Reminder: Koch Brothers Exposed Full Movie

[stevenleser]

I know this has been talked about here on DU before, but in light of the whackjob two anti-Affordable Care Act videos released by the Koch brothers funded "Generational Opportunity" organization, it might be a good time to remind everyone you know who these folks are who funded this organization.

[stevenleser]

1. Kick nt

[angstlessk]

2. Gotta kick it too..great video..thanks for posting this.

[stevenleser]

3. Thank you!!!!

[solarhydrocan]

4. Why did Greenwald leave out the fact that Koch money funded the DLC? from DU archive post

The Rightwing Koch Brothers fund the DLC -- article from '06
posted by CrossChris Thu Feb-24-11 11:32 AM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x498414

I saw this posted elsewhere recently, and thought this was very interesting to revisit:

Democrats.com: The Rightwing Koch Brothers fund the DLC
February 09, 2006
http://www.democrats.com/node/7789

Do deep-pocketed "philanthropists" necessarily control the organizations they fund? That has certainly been the contention of those who truck in conspiracy theories about the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations funding liberal and neo-liberal organizations. As for the rightwing, journalists such as Joe Conason and Gene Lyons uncovered that the "vast right wing conspiracy" -- or the New Right network of think tanks, media outlets and pressure groups -- was marshalled under rightwing billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife for his Get-Clinton campaign. Prior to the work of Conason and Lyons, Russ Bellant extensively documented in "The Coors Connection" how the Coors Family, Scaife and other wealthy rightwingers have funded the New Right movement since the early '70's. Among these rightwing benefactors are the Koch brothers. But the Kochs have been working both sides of the fence. As Bill Berkowitz writes, the Koch brothers have also been funding the Democratic Leadership Council.

According to SourceWatch, a project of the Center for Media & Democracy, the brothers are "leading contributors to the Koch family foundations, which supports a network of Conservative organizations and think tanks, including Citizens for a Sound Economy, the Manhattan Institute the Heartland Institute, and the Democratic Leadership Council."

Charles Koch co-founded the Cato Institute in 1977, while David helped launch Citizens for a Sound Economy in 1986.

This is no less stunning than if Scaife or the Coors family were funding the DLC. So do the Kochs just throw money at the DLC -- as long as the Council supports a free-market" (i.e. unrestricted/unregulated corporate power) agenda that the Kochs generally agree with. Or is it more than just that -- does this really buttress what Greens and other disaffected liberals contend -- that the DNC has just become a party of "Republicrats", thanks especially to the DLC? They would say that corporate backers like the rightwing/libertarian Kochs have co-opted the Democratic establishment -- a hostile takeover of (what was once) the opposition. (continued)...

Koch Industries gave funding to the DLC and served on its Executive Council
8/25/2010 2:01pm by Joe Sudbay
http://americablog.com/2010/08/koch-industries-gave-funding-to-the-dlc-and-served-on-its-executive-council.html

But, here’s a key piece of information: the Kochs haven’t just given to right-wingers. Back in April of 2001, The American Prospect’s Bob Dreyfuss reported that the Kochs also funded the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC):
And for $25,000, 28 giant companies found their way onto the DLC’s executive council, including Aetna, AT&T;, American Airlines, AIG, BellSouth, Chevron, DuPont, Enron, IBM, Merck and Company, Microsoft, Philip Morris, Texaco, and Verizon Communications.

Few, if any, of these corporations would be seen as leaning Democratic, of course, but here and there are some real surprises. One member of the DLC’s executive council is none other than Koch Industries, the privately held, Kansas-based oil company whose namesake family members are avatars of the far right, having helped to found archconservative institutions like the Cato Institute and Citizens for a Sound Economy. Not only that, but two Koch executives, Richard Fink and Robert P. Hall III, are listed as members of the board of trustees and the event committee, respectively–meaning that they gave significantly more than $25,000.

The DLC board of trustees is an elite body whose membership is reserved for major donors, and many of the trustees are financial wheeler-dealers who run investment companies and capital management firms–though senior executives from a handful of corporations, such as Koch, Aetna, and Coca-Cola, are included...more

The DLC is defunct but the ideals live on
New Democrat Network
New Democrat Coalition

Maybe Greenwald doesn't know about the DLC funding.

[YoungDemCA]

10. Shhh....don't mention that here...

Because right-wing policies are ok if a Democrat follows them.

[Democracyinkind]

5. Best money I've ever spent.

[CanSocDem]

6. In spite of the overwhelming...

...influence of money on American society, the brazen machinations of the Koch brothers takes it all to a new level. They openly buygovernment policy....

On the plus side, sort of, they do it in public view.

Further to that, this video illustrates the potential of mass protest as in the school board story and the huge demonstrations that indicate the connections between public policy and Koch money.

Thanks for posting this video. I'll do my part in making it "viral".

.

[stevenleser]

7. The public view thing is relatively new and not their doing. It's the work of countless others to

expose them. They have tried very hard to remain hidden behind the scenes.

I wonder if even now we know the extent of their influence.

[CanSocDem]

8. We may not know...

...the "extent of their influence," but they are unwittingly helping us learn. To me, that kind of unconscious acquiescence usually precedes a big epiphany. Hopefully it will be 'that the current political system is bought and paid for with corporate money'.

The videos of mass demonstrations warm my heart.

.

[Scurrilous]

9. K & R