Koch in his own words

[real-human]

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/09/30/cheng-kin-ming-golden-age-of-green-cities/

Koch Brothers Step Aside: The $20 Billion Man Is In Town

[real-human]

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/inside-the-koch-brothers-toxic-empire-20140924?page=2

[real-human]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/30/1333457/-Kochs-brothers-freak-out-in-response-to-Rolling-Stone-expose?detail=email#

TUE SEP 30, 2014 AT 03:06 PM PDT
Koch brothers freak out in response to Rolling Stone expose

[pueno]

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The Koch Agenda and the Republican Party:
Why Won't They Answer the Question?

Source

It is no wonder why the Koch brothers always hold their political retreats with their fellow billionaires and multimillionaires in highly secretive sessions, the things they say and the agenda they lay out, while "inspiring" to Mitch McConnell, is repulsive to most Americans. They believe the minimum wage leads to Nazi-ism, Stalinism, Maoism, and suicide bombers. They believe the homeless should be dismissed by telling them to get off their ass. They compare Democrats to the leaders of North Korea. They say they want to decrease regulations "because we can make more profit."

But even more importantly than these absurd and offensive individual beliefs, is their absurd and offensive overall agenda. The Kochs' VP for Policy and Research described an ideal society where the only government would be the military, police, and court system:

"Government is thus limited to a small, but absolutely critical number of tasks, basically keeping our neighborhoods and cities safe from crime, defending our country from those who might violate our national territories, our commerce at sea, and providing justice in a fair and apolitical -- political court system."

In this ideal system, there would be no C, no Medicare, no Medicaid, no food or water safety protections, no national park system, no public education or student loan programs, no public roads and bridges. They would not have taxes on corporate profits or the wealthy at all. There would be no consumer, homeowner, or worker protections from Wall Street banks, big energy companies, pharmaceutical giants, health insurance companies, fast food companies.

This is the Koch agenda, laid out clearly and unequivocally at the Koch secret meeting in June, the agenda that Mitch McConnell found so inspiring. This agenda is so stark that since the news of his attendance at the conference came out, McConnell has either downplayed the meeting, contradicted what he said at the meeting -- for example, here on the minimum wage, or just refused to answer the question here and here.

McConnell isn't the only Republican candidate refusing to answer questions about their allegiance to the Koch agenda. The issue came up twice in the Joni Ernst-Bruce Braley debate in Iowa on September 28, and Ernst avoided the topic entirely the first time, and defensively and immediately changed the subject the second time. And Congressman Jim Jordan, another speaker at the secretive Koch conference, simply refused to answer the question as well.

The Koch agenda, which is now on tape and in transcript form for anyone who wants to look, is devastating to Republicans if Democrats make it an issue. Democrats just have to pound it home -- keep asking the question Republicans refuse to answer, about whether they would repudiate the agenda laid out at the Kochs' secret conference. Because the Republicans are so controlled by the Kochs, Democrats across the country need to be spelling out what the Koch agenda is, and asking Republicans whether they support it. If the narrative of this election is the debate over whether we want the Koch agenda, Democrats will win this cycle going away.

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[mrgybe]

"It's time that the American people spoke out against this terrible dishonesty of these two brothers, who are about as un-American as anyone that I can imagine," Reid said earlier this year.".

By way of contrast, he explained, the Steyer brothers are clean cut, all-American boys who know what's best for this country (and his campaign)........same with good ol' Georgy Soros. Even better they smell good, not like those ghastly, smelly Capitol Building tourists that pay his salary and lavish expenses. "Our billionaires are better than your billionaires" Reid proudly declared before heading for his office to listen to the secret tapes of the secret Koch meetings full of secrets that no-one but senior Republicans can ever know.......well, apart from a lefty contributor to the Huffington Post (Secrets Department).

[real-human]

[boggsman1]

The Steyer brothers ... The rights attempt to demonize the left the same way the Kochs have been portrayed.... What a joke. Tom Steyer has been an idol of mine for 20 years, running and founding farralon , a great SF hedge fund and funding environmental causes , as well as funding sustainable farming all over Northern California ..... The Steyer brothers .... Funny...

[mrgybe]

Tom Steyer, billionaire hedge fund manager who was for coal before he was against it, has made his fortune in large part from carbon investments and now is looking to profit from green investments? Now he has his pile, he doesn't want others to join in.......much like the wealthy people who develop massive ranches in Montana and then squeal for a moratorium on further development to "preserve the land" (and the value of their property). I would choose my idols a little more carefully.

[keycocker]

Gybe has a problem with this guy because he made money from fossil fuel but Gybe adores Exxon, Mobil and all the execs who work there.

The reason he gives is that the same guy also helps the environment, a serious character flaw in Gybes book.

[mrgybe]

Wow! I guess I have to explain everything in the simplest possible terms. Clearly I have no problem with making money from the carbon industry..........I do, however, have a serious problem with hypocrisy....... from both Reid and Steyer.