koch family

The Koch family (Charles, David, Koch Industries, "The Kochtopus")

The billionaire Koch brothers (Charles and David) own Koch Industries, the second-largest private company in the U.S. They (and their father Fred before them) have been involved with rightwing politics for decades and have been involved in funding or controlling a wide variety of libertarian-oriented groups. The network of groups and people funded by or controlled by the Kochs is referred to as "The Kochtpus".

There are at least two main reasons to strongly oppose most everything connected to the Kochs:

1. Their support for "free trade" agreements; for instance, they were one of the major forces behind passing NAFTA (see this).

2. Groups in the Kochtopus advocate for loose and even open borders; see Reason Magazine, Cato Institute, Institute for Humane Studies, and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

Other Kochtopus groups (such as Americans for Prosperity and Heartland Institute) are involved in promoting or organizing tea parties. Thus, the self-styled patriots in the Teaparty movement are led in part by a network that advocates for loose borders.

Leftwing opponents of the Kochs would be very wise to point out to the teapartiers that they're being led around by loose borders advocates, but that's difficult for those opponents since the Koch immigration policy tends to help the leftwing and the Democratic Party.

Leftwing opponents should also point out to the teapartiers that David Koch joined with George Soros to give the Mexican government linked ACLU millions of dollars. That too is difficult for those opponents; why point out yet another way in which the Kochs help the leftwing?

Last modified Jun 28, 2011
Discussed in (click each link for the full post):

"The Kronies": slick libertarian propaganda linked to Koch, and who doesn't reveal that - 01/24/14

[SEE 6/17/14 UPDATE BELOW] "The Kronies" is a series of slick, live action videos that promote a libertarian message. The effort comes complete with not only its own site, but a fake site for the "company" behind the figures, a "Chimera Global Holdings Inc.".

No, AllahPundit, worries about the Koch brothers aren't just for liberals - 09/19/13

The Koch brothers continue their crusade against Obamacare with a new pair of ads funded by one of their front groups (watch the ads here: imref.com/XnuQh ). At HotAir, AllahPundit discusses the ads and says ( peekURL.com/zWvnqa7 ):

Pro-amnety LIBRE Initiative got $3 million from Koch-led Freedom Partners - 09/12/13

The LIBRE Initiative is a group that runs putatively free market, pro-GOP outreach campaigns to Hispanics [1]. They're also in favor of comprehensive immigration reform, aka amnesty.

Paul Farhi, shocked to see the Koch brothers defend themselves, helps the Kochs (WaPo, Koch Facts) - 07/15/13

Paul Farhi of the Washington Post offers "Billionaire Koch brothers use Web to take on media reports they dispute" (link), an example of why dislike of the MSM never goes out of style.

The hilarious, delusional way to keep Koch from buying the L.A. Times, by Steve Pearlstein - 04/26/13

Steve Pearlstein of the Washington Post offers "How the L.A. Times can stop the Kochs" (link). This is his advice for how Los Angeles Times staffers can prevent their paper from being bought by the Koch brothers. It had me rolling on the floor, laughing:

Freedom in the 50 States: freedom has a big cost (Koch, Mercatus Center, GMU) - 03/28/13

The Koch family-funded Mercatus Center at George Mason University has released their "Freedom in the 50 States" report [1]. According to them, the freest state is North Dakota, followed by South Dakota, Tennessee, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma. Meanwhile, the least free state is New York, followed by California, New Jersey, Hawaii, and Rhode Island.

Ludicrous: Sen. Ron Johnson launches "Victims of Government" (regulations, Koch) - 03/26/13

Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has launched a ludicrous anti-regulations effort called "Victims of Government". The first video in the series is below, with many more promised.

2010 donors to Marco Rubio: Club for Growth, Koch brothers, finance, Goldman Sachs... - 02/24/13

For a possible clue to why Marco Rubio does what he does, these were the top 10 donors to his 2010 senatorial campaign (link):

Proof Tea Party is astroturf: Koch group tried to start Teaparties in 2002 - 02/12/13

If you trust their defenders, the Tea Parties were a spontaneously formed grassroots group initiated by Rick Santelli's 2009 rant or a slightly earlier anti-tax rally organized by Keli Carender. Those same defenders will deny that the Koch family has anything to do with the Teaparties.

Americans for Prosperity suppresses Teaparty discussing immigration, Agenda 21 - 10/14/12

For years, I've been discussing how the supposed-patriots in the Tea Parties have largely ignored immigration in favor of much less important issues. A major part of that is because they're led by those who support loose immigration, such as Grover Norquist, Dick Armey, and the Koch brothers.

Occupy DC helps the Koch brothers, shows what democracy actually looks like: a mob - 11/06/11

The Washington DC branch of Occupy Wall Street appears to be the dimmest and least emotionally-controlled of their various chapters. And, that's really saying something. For examples, see the videos below. In the first, they block a woman in a wheelchair from leaving a building. In the second, they use little kids as human shields.

Chris Christie backers: David Koch, Kenneth Langone (Home Depot), Charles Schwab, hedge fund managers,... - 09/27/11

The "Draft Christie committee" is a group of very wealthy backers who want Chris Christie to run for president.

Charles Koch Foundation deletes comment about David Koch donating to ACLU - 06/29/11

The Charles Koch Foundation (see Koch family) deleted a comment I left on their Youtube video in which I pointed out that David Koch joined with George Soros and gave the American Civil Liberties Union $10 million.

Rick Perry, Bob McDonnell speak at Koch brothers Vail summit (loose borders advocates) (Chris Christie too) - 06/27/11

The billionaire Koch family are holding a secret four-day summit in Vail, Colorado and two of those jetting in to speak are Texas governor Rick Perry and Virginia governor

Get Equal, Rachel Lang unclear on fundamental American concepts (Bachmann, Kochs, glitter, Robert Erickson, Minneapolis) - 06/19/11

The video below shows attorney Rachel Lang of the LGBT group GetEqual dumping glitter on Michelle Bachmann after her speech at the RightOnline conference in Minneapolis. Another video (from Erickson, see #2 below) is at peekURL.com/v8U7dHP and their press release is at [1]. Some points:

Delusional John Hinderaker thinks only left engages in "personal intimidation" - 05/12/11

John Hinderaker of Powerline offers "The Politics of Personal Intimidation" [1] in which he's yet again delusional: A disturbing new element has crept into our political life: organized efforts to intimidate private citizens who choose to support certain political causes or otherwise participate in civic affairs... [examples of leftists swarming houses of their opponents and much more deleted] ...Conservatives are decent people and don't engage in such repugnant tactics. The last sentence of the excerpt [2] would only make sense if Hinderaker had never heard of the tea parties. Since he's...

Tea Party used to push corporate agenda (Institute for Liberty, Monsanto, Asian paper company) - 03/31/11

If you've been following our extensive tea parties coverage, you'll know where this is going (and if you're a teapartier, you'll have no clue): Last fall, [Institute for Liberty's] president, Andrew Langer, had himself videotaped [ peekURL.com/vM87wLC ] on Long Wharf in Boston holding a copy of the Declaration of Independence as he compared Washington’s proposed tariff on paper from Indonesia and China to Britain's colonial trade policies in 1776. That's from "Odd Alliance: Business Lobby and Tea Party" by Mike McIntyre of the New York Times (link) about how the Institute for Liberty and...

Koch Industries' sockpuppets edited Wikipedia and post comments on blogs too - 03/09/11

Public relations firms employed by the billionaire Koch family have been caught using "sockpuppets" to edit Wikipedia pages about the Kochs. And, one of those firms admits that they use people to promote the Kochs on blogs and news sites. Unfortunately, ThinkProgress [1] doesn't discuss what the latter consists of, but I would not be surprised at all to discover that the vile and idiotic replies I receive to my anti-tea parties comments around the web (a recent example here) are coming from sockpuppets for Koch, FreedomWorks, and similar groups. From [1]: Last year, Koch Industries began...

John Hinderaker presents: "David Koch, Friend to Mankind" (formaldehyde, ineffectiveness) - 03/05/11

'Hi! My name is John Hinderaker from Powerline. You might remember me from such filmstrips as "Asbestos: America's Ever-Vigilant Fireman" and "Ladybugs: America's Least-Recognized Pest". Well, today I'm here to present "A Philanthropist Advances the Cause of Science, the New York Times Doesn't" (link) about David Koch of the Koch family. But, first I want to tell you about a wonderful substance called formaldehyde...' But, seriously: 1. At the link, John Hinderaker says, "David Koch is one of the world's great philanthropists". That's almost as funny as Hinderaker's 2005 Bush quote [1]. While...

Joshua Holland of Alternet doesn't understand fundamental American concepts regarding speech - 02/27/11

Joshua Holland of Alternet has previously shown that he doesn't care about illegal aliens taking stimulus jobs and has misled about Napolitano's border comments. Now he's shown that he doesn't support free speech.

David Koch gave far-left, Mex. gov't collaborators ACLU $10 million - 02/25/11

Billionaire David Koch (see Koch family) joined with George Soros, the Ford Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation to each give the American Civil Liberties Union $10 million to fight the PATRIOT Act [1]. Reasonable people can disagree on the PATRIOT Act, but fighting it or trying to reform it was probably the correct thing to do. Whatever the merits of opposing the PATRIOT Act, giving money to the ACLU is never the correct thing to do. The ACLU is a far-left group that strongly supports and enables illegal immigration and that's even collaborating with the Mexican government in...

What Koch defenders aren't telling you (Reddit, Reason, Glenn Reynolds, Powerline, Weigel) - 02/24/11

It used to be that only a small number of people had heard about the billionaire Koch family and the "Kochtopus" (those persons and groups funded by or otherwise linked to them). Now, because of the standoff between Wisconsin governor Scott Walker and public employee unions in that state, that's all changed and the Kochs are fast assuming the role that George W Bush played for the Left (and George Soros plays for the right). Sure as night follows day, various sources are rushing to defend the Kochs. But, oddly enough, all those defenses fail to point out two key items on the Koch's agenda: 1...

Yet another example of Teaparty being useful idiots for the Koch brothers? (Madison union protests) - 02/19/11

Are the tea parties useful idiots for an attempt by the billionaire Koch family to fight unionization in order to increase their profits? The latest example of the Koch family pushing an agenda that helps their bottom line and getting help from the teapartiers in that endeavor comes from the protests between public sector unions and Republican governor Scott Walker in Madison, Wisconsin. I haven't been closely following the issue, but at the very least it's clear that the Kochs are attempting to take advantage of the issue to push their agenda. And, pushing that agenda would help the bottom...

Koch family, U.S. Chamber, businesses met to plan strategy (+Glenn Beck, tea parties, "mobilize citizens for November") - 10/20/10

Twice each year, the Koch family conducts strategy meetings with corporate and thought leaders to plan how to advance their "free market" ideology. ThinkProgress has the guest list and program for their June 2010 meeting (in Aspen), and, while immigration isn't mentioned, many of the known attendees are on the wrong side. I don't normally recommend anything at ThinkProgress, but in this case I'll suggest taking a look at their post and downloading the PDF. The New York Times has a related report here; from that: The participants in Aspen dined under the stars at the top of the gondola run on...

Koch Industries didn't pay any corporate income tax? ("moochers") - 09/20/10

The Koch family - owners of the private multi-billion dollar diversified energy company Koch Industries - are the money behind much of the right-wing movement, such as libertarians and tea parties. And, they might not have paid any corporate income tax. Bear in mind however: that claim is unverified and second-hand; it might not be true. Per this, Koch Industries' general counsel Mark Holden heard that an August 27 meeting between "a senior Obama administration official" and reporters had the official saying this: So in this country we have partnerships, we have S corps, we have LLCs, we have...

Koch family distances from Tea Parties; says dogmatism isn't working ("Kochtopus") - 06/17/10

May 10 saw the appearance of the article "The Left’s Billion Dollar Tea Party Lie", an attempt by the billionaire Koch family to back away from the tea parties. The "Kochtopus" - those people and organizations funded by or linked to the Koch family - has been the main driving force behind organizing and promoting the tea parties.

Freedom Vigil: Beltway libertarians to restore U.S. liberty one glowstick at a time - 03/26/10

The latest hilariously stupid tea parties-style cheap stunt is a "Freedom Vigil" to be held in Washington DC tomorrow night. "Thousands" - make that more like a few dozen - will gather for a silent walk during which they'll raise glowsticks in the air in order to show their support for liberty (at least according to their definition). And, no, I'm not making that up.

Dave Weigel not fully honest about tea party, Kochtopus link ("Top Ten Conservatives of 2009") - 12/31/09

Dave Weigel of the Washington Independent offers "The Best and the Rightest/ The Top Ten Conservatives of 2009" (link).

9/12: Tea Party march on Washington DC live coverage (Glenn Beck, Freedomworks) - 09/12/09

Later today, one or two million (maybe less) extreme fiscal conservatives will be marching on Washington DC demanding that the government listens to them and their Randroid concerns. And, we'll be there - virtually speaking - offering coverage of this momentous event featuring millions of people throughout the day. Literally thousands of busloads of true patriots - as opposed to the other, non-patriotic Americans - will be bussed in (at their own expense) by FreedomWorks (run by the corporate lobbyist Dick Armey). Hopefully many will be wearing period costumes and playing fifes, since we know...

Tea partiers reach final stage, get their own blimp (Americans for Prosperity balloon) - 08/19/09

Aside from conducting parades dressed in Colonial garb, one of the cheap stunts that glassy-eyed Ron Paul fans pulled was flying their own blimp. Hey, it beats trying to make an argument. Starting earlier this year, the tea parties-promoting "grassroots" group Americans for Prosperity (linked to the Koch family [1], which is in the energy business) skipped the dress-up game stage and went straight for the gold: they've been conducting their own "2009 Nationwide Hot Air Tour" featuring a "70-foot-tall hot air balloon" (hotairtour.org, [2]): "This cap-and-trade scheme is nothing more than a tax...

Instapundit chats with tea party "facilitator" from Koch-linked group - 04/08/09

Over to Glenn Reynolds (pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/75986) for the latest on the "grassroots" tea parties: PJTV: I talk with PubliusPundit - and Tucson Tea Party organizer - Robert Mayer, and with Tea Party facilitators Matt Kibbe of Freedomworks and Chris Bond of Americans for Prosperity about tea parties and where they should go next. Click their name's link for more on the AFP; at least as of November of last year the chairman of their foundation's board was David Koch of the Koch family and they'd received money from that foundation; do a search for Kochtopus if you aren't familiar with...

"Tea Parties": an astroturfed Koch family movement (FreedomWorks, Instapundit, Rick Santelli) - 02/28/09

[SEE UPDATE 2 BELOW] Now I know why Rick Santelli disgusts me: the "Tea Party" stimulus protests may be an astroturfed project of the wealthy Koch Family (called "the Kochtopus", see this).