Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events

On Jan. 25, 2018, dozens of private jets descended on Palm Springs International Airport. Some of the richest people in the country were arriving for the annual winter donor summit of the Koch network, the political organization founded by libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch. A long weekend of strategizing, relaxation in the California sun and high-dollar fundraising lay ahead.

Just after 6 p.m., a Gulfstream G200 jet touched down on the tarmac. One of the Koch network’s most powerful allies was on board: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Revelations of Clarence Thomas’s Koch links stoke supreme court reform calls

A report detailing how Clarence Thomas secretly participated in donor events staged by the hard-right Koch network drew more fierce protests and outrage over the conservative supreme court justice’s proliferating ethics scandals.

Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee who has advanced ethics reform amid reports about Thomas and other justices, said: “Oh, my.

Where are Charlie and Dave, Mrs. Koch’s two mischievous boys?While the Koch brothers have stayed out of the national limelight since the White House was acquired by Trump and Company, that doesn’t mean the two right-wing billionaire brats are any less active in trying to supplant American democracy with their little laissez-fairyland plutocracy. In fact, in late June, you could’ve found them in one of their favorite hideaways with about 400 other uber-wealthy rascals, plotting some political hijinks for next year’s elections.

Trump Team, ALEC, Koch Industries Debate Gerrymandering the US Senate in Denver

Now that GOP state legislators have control over 32 state legislatures (both chambers), thanks in large part to partisan gerrymandering, some extremists are preparing to use their clout to gerrymander the US Senate.

This week in Denver, July 19-21, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) will welcome Republican state legislators and its corporate funders, including Koch Industries, ExxonMobil, K12 Inc., Peabody Energy, and PhRMA, to vote on corporate legislative priorities and create cookie cutter "model" bills in task force meetings that are still closed to the press.

Is a Billionaire-Funded Coup to Rewrite the Constitution upon Us?

All eyes are fixed on Capitol Hill as Republicans attempt to pass an American Health Care Bill that's still being revised as of this writing. The recklessness of the party's leadership can't be overstated—14 million Americans' insurance and countless essential health benefits hang in the balance—and yet a meeting scheduled next week in the Wisconsin legislature may possess even more terrifying ramifications for the future of the country.

Sanders: Tea Party Was Funded By Kochs; Progressive ‘Uprising’ Driven By Passion

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) bridled at a suggestion that people protesting against the Trump administration are similar to tea party demonstrators.

“It’s not a tea party because the tea party was essentially funded by the billionaire Koch brothers,” Sanders said during an interview Sunday on “Meet the Press.” “This is a spontaneous and grass-roots uprising of the American people.”

Investigation Reveals the Extent the Koch Empire Is Willing to Go to Take Over a University

In 2011, the public found out that the Florida State University Economics Department had signed a deal in 2008 with the Charles Koch Foundation, which would supply the department with $1.5 million over several years in exchange for control over hiring decisions and curriculum development. After public and faculty outcry over undue donor influence, the department renegotiated the deal, signing a new one in 2013. The foundation of billionaire fossil-fuel industrialist Charles Koch, a controversial Republican mega-donor, continues to fund various programs at FSU.

The Kochs' Political Empire Is Sweating Bullets That GOP Failure to Fix the Economy Could Cause a Progressive Uprising

Republicans are under serious pressure to deliver results now that they hold the White House as well as both houses of Congress.

In a BuzzFeed report about Charles and David Koch working to hold Republican lawmakers accountable, it was revealed that the right has suddenly become the dog that caught the car. Over the weekend, the brothers brought together a conference of 550 donors who give more than $100,000 each year to the Kochs’ fundraising network.

The Most Dangerous Bill You've Never Heard of Just Passed the House

Article reprinted with permission from EcoWatch

Last, week, under the cover of a media bliss-out except among Koch funded right-wing channels, the House of Representatives passed a bill which would effectively repeal future standard setting under every important environmental, public health, consumer protection, labor standards, occupational safety and civil rights law on the books.

Koch Astroturf Army Cheers Union Busting in Kentucky

On the first day that the Kentucky legislature got underway with a newly elected Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican governor, the Koch brothers' Americans for Prosperity group blew the whistle and legislators jumped to do their bidding.

This week, the Speaker of the House Jeff Hoover rammed through the legislature three bills to break the back of unions and lower wages for highly-skilled construction workers.

Koch brothers protégé and Founding Father wannabe Gov. Greg Abbott wants to amend your Constitution 9 ways

When you think of America’s great constitutional originators, names like Madison, Adams, Jefferson, Washington, Hamilton and Franklin come to mind — and, of course, Abbott.

This past January, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the multimillionaire protégé of the Koch brothers’ plutocratic kingdom and American Legislative Exchange Council darling, revealed to a startled nation that he has penned not one but nine new amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

UnKoch My Campus: Opposing Billionaires' Efforts to Infiltrate Higher Education

The names are simple and sound innocuous: The Institute for Humane Studies; The Center for the Study of Economic Liberty; The Institute for the Study of Capitalism; The Center for the Study of Free Enterprise. But make no mistake: These and other Koch brothers' projects are well-funded attempts to steer the hearts and minds of US students in a decidedly libertarian, anti-tax and anti-regulatory, direction.

Koch donors gather for weekend retreat

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Billionaire industrialist and conservative benefactor Charles Koch's expansive political network will not help Donald Trump win the presidency.

That's the message from one of the Koch network's chief lieutenants as hundreds of the nation's most powerful Republican donors gathered for a weekend retreat on Saturday. With Election Day just three months away, Koch lamented the state of the 2016 contest during a welcome reception inside a luxury hotel at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.

Koch's team to meet Trump's camp, but industrialist remains skeptical

WICHITA, Kan. — Top officials within Charles Koch’s powerful policy network plan to meet with aides to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, the industrialist told USA TODAY on Wednesday.

The meeting comes at the request of the Trump team, Koch said. No date has been set for the gathering, which has not been publicly disclosed before.

The Kochs are brainwashing us: Inside the billionaire industrialists’ chilling economics curriculum

Charles Koch is known for being CEO of industrial giant Koch Industries and a chief financier of the massive conservative political operation he runs with his brother David. In recent years, student activists and investigative journalists have exposed another of Koch’s hats: mega-donor to hundreds of colleges and universities, often funding free-market-focused academic centers housed at public and private schools alike. One Koch-funded program is advocating cutthroat economics to grade school students, even sacrificing lives for profits.

How Koch Industries is scamming America: Investigation highlights a global web of tax avoidance

The Koch Brothers want to pull back on national politics, according to the National Review, because their business and public relations wings have grown weary of the spotlight. “Concerned about the damage being done to their corporate brand [and] increasingly bothered by their public vilification,” the Kochs have decided to rethink their approach to politics. They operated at their best in the shadows – working on ideas in think tanks, in universities, at the state and local level. Being the poster child for corporate-tinged conservative activism risked discrediting their entire project.

The powerless brokers: Trump’s got the Koch Brothers running away from the general election and leaving their billions at home

Over the past few years, the wealthiest and most famous political activists in the world have been a couple of multi-billionaires by the name of Charles and David Koch, who most people just refer to as a single entity — “the Koch brothers.”  Their names became a household word as they poured hundreds of millions into initiatives all over the country and helped finance the Tea Party takeover of the GOP. They were the most important Republicans in America.

Florida Will Vote This Year On Measure That Would Block Solar Leasing In The State

Score one for the Koch brothers.

A measure that opponents say is intentionally confusing and will stifle solar growth was given the go-ahead by the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday. It will appear on the Florida ballot in November.

Environmental and solar advocates challenged the measure, titled, “Rights of Electricity Consumers Regarding Solar Energy Choice,” saying that it does not reflect any choice and does not create new rights. Sponsored by utility companies and other groups tied to the Koch brothers, the measure will prevent people from selling their electricity to third parties. This would effectively prevent solar leasing in the state, because under that system, an owner — usually a solar company — installs panels at a home and then sells the generated electricity back to the homeowner.

Koch Brothers Attempt to Kill Single-Payer Health Care in Colorado

Colorado's efforts to become the first state to pass a public, universal health care system are facing stiff opposition from right-wing organizations, many of which are funded by or affiliated with brothers Charles and David Koch.

As expected, these moneyed interests are doing everything they can to stop the state from amending its constitution with a ballot referendum, Amendment 69, which would implement a statewide version of "single-payer" health care. If approved, ColoradoCare would cover every resident, regardless of employment or ability to pay. In October, organizers submitted enough signatures to put the amendment on the ballot. The vote will take place on Election Day this year.

Koch as Koch can

As parts of the Republican Party establishment roil over the realization that Donald Trump might be the party's nominee for president, one big question that's arisen is what will Charles and David Koch do about it, if anything?

The billionaire Koch brothers, the ninth richest people in the world, each worth more than (US) $42-billion, are famous for pouring their vast fortune into influencing the American electoral system to further their corporate and conservative goals. They have pledged to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to get a Republican elected to the White House this year.