Awesome! Rolling Stone Outs the Kochs!
By Tim Dickinson | September 24, 2014
Together, Charles and David Koch control one of the world's largest fortunes, which they are using to buy up our political system. But what they don't want you to know is how they made all that money
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The enormity of the Koch fortune is no mystery. Brothers Charles and David are each worth more than $40 billion. The electoral influence of the Koch brothers is similarly well-chronicled. The Kochs are our homegrown oligarchs; they've cornered the market on Republican politics and are nakedly attempting to buy Congress and the White House. Their political network helped finance the Tea Party and powers today's GOP. Koch-affiliated organizations raised some $400 million during the 2012 election, and aim to spend another $290 million to elect Republicans in this year's midterms. So far in this cycle, Koch-backed entities have bought 44,000 political ads to boost Republican efforts to take back the Senate.
What is less clear is where all that money comes from. Koch Industries is headquartered in a squat, smoked-glass building that rises above the prairie on the outskirts of Wichita, Kansas. The building, like the brothers' fiercely private firm, is literally and figuratively a black box. Koch touts only one top-line financial figure: $115 billion in annual revenue, as estimated by Forbes. By that metric, it is larger than IBM, Honda or Hewlett-Packard and is America's second-largest private company after agribusiness colossus Cargill. The company's stock response to inquiries from reporters: "We are privately held and don't disclose this information."
But Koch Industries is not entirely opaque. The company's troubled legal history – including a trail of congressional investigations, Department of Justice consent decrees, civil lawsuits and felony convictions – augmented by internal company documents, leaked State Department cables, Freedom of Information disclosures and company whistle-blowers, combine to cast an unwelcome spotlight on the toxic empire whose profits finance the modern GOP.
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The Koch brothers get richer as the costs of what Koch destroys are foisted on the rest of us – in the form of ill health, foul water and a climate crisis that threatens life as we know it on this planet. Now nearing 80 – owning a large chunk of the Alberta tar sands and using his billions to transform the modern Republican Party into a protection racket for Koch Industries' profits – Charles Koch is not about to see the light. Nor does the CEO of one of America's most toxic firms have any notion of slowing down. He has made it clear that he has no retirement plans: "I'm going to ride my bicycle till I fall off."
Much More, really juicy - i can only post 4 paragraphs.....)
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/inside-the-koch-brothers-toxic-empire-20140924
via:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/25/1332440/-Awesome-Rolling-Stone-Outs-the-Koch-s
= new reply since forum marked as read
These guys would have to greatly improve themselves just to reach pond scum status. 
In fact, it appears the very essence of the Koch business model is to exploit breakdowns in the free market. Koch has profited precisely by dumping billions of pounds of pollutants into our waters and skies – essentially for free. It racks up enormous profits from speculative trades lacking economic value that drive up costs for consumers and create risks for our economy.
The Koch brothers get richer as the costs of what Koch destroys are foisted on the rest of us – in the form of ill health, foul water and a climate crisis that threatens life as we know it on this planet. Now nearing 80 – owning a large chunk of the Alberta tar sands and using his billions to transform the modern Republican Party into a protection racket for Koch Industries' profits – Charles Koch is not about to see the light. Nor does the CEO of one of America's most toxic firms have any notion of slowing down. He has made it clear that he has no retirement plans: "I'm going to ride my bicycle till I fall off."
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/inside-the-koch-brothers-toxic-empire-20140924#ixzz3EOLm6juy
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Thanks for the thread, kpete.
We posted it just moments apart. Normally, I would take a dupe down, but this is so important, I will leave mine up, too.
Greetings, kpete! 
K&R
Straight up...they are Traitors, aka Domestic Enemies. Their assets need to be frozen and they need to be held accountable immediately. The cat's out of the bag. I'm so sick of the monied class being above the law. Every time our leaders get up and brag about this (America) being "a land of laws," I want to throw something at the TV. No, we're not a land of laws when Wall Street gets off and the cost of the debacle get's passed on to Main Street, or when criminals like the Koch Bros get away with writing legislation via their ALEC organization. Our leaders are derelict when they don't protect this country from these domestic enemies, which they swore to do in the oaths they took upon entering office. 
I posted this originally on DKOS. Never thought to cross post it here. Oppps. Good job. 
Posted on the other thread that this article should be required reading for all current high school seniors who are on the cusp of registering to VOTE.
