George Soros vs. The Koch Brothers
According to the Right, every liberal organization is funded and directed by George Soros. And liberals think conservatives are nothing more than the Koch Brothers’ useful idiots.
In case it’s actually true that every political battle in America is just a proxy war between the Koch Brothers and George Soros: This chart gives a brief comparison between George Soros and the Koch Brothers.
Just a few highlights:
When George Soros was fourteen, his family was forced to flee their native Hungary when the Nazis invaded. The family had already changed their name from Schwartz to Soros, but it still wasn’t safe to be there.
Charles and David Koch were born into one of the wealthiest families in the Universe. When they were eighteen and twenty-three, respectively, their father — Fred Koch — co-founded the John Birch Society in order to purify America and protect her from such Communist filth as Dwight Eisenhower and Harry Truman.
When George Soros was seventeen, he moved to London. He worked as a waiter and a porter to pay for his college education. At twenty-six, he moved to New York and became a financial analyst on Wall Street. He started his own investment fund when he was thirty.
In 1967 the Koch Brothers inherited $300 million from their father. Some of their inheritance went toward creating a fake “environmental” organization — Citizens for the Environment — whose sole purpose was to convince everyone that acid rain was a myth. They’ve also donated $48 million to various “climate change is a myth” organizations. In 2004 they founded Americans For Prosperity and FreedomWorks which, as you know, begat the teabaggers.
In 1979, George Soros set up scholarships for black students in South Africa. During the 1980s he donated hundreds of millions of dollars to help peaceful democracy movements in Eastern Europe. In 1992 he donated $50 million to help protect civilians who were caught up in the Bosnian war. In 1996 he donated another $50 million to fight poverty in Africa.
Well, there you have it, just a few contrasts between George Soros and the Koch Brothers. Hope you’ll keep that chart as a reference.
So, in the event that we really are just a bunch of drones being manipulated by either the Koch Brothers or George Soros — whose “useful idiot” would YOU rather be?
Labels: Americans For Prosperity, Citizens for the Environment, Fred Koch, FreedomWorks, Geoerge Soros, George Soros scholarships, John Birch Society, Koch Brothers
posted by Tom Harper @ 2:10 PM
17 Comments:
I did post a few years back with side by side quotes from Martin Luther King and Rush Limbaugh. The contrast was striking to say the least...one of compassion...the other of hate.
The Koch/Soros comparison falls into that same pattern, equally striking...compassion vs hate.
Good post, Tom!
But but the Kochsuckers have said, it's better to use their private money so things will be done more efficiently then the gubbmint can do. Something like that after Buffett did his op-ed, one or the other of the bros said this.
I loved the comparison - old money is raised to feel entitled. New money still remembers the struggle and sometimes luck involved. A lack of compassion is what has always been missing in the GOP - nice point and post!
SOME new money remembers. There are others (like the President, Michele Bachmann, and Paul Ryan, to name just a few) that become every bit as elitist, disconnected, and entitled as the worst of the old guard.
Excellent piece there. It really points up what selfish, overhearing-bully bastards the Kochs are. That, in contrast to what an exceptionally unselfish man Soros is, and how he's given and done so much to improve things for all mankind.
Love it..great info and thank you dear man for posting this. ;-)
It's like the difference between governing styles of Hitler and FDR in some respects.
jadedj: Thanks. Rush Limbaugh and the Koch Brothers are definitely birds of a feather.
Jess: LOL, I remember that news item. The Koch Brothers' billion-dollar astroturf groups are doing more for America than all that socialist gummint spending.
vj: Thanks. "Compassion" and "GOP" is definitely an oxymoron.
JR: True, there are exceptions, like the 3 you pointed out.
SW: Yup, that chart really highlights the glaring contrast between George Soros and the Koch Brothers, and the completely opposite things each camp stands for.
Dusty: LOL, they're the Hitler and FDR of this era.
The conservative mindset nearly always seems to be that one must "earn" everything. Seems they would be admiring somebody like Soros, and looking down on people like the Kochs. Therefore, wouldn't they want someone like Soros, who actually did have to pull himself up by the bootstraps, leading them? Instead, a couple of their big drivers and sugar daddies are guys who never probably had to do much work at all in their lives.
Sounds like another Republican disconnect to me. But actually it isn't... because it appears many who vote GOP have been duped into voting for people who don't represent their own interests, but rather represent the interests of the rich (including people like the Kochs who were born into all their fabulous wealth and never had to earn any of it). What a great scam, and what a great deal for people such as the Kochs.
Snave wrote: "The conservative mindset nearly always seems to be that one must 'earn' everything."
I used to think that too. But since conservatives went all-out supporting George W. Bush, who didn't earn squat on his own, I just regard that line as propaganda or a cover story they use when it suits their selfish purposes.
I tell tell Conservatives who accuse Soros of buying the country that is one of 320 Billionaires who vote (or buy, who needs to vote when you are that rich?) Conservative.
He is outspent at least 319 to 1
Erik
BTW this is just the American Billionaires, not including the foreign ones who would also like a piece of our pie.
Soros made a fortune by high-stakes gambles such as currency speculation in the world economy. In 1992, for example, he wagered $10 billion that by concerted attack he could devalue the British Pound. He won, pocketed at least $1.1 billion profit in a single day, and ever since has been called “the man who broke the Bank of England.”
(By this act of economic rape upon ordinary British working class savings accounts, Soros repaid Britain for the generosity and help it gave to him as a struggling young immigrant with a broken leg.)
In the process of destroying the purchasing power of the British Pound, Soros dealt a political blow to the government of British Prime Minister John Major from which the Tory Party has yet to recover. This is the same kind of damage he hopes to inflict in 2004 on America’s Republican Party.
Businesspeople tend to admire Soros for his power and skill, wrote Andrew Leonard at Salon.com, and liberals tend to applaud his generosity to leftist causes. But what if it had been Osama bin Laden using financial machinations to break the Bank of England? Soros’ “life raises some troubling questions about the autonomy of capital in the era of globalization,” writes Leonard. “Make enough money, and you don’t have to obey anyone’s rules.”
Similar high-roller global financial machinations by Soros over the years have led to accusations that he caused the economic collapse in Asia in 1997 and, according to one anti-Semitic publication, the near-50 percent devaluation of the Russian Ruble in 1998.
Soros “was involved in the Mexican bailout with their President Ernesto Zedillo,” reported the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review last July, adding, “Most recently, Soros worked on the Euro, pushing the U.S. dollar down to a near all-time low.” Soros has, in other words, caused you to pay more for every imported product you buy.
But he was not so sanguine in 2002, when a French court found him guilty of insider trading and fined Soros 2.2 million Euros (roughly $2 million). He told reporters he would appeal the verdict but as of yet has not, dismissing the court’s ruling as “a queer decision.” To this multi-billionaire, a $2 million fine is a trifle, a mere slap on the wrist.
Today Forbes Magazine ranks him the 28th richest person in the United States, with an estimated fortune worth $7 billion. This comes after Soros has given away an estimated $5 billion to causes ranging from the Solidarity Movement in Poland to Vaclav Havel’s dissident movement in Czechoslovakia and to Leftist groups in the United States (including the Democratic Party).
So "anonymous" (not Erik), how about some interesting tidbits regards the Koch brothers as well?
I think the same moral of this story applies as when I was a kid and I was talking to this millionaire my Aunt worked for-
"No one ever got rich being honest!"
Erik
At jadedj - here's a tidbit for you about the koch Brothers:
Money donated to cancer research, education, arts, etc in the last decade = $600M.
Money donated to political causes in the last decade = $100M.
You may not like their political views and may not like the fact that they come from old money. If their political donations were left-leaning I'm sure you wouldn't have much of a problem.
Omg this information is pathetic. You left out the part where Soros helped the Nazi kill the Jews. Look it up & stop believing ever thing you read!
George Soros also turned Jews into the Nazi's in order to steal their belongings(jewelry, money, gold).
Seriously?? George Soros actually turned Jews into Nazis?? He must have been a hell of a magician.
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