The Koch Brothers Left a Confidential Document at Their Last Donor Conference—

[G_j]

http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2014/02/koch-brothers-palm-springs-donor-list

A list of one-on-one meetings between VIP donors and the Kochs and their operatives offers a revealing look into their mighty political machine.

—Andy Kroll and Daniel Schulman on Wed. February 5, 2014 8:59 AM PDT

There's one main rule at the conservative donor conclaves held twice a year by Charles and David Koch at luxury resorts: What happens there stays there.

The billionaire industrialists and their political operatives strive to ensure the anonymity of the wealthy conservatives who fund their sprawling political operation—which funneled more than $400 million into the 2012 elections—and to keep their plans private. Attendees of these summits are warned that the seminars, where the Kochs and their allies hatch strategies for electing Republicans and advancing conservative initiatives on the state and national levels, are strictly confidential; they are cautioned to keep a close eye on their meeting notes and materials. But last week, following the Kochs' first donor gathering of 2014, one attendee left behind a sensitive document at the Renaissance Esmeralda resort outside of Palm Springs, California, where the Kochs and their comrades had spent three days focused on winning the 2014 midterm elections and more. The document lists VIP donors—including John Schnatter, the founder of the Papa John's pizza chain—who were scheduled for one-on-one meetings with representatives of the political, corporate, and philanthropic wings of Kochworld. The one-page document, provided to Mother Jones by a hotel guest who discovered it, offers a fascinating glimpse into the Kochs' political machine and shows how closely intertwined it is with Koch Industries, their $115 billion conglomerate.

..more..

[fasttense]

1. Interesting list

So many uber rich people who just hate America. Amazing.

Seems that the Koch brothers use their corporations to run political strategy meetings for the GOP. I wonder if the small businessman can pull all their top executives out of work to come and coordinate the RepubliCON destruction of our nation? It must be just something for big mega-monopolistic corporations and banksters. Not for the average Joe.

You can have all the free-speech you can buy. The more gobs of stolen wealth you have, the more freedom you have.

I wish all of them would go Galt.

[Sancho]

2. I can only imagine how much personality disorder must be at those meetings...

if people with millions/billions in the bank are willing to secretively fly in and meet to follow an extreme political agenda!

Really, is that how you'd use your time if you had a thousand millions in the bank? Only folks who are pathologically driven - and maybe that's how they got rich - would attend such a meeting.

[Fumesucker]

3. At least these guys were funny, the billionaires would be pathetic if they weren't so scary

[Berlum]

4. Republicon Occultists poop out a dribble of info...

Everything the Repubbies do is occulted. They revile the light of day, public transparency.

What are the Republicon occultists hiding? What are they so ashamed of?

[blackspade]

5. Why do the 1% hate Americans?

Answer: because the 99% have the other half of the worlds wealth. And they want it.

[alfredo]

6. Exactly. Enough is not enough.

[G_j]

11. exactly

simple isn't it?

[PatrynXX]

7. Klipsch ??

Well their omph just went into the tweeter

[heaven05]

8. I stopped eating Papa jerks pizza during his tirades against Obama.

These people are snakes with no conscience or compassion for 99%ers. The Faux news viewers worried about the 'kenyan muslim' black man takeover of this country needn't worry. It's still run by rich, white males in no danger of losing their entitlement. Russ limpig o'lielly and beck are just keeping the people worked up because being tools of these people in this article is just what they are. Tools to keep us all divided and thusly conquered.

[HughBeaumont]

9. A rogue's gallery of Trapitalists and Larcenists.

The Kochs are trying to corner the frozen concentrated wealth market.

[G_j]

10. quite a list, I found this interesting,

"At least half of the one-on-one sessions involved representatives of Americans for Prosperity, the political advocacy group founded by the Koch brothers and their top political adviser and strategist, Richard Fink, a Koch Industries executive vice president and board member. The AFP officials called to duty for these discussions included AFP's president Tim Phillips, chief operating officer Luke Hilgemann, vice president for state operations Teresa Oelke, and vice president for development Chris Fink (Richard Fink's son). The state directors for AFP's Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Florida chapters were also slated for tête-à-têtes during the Koch summit. (AFP spokesman Levi Russell declined to comment on the meeting document.)

In the past, Koch Industries has distanced itself from AFP and its political activities. The company has said the group is just one of "hundreds of organizations" that receive funding from the Kochs and that it operates "independently" of Koch Industries. But the document suggests a close collaboration between officials of Koch Industries, AFP, and Freedom Partners, whose staff and board are stacked with numerous current and former Koch Industries employees. Michael Lanzara and Jeff Noble, who transitioned over to Freedom Partners from Koch Companies Public Sector—the company's legal, lobbying, and public affairs branch—were scheduled to meet with donors alongside AFP staffers. The Koch brothers and Richard Fink were also listed as taking part in some of these sessions. (Fink, a man of many hats within the Koch firmament, is also an AFP board member; David Koch chairs the board of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation.)"

[Octafish]

12. AFP = Union Busting Network of Pols in Service of Big Money

...in Michigan:

Koch brothers, Tea Party cash drives Michigan right-to-work bill

Why did Gov. Rick Snyder buckle on an anti-union law? Just look at his big-money donors

JOSH EIDELSON
Salon.com, TUESDAY, DEC 11, 2012 08:37 AM EST

EXCERPT...

So-called right-to-work laws ban union contracts from requiring workers in a bargaining unit to pay for the costs of representation. (Contrary to much rhetoric – and some reporting – U.S. law already prevents workers from being required to join a union or pay dues, per se. The issue is whether non-members, whom the union is still legally required to negotiate for and represent at work, can be required to pay representation fees.) Right-to-work defunds and discourages unions, and makes it easier for employers to discriminate against pro-union workers. Passing right-to-work in Michigan, arguably the birthplace of the modern U.S. labor movement, would be ­– by all signs, will be – a major coup for the right.

It didn’t come out of nowhere. In a video shot by a Michigan Democratic tracker, former Michigan GOP chairman Ron Weiser is seen describing right-to-work plans that date back to 2007. A Michigan Democratic Party spokesperson told Salon that the video was recorded at a gathering of several Tea Party groups on Aug. 9, 2012 (the Michigan GOP and the governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment). In the video, Weiser describes hiring a political consultant and “working on that full-time” from October 2007 through the following March. Weiser, a former real-estate developer and U.S. ambassador who’s now the national RNC finance chair, describes a plan to gather signatures to put right-to-work on the ballot in 2008.

But Weiser tells the crowd that the strategy changed after a meeting in Washington with former Michigan Gov. John Engler (now the president of the Business Roundtable), former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, billionaire donor Dick DeVos, and “some people from AFP,” the Koch-backed Tea Party group. At that meeting, Weiser says in the video, “what we determined was that to win that election, and to be sure we were gonna win it, we couldn’t have a governor that was against it. So we decided to wait. Wait until we had a governor. Now we have a legislature and we have a governor.” That governor is Rick Snyder.

Nowhere in the video clip does Weiser express concern about Snyder’s expressed antipathy toward right-to-work. But clearly, right-to-work supporters had no reason to worry.

SNIP...

David Koch was famously impersonated by blogger Ian Murphy in a prank phone call congratulating Scott Walker on his union-busting fortitude. The Kochs are major supporters of ALEC, and provided the funds to start AFP, a successor to the Koch-backed Citizens for a Sound Economy. As Lee Fang reported at the Nation, in 2008 through 2011, Mackinac and AFP-Michigan vastly outspent the union-backed group Progress Michigan.

CONTINUED...

http://www.salon.com/2012/12/11/koch_brothers_tea_party_cash_drives_michigan_right_to_work_bill/

It's hard for the majority to get the word out when dollars equals democracy and tee vee requires cash up front. Who, besides the rich and powerful, can afford to be heard?

[G_j]

13. money talks

or rather, obscene amounts of money.

[Octafish]

15. I wonder why the Democrats don't make a big issue out of it?

Seeing how capital makes money just by its mere existence for the wealthiest 300 people in the nation who hold it, one would think the 300 million who together hold about the same are just waiting for someone in authority to make a case for Main Street over Wall Street.

Taxing the superrich sure would go a looooong way toward making the country a better place for everybody.

[G_j]

16. great points

hopefully that will manifest through people like Warren. I'm praying for a critical mass of opinion shift.

[Gothmog]

14. The Kochs hate sunlight

I am glad that this list is out and that these donors are being exposed