Trump had already
signed an executive order rolling back former president Barack
Obama’s climate regulations.
DONALD TRUMP: It reverses the previous administration’s Arctic
leasing ban.
DANNY GLOVER: Trump wants to see a revitalization of the coal
industry.
DONALD TRUMP: Over the past two years, I’ve spent time with the
miners all over America.
DANNY GLOVER: He plans to scrap NASA’s climate research program
and has approved the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would route oil
from Alberta’s tar sands to the Gulf of Mexico.
DONALD TRUMP: When completed the Keystone XL Pipeline will span
900 miles. Wow.
DANNY GLOVER: He’s also set out to gut the Environmental
Protection Agency.
DONALD TRUMP: First of all, I want to congratulate Scott Pruitt,
who’s here someplace. Where is Scott?
DANNY GLOVER: Appointing the climate change denier Scott Pruitt
to run it.
KENNETH VOGEL: Pruitt has been a skeptic, is the term that they
like to use, of climate change.
SCOTT PRUITT: Human activity on the climate is something very
challenging to do and there’s tremendous disagreement about the
degree of impact, so no, I would not agree that it’s a primary
contributor to the global warming that we see.
DANNY GLOVER: The fact that climate change deniers now inhabit
the most powerful positions in the world’s most powerful
government is no accident. Or that most Americans don’t perceive
that global warming causes a catastrophic threat. This is
largely the handiwork of two brothers, David and Charles Koch.
KENNETH VOGEL: The Kochs are going to have a lot more influence
in any Republican administration.
DANNY GLOVER: Ken Vogel is an investigative reporter in
Washington, DC. He has followed the Koch brothers for years.
KENNETH VOGEL: They’re thrilled that Donald Trump won and
Hillary Clinton lost, but I think they’re even surprised by how
much ability they have to shape the Trump administration.
CHARLIE CRAY: For the most part, this is going to be incredibly
beneficial for the Kochs and the best major of that so far is
how many people are working for the Trump administration who
were, over their careers, supported by the Kochs.
DANNY GLOVER: Just who are the Koch brothers?
CHARLIE CRAY: The Koch brothers are two of the wealthiest
individuals in the United States.
DANNY GLOVER: David and Charles Koch own Koch Industries, a $100
billion conglomerate based in Kansas that refines, transports,
and sells oil. The company is also into chemicals, minerals,
paper products, and commodities trading, employing 100,000
people in more than 60 countries. And it controls one to two
million acres of Alberta’s tar sands, the third largest reserve
of oil in the world.
MIKE CASEY: The Kochs are a vertically-integrated fossil fuel
conglomerate and they have a vertically-integrated
influence-peddling apparatus to go with it.
DANNY GLOVER: Indeed, the Kochs are more than just about selling
oil. One of the goals of the Koch political network is to get
Republicans elected to office, and the occasional Democrat.
KERT DAVIES: They have a vast network now, a political network
that rivals the other parties. They’re bigger than the
Republican party and the Democratic party, in their organizing
might.
NEWS REPORT: Senator Ron Johnson will beat back a challenge from
Democrat Russ Feingold, in a …
DANNY GLOVER: During last November’s election, the Kochs spent
hundreds of millions of dollars on key Congressional and Senate
seats.
NEWS REPORT: Republicans from all across the country are going
to be marching to your door to figure out how you came from,
what, a 10-point deficit …
DANNY GLOVER: Which was likely critical for the Republicans
retaining control of both chambers of Congress.
ROB PORTMAN: You know, we won because of the work we did for the
people of Ohio.
KENNETH VOGEL: Even as the Kochs were not a major factor in
their direct spending on the presidential race, the
infrastructure that they set up around the country did have an
impact on getting voters, getting their type of voters, out to
the polls, and that probably did have an impact on not only the
Senate race, but also even in the presidential race.
CHARLIE CRAY: They supported and focused on about eight Senate
campaigns, and I believe, seven of the eight that they supported
won. Most of these were fairly critical Senate seats.
NEWS REPORT: This monster of a storm system is the remnants of a
powerful Pacific typhoon.
DANNY GLOVER: While Trump and the Republicans, with the
encouragement of the Koch brothers, are rolling back climate
change measures, global temperatures keep climbing.
NEWS REPORT: Australia’s record-breaking heat wave is continuing
to fuel outbreaks of wildfires across scores of thousands of
hectares in the southeast of the country.
MIKE CASEY: The worst predictions keep coming true, so you’re
looking at an unprecedented drought in the west, you’re looking
at extreme weather all over the place.
NEWS REPORT: The water level at Oradell reservoir is nearly
immeasurable.
DANNY GLOVER: Four years ago, carbon dioxide passed 400 parts
per million in the atmosphere, the highest level in more than
four million years. Scientists now forecast temperatures will
rise 2.5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century.
MIKE CASEY: The science around global climate disruption is 97%.
DANNY GLOVER: While NASA predicts this will mean more severe
weather and impact on communities worldwide, the US
Republican-controlled Congress and Senate refuse to take action,
voting down the McCain-Lieberman climate change bills and
refusing to vote on the Paris Agreement.
CHARLIE CRAY: United States Congress is the single biggest
obstacle to the global resolution of climate change.
DANNY GLOVER: The U.S. Congress and Senate’s inaction on climate
change was by design.
MICHAEL MANN: That gulf between scientific opinion and public
opinion has been bought with hundreds of millions of dollars of
special interest money.
MIKE PENCE: In the mainstream media, Chris, there is denial of
the growing skepticism in the scientific community about global
warming.
DANNY GLOVER: The campaign to sow doubt about climate change and
prevent meaningful action began decades ago, particularly as the
science became more certain.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: If your party wants to be credible with science,
you gotta accept science, do you? Accept science.
MIKE PENCE: I always wanted to play in “Inherit the Wind”.
DANNY GLOVER: In 1988, NASA climatologist James Hansen testified
in front of Congress.
JAMES HANSEN: The greenhouse effect has been detected, and it is
changing our climate now.
DANNY GLOVER: Climatologists like Michael Mann at Penn State
University discovered that temperatures had risen by 1.4 degrees
Fahrenheit since the late 1800s. Two-thirds of that warming has
occurred since 1975.
MICHAEL MANN: The observations were showing that there was a
prominent warming trend in the data that was outside of what we
would expect from natural climate variability.
DANNY GLOVER: Yet, long before climate scientists began raising
alarm about global warming in the 1980s and ‘90s, scientists who
worked with the oil industry had realized years earlier that
burning fossil fuels would cause climate change.
KATHY MULVEY: From what we understand the oil industry was aware
of climate impacts and climate science decades ago. Exxon Mobil
in particular was actually conducting cutting-edge climate
science research decades ago.
DANNY GLOVER: Exxon scientists warned the company this warming
was caused by burning fossil fuels and that the consequences
would be catastrophic.
But Exxon, along with other oil companies, hid this information
from the public.
KATHY MULVEY: The oil industry embarked on a campaign of
deception and disinformation.
NAOMI ORESKES: The whole strategy is about creating doubt,
making the public, making politicians, making political leaders
feel that we don’t really know for sure whether or not this is a
problem.
DANNY GLOVER: Harvard University science historian Naomi Oreskes
studies how the oil industry creates doubt about climate change.
NAOMI ORESKES: So, if you can create doubt in people’s minds,
you can delay action. So that’s what this is all about.
ALIYA HAQ: During the ‘90s and the 2000s, Exxon Mobil and a
number of oil companies were well-known for funding climate
denial activities.
DANNY GLOVER: The oil industry uses the same methods and even
the very same public relations firms that tobacco companies
employed to spread doubt about the dangers of smoking.
NAOMI ORESKES: We do know that some of the key people who began
challenging climate science, who began denying climate science
in the late 1980’s had previously worked for the tobacco
industry.
We know that they began to use the same strategies and tactics,
often the same arguments, the same vocabulary.
DANNY GLOVER: The driving force behind spreading doubt was the
American Petroleum Institute. API is the lobbying arm of the oil
industry. In 1998, API wrote an internal memo that said:
“Victory will be achieved when average citizens understand
uncertainties in climate science.”
JANE MAYER: The industry at large spent something like over a
half-billion dollars, sort of disseminating doubt and basically
trying to confuse people in the United States.
DANNY GLOVER: High effort companies like Exxon eventually
stopped financing climate denial groups, because of pressure
from the environmental organizations.
KERT DAVIES: Exxon had to back off and in about 2005, ’06, and
’07, they stopped funding the very groups that they had been
sending millions to in the years prior, and they dropped them
like a hot potato. In the meantime, the Koch money came in.
DANNY GLOVER: The Koch brothers quickly filled the void with
even harsher methods.
GREENPEACE VIDEO: Perhaps their greatest achievement is helping
convince the world that global warming doesn’t exist.
DANNY GLOVER: Greenpeace soon dubbed the brothers’ apparatus the
“Climate Change Denial Machine”.
KERT DAVIES: It’s a network of corporations and think tanks,
front groups.
MIKE CASEY: They are arguably the biggest sugar daddies of the
fossil fuel front groups that have gotten tremendous traction.
DANNY GLOVER: Charles Koch has said that, “Even if the planet is
warming, it would not have catastrophic consequences”, and
argues climate scientists’ models for future warming are faulty.
ALIYA HAQ: The Koch brothers have spent, at this point, $80
million on climate denial front groups. That money has been
focused at both the federal and state level.
DANNY GLOVER: The Koch brothers politics were shaped by their
father, Fred Koch, a chemical engineer who grew up in Texas, and
seems to have had few scruples. Back in the 1930s, Fred invented
a new kind of technology to refine oil.
JANE MAYER: He had a hard time getting work in the U.S., and so
he tried to find work elsewhere in the world and ended up
selling his process to very unlikely sources.
DANNY GLOVER: Jane Mayer is an investigative reporter for the
New Yorker magazine in Washington, DC, and author of “Dark
Money,” a bestselling book about the Koch brothers.
JANE MAYER: Quite ironically, given that Fred Koch became one of
America’s most right-wing anti-communists, he made the beginning
of his fortune by setting up oil refineries for Josef Stalin.
DANNY GLOVER: Another early customer for Fred’s technology were
the Nazis in Germany, after 1933.
JANE MAYER: He ended up building a refinery for Adolf Hitler
that had to be greenlighted specifically for Hitler after he
became Chancellor in Germany. It became very important during
World War II.
DANNY GLOVER: Fred eventually set up Koch Industries in Kansas,
invested in oil refineries. He had four sons. Two of them,
Charles and David, eventually took over running his company.
JANE MAYER: Charles Koch has always been the dominant brother in
the family. He’s domineering, he’s smart, and he’s ruthless. His
younger brother, David, has been more good-natured and going
along with him.
DANNY GLOVER: But the brothers also embraced their father’s
distaste for government regulation.
KERT DAVIES: They don’t like the government, and they want the
government to be smaller and disabled. That would help their
business a lot, if there was fewer regulations.
DANNY GLOVER: Still, by the 1990’s, the brothers realized they
needed clout in Washington.
JANE MAYER: Koch Industries is becoming a huge company. It’s a
fossil fuel company with a horrendous record for environmental
violations, and it runs smack into the new regulations that are
being imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency beginning
in the ‘80s.
DANNY GLOVER: The Kochs wanted to change those laws.
NEWS REPORT: The 1996 presidential campaign-
DANNY GLOVER: To do that, they set their sights on influencing
the Republican party.
JANE MAYER: It’s 1996. David Koch at this point goes from
trashing conventional politicians to becoming the Vice Chair of
Bob Dole’s presidential bid on the Republican Party ticket.
Archive Footage: You’ll get a better feel of who Bob Dole is and
what he’s all about.
NAOMI ORESKES: It was a big fight within the Republican party at
that time about whether or not Republicans should accept the
reality of climate change and look to market base solutions to
fix it, or whether they should deny it. One of the things that
we know is that there was tremendous lobbying and advertising
from the fossil fuel industry on the denial side.
DANNY GLOVER: At the very time of that internal debate, the
Kochs built a network of at least 17 think tanks and front
groups to influence the entire political system. Often referred
to as “the Kochtopus”.
CHARLIE CRAY: The Kochs have created a multi-dimensional
political apparatus to create a tectonic shift in American
politics.
ROBERT MAGUIRE: The single most important thing to understand
about the Koch network today is that it is unparalleled in its
complexity.
DANNY GLOVER: Today the Kochs fund a wide range of
organizations, from the National Rifle Association, the Cato
Institute, Heritage Fund, US Chamber of Commerce, DonorsTrust,
and the American Legislative Exchange Council, but its most
powerful weapon is an organization called Americans for
Prosperity.
JANE MAYER: Americans for Prosperity is now the primary
political front group that the Kochs founded and fund. It’s just
become a guerrilla army that is almost like a third party in the
United States now.
DANNY GLOVER: Housed in this office tower in Arlington,
Virginia, just across the river from Washington, DC, Americans
for Prosperity strikes fear into the hearts of politicians.
KERT DAVIES: When Obama was elected, they emerged as the key
force in driving the Tea Party. They grabbed it and they
corporitized it.
DANNY GLOVER: And appears on Fox News regularly.
FOX NEWS REPORT: What we’re gonna have if this climate change
legislation passes, this cap and trade, are gas prices through
the roof today.
DANNY GLOVER: Today, the Kochs’ political apparatus spends
hundreds of millions of dollars during elections.
MARCO RUBIO: Thank you very much. Thank you.
DANNY GLOVER: And puts out tens of thousands of TV
advertisements to get their chosen Republicans elected.
POLITICAL AD: Kay Hagan, taking care of Washington insiders.
ROBERT MAGUIRE: The largest purpose of that money was to change
control of Congress. To change control of the presidency. To
elect Republicans.
DANNY GLOVER: All told, Koch money has gone to more than half of
all Senators and nearly 40% of all Congressmen. While it’s still
not known exactly the total they spent in the 2016 election,
it’s estimated to have been more than half a billion dollars.
KENNETH VOGEL: When the Kochs estimate how much they’re going to
spend, it’s always sort of a dicey proposition because they end
up raising and spending a lot more money than they say is for
just overt partisan politics, and they say, “This is for
issue-based advocacy.”
DANNY GLOVER: Either way, it’s a huge increase from the 40
million dollars Americans for Prosperity spent in 2010 to help
Republicans win control of Congress during the mid-terms.
ROBERT MAGUIRE: In 2012, it had $400 million, which was well
above anything it had had prior to that.
DANNY GLOVER: And in 2014, they spent $290 million to help the
Republicans win control of the Senate.
POLITICAL AD: You have sold West Virginia out. Families are
suffering.
ROBERT MAGUIRE: We know that Americans for Prosperity, just to
name one group, had run 33,000 ads in tight Senate races around
the country.
DANNY GLOVER: The Kochs also hold conclaves twice a year,
inviting fellow billionaires and hitting them up for cash.
JANE MAYER: That club grew from just a few members in 2003 to
now 400-450 of the richest, most conservative businessmen and
women in America, and it’s attracted all kinds of important
dignitaries, too.
DANNY GLOVER: Including Supreme Court justices and Republican
stars like Ted Cruz, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio.
MIKE PENCE: This is a great day for energy independence.
DANNY GLOVER: And Mike Pence, the current Vice President.
ROBERT MAGUIRE: So, as a major donor, you get to spend a weekend
chatting with the person who’s going to be making policy that
could drastically affect your bottom line.
DANNY GLOVER: One of the key purposes of this political
apparatus is to ensure that no legislation is passed to curb the
burning of fossil fuels.
CHARLIE CRAY: The Kochs have gotten over 170 members of the
House to take a pledge that they will never support any
legislation that places a tax on carbon.
KERT DAVIES: So they screwed up the entire House of
Representatives for years.
DANNY GLOVER: The Kochs’ influence on the Republicans on climate
change is powerful.
NAOMI ORESKES: We had period where a number of important
Republican leaders again, were coming to the fore, saying this
was real.
DANNY GLOVER: By 2008, leading figures in the party, such as
Mitt Romney, Senator John McCain, and Republican House Leader
Newt Gingrich were calling for action on global warming.
Gingrich even appeared in this ad with Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi, calling for steps to be taken.
NANCY PELOSI: We don’t always see eye to eye, do we Newt?
NEWT GINGRICH: No, but we do agree, our country must take action
to address climate change.
NAOMI ORESKES: And then there was tremendous pushback from the
Americans for Prosperity, which as many people know, is the Koch
brothers-funded political movement.
DANNY GLOVER: Indeed, in 2011, Gingrich renounced the ad.
NEWT GINGRICH: First of all, it’s probably the dumbest single
thing I’ve done.
KERT DAVIES: I think they saw that as a bigger threat than Al
Gore or Bill Clinton or anything on the left.
ALIYA HAQ: And unfortunately, you saw a number of Republicans
that once supported climate action, suddenly rushing that back.
DANNY GLOVER: And Republicans who refused to toe the line, such
as Bob Inglis, a conservative Congressman from South Carolina,
pay a heavy price. Inglis had become convinced that climate
change was real.
JANE MAYER: So when the evidence was in front of his own eyes,
he changed his point of view and he started speaking out about
climate change.
DANNY GLOVER: In 2010, when Inglis was running again for
Congress, Americans for Prosperity swung into action to win the
primary.
KERT DAVIES: And he lost badly, to a very under-qualified
candidate who the Koch machine brought in. So, he was then hung
up in the public square as an icon of what happens when a
Republican turns good on climate change.
DANNY GLOVER: Another one of those icons, for example, was
climate scientist Michael Mann at Penn State University,
authored the famous ‘Hockey Stick Curve’ that visibly showed how
humans had impacted climate change going back centuries. In
2005, Mann was attacked by a member of Congress.
MICHAEL MANN: Joe Barton decided to use his authority as the
Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to hold
hearings, to subpoena my personal records, all of my personal
emails.
DANNY GLOVER: Yet Greenpeace soon revealed that Barton, a
Republican Congressman, received money from the Kochs’ political
action committee.
MICHAEL MANN: And they attempted to smear me in op-eds and
conservative-leaning newspapers.
DANNY GLOVER: While the Kochs were attacking legitimate climate
scientists, they were funding scientists who denied global
warming was caused by burning fossil fuels.
WEI-HOCK SOON: And I’ve been receiving money from whoever that
wants to give me money.
NAOMI ORESKES: One of the key strategies is to recruit either
scientists or people who pretend to be scientists. Sometimes
they are actually scientists but rarely scientists in the
particular field.
DANNY GLOVER: One example is Wei-Hock Soon, at the Harvard
Center for Astrophysics. He believes that climate change is
caused by variations in the sun, and not CO2, and that more
carbon in the atmosphere is good for growing plants.
KERT DAVIES: We sent a Freedom of Information Act request in to
the Smithsonian and we requested who was funding him, and
eventually after years of discussion, got back a list of his
grants.
SPEAKER: Who is funding your grants, just in your …
DANNY GLOVER: In total, Soon received $1.2 million from the oil
industry, a large portion of which have come from the Koch
brothers.
NAOMI ORESKES: In the correspondence between him and the
industry, he speaks specifically about deliverables, about
particular products, particular papers, making particular
arguments that the fossil fuel industry wants.
DANNY GLOVER: And yet Soon has no training as a climate
scientist. His background is aerospace engineering.
SPEAKER: Dr. Soon has already talked about those issues on the
stage today and in the past.
NAOMI ORESKES: When he was asked, he says, “Well, these are my
authentic beliefs, I’m not being paid to say anything I don’t
believe,” and that may well be true. The point is though that he
is a complete outlier science. He has views that are shared by
almost no one in the scientific community.
REPORTER: Mr. Koch. Excuse me, Mr. Koch, I have a question.
KOCH BROTHER: Come on, get to it.
REPORTER: You’re wanted for climate crimes.
DANNY GLOVER: The Kochs’ funding of climate denial has not
always gone smoothly. Physicist Dr. Richard Muller of the
University of California Berkeley, was a global warming skeptic
who the Kochs backed. But in 2012, Muller produced a study that
concluded global warming was caused by carbon dioxide.
RICHARD MULLER: I was flabbergasted. Not only was global warming
real, and roughly consistent with what the previous groups had
said, but the match to carbon dioxide … and the fact that solar
variability was not responsible.
DANNY GLOVER: All of this activity to generate doubt is
effective. According to a Yale survey, 70% of Americans believe
global warming is real, but only 53% of those people think it’s
caused by human activity. Just 16% think climate change is
something to be very worried about.
NAOMI ORESKES: I think we have very, very strong evidence in
this case to support the conclusion that these campaigns have
been highly impactful. So, until quite recently, many Americans
have thought that the science was unsettled, even though
scientists will tell you that it’s been settled for 20 years. So
why would they think that?
DANNY GLOVER: As a result, politicians are not taking action,
and that includes Democrats. Even when the Democrats control
both Houses of Congress, they did little to address the crisis.
NAOMI ORESKES: Most Republicans in Congress, and even some
Democrats, are very, very afraid to try to do something about
climate, for fear that they will be targeted by fossil fuel
interests, and that they could lose their seats.
DONALD TRUMP: America will start winning again. Winning like
never before.
DANNY GLOVER: The election of Donald Trump means fighting
climate change in the United States has become more difficult
than ever. After all, David Koch attended Trump’s election
victory party. But most significantly, one-third of Trump’s
transition team was made up of people who were linked to the
Koch brothers’ vast political network.
KENNETH VOGEL: Some of the folks who had a pivotal role in
Trump’s campaign, his transition, and now his presidency, who
have Koch network ties include Donald Trump’s very first
campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, his vice president Mike
Pence, his Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short, his
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, Scott Pruitt, the EPA
administrator, all the way down to Andrew Bremberg, the Domestic
Policy Director who worked at Freedom Partners, actually putting
together the executive orders that the Koch network would like a
theoretical Republican president to sign.
DANNY GLOVER: Other important Koch-linked Trump officials
include his former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Trump’s
campaign manager and current advisor Kellyanne Conway, Attorney
General Jeff Sessions, and the head of the CIA, Mike Pompeo.
SCOTT PRUITT: I believe that we as an agency, and we as a
nation, can be both pro-energy and jobs, and pro-environment.
DANNY GLOVER: And already Trump and its new head, Scott Pruitt,
want to cut the EPA budget by as much as 30%. Pruitt played a
key role in persuading Trump to pull out of the Paris Accord.
SCOTT PRUITT: You have corrected a view that was paramount in
Paris, that somehow the United States should penalize its own
economy, be apologetic, lead with our chin, while the rest of
the world does little.
KENNETH VOGEL: The Kochs see Scott Pruitt as someone who is
going to strip away some of the climate regulations that they
see as limiting job growth, and it should be said, limiting
their own company’s ability to do some of the things that it
wants to do.
DANNY GLOVER: And even if Donald Trump is removed from office
before his term ends, waiting in the wings to replace him is
Vice President Mike Pence, a strong champion of the Koch
brothers’ interests.
ALIYA HAQ: This is not the way our democracy should be working.
Incredibly powerful, rich people who spend this kind of money
should be held accountable.
MICHAEL MANN: They have polluted our public discourse, they have
skewed media coverage of the science of climate change, they
have paid off politicians.
ALIYA HAQ: Considering what this means for our health, for our
kids’ futures, for our planet, it is unconscionable that the
Koch brothers are denying climate change and fueling this kind
of anti-climate activity.
NEWS REPORT: The situation in Antarctica offers cause for
concern as well.
DANNY GLOVER: Scientists now fear if action is not taken to
drastically cut greenhouse emissions soon, global warming will
run out of control, with major extinctions around the globe,
large coastal cities such as New York and Tokyo underwater, and
wars and conflict due to mass migration of people becoming the
norm.
MICHAEL MANN: The number of lives that will be lost because of
the damaging impacts of climate change, in the hundreds of
millions. To me, it’s not just a crime against humanity, it’s a
crime against the planet.
DANNY GLOVER: In October 2016, seven of the world’s top climate
scientists warned the planet is on track to sail past the two
degrees Celsius threshold for dangerous global warming by 2050.
Even if all the countries that signed the Paris Accords fulfill
their pledge, that model was created before a climate crisis
denier was elected President of the United States.
HTML https://therealnews.com/stories/trump-the-koch-brothers-and-their-war-on-climate-science
#Post#: 200--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Koch Brothers Exposed!
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: April 4, 2022, 6:18 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center][img
width=340]
HTML https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTHgd6izYpw1aO0X75v1AS1aXxd_RSB1IT4M52GITqaqjSv-wy8[/img][/center]
SEP 12, 2019 | TD ORIGINALS
[center]The Koch 🦕🦖 Brothers Are Even Worse Than
You Think
HTML https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-koch-brothers-are-even-worse-than-you-think/[/center]
#Post#: 201--------------------------------------------------
This is essentially the end game of decades of covert lobbying
and legal disinformation, ...
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: April 4, 2022, 6:19 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-270521170028.png
Make Nexus Hot News part of your morning: click [i]here
HTML https://climatenexus.org/hot-news/
to subscribe.[/i]
February 28, 2022
[center]
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/1/3-020818220747-15881860.jpeg[/center]
[center][b]Supreme
🐘🦕😈🦕🦖🐍 Court
Hears Moot Climate Case To Dismantle Federal Gov’t Ability To
Regulate[/b]
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Remember when multi-shirting white nationalism peddler turned
Presidential strategist 😈 Steve Bannon said the Trump
administration would bring about the “deconstruction of the
administrative state?” Many were skeptical that the
administration would be successful at undoing 130 years of
governance, and indeed, it may seem like it failed.
That undoing might be underway today, as the Supreme Court hears
West Virginia v. EPA
HTML https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/west-virginia-v-environmental-protection-agency/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-97GdMGgzGesLWyW4PRLKifsmieBAB_x_5vqLoQLglhoq3tOz1TuBmkBzO9Jm7STHRRusO4gdzbGoI0nz5mZUpQjGTChQ&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email,<br
/>a case The Federalist Society the Supreme Court 🦖
justices appointed by 🦖🐘 presidents who lost the
popular vote could use as a vehicle to fulfill Bannon’s promise,
and effectively destroy the federal government’s ability to
protect the public from any manner of threat, from climate
change and more traditional pollution, to bad pharma, financial
scams, and food safety inspections.
Because for the past century and half or so, and specifically
since the Court decided Chevron v. NRDC
HTML https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/chevron_deference?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9YjXbcLegWk2t_I_5o4wxPm3gqt5bmWTTRuaVQ3DHBrWyahoIC3QNWSzGyXZIeEhNoidyXbtuBve3OehN31_UuzDolcA&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email#:~:text=The%20scope%20of,the%20administrative%20agency.<br
/>in 1984, federal courts recognized a degree of deference in
the
relationship between Congress passing laws and the executive
branch then developing regulations to enforce those statutes.
The creation of those regulations requires lots of careful
consideration by subject matter experts, like scientists, to set
how strict a pollution limit should be, for example, or how low
the risk of a side-effect should be for a medication to be
approved and sold. Congress more or less sets a goal, and the
federal government figures out how to meet it. And when things
end up in court, the deference goes to federal agencies, since
they’re staffed with the experts who know the issue best.
But now, the Supreme Court has decided to take up a case against
Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which never went into effect. The
Trump administration tossed the proposed plan, and the Biden
administration is content to leave it dead, because we met the
emission reduction goals addressed in the proposed plan without
it ever going into effect. Why is the Court taking a case about
a law that never was and never will be?
Unfortunately, the likely reason is because a majority of the
justices intend to use it to achieve a decades-long plan by
conservative, industry-funded legal lobbyists, to achieve what
Bannon never could: a deconstructing of the administrative
state.
The Supreme Court hears argument today, and the justices will
decide in the next few months whether, or more likely how
extensively, to incapacitate the federal government’s ability to
protect the public. A majority of the justices could choose a
path where unless Congress explicitly legislates, for example,
that CO2 emissions should be below X million (billion) tons per
year, or that it is illegal to sell a specific combination of
herbal supplements as a medication that claims to cure COVID or
Parkinsons or any other ailment or disease, regulatory bodies
like the EPA and FDA wouldn’t be able to do much, if anything,
about it.
That’s the short version. The long version?
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-191017143841.jpeg<br
/>…how much time ya got?
Because there’s lots of reading you’ll need to do to understand
the whole ugly story. Rachel Cleetus of the Union of Concerned
Scientists has an op-ed in Scientific American
HTML https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-supreme-court-could-block-climate-change-protections/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9QEVeHn7eP3n33JSoFYL6ae8HPdjnai6z2_BmVpj2ZGy0M5KJyu8rKcg1NRDc2hp7-Rvyyk1HMLbuIA_LkOTUeXJeamg&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email,<br
/>if you want a science take. On the law side, Vox has a great
explainer on the moot case
HTML https://www.vox.com/2022/2/23/22937517/supreme-court-epa-west-virginia-clean-power-plan-climate-change?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--nqtkxRuvvppdjaOSaeGFToA5Ssl82OKxExrYFD5rf7gkGTTb1xYeojWhqwci9fScKDCBjySvACRhLFio3F0iEpcNgKw&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email,<br
/>Richmond Law Professor Noah Sachs educated us about the
possible consequences in the American Prospect
HTML https://prospect.org/justice/supreme-court-conservatives-may-slash-epas-authority-on-climate/?utm_campaign=Hot+News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9o6TDJmFYyQMbH9PVoQFnDtVPRXjOa_Lb1B5Lb9jEI8_Uu2l3UyevOizh1lxDeHiDWzBE15pDzqeylayFQIG81kDlP3w&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email,<br
/>and Pamela King covered
HTML https://login.politicopro.com/?redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fsubscriber.politicopro.com%2Farticle%2Feenews%2F2022%2F02%2F02%2Fshould-kavanaugh-bow-out-of-blockbuster-scotus-climate-case-ee-00001805%3Futm_campaign%3DHot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9uc9fvsBZqCnGUjDJaAJx6R01tRCgMNVJ3xGedZQW3yrQuxqSt-zBBwE6yr1iFaSxWcHY4fu3cbOSCVUViHdN-Tza45w&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email&s=eenews<br
/>how Justice Kavanaugh (who lied to Congress
HTML https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/15/20866829/brett-kavanaugh-perjury-confirmation-hearing-deborah-ramirez-new-allegations?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8lI_5FtUS7D3xtG3WFzQG3SuyuXmFTdJNkyElKmUJpN7RWyR7QhKuDp92_MCEyqBmyA70SFtt0AQUekXSUbw6owVrv8A&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email,<br
/>almost certainly committed
HTML https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/27/brett-kavanaugh-allegations-sexual-misconduct-complete-list/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_Nj5N1jAvJzRTmQBa9-toaoZ5SrlW6KlFL9niTkjp2W9yGnmkqbs_ooqZ1j39VYH-K6PCmtveHTovDR_ARyDrxfbzZJQ&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email<br
/>sexual assault, and still hasn't explained who paid off his
credit card debt
HTML https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/07/brett-kavanaugh-explanation-for-crippling-credit-card-debt-is-pure-maga?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8sJQ_--twX3zQkG1Y7ux51s6k07uLhn8CPNBKerHJB079ECOO1BH0ZcRUvz8OeyYCd1yn9vp48laGaPejl1d5_hqV8WA&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email)<br
/>should recuse himself from the case (but obviously won’t), and
Jennifer Hijazi covered the amicus brief
HTML https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/epa-gets-lawmaker-assist-in-supreme-court-climate-authority-case?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--kVHN26NRrvRmRh_6m2N-Vm4ZqK2twsd255oXc3yFOulVzqncRf-U_TbztSJPvlMzvJ8cX3ZPnN60CluYhpgKzM7UT1g&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email<br
/>filed by Democratic lawmakers. Karen Sokol explained it
HTML http:// concisely at Slate, and Elie Mystal doesn’t mince words
about it at The Nation: Supreme 🦕👿 Court vs.
the Earth
HTML https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/supreme-court-climate-change/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8NK4PK5ssePpxAMcZLx_uAgQEtUdVgc1eBcm91ExjMHSsfxPTCJZMdOglQFNqCY9oQbfzGaHtpiQQDJd5v7MWTOyURVw&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email.<br
/>Meanwhile, Sierra Club
HTML https://www.sierraclub.org/articles/2022/01/sierra-club-and-partners-file-brief-high-stakes-west-va-v-epa-case?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-84xfGhYubkGE01aQz7OkWy2_oUENTBfqy6DCa6hg2QeyE42YprDjP_YZQ14t3Aq1DpmQZ3zaU6YE0pGFlSDkh5yZ8pyw&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email,<br
/> NRDC
HTML https://www.nrdc.org/experts/david-doniger/whats-stake-scotus-power-plant-cases?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9D6KJlAOSGoOusT9283uc65hZ8I-9jeRxp9ykxtmK3T7T22Zry0HVE0aIePHwdhJV0KybLRYuO_yxe-NvNC_RMOBW0eg&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email,<br
/>and EDF
HTML https://blogs.edf.org/climate411/2022/01/24/an-attack-on-hypothetical-climate-pollution-safeguards-lands-at-the-supreme-court-edf-will-fight-to-protect-climate-action/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_183pyQpr_vW3PRLvbp3pvyw-qIhCXcKXo0woiIFsV3BHIGgZ7ZGV4wYvm4CWpVf0Ny3MKvhGlakBaLwwdW7bHVZ4L-A&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email<br
/>all have blog posts running down the high stakes of the case.
But it’s a piece by Andrew Perez in the Daily Poster that we’ll
focus on
HTML https://www.dailyposter.com/koch-machine-pressing-supreme-court-to-crush-epa/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9gMeeH77P7JCuhlEyFIogirlBlo0mzULcsM3q4NIEsXzXHm8fxcyVsRMyMJZjYiaZTrLO_skjghPSwt9S6uVhUwdHhjQ&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email,<br
/>because Perez focused on the fact that beyond Bannon, this
assault on the government’s ability to protect the public from
profiteers, has been fueled for decades by the
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-130418203402.gif<br
/>Koch empire.
The Koch network’s chief political arm, 🐘🦖
Americans for Prosperity/b], led campaigns [b]supporting the
confirmation of all three of [b]Trump’s Supreme Court justices:
[/b]Amy Coney Barrett
HTML https://www.businessinsider.com/koch-americans-for-prosperity-campaign-barrett-confirmation-2020-9?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8jgvpfPcRiGohbJG-SJlLZYNeETI-I0DcFy-gCZTm1M_BzC_gicRvuTOJGWkRzKhzus2doaQake8cvjC5tmx9RbexuuQ&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email,<br
/>Brett Kavanaugh
HTML https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/koch-backed-conservative-group-launches-ads-boosting-heller-for-support-of-kavanaugh?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--T2XhbDzG5IauxmswnBkPoP8mQnzpg6wR_a8ffzlF5KEv-2XsjFhdpClycqwzZOzKG3hfuq4ZK43Gkitl8_Ht1XDG6ew&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email,<br
/>and Neil Gorsuch
HTML https://americansforprosperity.org/afp-leads-the-way-in-grassroots-efforts-to-confirm-next-supreme-court-justice/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9zrBLkY61ogoJd1ObSn1CPP5z6sLffwZXFkLwZKkc0l-qnfe-f8p-KBdLG-9ez35AkudCul2HkfipVBBxkttcdDVkB0w&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email.<br
/>Barrett’s confirmation was a particularly significant win for
the fossil fuel industry — she has familial ties
HTML https://www.dailyposter.com/upcoming-scotus-climate-case-involves/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_L9jCYpKyDmfTsIslr3dfA0e2quA-T_QSKmbKqn5u-Vb6USP1SfDEMPY7PfeFJd9IybLMk-8IfU2gV_kQF08I4HH3Y_w&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email<br
/>to Shell Oil, and refused to recuse
HTML https://www.dailyposter.com/yes-they-are-a-bunch-of-partisan-hacks/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8bcCf3LNvZ7NunD25NnUFMY50vacuviR2jH8NG4ta0c4-j5zWlzp-glX0XtgLvYCobBgmiDPNFHPVTKTocfa9k0czzVQ&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email<br
/>herself in a case involving that
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/>oil giant.
[center]
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…
Several more 🦖 Koch-funded dark money groups have filed
similar amicus briefs in the case. That includes the Cato
Institute
HTML https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1530/205351/20211216122320892_WV%20v%20EPA%20merits.pdf?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9UaElSH2KiQZKcGtdn67QlN-GUW6lLRUZnA3Gn-LDaPQcuEs_ZxQisUZaKH7BPmEvZTo1Oy7I0cJ1RYsFbPR_kuUz2wg&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email,<br
/>the New Civil Liberties Alliance
HTML https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1530/205814/20220105140643234_20-1530%20Amicus%20NCLA%20Supp.%20Petitioners%20REVISED.pdf?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--YQsA_ePIRpc8bxWljWHwHIPvMDzQXxw0TPDTAFNRZplS16cNIBTCPSQl8CeUtET6CS2bpSEoTG_YeILvvYJ2SQanVKw&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email,<br
/>the Competitive Enterprise Institute
HTML https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1530/205559/20211217145954348_West%20Virginia%20v.%20EPA%20final.pdf?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-91EWxpc2laJHaz9lzYd5l69QZDMr3bLA2YJjEajRVkRgx0DPE2qAT53D65GwjDEZ_ow-cI2An_oYEoEoNAcnnN2kC5fw&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email,<br
/>and the Mountain States Legal Foundation
HTML https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1530/205351/20211216122320892_WV%20v%20EPA%20merits.pdf?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=205279338&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--ubk0-CiZOcTvAIw4gl91yPcjyUIawWUb6soNwNn2Z4TcmbCEzTteB8rQZhRiJZ9UYkYefELp2US2MtFmH4jEinNmlIQ&utm_content=205279338&utm_source=hs_email.
This is essentially the
[size=36pt]🦖
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-140415130805.pnghttp://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-130418193910.gifend<br
/>game[/size] of decades of covert lobbying and legal
disinformation, a culmination of hundreds of millions of dollars
of PR spending, front group think tank reports, academic-center
white papers and
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/1/3-250718205808.gif<br
/>good old fashioned dirty politics.
Unfortunately, with the Supreme Court solidly in the hands of
🦖😈 polluters, there’s little we can do.
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/>
[center]
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/4/3-280222165630.png[/center]
[move]Aside from, of course, stacking the courts with enough
uncompromised judges to rule in the public’s best interest,
instead of polluters’. [/move]
[center]
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And if you think court-packing sounds radical, just wait until
you see the changes that result from the decision this
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/>Court makes.
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/>
[center]
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#Post#: 202--------------------------------------------------
Over $50 Million in Funding For Climate 😈 Disinfo
🐍 Organizations Between 2014-2020, Coming From 🦕
Koch And 🦖 Simila
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: April 4, 2022, 6:20 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-270521170028.png
Make Nexus Hot News part of your morning: click [i]here
HTML https://climatenexus.org/hot-news/
to subscribe.[/i]
March 23, 2022
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-121217195108.png
[center]Over $50 Million in Funding For Climate 😈
Disinfo 🐍 Organizations Between 2014-2020, Coming From
[b]🦕 Koch And 🦖 Similarly Shady
Sources[/b][/center]
On Monday, Alex Kotch at the Center for Media and Democracy
(CMD)
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/1/3-250718210558.gif<br
/>published the latest count of climate disinfo funding
HTML https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2022/03/21/the-dirty-dozen-the-biggest-nonprofit-funders-of-climate-denial/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=207851285&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8qFhFdNLBnzLer-1rsAKTntShM52jCxZdf3T3-RVPvgHsW9xSR3_5wClJc_gI9otIvW6YJBgS1FrAXsndTy_CMhNxyOA&utm_content=207851285&utm_source=hs_email,<br
/>tallying up over $50 million in “donations”
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/1/3-250718202127.gif<br
/>to climate denial groups, straight from
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-130418203402.gif<br
/>industry profits, billionaire ideologues fortunes, and
everything in between.
Between 2014 and 2022, there was $54,298,510 that went to just
eight organizations that, per Kotch, “represents key groups
primarily focused on energy and the environment that
consistently mislead the public about the climate crisis.”
While bearing in mind that this is just the verifiable drop in
an otherwise much larger and murkier bucket of fossil fuel
funding for climate disinfo, which when including advertising
and PR budgets is likely in the hundreds of millions, not tens
of millions, it is still quite a sizable figure, and one that is
hardly coming from grassroots supporters.
In fact, it’s mostly coming from a couple dozen
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/1/3-250718205137.gif<br
/>billionaires, conservative
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-250817135149.gif<br
/>dark money pass-throughs, and 🦖 industry sources. “A
dozen of the largest nonprofits donated $47.8 million to the
leading climate denial organizations, accounting for 88% of the
funds CMD was able to track down using FY 2014-20 federal tax
returns.”
The Koch Foundations of course makes the list at number eight,
right behind the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers.
Donors Trust/Donors Capitol Fund, the right’s “dark-money ATM,”
tops the list, of course, followed by the Searle, Scaife,
Mercer, Dunn and Bradley foundations, all more or less just tax
write-off vehicles for rightwing billionaires trying to simply
buy the reality they want.
[center]
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[center]
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Jennie King of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue told Kotch
that “bad actors are using a tried and tested playbook to weaken
public mandates and create confusion [about] viable solutions
going forward.
[center]
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-070417182049.pnghttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/85/Merchants_of_DOUBT.jpg[/center]
This includes weaponizing climate response within a broader
‘culture wars’ frame and conflating it with any supposed
controversy, from Covid-19 lockdowns and vaccine mandates to
critical race theory, trans rights, or geopolitics.”
Similarly, the tobacco-defending climate deniers at Heartland
lost over half their donations between 2019 and 2020, and that
overall the recipients' totals have dwindled from their 2016
peak.
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/1/3-120818185040-1659929.gif
This may be an indication that even as the fossil fuel industry
begrudgingly begins to co-opt climate change and clean energy,
they’ve done so well at integrating it into the Republican party
that generally conservative funders could be keeping the charade
going, even after it served its purpose of buying the industry a
few decades of unchecked, climate-changing profits.
The little climate disinfo troll is all grown up now, and
finding fun new pursuits attacking Trans people, defending
racism, and, of course, spreading anti-covid/mask/vaccine
propaganda.
[move]The 🦕🦖 Hydrocarbon 👹 Hellspawn
Fossil Fuelers DID THE Clean Energy Inventions suppressing,
Climate Trashing, Government corrupting, human health depleting
CRIME. Since [Color=Brown]they have ALWAYS BEEN liars and
conscience free
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-200419205214.pnghttps://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-130418193910.gifcrooks,<br
/>they are trying to AVOID [/color]DOING THE TIME or PAYING THE
FINE! Don't let them get away with it! Pass it on!
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-300919160023-2284203.png[/move]
#Post#: 203--------------------------------------------------
The Charles Koch Foundation has an insidious history of using
its “philanthropy” to colleges and universities to shape l
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: April 4, 2022, 6:21 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
March 25, 2022
[center]
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/>[/center]
[center]
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/1/3-250718204530.gif<br
/>UnKoch My Campus
HTML http://www.unkochmycampus.org/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=207971468&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-__5DKgjeKyAclTCYz8OGPnIyRW3bDn6x4QvgcjUyPQfJw-M8VNRDXNkYVWzFTm6RNYOw273gyMXZYeTVXkHE5rUdFoSw&utm_content=207971468&utm_source=hs_email<br
/>
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/1/3-120818185040-1659929.gif[/center]
#Post#: 204--------------------------------------------------
Originally published by Union of Concerned Scientists, The
Equation. By Elliott Negin
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: April 4, 2022, 6:53 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
CleanTechnica
April 4, 2022
Originally published by Union of Concerned Scientists
👍👍👍, The Equation. By Elliott Negin
[center]It’s Time For
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/1/3-250718205137.gif<br
/>Charles Koch To Testify About His Climate Change 🦖
Disinformation Campaign[/center]
The US House Oversight and Reform Committee kicked off its
investigation of the fossil fuel industry’s decades-long climate
change disinformation campaign last fall by inviting top
executives from BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell to testify
about their role and subpoenaing their companies for internal
documents.
The committee followed up that hearing — during which the
executives disingenuously denied funding such a campaign — with
another hearing on February 8 focusing on the oil companies’
inadequate plans to cut their carbon emissions. The next round
is slated to feature board directors from the same four oil
companies testifying on their companies’ climate pledges,
followed by testimony from social media companies and
advertising agencies about the part they have played in
manufacturing doubt about climate change.
But before the committee wraps up its investigation, it would be
sorely remiss if it didn’t haul in libertarian industrialist
Charles Koch, the
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/1/3-250718205137.gif<br
/>Daddy Warbucks of climate disinformation, for questioning.
The 20th-richest person in the world with a net worth of $58
billion, Koch, 86, is the longtime CEO of Koch Industries, a
conglomerate that owns oil refineries and pipelines; markets
crude oil, coal, chemicals, wood pulp and paper; trades energy
derivatives; and boasts annual revenues of $115 billion. The
second-largest privately held company in the country, Koch
Industries is one of the top 25 US corporate water and carbon
polluters, is a defendant in a climate accountability lawsuit
brought by the state of Minnesota, and is continuing to operate
its businesses in Russia while Koch-backed groups oppose US
sanctions imposed on the Kremlin after it invaded Ukraine.
Koch family-controlled foundations donated more than $145
million to a network of 90 think tanks and advocacy groups from
1997 through 2018 to disparage climate science and block efforts
to address climate change. Since the death of Charles Koch’s
brother David in 2019, the Charles Koch Foundation has continued
to finance this disinformation campaign, giving more than $17
million to 23 groups in 2019 and 2020, pushing the Koch grand
total north of $162 million. By contrast, the second-largest
funder of climate disinformation, ExxonMobil, spent $39.2
million on some 70 denier groups from 1998 through 2020.
To maintain leverage on Capitol Hill, Koch Industries’ political
action committee (PAC), affiliates and employees also contribute
significantly more to federal candidates, party committees,
outside groups, leadership PACs and 527 groups than their
counterparts at BP America, Chevron, ExxonMobil, or Shell. In
the 2018 and 2020 election cycles, Koch Industries’ total outlay
of $26.7 million was more than the $21.7 million the four oil
and gas companies contributed collectively.
In addition, Koch Industries spent more than $38 million on its
Washington lobbying operation during the last two full election
cycles, from 2017 through 2020. That’s slightly less than
ExxonMobil’s $40.98 million and Chevron’s $39.47 million, but
the company enjoyed a distinct advantage over the two oil giants
besides outspending them on campaign contributions: President
Donald Trump’s transition team head, Vice President Mike Pence —
a longtime Koch network veteran who played a key role in
promoting the Koch-founded and -funded Americans for
Prosperity’s 😈 “No Climate Tax” pledge when he was in
the House — tapped at least 50 Koch network alumni to work
inside the Trump administration. They included
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-040718162655-14231561.gif🦖<br
/>Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Energy Secretary Rick Perry,
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt and
White House Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short. Egged on by
Koch devotees both inside and outside the government, the Trump
administration rolled back at least 260 regulations, including
more than 100 environmental rules.
The Biden administration cleared out the Koch disciples when it
took office and is in the process of rolling back the Trump
rollbacks, but Koch and his donor network still hold
considerable sway over the Republican Party. They will continue
to spend hundreds of millions on Capitol Hill and, looking ahead
to 2024, a number of Koch network stalwarts are considering a
run for president, including Pence, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and
Florida Sen. Rick Scott. The Koch network, with its toxic
anti-government bias, will likely cast a long shadow over
Washington for years to come.
Decades of Disinformation
For more than two decades, the Koch network has been diligently
spreading disinformation to sabotage efforts to transition to a
clean energy economy, more often than not by attacking proposed
climate policies on economic grounds. Examples of its
malfeasance are legion:
To stop a version of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill in the
Senate after it squeaked by in the House in 2009, Americans for
Prosperity persuaded a critical mass of lawmakers to sign its
“No Climate Tax” pledge, disingenuously calling the bill “the
largest excise tax in history.” Since then, the overwhelming
majority of legislators who have received campaign contributions
from Koch Industries’ PAC and employees have rejected a carbon
tax in amendments and nonbinding resolutions.
To slow the exponential growth of solar power, the Koch-funded
American Legislative Exchange Council has armed utilities and
state lawmakers with model legislation against net metering,
which credits solar panel owners for the excess energy they
generate and return to the grid, claiming that rooftop solar
credits will drive up non-solar customers’ electric rates. The
Energy Department, however, concluded that the credits will have
a negligible impact on monthly electric bills.
To undermine the widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs),
the Koch network has urged Congress to kill the federal income
tax credit for EV buyers. “Congress should not be in the
business of picking winners and losers by subsidizing one form
of energy over others, regardless of its source,” Philip
Ellender, Koch Industries’ president of government and public
affairs, argued in a letter to Congress in October 2018. Never
mind that the oil and gas industry has benefited from massive
annual federal subsidies for more than 100 years.
After succeeding in prodding
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/>President Trump to withdraw the United States from the Paris
climate agreement, arguing that the accord would threaten the
“economic future of our country,” the Koch network is now
spearheading a campaign to kill the Biden administration’s Build
Back Better plan, falsely claiming that it “is the biggest
spending bill in American history.”
There are plenty of other examples, but the above sample
illustrates the breadth of the Koch network’s reach. Charles
Koch and his fellow travelers have played an outsized role
scaring the public about the potential impact of climate
solutions on their pocketbooks (but at the same time, they spent
more than $20 million to promote President Trump’s $1.5-trillion
tax cut that largely benefited corporations and the
ultra-wealthy). By practically any measure, Koch is as
consequential a disinformer as the four oil company executives
who testified last fall before the House Oversight Committee
combined.
Put Koch Under Oath
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-190419235756.png
If the House Oversight Committee called Charles Koch to testify,
it could, for starters, ask him about his views on climate
change.
The executives from BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell who
testified last October downplayed the central role human
activity — mainly burning fossil fuels — plays in triggering
climate change, but after much hemming and hawing they all
conceded that global warming poses an “existential threat.”
Koch, for his part, has never acknowledged that climate change
is a serious problem and rarely talks about it publicly. On the
rare occasion when reporters broach the topic, he responds with
… disinformation.
Koch’s most recent public comments about climate change came
during lengthy interviews with the Washington Post in 2015 and
2016. Asked if he worried about climate change in an August 2015
interview, Koch replied that he believes “it’s been warming
some” but added that “[t]here’s a big debate on that, because it
depends on whether you use satellite measurements, balloon{s},
or you use ground ones that have been adjusted.” Climate
scientists, he added, “have these models that show it, but the
models don’t work….”
In fact, all of the measurements Koch cited indicate that there
has been a long-term global warming trend due to climate change.
And, coincidentally, just a week before the Washington Post
published the Koch interview, a peer-reviewed study found that
global climate models are even more accurate than previously
thought.
In August 2016, the Washington Post ran another Koch interview,
during which he was asked if anyone could produce a study that
would convince him “that carbon regulation is necessary to heed
off disastrous global warming.” “Yeah,” Koch replied. “If we …
use the scientific method rather than trying to shut down and
shout down and punish anybody who wants to enter into debate
about it…. If we’re all trying to find the truth of the matter,
then I’m all for that.”
Notably, Koch did try to get to the truth of the matter in his
own way a few years earlier. The Charles Koch Foundation donated
$150,000 to Berkeley Earth, a nonprofit research institute
founded in 2010 by Richard Muller, a physicist and
self-proclaimed climate science skeptic, to review the
temperature data that underpinned global-warming claims.
Presumably to Koch’s surprise — and dismay — Muller announced in
a July 2012 New York Times op-ed that his investigation verified
that global warming is indeed real, is “almost entirely” caused
by human activity, and is even worse than what the climate
science community had concluded at the time.
It would be enlightening for the House Oversight Committee to
ask Koch about Berkeley Earth’s findings, especially since after
Muller announced them, the
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-130418203402.gif<br
/>Koch network stepped up its campaign to characterize climate
policies as being too costly, despite the fact that the
consequences of failing to curb carbon emissions will cost
infinitely more than taking preventive measures.
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/DqHKQZGwtw4[/center]
Since late 2012, for example, the Koch brothers financed “bogus
studies” falsely claiming that state standards requiring
utilities to ramp up their use of renewable energy would
dramatically drive up electric rates. Six years later, in 2018,
when the House was about to vote on a nonbinding carbon tax
resolution, Ellender — the Koch Industries lobbyist — took the
same tack. “A carbon tax would make energy more expensive and
raise the costs of consumer products and services on which
people depend,” he wrote in a letter to the lawmakers. “It would
also make US producers less cost competitive, driving production
and jobs to other parts of the world.”
The House passed the resolution, which stated that “a carbon tax
would be detrimental to the United States economy,” by a 229 to
180 vote. Nearly 70 percent of the representatives who voted for
the resolution — 159 — collectively received more than $1.28
million in campaign contributions from Koch Industries PAC and
employees during the 2018 election cycle.
Investing in Clean Energy While Trashing It
Koch’s jaundiced take on climate change would undoubtedly be
welcomed by the 20 Republican members of the Oversight
Committee, 14 of whom are climate science deniers. During the
2020 election cycle alone, Koch Industries’ employees and PAC
gave more than $136,000 in campaign contributions to 18 of the
GOP committee members, while their counterparts at BP, Chevron,
ExxonMobil and Shell collectively donated $40,347 to 14 of them.
The committee members who are less beholden to the fossil fuel
industry, however, should take the opportunity to press Koch
about his company’s seemingly contradictory investments in
sectors that his network is still trying to knee-cap, such as
electric vehicles and renewable energy.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Koch Industries
subsidiaries have invested at least $750 million in a range of
battery technologies and battery-related raw materials,
chemicals and recycling. Among the Koch conglomerate’s
relatively new holdings are New Jersey zinc battery startup Eos
Energy Enterprises and Canada’s lithium-ion battery recycler
Li-Cycle Holdings, lithium development company Standard Lithium,
and Lithion Power Group, a lithium-ion battery startup.
Likewise, Koch subsidiaries have jumped into smart grid and
electric vehicle charging technologies. In 2020, Koch Engineered
Solutions acquired Sentient Energy, a smart grid solutions
company, and last year Koch Strategic Platforms invested in
EVBox, a Netherlands-based electric vehicle charging station
manufacturer.
Koch Engineered Solutions is also bullish on solar, but not on
distributed rooftop solar, which the Koch network has been
trying to stop. Last November, it bought DEPCOM Power, an
Arizona company that builds large-scale solar power plants, and
plans to supply solar farms in the United States and Canada.
Koch Industries’ relatively recent investments in batteries and
renewables — which, granted, amount to a tiny percentage of the
conglomerate’s far-flung operations — are just the beginning,
according to Koch Engineered Solutions President Dave Dotson.
“We are believers in the electrification of everything, driven
by economics and consumer trends,” he told S&P Global Market
Intelligence, “and look for where we can add value across the
electric value chain from generation to end-user consumption.”
Dotson’s business strategy should come as a surprise to anyone
who has been closely following his boss, and should prompt the
House Oversight Committee to ask Koch how his company’s recent
shopping spree squares with his network’s ongoing campaign
against climate solutions.
An unabashed libertarian, Koch likely would respond that the
private sector should take the lead, not the government, on
energy — and just about everything else. For Koch, government
efforts to manage the economy, protect public health and the
environment, and provide social welfare programs are a slippery
slope to totalitarianism and must be rolled back, if not
eliminated. In his most recent book (co-authored with Brian
Hooks), Believe in People: Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down
World, Koch argues that individuals, corporations and nonprofit
groups are better suited to solve society’s most pressing
problems — including the coronavirus pandemic than the
government.
Koch’s philosophy, however, fails to account for the fact that
it was the private sector — specifically the fossil fuel
industry — that got us into the dire situation in which we find
ourselves today, faced with increasingly severe climate
change-driven impacts. Major oil companies were aware their
products wreck the climate at least 50 years ago and have spent
hundreds of millions of dollars since then to manufacture doubt
about climate science, disparage renewables and block government
action. Now that Koch Industries, as well as some oil majors,
see that there is money to be made by diversifying into clean
energy technologies, they are slowly adding them to their
portfolios but spending a fraction of what they are still
dedicating to their oil, gas and chemical operations. It’s much
too little, much too late.
If the House Oversight Committee is serious about getting to the
bottom of the fossil fuel industry’s longtime campaign to stymie
climate policy, it should call Koch on the carpet. By doing so,
the committee could shine a light on his prominent role in
sponsoring disinformation, as well as expose the threat he and
his followers pose to US democracy.
This article was produced by Earth | Food | Life, a project of
the Independent Media Institute.
Originally published by Union of Concerned Scientists, The
Equation. By Elliott Negin
HTML https://cleantechnica.com/2022/04/03/its-time-for-charles-koch-to-testify-about-his-climate-change-disinformation-campaign/
#Post#: 408--------------------------------------------------
One More Win for 🦖 Charles Koch’s 🦍 Dystopian
👿 America
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: July 5, 2022, 4:28 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
The Class Struggle
July 4, 2022 ~~ recommended by larrymotuz ~~
July 1, 2022 By Pam Martens 👍 and Russ Martens 👍
[center]The Supreme Court’s EPA Decision Is One More Win for
Charles Koch’s Dystopian America [/center]
SNIPPET:
Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), the Chair of the Senate Banking
Committee, released the following statement yesterday on the
Supreme Court’s decision:
“Let’s be clear about what is at the heart of the matter – the
Supreme Court has sided with corporate power and polluters over
the people and the planet. Stripping the Environmental
Protection Agency of its ability to regulate under the Clean Air
Act hobbles the agency’s ability to protect Americans’ health.
This decision will not just impact the EPA. The reasoning in
this case will set us back decades in the fight against climate
change and will reverberate throughout our government, making it
harder to protect families and communities. This court continues
to legislate from the bench in increasingly dangerous ways, and
it’s up to Congress and the President to act as checks on them
as the founders intended. I’ll be working with my colleagues on
both sides
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040422164519-508103.gif<br
/>of the aisle to ensure that today’s decision does not impede
our
nation’s response to the climate crisis."
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Full article:
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040422164555-532108.png
HTML https://ongoingclassstruggle.blogspot.com/2022/07/the-supreme-courts-epa-decision-is-one.html
AGelbert COMMENT: It is painfully obvious to those with critical
thinking skills that a Real Opposition Party, not only does not
exist in the US of Oligarchs, but has methodically, with malice
aforethought, been prevented by TPTB from organizing into
existence. This is the present corrupt Oligarchy governing
status quo.
[center]
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[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-090422145854.jpeg[/center]
In my 75 years of existence, I seriously doubt this Socially
Destructive, Social Darwinism based abusive status quo has
changed in any way. The Perception Management Pig lipstick may
have been better (SEE: "The Audacity of Hopium", etc. Ad
nauseam) from time to time, but the Oligarchy's gate keepers
were firmly entrenched a couple of years before I was born.
I think the Oligarchs solidified their power over we-the-people
on that fateful night Wallace was robbed of the Candidacy for
the VP position. The ruthless Oligarchic greedballs won on July
21, 1944, the last day of the Democratic National Convention,
when the LACKEY for the American Oligarchs, Senator Harry S.
Truman of Missouri, was nominated for vice president. 🥺
[center]
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-141217224005.png[/center]
Despite our (disguised dictatorship with "democracy" Pig
Lipstick) corrupt status quo, up until now, my hope has been
that Catastrophic Climate Change would spur TPTB to act
responsibly out of survival instinct, if nothing else. I hoped
they would, because of ACTUAL enlightened self interest (not the
greed based Capitalist baloney propaganda they push), take
aggressive legal and financial action to, not only stop, but
reverse, Catastrophic Climate Change.
But, as the recent Orwellian Decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court
evidences (i.e. Children with Hansen Climate Lawsuit will not be
heard because, uh, "they don't have Standing" AND The US
Environmental Protection Agency "Cannot Legally Protect
Americans from Environmental Damage"), the Oligarchs are too
committed to their morally bankrupt ideology/Social Darwinist
religion (see graphic below) to act with common sense.
[center]
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-251021153859.jpeg[/center]
Yesterday, I tried to reason with a legal sophistry spouting
poster attempting to defend the latest abysmally stupid Supreme
Court Decision against the EPA. That 🐍 sophist, besides
rambling on in long winded this and that about said Decision,
finished with a ridiculous claim that the "CORE" issue was about
properly applying the regulatory framework (i.e. "Legal"
boundaries of EPA enforement actions). Of course I called BS on
that sophistry laden baloney. Unfortunately, it appears that my
graphics pointing to the REAL CORE ISSUE were like WATER OFF A
😈 Roberts Supreme Court, 🦍 Social Darwinist,
🦖 Hydrocarbon Hellspawn loving DUCK.
🤦‍♂️
Today (see link after this paragraph), I have more evidence to
back my firm view that the Supreme Court is shooting themselves,
and we-the-people, in the FACE (not just the foot) by
deliberatly ignoring the CORE EVIRONMENTAL ISSUE of human
society at this time (i.e. Catastrophic Climate Change). No, I
don't expect the reality challenged water carriers for the
🦖 polluters and the 😈 Supremely corrupt Court to
get it, but I am certain many people of conscience do, and will
pass this on for the good of all humanity.
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-240622175211.png
July 4, 2022
[center]Chinese Vessel Snapped In Two By Typhoon Chaba, A Dozen
☠️ Bodies Retrieved
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/catastrophic-climate-change/128681-global-climate-chaos-976065039/msg406/#msg406[/center]
[center]
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#Post#: 449--------------------------------------------------
📢 🦕 Koch Spent Over 💰 $1 Billion On 2020
Elections 😡
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: August 15, 2022, 1:25 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
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Make Nexus Hot News part of your morning: click [i]here
HTML https://climatenexus.org/hot-news/
to subscribe.[/i]
August 15, 2022
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-121217195108.png
[center]After 🦕 Chuckie Koch's Kinder, Gentler Rebrand
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622153114-13822364.jpeg<br
/>Attempt, 😈 He Spent Over $1 Billion On 2020
Elections[/center]
Hey, remember back in 2018 when Politico Magazine told us Chase
Koch, son of Charles Koch, "wants to steer the conservative
juggernaut his family created toward a kinder, gentler
libertarianism?" Or what about in 2020, when the Wall Street
Journal's Doug Belkin helped Charles "call me 'Chuckie'" Koch
attempt to rebrand as a "philosopher and, he hopes, unifer?"
Well if you were, like us, more skeptical than the "journalists"
who credulously served up this PR as "reporting", then
congratulations! You're not stupid enough to be a political
access-driven DC journalist.
Because it turns out that even as ol' Chuckie was telling the
WSJ how much he laments his past partisanship, he was still
steering ungodly amounts of money into the election. Belkin
claimed that "Koch Industries’ PAC and employees donated $2.8
million in the 2020 campaign cycle to Republican candidates and
$221,000 to Democratic candidates," but that seems to have
undersold things by an order of magnitude or two.
It's taken two years for all the paperwork to go through, but
Connor Gibson crunched the numbers for the Center for Media and
Democracy, and tallied up that "Koch Industries spent only $22.4
million on federal lobbying and campaign contributions in the
2020 election cycle."
But even that is "only" a fraction of the total spend, as across
the 28 organizations that Koch controls, plus his family and
Koch Industries executives, the total Koch spend on the 2020
election cycle was at least $1.1 billion.
Yes, billion, with a "B"!
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-080422121109.gif<br
/>
The supposedly post-partisan 😇 ;) Koch
👿🦖 network spent $1,100,000,000
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-120422122619-6812456.gif<br
/>influencing American politics, in just one election cycle!
And even THAT is a conservative figure, Gibson notes, because
"these calculations likely fail to account for the total policy
and political spending overseen by Charles Koch since Koch
Industries and a fleet of Koch-controlled limited liability
companies (LLCs) do not disclose similar finances."
Over a billion dollars, and that's just from what they're forced
to disclose!
"Even though Koch told reporters he was so displeased with
Trump," Gibson writes, "that he might even support Democrats — a
rhetorical trick he pulls every few years — the tens of millions
of dollars his organizations invested in U.S. Senate and House
races went almost exclusively to Republicans."
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-080422123649.png[/center]
And it's not just the "good" Republicans who respect norms and
traditions like not overthrowing Democracy because you're a
loser: "Koch has financed groups involved in extremist activity,
including the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. In 2022, Koch
Industries is still financing many politicians who worked to
invalidate
HTML https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/big-oil-has-given-1-million-to-fuel-seditionists/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=222811477&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--lpg2SQzmOQ6WpVYwpThQfH0zEoakOEFmMyKWTdPd_0vhvojO08e0javF5bEPf1uY7nw-cufVDN_A4thijtdoe1bq2bw&utm_content=222811477&utm_source=hs_email<br
/>the results of the 2020 presidential election, despite
signaling
to Politico that it would
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622202527-13931485.png<br
/>discontinue such support."
He's certainly getting what he paid for, too: "His astroturf
organization 🦖 Americans for Prosperity (AFP) spent
"seven figures" on efforts to support the confirmations of Trump
nominees 👿 Neil Gorsuch, 🐍 Brett Kavanaugh, and
🦖 Amy Coney-Barrett—for a total price tag of between $3
and $10 million."
Regardless, who wants to guess which supposedly DC-savvy,
access-driven journalistic mockery will fall for it the next
time Chuckie Koch wants some sympathetic press?
#Post#: 798--------------------------------------------------
"WHEREAS, oil and gas production has long been one of
Wyoming’s proud and valued industries; and ...
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: January 20, 2023, 1:37 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
CleanTechnica
Janaury 17, 2023 By Steve Hanley
[center]Wyoming 🐘🦖 Republicans Propose Electric
Car 😈 Ban[/center]
[center]
HTML http://media.tumblr.com/c6492e4b47cfdbd50e74d285fde3c53e/tumblr_inline_mm3g4yCaZc1qz4rgp.gif[/center]
Full article (check out the comments!):
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040422164555-532108.png
HTML https://cleantechnica.com/2023/01/17/wyoming-republicans-propose-electric-car-ban/
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040422164616-5368.jpeg<br
/>Just ONE of several comments I made: Steve Hanley, please
check
this out. It seems the action in the story you just published is
part of a multi-pronged quixotic 🦖 effort (SEE: NAZI
Battle of the Bulge 👉 WWII) to prevent the now
inevitable bankrupting of 🐘 their 🦖 hydrocarbon
hellspawn owners:
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-220922211810-2001879.png
Janaury 20, 2023
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-220922211808-20001173.png
SNIPPETS:
If you thought that Republicans value profits above all, think
again! As it turns out, sometimes they will shoot themselves,
corporate profits, and American jobs in the foot all at the same
time, simply because they love to hate China.
Last week, Governor 🐘 Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) blocked
Ford’s plan to build an ⚡ electric vehicle plant in
Virginia because 🐵 he “felt that the right thing to do
was to not recruit Ford as a front for China to America.”
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-270922165849.jpeg[/center]
That’s right: He’s talking about 🦅 Ford Motor Company,
the quintessential 🦅 American corporation, which simply
happens to be looking into a partnership with the Chinese
company Contemporary Amperex Technology. ... ...
So, from climate change to Hunter Biden’s past, everything is
always somehow China’s fault, according to the GOP, the party
that proudly supported the offshoring of American jobs to China
in the first place.
Next time Republicans lament the loss of American jobs and the
weakening of American businesses or trot out Sinophobia to
justify poor economic conditions, remember that they're only
bringing up China to deflect from the fact that their
fossil-fueled policies are actually to blame.
Read more: 👀
[center] 🐘 [color=red]Republicans Stoke the Flames of
Anti-China, 🦖 Anti-Climate Rhetoric, Sacrificing Jobs in
the Process[/color]
HTML https://newsletter.climatenexus.org/20230120-caad-report-eacop-approval-california-ars-over-will-be-worse[/center]
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