Tea Party funded by Koch Oil, leading environmental criminal

Original Link: http://www.texassharon.com/2010/08/27/tea-party-funded-by-koch-oil-leading-environmental-criminal/

By TXsharon

I might have mentioned the billionaire Koch brothers a time or two because I’ve been following these criminal polluters and serial propagandasts for over a decade.

Faulty Koch pipelines resulted in more than 300 oil spills in five states during the 1990s, which led to the corporation paying landmark penalties.

A pipeline explosion in Dallas in 1996 that killed two teenagers cost the company more than $300 million.

During the Clinton administration, Koch Oil was charged with 315 acts of pollution. Koch Industries denied the allegations, but the cases were settled in January 2000 for $35 million in fines

In another instance, Koch was charged with 97 counts of covering up evidence in the case of a benzene spill in Corpus Christi, Texas

Yesterday, NPR’s Fresh Air interviewed Jane Mayer who did an investigative feature on the Koch brothers. You can listen below but first, so you can be an informed shopper, I want to list some of the products I intend to boycott from now until forever.

Brawny paper towels
Dixie cups
Formaldehyde laden Georgia-Pacific lumber
Lycra fibers
Stainmaster carpet
More

Here are my notes in case you don’t have time to listen.

In a nutshell, the billionaire Koch Brothers fund what is called “corporate sponsored activism.” They channel the legitimate anger over economic problems in this country and push it to enable their own agenda, which is generally making themselves more wealthy at our expense.They train angry people in issues that the Koch Billionaire Brothers care about. They get these angry people to fight against:

Regulation of any kind
Energy reform
Environmental reform
Political candidates who promote regulation and reform
They even provide scripts.
Since 1980, they’ve been working on their agenda to fund infrastructure to manufacture public political opinion that mirrors their own. They are underground and closeted to avoid congressional scrutiny and to prevent boycott of the products listed above. A former employee said, “They use rednecks to do their dirty work for them.” They launder the economics so you can’t tell who supports these organizations that manufacture public opinion.

Koch Brothers are primary underwriters of hard line Libertarian politics in America.
Koch Ind.’s annual revenue is estimated to be $100 billion dollars.
They operate oil refineries in several states and pipelines.
They are the 2nd largest private company in the country.
They funded the Tea Party to help turn their private agenda–the eradication of the federal government in all of its forms other than the part that protects personal rights–into a mass movement.
They are trying to get rid of federal regulations particularly on energy companies like…wait for it…Koch Oil.
They are serious and criminal polluters! (the kind of pollution that gives the earlier mentioned angry “rednecks” and their children cancer)
They have funded as many as 34 different front groups that are coming after Obama and they fight against the following reforms

Health care
Environmental
Energy
Tax
Stimulus
IRONY ALERT:

In Texas on July 4th, Americans for Prosperity held a Tea Party Summit called “Texas defending the American Dream.” (That would be the American Dream where the Koch brothers get wealthier and angry “rednecks” get cancer.) It was advertised as a populist uprising against vested corporate power but it was really corporate manufactured activism. It was funded by Koch Oil Company.

Other Tea Party/political activities funded by Koch:

Websites
Rally organizing
Buses to rallies
Political infrastructure to enable movement
Think tanks
Publications
Academics who present manufactured research as legitimate research.
Scholarships to students who will hold same views
An array of orgs
Cato Institute was founded and funded by Koch fortune
Mercatus Center at George Mason University that looks like an impartial academic support but it’s funded by industry. They support gutting all fed regulation particularly environmental and they specialize in attacks EPA
Citizens for a sound economy
Americans for Prosperity

HYPOCRISY:

Koch Industries has received $100 million in government contacts since 2000. They also benefited from the 2005 Federal Energy Bill.

And Thank God global warming is a hoax! Lord knows the billionaire Koch Brothers have spent several large fortunes spreading junk science to disprove global warming to ensure the Continued Prosperity of Koch Industries and Other Big Oil Outfits.