Koch Kills Redux, live from Rancho Mirage!

These are the Climate Zombies at the White House last fall.  What are Climate Zombies?  They are the lies that dirty fuel industry-sponsored climate change deniers repeat again and again, no matter how many times legitimate science proves them wrong - they just keep rising from the dead, like zombies!!
The blog Skeptical Science slays the zombies - check it out!

This is the flyer distributed last October 10, 2010 - at a rally in front of the White House for climate action sponsored by the Global Warming Education Network and 350.org.   Today, Climate Zombies are back to confront the Kochs at their conference in Rancho Mirage, California.  Here's what the bill says on the back:

Climate Zombies Bought Your Vote!

Corporate money is polluting our legislature and government agencies just as their products are polluting our air and water. Billionaires like the coal-­rich Koch brothers are financing a well-­orchestrated campaign of lies to confuse the American public -­ exactly like the tobacco companies waged a marketing war to keep consumers addicted to cigarettes for decades.

Find out more about these criminals and what you can do to stop them from destroying our country at http://witsendnj.blogspot.com

This blog, Wit's End, is mostly about trees and vegetation, and how it is dying incrementally, at a rapidly escalating rate, from exposure to toxic background ozone.  Tropospheric ozone is derived from precursors released fuel combustion emissions, which also produces CO2 - the most ubiquitous greenhouse gas causing our climate to dangerously destabilize.  For more information, visit the Basic Premise page at the top of this blog.  But for today the focus will be on the Koch Brothers - later I will post pictures from the demonstration in front of the resort, and the Climate Zombies holding aloft our banner that proclaims "KOCH KILLS."

The dying of trees (and all other vegetation) poses an existential threat that is even more urgent than climate change from CO2 - dangerous as that is - because it poses an immediate reduction to our food supply, not to mention every other species that rely on plants for food.  It's critical for people to understand that climate criminals like the Koch brothers are spending enormous sums of money to bury the facts and confuse the science.

Right-wing ideologues own the the mainstream media, and anyone who relies on American television and radio for full and accurate information is being deluded.

We must convert to clean energy - on an emergency basis! - to prevent the worst consequences of climate change that will continue to worsen into the foreseeable future.  An even greater imperative, is that we must stop burning fuel now to rescue plants, which are the base of the food chain...or mass starvation will ensue.

Why target the Koch brothers?  Well, they're loathsome assholes, that's why.  And collossal hypocrites....and contemptible social climbers - using not talent or wit or knowledge or value to ingratiate themslves to high society, instead they buy their way onto the boards of prestigious institutions like the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Opera with the most blatantly crass method - money.  What's more revolting than that?   Oh...maybe the craven jerks that accept and reward them, when they should be shunned by anyone with a conscience!

There are so many references to be found that reveal the machinations of the Koch brothers - following is a somewhat random if incoherent sample.  Enjoy!

The original spotlight on the Koch activities was Jane Mayer's article in the New Yorker, "Covert Operations:  The billionaire brothers who are waging a war Against Obama." which has the most vivid and complete investigation into the Crimes of Koch, although much as been published since.  I won't even post a a single excerpt because the entire thing is a must-read, an amazing expose of the way things really work in America, where corporations now have the same rights as humans, and none of the responsibilities.

This article explains how minions such as Paul Singer, who are paid by the likes of the Koch brothers, spread their vile lies.

Even more insidious is the influence of operatives such as the fellow known as Lefohn, whose nefarious psuedo-science I reported on in this post, along with the activities of the "Air and Waste Management Association" - folks who are too smart to deny climate change, but rather, their intent is to squeeze more obscene profits from cleaning up the messes they have made, as mandated by the government they control - all funded by you and me!

This RealClimate post examines Cucinelli's despicable attempts to harrass climate scientist Michael Mann; and this search details how Koch Industries funded his campaign for Virginia Attorney General.

This post in the Climate Progress blog is titled "Koch-funded Prop 23 Study Draws Oily Conclusions."

Another Climate Progress post has this chart:



In yet another CP post, Koch is exposed as funding a book that argues against mine safety while this one skewers their manipulative, many-strings-attached, so-called philanthropy.

A column by Frank Rich investigated the connections between Koch money and Tea Party candidates like Christine O'Donnell:

"In fact, local chapters of Tea Party Patriots routinely received early training and support from FreedomWorks, the moneyed libertarian outfit run by the former Republican House majority leader and corporate lobbyist Dick Armey. FreedomWorks is itself a spinoff from Citizens for a Sound Economy, a pseudo-grassroots group whose links to the billionaire Koch brothers were traced by Jane Mayer in her blockbuster August exposé in The New Yorker. Last week the same Tea Party Patriots leader who bragged to the National Journal about all those small donations announced a $1 million gift from a man she would identify only as an entrepreneur. The donor’s hidden identity speaks even louder than the size of the check. As long as we don’t know who he is, we won’t know what orders he’s giving either."

What follows is the Koch brothers section from Rolling Stone's article (which they since pulled off the web!) The Climate Killers

The Tea Partiers

Charles and David Koch

CEO and Executive Vice President, Koch Industries
"The multibillionaire brothers not only run the nation's largest private energy company, they rival Exxon in funding the front groups that spread disinformation about the dangers of climate change. Over the years, the Kochs and their foundations have lavished millions on climate deniers at the Heritage Foundation, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Cato Institute, which Charles founded in 1977. Cato, in turn, supports the work of Patrick Michaels, a leading climate denier who attempts to discredit the international scientific consensus on global warming while accepting money from coal companies. As author Thomas Frank observes in What's the Matter With Kansas?, "Koch money subsidizes the mass production of bad ideas."

One major recipient of Koch cash is Americans for Prosperity, where David chairs the foundation's board. In addition to fomenting last summer's town-hall brawls over health care reform, AFP sponsored a "Hot Air Tour" on climate change, deploying a manned balloon at 75 events for the purpose of "Exposing the Ballooning Costs of Global Warming Hysteria." At the events, the group's president, Tim Phillips, grossly exaggerated the costs of climate legislation, calling it a trillion-dollar tax on American families.

Last October, at an AFP summit attended by David Koch, the assembled Tea Partiers screened a climate-denial film that accused advocates like Al Gore of wanting to take civilization "back to the Dark Ages and the Black Plague." Such events, Koch proclaimed, "bring to reality the vision" of "fighting for the economic freedoms that made our nation the most prosperous society in history." Last year, seeking to defend its own prosperity against a carbon-capped future, Koch Industries spent more than $8.5 million on lobbying."

Here is a rare intelligent NYT Op-Ed:  "The Brothers Koch and AB32."

A review of the Mayer piece in the New Yorker with fresh analysis and more links, is titled "It's the Real Thing:  The Power of Koch."

Koch-Funded Organizations Launch New Campaign To Protect Big Oil Profits The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party - NY Times "The Koch brothers agenda is morphing into the Republican agenda. "Their program opposes a federal deficit, but has no objection to running up trillions in red ink in tax cuts to corporations and the superrich; apologizes to corporate malefactors like BP and derides money put in escrow for oil spill victims as a slush fund; opposes the extension of unemployment benefits; and calls for a freeze on federal regulations in an era when abuses in the oil, financial, mining, pharmaceutical and even egg industries (among others) have been outrageous." Oil company owned by Tea Party's billionaire brothers gives $1 million to fight California's climate change law, from the San Jose Mercury News. Koch Industries Funds Attack on Science Linking Formaldehyde and Cancer. Voter Beware: Concentrated Corporate Power Is Creating Deceptive Elections. Even more, ruminations by Professor Coyne on the deceptive Koch exhibit about evolution at the Smithsonian. Greenpeace unveils the role of Bill Koch, the other brother, in opposition to Cape Wind clean energy anna's link, and a catalog of Koch Industries millions to fund climate denial front groups and think tanks The "Boycottkochbrothers" blog, with many links and real-time updates Kochtupus uses the money to influence energy policies in Canada Advance news about Rancho Mirage protest and Supreme Court Justices' links to Koch Cato Institute, founded by Koch, is deceptive about source of funding, UK Guardian article boycott Terrific graphic timeline of Koch family from the John Birch Society to Rancho Mirage "Quarantine" action. Visit Wit's End again soon for photos from the action on Sunday, up as soon as I can post them!