Posted on 10/04/2014 7:47:44 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Together, Charles and David Koch control one of the world's largest fortunes, which they are using to buy up our political system. But what they don't want you to know is how they made all that money.
The enormity of the Koch fortune is no mystery. Brothers Charles and David are each worth more than $40 billion. The electoral influence of the Koch brothers is similarly well-chronicled. The Kochs are our homegrown oligarchs; they've cornered the market on Republican politics and are nakedly attempting to buy Congress and the White House. Their political network helped finance the Tea Party and powers today's GOP. Koch-affiliated organizations raised some $400 million during the 2012 election, and aim to spend another $290 million to elect Republicans in this year's midterms. So far in this cycle, Koch-backed entities have bought 44,000 political ads to boost Republican efforts to take back the Senate.
What is less clear is where all that money comes from. Koch Industries is headquartered in a squat, smoked-glass building that rises above the prairie on the outskirts of Wichita, Kansas. The building, like the brothers' fiercely private firm, is literally and figuratively a black box. Koch touts only one top-line financial figure: $115 billion in annual revenue, as estimated by Forbes.
By that metric, it is larger than IBM, Honda or Hewlett-Packard and is America's second-largest private company after agribusiness colossus Cargill. The company's stock response to inquiries from reporters: "We are privately held and don't disclose this information."
But Koch Industries is not entirely opaque. The company's troubled legal history – including a trail of congressional investigations, Department of Justice consent decrees, civil lawsuits and felony convictions – augmented by internal company documents, leaked State Department cables, Freedom of Information disclosures and company whistle-blowers, combine to cast an unwelcome spotlight
(Excerpt) Read more at rollingstone.com ...
“Can you cite me a few sources rebutting this please?”
"But what they don't want you to know is how they made all that money."
And this
"The Kochs are our homegrown oligarchs; they've cornered the market on Republican politics and are nakedly attempting to buy Congress and the White House. Their political network helped finance the Tea Party and powers today's GOP.
You would think that they would be embarrassed not even try to hide what they are attempting to do. It really make me mad that they think their readership (I'm not one BTW) are just fools. Well maybe they are I guess.
Well, first, the Koch Brothers are social liberals, so their intended influence isn’t all that conservative.
And, to start with:
I tried to read a few paragraphs of this article and gave up as it became clear the writer had not an ounce of credibility. He hates SUCCESS and loves GOVERNMENT........end of story!
Do liberals have any idea who the Koch brothers are? Do they have any idea what companies they own, what industries they are in? Do they have any idea of the economic impacts of their companies? Do they have any idea how many people work for companies run by the Koch brothers? And do they really know the politics of the Koch brothers?
And to be intellectually honest, how can they complain about perceived conservative political activism, when people such as George Soros are heavily involved on the liberal side? Or do liberals believe that only liberals have the right to be politically active with big dollars????
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/09/on-the-cover-of-the-rolling-stone.php
((I am having a hard time finding the article. I don’t know why, I remember it on FR from about a week or so ago. Unless it was pulled for some reason.))
The magazine article accuses the Koch brothers of holding oil in ships off-shore to raise oil prices. It is absurd to try and make a scandal where one does not exist. It accuses them of being speculators, but they buy and sell real oil.
And they’ve likely never heard of George Soros. The duplicity is staggering.
Ha! Rolling Stone magazine. Still only relevant in keepin the bong water off of the coffee table.
Hilariously wrong one-sided article
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/09/on-the-cover-of-the-rolling-stone.php
Rolling Stone: America should replace capitalism with socialism
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3108395/posts
....
Isn’t RS a capitalist venture??
I’m waiting for the RS expose of Democracy Alliance, which is actually a secretive group of millionaires and billionaires meeting to try to buy the American government.
Democrat operatives with bylines.
Remember when they posted the enhanced picture of Al Gore with the sock stuck in his underwear?
I guess they figured they could get more homos and women to vote for him if they thought he had a large package.
Their readers are all commies. They are just providing them with a product that they desire.
provide them all with plane tickets to North Korea... one way
Political activity by non-Democrats is illegal, don’t you know?
A Rolling Stone gathers few readers.
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