Koch Bump: How Will Billionaire Brothers Affect The 2016 Race?
Published on Apr 22, 2015
” On this episode of the Rundown, John Phillips, Scott Ott, and Stephen Kruiser discuss whether the Koch Brothers are supporting the Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in the Republican primary.”
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” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is sending clear signs about an expected run for the presidency in 2016.
The first-term Republican lawmaker planned to join several other potential candidates at a gathering Sunday in Palm Springs, California, organized by the conservative billionaire Koch brothers, who have a keen interest in the party’s contenders.
More than 450 allies and donors to the Koch network were to attend, with the closing event a panel discussion with Rubio and fellow Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas on domestic policy.
The organizer, Freedom Partners, is the central hub for the political machine backed by wealthy industrialists Charles and David Koch. The traditionally private Koch group planned to let reporters watch an Internet broadcast of the event.
Over the past two days, Rubio met with his main group of 300 supporters on Miami’s South Beach, and he intended to skip the Senate’s schedule for the upcoming week for fundraisers on the West Coast, Texas and Illinois. Future visits are expected to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, states that play a critical early role in the nominating process.”
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” For as often as Democrats attack the conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch for their heavy spending on politics, it’s actually the liberal-minded who shelled out the most cash in the just completed midterm elections.
At least, that is, among those groups that must disclose what they raise and spend.
Among the top 100 individual donors to political groups, more than half gave primarily to Democrats or their allies. Among groups that funneled more than $100,000 to allies, the top of the list tilted overwhelmingly toward Democrats — a group favoring the GOP doesn’t appear on the list until No. 14.
The two biggest super PACs of 2014? Senate Majority PAC and House Majority PAC — both backing Democrats.
In all, the top 10 individual donors to outside groups injected almost $128 million into this year’s elections. Democratic-leaning groups collected $91 million of it.
Among the 183 groups that wrote checks of $100,000 or more to another group, Democrats had a 3-to-1 cash advantage. The biggest player was the National Education Association, at $22 million. Not a single Republican-leaning group cracked the top 10 list of those transferring money to others.”
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Click Picture For Video … Part One
” The Koch brothers’ wealth causes Harry Reid to worry about a troubling addiction among Senate Republicans. (3:19)”
Click Picture For Video … Part Two
” Senator Harry Reid explains why some mega-donors are better than others. (4:53)”
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” A Washington Post story purporting to expose the Koch brothers as behind-the-scenes beneficiaries of the Keystone Pipeline has been exposed as an utterly false propaganda operation, hilariously wrong and politically malicious. Even worse, one of the writers behind the story is married to a political operative in the left wing Koch-demonization machine.
The Washington Post was recently purchased by Jeff Bezos of Amazon, who ought to take a hard look at the reporters and editors who collaborated with the left wing smear machine, and while he is at it, should send a note of thanks to John Hinderaker, the blogger at Powerline, who exposed the rot in his new media operation.
Hinderaker’s work is thorough, grounded in fact, and devastating. I urge you to read the whole thing. “
Hinderacker exposes the fraud here …
” So the fundamental point of the Post story, which relied uncritically on a goofball far-left report, is dead wrong. Moreover, the Post story itself acknowledges that the tar sands encompass 35 million acres, so Koch’s 1.1 million comprise less than 3% of the total. The whole point of this exercise is to make the Keystone Pipeline all about Koch, and that premise is implausible from the start.
But there is much more. The Post more or less endorses IFG’s theory that the Keystone pipeline somehow would benefit Koch, even though the Post notes that there is zero evidence to that effect:
Koch’s oil production in northern Alberta is “negligible,” according to industry sources and quarterly publications of the provincial government. Moreover, Koch has not reserved any space in the Keystone XL pipeline, a process that usually takes place before a pipeline is built. The pipeline also does not run anywhere near Koch’s refining facilities. And TransCanada, owner of the Keystone routes, says Koch is not expected to be one of the pipeline’s customers.”
Continue reading
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Exclusive To Power Line: Koch Industries Responds To New York Times Smears
” Indeed. It is revealing to compare Charles and David Koch with the owners and managers of the New York Times Company. The Koch brothers employ a growing, highly-paid work force of 60,000 in the United States, around one-third of whom are unionized. Koch Industries enjoys excellent relationships with its unions. The New York Times Company, on the other hand, employs a shrinking, largely ill-paid work force, and is embroiled in a long-running feud with its unions.
Koch Industries and its subsidiaries produce tangible products that enrich the lives of Americans–among other things, Koch transports and refines oil, makes products that are used in construction, and manufactures a wide array of consumer products that are staples in most American homes. The New York Times Company produces nothing but shoddy left-wing journalism that is of questionable benefit to anyone.
Then we have the roles of the two companies in their communities. Koch Industries and its subsidiaries have been recognized countless times for their many contributions to the communities where they operate. It is fair to say that there is no better corporate citizen than Koch. To take just one instance, Koch and its subsidiaries have been honored hundreds of times by the EPA for their environmental stewardship, which is second to none. And, as most people know, Charles and David Koch are two of the world’s most generous philanthropists. David alone has donated well over $1 billion dollars for medical research, the arts, and so on. You can read generally about the Koch Family foundations and philanthropy here.
The New York Times? Not so much.”
Rest the rest . It’s devastating
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” Senate Democrats facing tough elections this year want the Internal Revenue Service to play a more aggressive role in regulating outside groups expected to spend millions of dollars on their races.
In the wake of the IRS targeting scandal, the Democrats are publicly prodding the agency instead of lobbying them directly. They are also careful to say the IRS should treat conservative and liberal groups equally, but they’re concerned about an impending tidal wave of attack ads funded by GOP-allied organizations. Much of the funding for those groups is secret, in contrast to the donations lawmakers collect, which must be reported publicly.
One of the most powerful groups is Americans for Prosperity, funded by the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch. It has already spent close to $30 million on ads attacking Democrats this election cycle.”
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” We’ve all been there: Stuck in a hopelessly circular argument with a liberal who won’t get to the point, acknowledge basic facts even exist, or get past juvenile name-calling in debates. It can be really frustrating.
One thing people can do to fight back is just to code all the non-responses to logical or rational arguments. Cryptically flipping back “Give me a break with that number 5 nonsense” or “Man, number 3, again?” can really humiliate people whose stupidity is broken down to a science.”
” 5. It’s a Far-Right Conspiracy (Or The Koch Brothers Did It)”
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Koch LA Times Buyout Enrages Protesters: What We Saw at the “Save Our News” Rally
Published on May 30, 2013
” Protesters gathered outside of the Los Angeles Times building on Wednesday to speak out against the potential sale of the newspaper and other Tribune Company properties to the Koch brothers. Reason TV was on the scene to find out why the potential sale was so upsetting to those gathered and whether or not they though it appropriate for the city government to take action against the Times.
Answers ranged from a fear of the Times being transformed into a right-wing propaganda machine to a general distrust of billionaires and/or large corporations owning media companies (despite the fact that the Tribune Company is, of course, a large corporation and billionaires besides the Kochs are interested in the purchase). Watch the full video above.
About 4 minutes. Produced by Zach Weissmueller and Tracy Oppenheimer.
Subscribe to Reason TV’s YouTube channel and receive automatic notification when new material goes live.
Full disclosure: David Koch is trustee of Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes Reason TV.”
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” Here’s a couple of data points that bear serious thought this week by transparency advocates celebrating Sunshine Week and by everybody else who cares about protecting and preserving a free and independent press:
1,130 – Number of results for search term “Koch Brothers” on The New York Times web site.
64 – Number of results for search term “The Tides Foundation” on The New York Times web site.
It’s equally certain that few reading this post know anything at all about the San Francisco-based Tides Foundation, even though its roots go deep into the radical student movement of the 1960s and it has helped fund or startup virtually every significant liberal, progressive and radical cause in the years since.
Similar results appear from the same searches on The Washington Post web site, which turns up 277 links to the Koch Brothers and 11 for Tides. And on the New Yorker web site, Koch Brothers generated 35 links and none for Tides.
The contrast was even more dramatic on the Common Cause site, where the Koch Brothers were linked 4,560 times versus one for Tides.
Similar results appear from the same searches on The Washington Post web site, which turns up 277 links to the Koch Brothers and 11 for Tides. And on the New Yorker web site, Koch Brothers generated 35 links and none for Tides.
The contrast was even more dramatic on the Common Cause site, where the Koch Brothers were linked 4,560 times versus one for Tides.
Three Koch foundations made a total of 181 grants worth$25,405,525 in 2010 (most recent available records). The one Tides Foundation made a total of 2,627 grants worth $143,529,590 in 2010.”
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100 Percent FED Up
Imagine that , the Teacher’s Unions speaking for the working class . That’s a real joke .
John Hinderaker shares with those of us unfortunate enough to not be on the democrats fundraising lists , just how they are cloaking their polling woes in monetary terms .
Beggary is so unattractive .
” The Democrats couch their anxiety in terms of fundraising, but that isn’t the real problem. The real problem is what they are seeing in the polls: Romney leading in likely voter surveys; Romney more trusted than Obama on the economy and other key issues; enthusiasm higher among
Republicans than Democrats; and so on. The extent of the anxiety the Democrats are feeling comes through loud and clear in their email communications. “
So ironic to hear the party of “President Fundraiser” bemoan the corrupting influence of money on our political system . LOL
“Former DNC chairman and governor of Vermont Howard Dean appeared on MSNBC this morning to bemoan the extent to which Gov. Walker was able to outspend his opponent in the Wisconsin recall. Really, now? Candidate Obama outspent John McCain’s campaign by one of the widest margins evah, but when you don’t get the outcome you want, all that darned money in politics is suddenly not okay?”
Eric Allie’s Furious Diaper
Newsmax
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