¶ Considering 1/29/18 Durango Herald report on Americans for Prosperity - Jonathan Romeo

On Monday Jonathan Romeo authored another Durango Herald article that looked at Americans for Prosperity’s campaign against the land-use code that La Plata County’s duly elected County Commissioners are drafting.  I’ve taken selected quotes from the article and annotated them with observations gleaned from my past few days researching Americans for Prosperity.

Americans for Prosperity launches campaign over La Plata County’s land-use code

Koch brothers-backed group says it will fight proposed rules

By Jonathan Romeo County & environment reporter

Monday, Jan. 29, 2018 | Durango Herald

https://durangoherald.com/articles/206085-americans-for-prosperity-launches-campaign-over-la-plata-countys-landuse-code

“This plan is harmful in many ways to farmers and ranchers and grossly infringes on individuals’ property rights.” 

{What about all the ways it’s helpful in dealing with serious growing pains?  We can’t simply ignore this reality.}

Americans for Prosperity was founded in 2004 as a political arm of the billionaire Koch brothers, who owns the second largest privately held company in the U.S. …

{Here we touch on the fundamental problem with AFP, it was created to serve Koch’s interests.}

In the last eight years, Americans for Prosperity has turned to homing in on smaller communities in an effort to oust progressive elected officials and undercut the left’s command in grass-roots organizing.… 

{Thus smother all opposition to Koch’s radical agenda for our government.}

¶ ‘Sons of Wichita’ by Daniel Schulman, Koch bio - 2014

Daniel Schulman wrote a biography that’s been given a lot of credit for humanizing the Koch brothers.  The highlight is his argument that the Koch’s aren’t in it for the money, they are true ideological warriors for fundamental “Libertarian” ideals.  Not sure why that should have me trusting them or their intentions.

Merging libertarianism with being nearly the richest and most politically engaged bullying master of the universe - seems profoundly incongruous.  Bullying?  Well over a billion dollars spend on power political strategy and political campaigns, campaigns that are founded on deception and lies.  I’ll classify that as bullying.

Below is an excerpt from a Washington Post opinion piece on the book and links to three different YouTube events featuring author Daniel Schulman discussing his book to three very different groups of listeners.

Following that I include a few references towards defining what the elusive “libertarian ideal” is.  Actually, to my eyes, that’s one of it’s biggest problems, it’s all idealized thinking.  That's followed by a list of articles reporting on the Koch CATO connection.

Libertarians must ignore huge aspects of reality, be it about our geophysical Earth, or our modern complex crowded society.  

Libertarianism seems akin to nostalgic thinking, where we idealize a time and place that never was and never could have been.

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Review of Koch brothers biography, ‘Sons of Wichita,’ by Daniel Schulman

By Matea Gold  |  May 23, 2014

SourceWatch report: Americans for Prosperity, the gritty details.

Sourcewatch is known for gathering reliable information about political groups and their page on Koch's 'Americans for Prosperity' is another amazing and frightening eye opener.  (Click on the image for a clear view.)  Wish I had the time to convert the following to a linkable list, but I don't so here's the teaser and how to get there: 

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Americans_for_Prosperity

also see: 
OpenSecrets.org's report on Koch Industries
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=d000000186

Americans for Prosperity Lobbing Report
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/lobby.php?id=D000024046

Americans for Prosperity =
https://www.opensecrets.org/search/?q=Americans+for+Prosperity&cx=010677907462955562473%3Anlldkv0jvam&cof=FORID%3A11

Freedom Partners, Funding Dirty Tricks - 2013, Politico Exposé

And then there's the money, more tales of intrigue and secrecy:

The Koch brothers' secret bank, Freedom Partners

By MIKE ALLEN and JIM VANDEHEI  |  09/11/2013

https://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/behind-the-curtain-exclusive-the-koch-brothers-secret-bank-096669

An Arlington, Va.-based conservative group, whose existence until now was unknown to almost everyone in politics, raised and spent $250 million in 2012 to shape political and policy debate nationwide.

The group, Freedom Partners, and its president, Marc Short, serve as an outlet for the ideas and funds of the mysterious Koch brothers, cutting checks as large as $63 million to groups promoting conservative causes, according to an IRS document to be filed shortly.

The 38-page IRS filing amounts to the Rosetta Stone of the vast web of conservative groups — some prominent, some obscure — that spend time, money and resources to influence public debate, especially over Obamacare.

YOUTHFUEL: Americans for Prosperity, the video - 2014

Here’s my last post for this run, good night.  It’s a short video looking at AFP and it provides a nice summary of the information I’ve shared in this series of informative posts looking into the real Americans For (Koch's) Prosperity.  Below this video I share some notes and another handful of important sources that add further details.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

YOUTHFUEL: AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY

Climate Reality  |  Published on Sep 16, 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XvnP22nUM8

Watch as documentary filmmaker Vanessa Black turns her lens on Americans for Prosperity (AFP).http://www.24Hoursofreality.org 

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0:15  -  A closer look.

2008 No Tax Climate Pledge to oppose all legislation concerned with climate change

Koch Wins, Climate Agreement Broken. Jane Mayer - 2017

This is the last one of Jane Mayer's interesting reports. Here I follow her story with excerpts from the New York Times article by Coral Davenport and Eric Lipton which traces the factors leading to the GOP's complete rejection and denial of climate science.  Here we find that Koch's Americans for Prosperity turn out to play an important role in driving that self-destructive, self-delusional travesty.

In the Withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, the Koch Brothers’ Campaign Becomes Overt

By Jane Mayer  June 5, 2017

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/in-the-withdrawal-from-the-paris-climate-agreement-the-koch-brothers-campaign-becomes-overt

If there was any lingering doubt that a tiny clique of fossil-fuel barons has captured America’s energy and environmental policies, it was dispelled last week, when the Trump Administration withdrew from the Paris climate accord.

Surveys showed that a majority of Americans in literally every state wanted to remain within the agreement, and news reports established that the heads of many of the country’s most successful and iconic Fortune 100 companies, from Disney to General Electric, did, too. Voters and big business were arrayed against leaving the climate agreement. Yet despite the majority’s sentiment, a tiny—and until recently, almost faceless—minority somehow prevailed.

Kochs in-house Political Spy Organization. Mayer, and Vogel - 2015

The amount of disturbing information is overwhelming.  Here are excerpts from another New Yorker article by Jane Meyers, describing the Koch in-house political surveillance operation.  It's followed by Politico's Kenneth Vogel's reporting on the unit's operation along with looking into the strategy and thinking that drives these people.   

I'm sharing this because I think the Democrats of La Plata county should be able to take a crash course on what they are up against with this oh so friendly sounding "Americans for Prosperity" who have moved into town with their silver tongues masking sinister intent. 

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Do the Kochs Have Their Own Spy Network?

By Jane Mayer  -   November 18, 2015 in the New Yorker Magazine

Five years ago, when The New Yorker published my piece “Covert Operations,” about the ambitious and secretive political network underwritten by the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, the Koch brothers complained mightily about the story’s title, protesting that there was nothing at all covert about their political activities. Since then, the two have embarked on an impressive public-relations campaign meant to demonstrate their transparency and openness. 

But today, the Politico reporter Kenneth Vogel came out with a blockbuster scoop suggesting that the brothers, whose organization has vowed to spend an unprecedented eight hundred and eighty-nine million dollars in the 2016 election cycle, are more involved in covert operations than even their own partners have known.

Koch's Covert Operations. By Jane Mayer - 2010

Covert Operations

The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama.

By Jane Mayer in the August 30, 2010 Issue of the New Yorker Magazine

This is an amazing over ten thousand word roundup of Koch efforts up to 2010.  Below I include some highlights, but the entire article needs to be read to start getting a grasp of what Americans are dealing with here.

… In Washington, Koch is best known as part of a family that has repeatedly funded stealth attacks on the federal government, and on the Obama Administration in particular.

… The Kochs operate oil refineries in Alaska, Texas, and Minnesota, and control some four thousand miles of pipeline. Koch Industries owns Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups, Georgia-Pacific lumber, Stainmaster carpet, and Lycra, among other products. Forbes ranks it as the second-largest private company in the country, …

The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation. 

These views dovetail with the brothers’ corporate interests. In a study released this spring, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute named Koch Industries one of the top ten air polluters in the United States. And Greenpeace issued a report identifying the company as a “kingpin of climate science denial.”

Senator Reid Exposes the Radical Koch bros - 2014

In March of 2014 Senator Reid gave a speech to the Senate, that lays out what’s going on here.  Below the fold I include the full text of his talk.

The Radical Koch Brothers, Exposed By Senator Reid

The Daily Conversation  |  Published on March 13, 2014  |  6:33 min

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiS_un4hKAs

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) speaks out against the efforts of Charles and David Koch, who are using their vast fortunes to push for right-wing, pro-industrialist policies.

Subscribe to The Daily Conversation for more progressive videos like this.

https://www.youtube.com/TheDailyConversation

Full transcript:

¶ Americans for Prosperity's Siren Song

To offer a feel for this organization I’ve taken the liberty of copying from Durango’s Americans for Prosperity Facebook page and sharing the text along with a few comments.

AFP’s siren song:

Our Colorado Chapter

One of 36 state chapters nationwide, Americans for Prosperity–Colorado has over 85,000 activists and an ever-expanding base of local donors. 

The grassroots volunteers of AFP Colorado advocate for public policies that champion the principles of limited government as well as regulatory and fiscal restraint. Part of our mission includes holding elected officials accountable for promises and votes throughout the legislative session.

“Americans for Prosperity exists to recruit, educate, and mobilize citizens in support of the policies and goals of a free society (Implying what, we are shackled?, and why are AFP’s meeting so secretive?) at the local, state, and federal level, helping every American live their dream – especially the least fortunate. 

(Then why does AFP oppose a woman’s right to self-determination and self-defense?

Why does AFP oppose universal health care efforts?

Why is AFP trying to destroy our public school systems?

Why does AFP have contempt for effort to protect the environment that supplies our life support system?  

Why does AFP lie about the dangers of fossil fuels burning and global warming’s increasing harm to the less fortunate?

Why does AFP act as though paying your fair share in taxes is equivalent to rape?

Why does AFP hate our government that created this amazing society in America? )

¶ Why start this blog?

Last Thursday a Durango Herald article by Jonathan Romeo informed me that Koch’s political machine, “Americans for Prosperity,” has now invaded our nice little town.  It’s first target is County Commissioner Gwen Lachelt because she has the audacity to be concerned with our environment’s health.  Worse, she believes the Oil Industry needs to take responsibility for the messes they consistently make.  Ironically, Lachelt has never voted against an oil development permit, but that’s not good enough, ideological purity is Koch’s goal.

That Gwen is competently fulfilling her sworn duties and representing the sentiments of a majority of her constituents, means nothing to Americans for Prosperity.  She’s doing what We The People wanted, but she’s unsupportive of Koch’s unbridled prosperity, thus she must go.  A lesson to make all understand who our future belongs to.

I’ve long been familiar with the “Americans for (Koch’s) Prosperity” on account of their dirty tricks regarding communicating climate science reality.  Campaigns based on deception, innuendos, misrepresenting the science, along with wholesale malicious lies and a good dose of bullying opponents.  But since learning about our climate and Earth’s evolution in general, along with defending climate science, has taken up what free time I have, I’ve pretty much ignored them.

Time to stop that, so the past days I’ve spent a bunch of time getting to know them through their website.  The high pressure recruiting effort is astounding, their absolutist tenor is terrifying.  Still I refuse to let my sense of defeat and dread immobilize me, thus I've decided to share my findings and report on local AFP shenanigans as we move forward.

After perusing their blog, and other articles, I’ll wager AFP may well wind up breaking the GOP and morphing into an ‘independent’ political party run by and for oligarchs as they force their radical changes onto our pluralistic American Way.   It sure smells like that's their endgame.  

They only want their fair share - All of it!  

Frighteningly, the Koch bro’s and friends have the ruthlessness along with the ways and means to accomplish their dream.  Realistically, at this point, who’s to stop their juggernaut of deceptive siren song, exclusivism and dedication to Profits Über Alles under the banner of Americans for Prosperity? 

La Plata County liberals/progressives it’s our move.