The book, “Dark Money,” by Jane Mayer, traces the rise of the modern conservative movement through the activism and money of a handful of rich donors.
Brava to Jane Mayer for her book, “Dark Money.”
And bravo to Nick Confessore, at the New York Times, for today’s article, Father of Koch Brothers Helped Build Nazi Oil Refinery, Book Says – The New York Times
Nick has previously given us outstanding, chilling coverage of the group of right-wing oligarchs who are using their trillions of dollars to take over our legislatures and weaken the laws which protect us as individuals and voting citizens. (Except, of course, for the archaic Second Amendment; they’re loading a lot of greenbacks into protecting that one.)
Although I’ve called the Koch brothers efforts to take over our democracy the Neu Wannsee Conference--I knew their family origins were German–I did not realize what Mayer dug out and Confessore now reports: the Kochs’ father actually gave substantial industrial assistance to Hitler’s regime, as Germany put its military on steroids to build up to World War II.
As Confessore ever so dryly puts it (“episode”):
The episode is not mentioned in an online history published by Koch Industries, the company that Mr. Koch later founded and passed on to his sons.
Here’s how successful the Kochs’ legislative take-over has been:
The Koch network also provided funding to fine-tune budget proposals from Representative Paul D. Ryan, such as cuts to Social Security, so they would be more palatable to voters, according to the book. The Kochs were so influential among conservative lawmakers, Ms. Mayer reports, that in 2011, Representative John A. Boehner, then the House speaker, visited David Koch to ask for his help in resolving a debt ceiling stalemate.
Do the people who elected Ryan and Boehner understand that their brains, their votes and, thus, their country were bought by the Kochs?
So what’s the degree beyond “I am chilled to the bone”? Because whatever it is, that’s what I am.