Charles Koch: We’re just getting started

[hue]

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/charles-koch-were-just-getting-started-114567.html

Charles Koch on Saturday signaled to hundreds of donors, operatives and conservative leaders gathered in the California desert that the political operation he and his brother David created was just getting started.

“Americans have taken an important step in slowing down the march toward collectivism,” Charles Koch said in his speech, seemingly in reference to the Republican takeover of the Senate during the 2014 midterm elections.

“But as many of you know, we don’t rest on our laurels. We are already back at work and hard at it! In fact, the work never really ends. Because the struggle for freedom never ends,” Koch said, according to excerpts provided by Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, a non-profit outfit that oversees the vast political and policy network created by the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers.

The Kochs and their allies, who for years had a reputation for extreme secrecy, in recent months have taken steps towards increased transparency. While the Palm Springs session – like previous “seminars” as the gatherings are known in Koch World – is closed to the press, the release of even selected excerpts (which totaled fewer than 250 words) from a speech by the intensely private Charles Koch is a departure.

[CurtEastPoint]

1. "the struggle for freedom never ends" really means ending freedom for millions.

Despicable fuckers.

[Blanks]

10. I'm not sure I agree with that. They are struggling for their freedom...

Freedom to pollute, they will eliminate unions so that they have the freedom to set wages etc.

Yes, it effects the freedom of millions, but that's not what motivates them IMHO. What motivates them is the freedom to do whatever they want.

[Fred Sanders]

2. And in on the inside at the Annual Fascist's Ball is no other than ABC's Chief White House

Correspondent and puppet propagandist.


The MSM is embedding itself with the Koch Brothers, but please carry on with your pigskin chatter.

They own the media and now are so over confident they have it all right out in the open.

[onehandle]

3. He and his worthless brother are pushing 80.

They're ending.

[LiberalElite]

4. They could have

another 10 years left in them.

[onehandle]

6. Their father died at 67. Both of them have had cancer.

Tick tock, fuckwads...

[LiberalElite]

8. Ah. so there IS hope -

[nxylas]

11. They're not the only billionaire psychopaths out there

Posting this once again, because it bears repeating: http://www.politicususa.com/2012/07/24/bernie-sanders-exposes-26-billionaires-buying-2012-election.html:

[LiberalElite]

12. ok so there isn't -

[nxylas]

14. That's not what I meant

I wasn't trying to say that the situation is hopeless. I just think that it is too reductionist to treat the Kochs as if they represent the whole of the predator class. There are others like them, and we need to shine the same light on them as we did with the Kochs. The article talks about them coming out of the shadows, but omits to mention that it wasn't through choice.

[LiberalElite]

15. True -

we got our work cut out for us!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

17. ^ n/t

[lastlib]

5. They have enough money in trusts that they could be around in perpetuity.

. .

They're going to be making ugly in the world for a LONG time to come!

[freebrew]

21. I guess there's some hope, then?...

I imagine someone will take over the pig section.

There's still BFEE to deal with as well.

[2naSalit]

7. There IS a definitive response to this

but it's socially unacceptable.

[Triana]

9. They are (still) the John Birch Society (soundly rejected by America in the past):

Values:

The organization claims to identify with a particular type of Christian principles, seeks to limit governmental powers, and opposes wealth redistribution, and economic interventionism. It opposes collectivism, totalitarianism, and communism. It opposes socialism as well, which it asserts is infiltrating U.S. governmental administration. In a 1983 edition of Crossfire, Congressman Larry McDonald (D-Georgia), then its newly appointed president, characterized the society as belonging to the Old Right rather than the New Right.[14]

The society opposed the 1960s civil rights movement and claimed the movement had communists in important positions. In the latter half of 1965, the JBS produced a flyer titled "What's Wrong With Civil Rights?", which was used as a newspaper advertisement.[15][16] In the piece, one of the answers was: "For the civil rights movement in the United States, with all of its growing agitation and riots and bitterness, and insidious steps towards the appearance of a civil war, has not been infiltrated by the Communists, as you now frequently hear. It has been deliberately and almost wholly created by the Communists patiently building up to this present stage for more than forty years."[17] The society opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, claiming it violated the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and overstepped individual states' rights to enact laws regarding civil rights. The society opposes "one world government", and it has an immigration reduction view on immigration reform. It opposes the United Nations, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and other free trade agreements. They argue the U.S. Constitution has been devalued in favor of political and economic globalization, and that this alleged trend is not accidental. It cited the existence of the former Security and Prosperity Partnership as evidence of a push towards a North American Union.[18]


MORE:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Birch_Society

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

From Claire Conner's book: "Wrapped in the Flag - A Personal History of the Radical Right"...

https://books.google.com/books?id=JWPhb5Jet-wC&lpg=PT93&ots=q7CloB9Zex&dq=Claire%20conner%20%22collectivism%22&pg=PT93#v=onepage&q=Claire%20conner%20%22collectivism%22&f=false

"...lovers of Atlas Shrugged and everything Ayn Rand, believed that the chains of "collectivism" had to be busted, once and for all...."

[mw]

13. The rich want "freedom" to enjoy college-degreed people mowing their lawns. God that feels good! nt

[hue]

16. Names of some Koch dark $$ organizations.

http://www.kochwatch.org/2014/09/30/koch-central-bank-freedom-partners-distributed-millions-in-dark-money-in-2013/

Koch Central Bank Freedom Partners Distributed Millions In Dark Money In 2013

WASHINGTON — Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the central hub of the political empire of the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, reported raising $57.5 million in 2013 and disbursing $41.7 million to organizations in the Koch network.

Freedom Partners, founded under the radar in 2011, emerged in 2012 as the main bank for Koch-related political operations. The group, organized under IRS rules as a 501(c)(6) trade association, distributed more than $250 million in the 2012 elections to an array of groups. Overall, the entire Koch network spent $400 million in 2012, according an investigation by The Washington Post and Center for Responsive Politics. With the $25 million cash on hand it brought into 2014, Freedom Partners has already played an even bigger role this year.

The annual tax filings for nonprofits involved in the complicated Koch network provide a glimpse into the brothers’ murky political world. As the Koch central node, Freedom Partners’ 2013 filing, posted to the group’s website on Wednesday, casts light on the organization’s dark money.

A number of Koch groups were cut loose and have seen their electoral role shrink dramatically after a series of losses in 2012, none more painful than the failure to defeat President Barack Obama, and a scandal in California involving groups within the network.

Now, the majority of the groups receiving money from the Koch central bank are those also founded by the Kochs and their network. These include Americans for Prosperity, American Energy Alliance, Center for Shared Services Trust, Concerned Vets for America, Evangchr4 Trust, Generation Opportunity, Libre Initiative, Public Notice and Themis Trust. These groups received $40 million of the $41.7 million distributed by Freedom Partners in 2013.

[stuffmatters]

18. And we as taxpayers are paying for the Koch's tax free propaganda machine

Political ads and political posturing (of either party) should not be tax free, meaning that ordinary taxpayers must make up the difference (or cut services) that theses monies aren't taxed. Not even sales tax! I wish the opponents against Citizens United would make this the crux of their message to all Americans. Nothing motivates rightwingers more than resentment and nothing motivates liberals more than unfairness. In this case Citizens United is forcing regular taxpayers to subsidize tax free political welfare.

And then Obama could also instruct the IRS to revert back to its original definition of "social welfare" exemptions and
allow the exemption for orga that are "exclusively" not "primarily" non political & charitable. Especially since the Repugs have been cutting the URS budget, reverting back ti the "exclusive" definition (that Eisenhowers IRS mysteriously changed) would simply eliminate all the IRS costs of investigations and legal battles fighting these fake "social welfare" charities and their
tax free, anonymous privileges.

[DFW]

19. The Kochs are in their seventies and have billions in spare cash for this

They are not interested in having universities, highways, bridges, water purification plants or libraries built with their names on them. They are interested in transforming the U.S. government into something they like. Millions in spare cash can't buy that. Billions can, and they apparently don't have any intentions on spending their wealth on much else. We have nothing remotely similar on our side. We ignore this at our peril. GOTV is not just a goal for 2016. It is the difference between life for our democracy (such as is left of it), and its imminent demise.

[blkmusclmachine]

20. Greatest threat to the 99% and democracy and freedom.

[Myrina]

22. So they're against 'collectivism' ....

.... except for when they're collecting everyone else's votes, money & freedom for themselves.