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Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
a book by Jane Mayer
(our site's book review)
This is a brave, intelligent, well-documented book that we highly recommend! Why is America living in an age of profound economic inequality? Why, despite the desperate need to address climate change, have even modest environmental efforts been defeated again and again? Why have protections for employees been decimated? Why do hedge-fund billionaires pay a far lower tax rate than middle-class workers? (And this will get much worse under the Trump tax cuts for the rich and for corporations.) Note: “dark money” is money that is untracked or goes into a donors’ black hole, which later is utilized in whatever way the organization sees as useful.
The income gap between rich and poor is obscene
The conventional answer is that a popular uprising against “big government” led to the ascendancy of a broad-based conservative movement. But as Jane Mayer shows in this powerful, meticulously reported history, a network of exceedingly wealthy people with extreme libertarian views bankrolled a systematic, step-by-step plan to fundamentally alter the American political system. Jane Mayer is the author of the acclaimed The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals.
The network has brought together some of the richest people on the planet. Their core beliefs—that taxes are a form of tyranny; that government oversight of business is an assault on freedom—are sincerely held. But these beliefs also advance their personal and corporate interests: Many of their companies have run afoul of federal pollution, worker safety, securities, and tax laws.
Many of these Radical Right-funding companies have run afoul of federal pollution, worker safety, securities, and tax laws—but they have VERY good lawyers
The chief figures in the network are Charles and David Koch, whose father made his fortune in part by building oil refineries in Stalin’s Russia and Hitler’s Germany. The patriarch later was a founding member of the John Birch Society, whose politics were so radical it believed Dwight Eisenhower was a communist. The brothers were schooled in a political philosophy that asserted the only role of government is to provide security and to enforce property rights.
When libertarian ideas proved decidedly unpopular with voters, the Koch brothers and their allies chose another path. If they pooled their vast resources, they could fund an interlocking array of organizations that could work in tandem to influence and ultimately control academic institutions, think tanks, the courts, statehouses, Congress, and, they hoped, the presidency. Richard Mellon Scaife, the mercurial heir to banking and oil fortunes, had the brilliant insight that most of their political activities could be written off as tax-deductible “philanthropy.”
These organizations were given innocuous names such as Americans for Prosperity. Funding sources were hidden whenever possible. This process reached its apotheosis with the allegedly populist Tea Party movement, abetted mightily by the Citizens United decision—a case conceived of by legal advocates funded by the network.
The infamous Court that handed down the infamous Citizens United decision that sealed the deal that the USA is a corporatocracy and an oligarchy
The political operatives the network employs are disciplined, smart, and at times ruthless. Mayer documents instances in which people affiliated with these groups hired private detectives to impugn whistle-blowers, journalists, and even government investigators. And their efforts have been remarkably successful. Libertarian views on taxes and regulation, once far outside the mainstream and still rejected by most Americans, are ascendant in the majority of state governments, the Supreme Court, and Congress. Meaningful environmental, labor, finance, and tax reforms have been stymied. They are succeeding in their quest to destroy the fundamentals of American Democracy in order to control the political system for their own self interest.
Jane Mayer spent five years conducting hundreds of interviews—including with several sources within the network—and scoured public records, private papers, and court proceedings in reporting this book. In a taut and utterly convincing narrative, she traces the byzantine trail of the billions of dollars spent by the network and provides vivid portraits of the colorful figures behind the new American oligarchy. The book also helps us learn a depressing lot about how public relations, lobbying, and essentially "fake foundations" have tremendous influence in our nation. Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right is a book that must be read by anyone who cares about the future of American democracy. See Democracy—an American Delusion.
In a taut and utterly convincing narrative, she traces the byzantine trail of the billions of dollars spent by Radical Right funders and oligarchs; she follows the money
The latest "robber barons" of America are Charles and David Koch. Mayer reports on the damage to the environment the Koch's network of greedy oligarchs is responsible for. It is unprecedented. They've devastated our democracy as well. The Kochs pollute for immense profit. The Keystone XL pipeline runs from a Koch property to a Koch property. These guys pushed conservative ideology into higher educational systems. They claim their fortunes are all the result of hard work, when we all know they inherited the money.
Mayer explains how the ultra-rich abuse the system, and launder their own money through tax-free foundations. Mayer tells us how, in the course of a few decades, a handful of enormously wealthy right-wing "philanthropists" have changed the course of American politics. And using insidious propaganda techniques, "Koch-net" has brainwashed the American public to vote against their own interests. You may need to upchuck once you read what these greedy slimeballs have done to our democracy, our environment, our political system, our country. Bring an air sickness bag!
You may need to upchuck once you read what these greedy slimeballs have done to our democracy and our environment
“Jane Mayer’s Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right . . . is absolutely necessary reading for anyone who wants to make sense of our politics. Lay aside the endless punditry about Donald’s belligerence or Hillary’s ambition; Mayer is telling the epic story of America in our time. It is a triumph of investigative reporting, perhaps not surprising for a journalist who has won most of the awards her profession has to offer.... She’s a pro, and she’s given the world a full accounting of what had been a shadowy and largely unseen force. . . . Remarkable.”—The New York Review of Books
Trump and Hillary are not the real story, nor are they the powers involved—the powers are in the shadows where you'll find Koch, the man behind the curtain
One Amazon reviewer (Davep557) gives a great summary: "This book is a MUST READ for anyone concerned by how our electoral system has become so nasty and bitter over the last couple of decades and especially the last 10 years or so. It details the insidious program that the Koch Brothers and a few other multi-billionaires have been implementing since the 1970's, in an attempt to eliminate all taxes and regulations that inhibit their unfettered greed and selfishness."
Another Amazon reviewer (myogi) said "Anyone who is still calling themselves a Republican needs to understand that the Republican Party is simply an arm of the Koch donor network. As the honorable Bernie Sanders said, there is no 'Trump voters versus us'; it is simply 'all of us versus the top .01 percent billionaire class.'" Well said! We need to become active at the grassroots (and stop believing that we can VOTE our way out of this tragedy!) and work toward an America by the people and for the people; right now the 1% are having a party at Middle Class' expense.
We need to become active at the grassroots and work toward an America by the people and for the people—right now the 1% are having a party at Middle Class' expense
Another Amazon reviewer (Crispus Otterman) said "If you've ever wondered how things in this country got so bad, this book lays it out for you. In terms of greed and evil, the billionaires detailed in this book make Trump look like a passing fart in the wind."
In terms of greed and evil, the billionaires detailed in this book make Trump look like a passing fart in the wind
Mayer is just what we need these days, a meticulous unwavering and unbiased warrior-reporter brave enough to risk her life on the front lines
The lapdogs reporting by simply disseminating administration memo info might as well be parrots, since all they do is parrot administration propaganda
Mayer is just what we need these days, a meticulous unwavering and unbiased warrior-reporter brave enough to risk life on the front lines. There are very few true investigative reporters. The mainstream media is supposed to be watchdogs, but, instead, are content to be lapdogs reporting by simply disseminating administration info sheets, memos, and press releases. Needless to say, much of this material is lies or truthiness or propaganda. See Freedom of the Press—an American Delusion.
The mainstream media is supposed to be watchdogs . . .
But, in truth, what they have degenerated into is lapdogs
The rightwing extremist libertarian Koch network wants to:
- Destroy EPA so they could pollute at will, maximize profit.
- Discredit science, especially climate change science
- Destroy financial regulation so wall street can profit at maximum speed
- Reduce or zero taxes to the rich
- Destroy all social safety net to save money and ensure tax cut can happen
- Privatize education
- Privatize all entitlement programs (social security, medicaid, medicare)
- Only allow sponsored media, destroy free press
A great—and greatly frustrating—issue is the climate change issue. Discussions about it are crippled by interference from think tanks and PACs and corporatocracy greed and misinformation from phony "experts" and Big Oil and political sell-outs. These entities create polarization everywhere so that solutions will always be impossible and corporatocracy profits will never falter. Let's look at the think tank that champions climate science denial: AEI.
Big Oil muddles and bamboozles the climate change issue, feeding fake news and misinformation to the media and talk shows
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) is an influential right-wing think tank that advocates for lower taxes, fewer protections for consumers and the environment, and cuts to the social safety net. AEI is the dominant conservative think tank—it's a breeding ground for neocons that are happy to have OTHER PEOPLE dying for their empire building wet dreams. AEI was noted for providing the George W. Bush administration with the neocon-minded hawkish officials and advisers who promoted the administration’s phony "war on terror" policies, including John Bolton, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and John Yoo. It is deeply connected to the infamous Koch brothers, to American empire building ideas, the tobacco industry's misinformation war, the climate change deniers and it actively promotes ugly Middle Eastern military entanglements for both the US and its allies. (Source: American Enterprise Institute)
Soldiers are not people to the neocon hawks—they are nothing but cannon fodder
Note that these folks are anti-truth and anti-people, folks who dislike democracy because it keeps trying to make them responsible for their actions. The tobacco industry's misinformation war hurts, sickens, and kills our citizens. The American empire building ideas kill or maim thousands of our soldiers and countless citizens of other countries.
AEI pushes for lower taxes for the wealthy that plunge the U.S. deeper into debt and cuts to the social safety net that would push millions of middle class citizens into the lower class and millions of our poorer citizens onto the streets—destitute and needing to rely on crime or begging just to survive. But none of these things matter to AEI members, since they are safe in the upper class. They have no idea what compassion is—they do not relate to others' pain—only to their own profits and wealth. AEI is the voice of the Corporatocracy. It cares only about more profits for Big Armaments, Big Tobacco, Big Oil, and Big Empire (wherein attacking other countries lets the U.S. corporatocracy get more control of oil, minerals, and illegal drugs). If you want to see AEI's playbook, see Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power.
And since AEI has demonstrated consistantly that it values corporatocracy profits over human welfare, it kind of makes solving the climate change problem a nonstarter. Huge boycotts and shaming campaigns toward Republican sell-outs and rightwing think tanks like AEI are possible strategies that could be viable if, and only if, said campaigns would start seriously impacting corporatocracy bottom lines and impacting political campaigns of G.O.P. candidates who were known to be deniers who were choosing profits over human welfare.
When greed is the only real value of the movers and shakers, how does one get them interested in anything but their own money bins, world be damned?
The 2010 Citizens United decision freed what Bernie Sanders calls “the billionaire class” to dominate federal elections to a greater extent than was feasible even under the Robber Barons in the closing years of the nineteenth century. What these greedy oligarchs want is clearly nothing less than the “freedom” to pollute, exploit their employees, avoid taxes, dictate the terms of political debate, and pass their vast wealth on to their children and grandchildren in dynastic fashion. The Koch brothers and the De Vos family businesses have paid tens of millions of dollars in fines for violation of environmental laws, worker health and safety regulations, and tax laws, causing far more harm to society than even the worst violent offender. In a just society, many of these people would have gone to prison long ago. But we are in an oligarchy run by oligarchs for oligarchs. Again, see Chomsky's brilliant bestseller Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power and you'll see just how morals challenged people like the Koch brothers have locked in their wealth and power beyond anyone's ability to unlock.
At least the rich will leave us a few scraps once they're done eating
Chomsky brilliantly explains who is dragging America down in his Requiem for the American Dream book, which shows why we have no class mobility
But let's get back to class mobility. In the class mobility ladder picture above, you can see that the rich have rigged the game. There are 10 main ways they control wealth and power to ensure the elite oligarchs and neocons get it all and the little guy gets screwed.
If the people had any real power, they'd stop the rich from screwing the poor and middle class, so the rich would become less rich, which they would hate, so the rich ensure the nonrich are powerless
With the game rigged against class mobility and the progressives ruining everything, we are so far beyond screwed we couldn't catch a bus back to screwed
IF WE DO NOT organize and just keep on truckin' with business as usual, here is what we can expect: There is an old saying that life's a poop sandwich except that they don't actually furnish any bread. But we heard a new version of it on The Middle (© ABC) the other day: In the immortal words of Mike Heck, We're all born with a crap sandwich. Some people get a big one. Others get a small one. You eat your way through it and then you're dead.
It's not just that "Every promise made by the proponents of neoliberalism is a lie." The very idea that we expect Big Daddies to furnish us anything is flawed. It was obvious from the start that they—in spite of rosy rhetoric to the contrary—are only interested in what they can take from us. This progressive "getting" idea needs re-examination in the cold light of realism. Mike Heck expects he'll at least get bread with his crap. But after reading Chomsky's incredibly insightful book, we can clearly see now what we can expect from the "they" who we think are looking out for us. Oh, we'll get the crap sandwich all right, but there simply won't be any bread. Heck was too optimistic.
We can clearly see what we can expect from the "they" who we think are looking out for us. Oh, we'll get the crap sandwich all right, but there simply won't be any bread, however, there will be crap painted to look like bread, cheese and pickles
Like his sons Charles and David after him, Fred Koch was an MIT-trained engineer and a leader of the John Birch Society from its founding in 1958 until his death in 1967. But, in fact, Charles Koch followed his father's footsteps into the John Birch Society. He developed advanced techniques to refine crude oil. Forced by the major players in the oil industry to operate outside the country, he built a thriving business overseas building oil refineries. Among the longest-standing and most lucrative business partnerships he undertook were with Stalin's and Hitler’s governments. One who investigated Koch’s work for Nazi Germany concluded that the American venture became a key component of the Nazi war machine.
Birchers (like Fred and Charles Koch) saw communists under every rock from 1958 to the present except that for Charles, government authority soon replaced commies as the enemy
The Koch brothers, who got their greedy, exploitative values from dear old dad, poured almost $25 million into dozens of different organizations fighting climate reform and they are responsible, via huge propaganda campaigns, for tens of millions of people—who used to believe in climate science—changing their minds and doubting it. Kochs are racists but every time someone catches their racism, they donate millions to the United Negro College Fund or a similar organization. Charles’ overall aim was to tear the government out “at the root,” like it was a weed. This hatred of government was an extension of his childhood conflicts with authority and with dear old dad, some say.
What's the idea of noticing me? The Kochtopus is a sneaky covert superpowered network not to be examined in the light of day—we do NOT want citizens to see what's really going on! Got it?!!
Reading the papers from 40 years ago, it’s not hard to recognize the Koch political movement we see today—a vast and complex network of donors, think tanks and academic programs largely cloaked in secrecy and presented as philanthropy, leaving almost no money trail that the public can trace. Kochs have built a political machine that in size, scope, sophistication, and fundraising prowess rivals the Republican Party itself. Some Koch-loving libertarians have called this sprawling political network, a many-tentacled apparatus that has only grown in breadth, scope, and complexity since 1970, the “Kochtopus.” Are David and Charles Koch crooks? Yes, according to their other two brothers, Frederick and Bill (according to The Washington Post).
This poster represents how half the country feels about the Trump agenda and its destructive regressive backsliding
The John Bircher Society has always longed for a dismantled safety net, a federal government that is 40% of its current size, and a free-for-all, laissez faire economy where the rich pay no taxes, business has no regulation and the workers have no unions. And Trump is well on his way to representing such ultra-libertarian views. The implementing is a hard sell, though:
Trump: Let's see, I need to dump 50 years of progress just so a few rich S.O.B.s like me and Koch get a little bit richer and the 'little guy' I swore I'd help can just go sit in the corner and pound sand up his ass, right? Okay—let's get to it!
Trump: Let's see, I need to dump 50 years of progress just so a few rich S.O.B.s like me and Koch get a little bit richer and the 'little guy' I swore I'd help can just go sit in the corner and pound sand up his ass, right? Okay—let's get to it!
As a candidate, he hadn't realized that a successful presidency means good leadership skills and getting people on his side. He came into office hoping that deal-making skills, business skills, marketing skills, and self-marketing skills—all of which he had a lot of—would suffice. He's been in office since January and no major legislation has been passed. Apparently, one cannot Trump the Congress, half of whom hate everything he stands for and the other half are at least skeptical of his presidential abilities.
As far as we can see, the best thing the Kochs ever did is put out an ad against the Vietnam War in 1968. (Source: The Secrets of Charles Koch’s Political Ascent, Jane Mayer, Politico, and The Making of the Kochtopus, Daniel Schulman, Mother Jones)
One Koch Network to rule them all,
One Koch Network to find them,
One Koch Network to bring them all,
and in the darkness bind them,
In the Land of Ultra-Libertarianism where the Shadows lie.