Koch Brothers Kill Nashville Transit Project Just Because They Can
Apr 1, 2014
If you are not aware of Koch Industries and The Koch brothers attempt to control our government, you need to inform yourself. Their tactics and antics are corrupt, unethical and undermining our American democracy. Start with listening to this video. The Randolph Review has considerable additional information on the Koch brothers. Just go to The Randolph Review .com In this article, The Koch Brothers funds a campaign to kill a mass transit project in Nashville Tennessee. Why kill a project that does not impact your business or personal life? Some believe it’s because they want everyone to know how powerful they are.
The Koch brothers, showing how powerful they are.
TUESDAY, APR 1, 2014 02:28 PM EDT
Koch brothers vs. a bus: Why two billionaires hate a transit project in Nashville
A bus rapid transit project is imperiled because a couple of rich guys love meddling
StopAmp.org Inc., the leading opposition group, thanked AFP in a news release Thursday, and Andrew Ogles, AFP’s state director, said that the group didn’t back the effort financially but that the bill grew out of a conversation he had had with Sen. Jim Tracy, the sponsor.
In other words, AFP suggested the bill and a friendly legislator sponsored it. According to Ogles, Americans for Prosperity-Tennessee was founded nine months ago, with a “sizable” undisclosed budget and three employees (two of whom are registered lobbyists). Why Tennessee, a state that the Kochs have no personal interest in? Well, it’s just a good environment for their agenda:
“With supermajorities in both houses,” [Ogles] said, “Tennessee is a great state to pass model legislation that can be leveraged in other states.”
So, this is not “the Kochs” doing this, in the cartoonish sense of David or Charles calling up a henchman and saying “kill that new bus line in Nashville,” and then cackling and dipping an orphan in fracking runoff and using it to light a cigar. But this is the story of how billionaires dedicated to advancing an agenda at every level of government can do so with practically no one noticing until they’ve already won. Because a couple of energy moguls are constitutionally opposed to mass transit spending based on a very self-serving definition of “liberty,” Nashville, a city neither of them spends any significant amount of time in, may not get a new bus line. “All politics is local” means something a bit different in this age of unregulated free-for-all political spending.
Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of “The Rude Guide to Mitt.” Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene
Koch Brothers – Koch Industries Links
Mar 29, 2014
The Right Wing Organization, Koch Industries, Is Putting Millions Behind The Assault on Social Security And The Destruction Of The American Middle Class A new video by Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films, “The Koch Echo Chamber,” puts the GOP position that changes to Social Security ought to be a part of a deficit reduction plan in the context of the Koch brothers’ longtime support for conservative and libertarian organizations who argue for such cuts. Over the years, the Mercatus Center, the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation and Reason Foundation have collectively been given $28 million by the GOP benefactors, the film notes, tying that giving to a subsequent shift in the public conversation as it relates to Social Security. – See more at: couchmouse.net
1-25-2014
The Koch Party
Only a few weeks into this midterm election year, the right-wing political zeppelin is fully inflated with secret cash and is firing malicious falsehoods at supporters of health care reform.
As Carl Hulse of The Times reported recently, Democrats have been staggered by a $20 million advertising blitz produced by Americans for Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group organized and financed by the Koch brothers, billionaire industrialists. The ads take aim at House and Senate candidates for re-election who have supported the health law, and blame them for the hyped-up problems with the law’s rollout that now seem to be the sole plank in this year’s Republican platform. More
4-3-2014
On MSNBC, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) laid out in chilling fashion how much money the Koch brothers are now free to spend to buy the White House. Link