The Kochtopus: Even More Tentacles Than You Ever Imagined

The Koch Brothers — whose father was a founder and financier of the John Birch Society — are already well-known for funding every rightwing cause you’ve ever heard of, and some that you haven’t.  But it’s worse than you thought.

Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund are two huge money-laundering organizations which enable gutless “donors” to make huge contributions to rightwing causes while still hiding under a rock.

The Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity is a Far Right think tank whose secret financing comes largely from the two above-mentioned money-launderers.  And a lot — not all — of this laundered money is from the Koch Brothers.

One of the top priorities of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity is to manufacture a “groundswell” of public opposition to renewable energy development.  Wouldn’t want to jeopardize the fossil fuel industry’s profits now, would we.

Wind and solar energy, emissions reductions and — worst of all — coastal communities taking future sea-level rises into consideration when they plan future developments:  all of these atrocities have to be nipped in the bud.  Time to round up some more useful idiots and start orchestrating a few more of those spontaneous demonstrations.

And that’s not all.  When I lived in California, every time there was a conflict between a huge development project and the environment, some shadowy anonymous group called the Pacific Legal Foundation would provide a lawyer — pro bono — for the developer.  Sort of like giving Goliath a slingshot.

And now it turns out the Pacific Legal Foundation is funded by the Koch Brothers.

It figures.

Source Watch provides a list of just some of the Kochtopus’ tentacles.