Billionaire Charles Koch, who will turn 88 on November 1, is funneling his wealth into two secretive organizations that can continue his right-wing political advocacy for years. Koch structured more than $5 billion in donations to exploit a loophole to allow him to avoid paying capital gains or gift taxes. It's not surprising that Koch is familiar with the loophole — he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying to create it.
So this is how the billionaires keep all there money and make the rest of us pay their bills. They've been working on their oligarchy for long time and they have apparently bought the Congress and the Senate to do their bidding. Their government, their education system, mostly just for them, their way or the highway.
Money talks, bullshit walks. What’s a mere 200k to five billion? Disheartening.
This is yet another tax rescinded that rarely impacts people in aggregate terms. However? Cumulatively, it both strips money from the government that could benefit so many ordinary United States citizens, and simultaneously further poisons United States democracy.
Remember how the IRS, Holder and Obama were villainized for investigating conservative non-profits for exploiting the tax exempt loopholes? I remember so deeply how my conservative brother was enraged that he was being "investigated" for donating to TEA Party groups.
No amount of explanation was going to calm his nerves. He is pro-choice and is mad as hell about the anti-abortion laws, but will still vote for the fascists. I am speechless. He was not raised that way. He votes to protect his "property" (money).
Seems that these wealthy crooks (Koch is one) have all these experts around them helping them make decisions for them while they expect the rest of us to experts in everything like good consumers of healthcare, education. I cannot help but think of Peter Theil and how he exploited the Roth IRA to build his billionaire fortune. That Roth idea that was designed to help the average American build a nest egg for retirement.
The 1% has carefully planned the takeover and we see funded it with the permission of the US government from the origins to the tax loopholes. Citizens United approval set the wheels to Warp speed.
On a naive note, I had hoped when Koch the elder died, it would end. I guess Chase Koch is just like his Dad.
The dark side continues on.
I don't know if we can regain our balance as a country. Great article.
These corrupt bastards will steal everything from us, including our humanity. I have had enough and I will not stand by quietly as this stupidity continues to play out. If all of us become involved in our collective futures we will prevail!
I’ve barely opened my eyes, haven’t had my coffee and yet I see another couple of RATS in political campaign finance? DARK MONEY never does anything charitable, hence the 501(c)4 status. This egregious assault to fairness in elections courtesy of Citizens United must be overturned. To say nothing of the loss of revenue needed by the IRS to implement legitimate laws that benefit we the people. Goof grief! How did we let this slide into law under our noses to benefit the far right autocratic system in the making? The billionaires think they rule the country and the world without so much as a penny paid in income tax. OUTRAGEOUS! The truth is they DO and we have not intervened since 2015 to shut down this horror show. Does anyone with half a brain pay attention? Mr. Koch and Leonard Leo have much to answer for. Thank you for elucidating these financial crimes disguised as charity!
Charles Koch's money MUST BE TAXED, this is the only FAIR WAY to do it. the working people are not RICH like him so he MUST NOT GET A BREAK !. the working people don't get a BREAK so KOCH MUST NOT GET ONE ! we the working people PAY our FAIR SHARE so the RICH & BIG BUSINESS & ALL CORPORATIONS MUST TOO . NOW MAKE IT SO!
There has to be a way to stop this madness!! Of course, voting helps but there has to be more!! We have to shift the wealth it’s just not right for a small group to have everything!!
The power of money in today's world...not unlike the power of money in yesterdays world and those many decades which came before. Obsession with power and control through any means available. We will never evolve...just create new and better technology which we can't control... aiding and assuring our species' extinction. Knowing all that goes on around us, but not willing to employ the tactics necessary to combat the evil... and if so, what good would that do... to be just like them? Bring knife to a knife fight and now we have, bring a nuclear bomb to a nuclear bomb threat...the scalability is now solidly an earth threatening reality. You can't make this stuff up and I doubt with the many Koch like personalities on our planet... we will survive...and if so what will that survival look like? Who was it that said "...money is the root of all evil..."
Thank you for this excellent coverage. Koch was the devil to me before Trump took the spot but you show how money as speech is ruining our country. Public funded elections is a must! I hope you are gathering suggestions for how to counter this deterioration of integrity as the power structure fills with gerrymandered and fully funded (bought) elected officials bent on burning our government to the ground.
THANK YOU! At long last, a journalist has exposed on social media the CHARLES KKKOCH GANG OF NEO NAZI FASCIST BILLIONAIRES who rammed “Citizens United” through the court (thanks, Clarence Thomas and Mitch McConnell) so that today, we have what Hillary Clinton correctly noted, “a vast, right-wing conspiracy” to overtake this democracy.
CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PEOPLE.
The ORGANIZED CRIME SYNDICATE, aka the RNC, is controlled by these, right-wing, Neo nazi fascists, such as Koch and Leo, Seid, DeVoss, Prince, Mercers, Ricketts, Harlan Crow--and they pull the puppet strings for every Repug they install. “Dark Money” lists more of this growing list of pfuckerz.
And, curiously, they are nazi-fascists. In fact, Koch’s father made sure his boys were nannied by a nazi, imported from Germany after the war.
We’ve all heard about Harlan Crowe’s Collection of Nazi paraphernalia. . . And Ivana tRump famously told interviewers how P1135809 kept a copy of Mein Kampf at his bedside (not that he could read it) and the “Christian Nationalists” led by Laura Ingraham sent a collective sieg heil to tRump for all the World to see.
WTF is the matter with us that we let these fascists steal our democracy right from under our eyes?
THANK YOU! We are under attack by fascists who want to wipe out the middle class. They call it “trickle down economics”--their propaganda machine CODES all sorts of Evil with benign, cynical euphemisms. “Believe in People,” 501(c) bull shit. “Citizens United”--only certain citizens--the kind that dodge taxes and corrupt politics.
This country is at war with fascist terrorists, too--the sort with billions of dollars to dump acid on democratic institutions. The Shock Doctrine is their agenda and it will turn bloody. Believe it when you see a right-winger that he is as much a traitor and terrorist as the demons Iran sent out to attack Israel.
So this is how the billionaires keep all there money and make the rest of us pay their bills. They've been working on their oligarchy for long time and they have apparently bought the Congress and the Senate to do their bidding. Their government, their education system, mostly just for them, their way or the highway.
What a cycle we're in: billions of dollars "donated" by billionaires to protect billionaires.
Money talks, bullshit walks. What’s a mere 200k to five billion? Disheartening.
This is yet another tax rescinded that rarely impacts people in aggregate terms. However? Cumulatively, it both strips money from the government that could benefit so many ordinary United States citizens, and simultaneously further poisons United States democracy.
Remember how the IRS, Holder and Obama were villainized for investigating conservative non-profits for exploiting the tax exempt loopholes? I remember so deeply how my conservative brother was enraged that he was being "investigated" for donating to TEA Party groups.
No amount of explanation was going to calm his nerves. He is pro-choice and is mad as hell about the anti-abortion laws, but will still vote for the fascists. I am speechless. He was not raised that way. He votes to protect his "property" (money).
Seems that these wealthy crooks (Koch is one) have all these experts around them helping them make decisions for them while they expect the rest of us to experts in everything like good consumers of healthcare, education. I cannot help but think of Peter Theil and how he exploited the Roth IRA to build his billionaire fortune. That Roth idea that was designed to help the average American build a nest egg for retirement.
The wealthy in this country are the DEEP STATE.
The 1% has carefully planned the takeover and we see funded it with the permission of the US government from the origins to the tax loopholes. Citizens United approval set the wheels to Warp speed.
On a naive note, I had hoped when Koch the elder died, it would end. I guess Chase Koch is just like his Dad.
The dark side continues on.
I don't know if we can regain our balance as a country. Great article.
These corrupt bastards will steal everything from us, including our humanity. I have had enough and I will not stand by quietly as this stupidity continues to play out. If all of us become involved in our collective futures we will prevail!
How do we fight this? Can Citizens United be overturned? This makes me SO MAD!
I’ve barely opened my eyes, haven’t had my coffee and yet I see another couple of RATS in political campaign finance? DARK MONEY never does anything charitable, hence the 501(c)4 status. This egregious assault to fairness in elections courtesy of Citizens United must be overturned. To say nothing of the loss of revenue needed by the IRS to implement legitimate laws that benefit we the people. Goof grief! How did we let this slide into law under our noses to benefit the far right autocratic system in the making? The billionaires think they rule the country and the world without so much as a penny paid in income tax. OUTRAGEOUS! The truth is they DO and we have not intervened since 2015 to shut down this horror show. Does anyone with half a brain pay attention? Mr. Koch and Leonard Leo have much to answer for. Thank you for elucidating these financial crimes disguised as charity!
Charles Koch's money MUST BE TAXED, this is the only FAIR WAY to do it. the working people are not RICH like him so he MUST NOT GET A BREAK !. the working people don't get a BREAK so KOCH MUST NOT GET ONE ! we the working people PAY our FAIR SHARE so the RICH & BIG BUSINESS & ALL CORPORATIONS MUST TOO . NOW MAKE IT SO!
Love this reporting. Well done!
"But Koch had allies from non-profit groups — and not just on the right."
When it comes to BIG Money, they're all in it together. There are no sides at the big kid's table. Just dollar signs.
Like herpes, Charles Koch has a way of hanging around.
There has to be a way to stop this madness!! Of course, voting helps but there has to be more!! We have to shift the wealth it’s just not right for a small group to have everything!!
The power of money in today's world...not unlike the power of money in yesterdays world and those many decades which came before. Obsession with power and control through any means available. We will never evolve...just create new and better technology which we can't control... aiding and assuring our species' extinction. Knowing all that goes on around us, but not willing to employ the tactics necessary to combat the evil... and if so, what good would that do... to be just like them? Bring knife to a knife fight and now we have, bring a nuclear bomb to a nuclear bomb threat...the scalability is now solidly an earth threatening reality. You can't make this stuff up and I doubt with the many Koch like personalities on our planet... we will survive...and if so what will that survival look like? Who was it that said "...money is the root of all evil..."
Thank you for this excellent coverage. Koch was the devil to me before Trump took the spot but you show how money as speech is ruining our country. Public funded elections is a must! I hope you are gathering suggestions for how to counter this deterioration of integrity as the power structure fills with gerrymandered and fully funded (bought) elected officials bent on burning our government to the ground.
THANK YOU! At long last, a journalist has exposed on social media the CHARLES KKKOCH GANG OF NEO NAZI FASCIST BILLIONAIRES who rammed “Citizens United” through the court (thanks, Clarence Thomas and Mitch McConnell) so that today, we have what Hillary Clinton correctly noted, “a vast, right-wing conspiracy” to overtake this democracy.
CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PEOPLE.
The ORGANIZED CRIME SYNDICATE, aka the RNC, is controlled by these, right-wing, Neo nazi fascists, such as Koch and Leo, Seid, DeVoss, Prince, Mercers, Ricketts, Harlan Crow--and they pull the puppet strings for every Repug they install. “Dark Money” lists more of this growing list of pfuckerz.
And, curiously, they are nazi-fascists. In fact, Koch’s father made sure his boys were nannied by a nazi, imported from Germany after the war.
We’ve all heard about Harlan Crowe’s Collection of Nazi paraphernalia. . . And Ivana tRump famously told interviewers how P1135809 kept a copy of Mein Kampf at his bedside (not that he could read it) and the “Christian Nationalists” led by Laura Ingraham sent a collective sieg heil to tRump for all the World to see.
WTF is the matter with us that we let these fascists steal our democracy right from under our eyes?
THANK YOU! We are under attack by fascists who want to wipe out the middle class. They call it “trickle down economics”--their propaganda machine CODES all sorts of Evil with benign, cynical euphemisms. “Believe in People,” 501(c) bull shit. “Citizens United”--only certain citizens--the kind that dodge taxes and corrupt politics.
This country is at war with fascist terrorists, too--the sort with billions of dollars to dump acid on democratic institutions. The Shock Doctrine is their agenda and it will turn bloody. Believe it when you see a right-winger that he is as much a traitor and terrorist as the demons Iran sent out to attack Israel.