Today's Democracy Now! broadcast is a must see about the Koch brothers and

[Cleita]

the author, New Yorker reporter, Jane Mayer who wrote the book, "Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right,"

This is the link to the broadcast: http://www.democracynow.org/

And this is the link to the transcript to whet your appetite; http://www.democracynow.org/2016/1/20/the_kochs_the_nazis_book_reveals

<snip>

AMY GOODMAN: The story of the Koch brothers and an allied group of billionaire donors is told in a new book by The New Yorker magazine reporter Jane Mayer. It’s called Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. Jane Mayer traces how the Kochs and other billionaires, including Mellon banking and Gulf Oil heir Richard Mellon Scaife, chemical tycoon John M. Olin, electronics magnates Harry and Lynde Bradley, have leveraged their business empires to create a political machine with unprecedented influence over politics at the national, state and local level.

Beyond elections, these billionaires have also influenced the political sphere by using their money to create right-wing think tanks, endow university positions, fund research favorable to their right-wing agenda, including climate change denial, opposing healthcare reform and thwarting government regulation. The Kochs’ political empire is so vast, it’s been dubbed "The Kochtopus," the organizations including Americans for Prosperity, Citizens for a Sound Economy.

Mayer’s book contains a number of revelations and new details. She begins with the Kochs’ father, industrialist Fred Koch. Mayer reveals that Fred Koch helped build an oil refinery in Nazi Germany—a project approved personally by Adolf Hitler. The refinery was critical to the Nazi war effort. Its oil fueled German warplanes. Before that, Fred Koch built a refinery for Joseph Stalin’s Russia. Fred Koch went on to become an original leader of the right-wing John Birch Society. Charles Koch was a member when the group campaigned against the civil rights movement in the ’60s.

Jane Mayer also uncovers evidence confirming rumors the Koch brothers tried to blackmail their own brother, Frederick, into giving up his share of the family company by threatening to out him as gay. It also emerges that the EPA has named the Kochs’ company, Koch Industries, the single biggest U.S. producer of toxic waste. Mayer recounts her own potential brush with the Koch’s empire. After she profiled the brothers in a 2010 piece for The New Yorker, a private firm was hired to discredit her reporting. Although there’s no definite proof, Mayer says that clues leading back to the Kochs were everywhere. And she explores the Kochs’ multiyear effort to undermine President Obama, starting with a secretive meeting of right-wing donors the week of his inauguration.

<snip>

A lot of interesting stuff about Nazis and a German nanny, who raised the brothers, who was a Nazi sympathizer. It could explain their liking of authoritarianism. I wonder if any one if them keeps a Dominatrix in the wine cellar? The National Enquirer should get on it. It may be the way to bring them down.

[uhnope]

1. wow nt

[Cleita]

2. Take the time for this. It's astounding.

The book looks to be a must read.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

4. Well, going by the utter lack of response to the thread posted on this subject,

few here will bother. I guess it's just not as important as cats doing cute things.

[UTUSN]

3. R#7 & K n/t

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

5. Link to the story, now that it's not on the front page:

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/1/20/the_kochs_the_nazis_book_reveals