By Halima Aquino
The following New York Times review, entitled “Dark Money” is the single most interesting and disturbing article I’ve read about the far right agenda, as defined by the Koch brothers’ expensive, tax-free investments in politics, journalism, lobbying, organizing, and false advertising. For this book, intricate financial and tax data was apparently expertly researched and analyzed to show how Koch non-profits support Koch industries’ bottom line. The research also shows how the Koch’s original fortune dates back to the Stalinist regime through their father.
Today, the Kochs are using billions of tax-free dollars to systematically and subversively undermine and destroy decades of progress and investment in major American Institutions created for the benefit of average American citizens by the Roosevelt, Nixon, Kennedy, Johnson, Ford and Carter administrations. According to the review, this book states that there is very little popular public support for well-funded Koch goals. Democracy itself is therefore at stake with their intricate manipulation of the system under Citizens United- among other things.
The most ominous message in this review is how Koch public relations campaigns recruit followers with mind-bending, Stalinist type propaganda techniques that are far more threatening than any potential Communist threats ever posed to American freedom in the 1950s. How does any regime, in the not so free world, control the public’s beliefs? They silence intellectual thought and spread propaganda. They buy out competitive, research-oriented newspapers and TV stations. The Koch’s are on track in these areas.
In fact, the Koch’s are disingenuously denying the usefulness of science, journalistic freedom and humanitarian programs- not because they believe what they’re saying- but because they earn more profits if they can make people believe their lies in the media.
The Koch Industry goals include single-handedly destroying American institutions like Social Security, the National Science Foundation, NOAA, and the EPA. They want people to believe that “American freedom” is being compromised by these institutions – when , in fact, it’s Koch profits in the oil business that are really at stake.
Why do they do what they do? How many of us knew that the Koch’s are the No. 1 polluter in our country? They fight the EPA so they can deny that their pollution exists and does not need to be rectified. The Koch’s want to undermine investments in clean alternative energy and technology so they can have those government benefits.The Koch’s fight financial regulations, not because Americans don’t like banking protections – but because their profits grow better when they are unhindered by consumer protections….
Read on- so we can better understand the lies and corruption that compromise real American freedom and Democracy. We can defeat them. Their money can’t buy everyone who understands what they’re doing for themselves- not the American people.
