Dark Money, Dark Souls (UPDATED)

Jane Mayer's new book, "Dark Money," looks at the sinister influence that right-wing billionaire money has had on the American political system for decades, and contains one very illuminating story about the secretive Koch family: their father, Fred, helped the Nazis build one of their largest refineries. The notorious Fred Koch was well-known for his extreme right-wing positions -- indeed, he was one of the founders of the extremist John Birch Society -- and his ideology was passed on to his sons.  Other rogues in the dark money gallery include the late Richard Mellon Scaife, heir to the Mellon banking loot and funder of anti-Clinton witch hunts, and the Bradley brothers, Harry and Lynde, who have poured millions into right-wing think tanks and causes like destroying public unions and education. Mayer writes:

"Philanthropists and political donors who poured hundreds of millions of dollars into think tanks, political organizations and scholarships, [the billionaires] helped win acceptance for anti-government and anti-tax policies that would protect their businesses and personal fortunes, she writes, all under the guise of promoting the public interest. (snip)

Many of the families owned businesses that clashed with environmental or workplace regulators, come under federal or state investigation, or waged battles over their tax bills with the Internal Revenue Service, Ms. Mayer reports. The Kochs’ vast political network, a major force in Republican politics today, was 'originally designed as a means of off-loading the costs of the Koch Industries environmental and regulatory fights onto others' by persuading other rich business owners to contribute to Koch-controlled political groups, Ms. Mayer writes, citing an associate of the two brothers."

The most infamous of those Koch-controlled political front groups is the so-called "Americans for Prosperity," an "astroturf" organization which provided financial and logistical resources to the Tea Party movement, which blocked meaningful tax reform that would have impacted the Kochs and their billionaire brethren, along with attempts to kill the Affordable Care Act and any other domestic proposal put forward by President Obama.

UPDATE:  This explains a lot (hehheh):
 

Oh my, Charles Koch was literally toilet-trained by a Nazi. (via @lhfang) https://t.co/61ZEpruezy pic.twitter.com/sEQRcvGQsL

— Bae Talese (@elongreen) January 12, 2016

"Dark Money" From Oligarchs Fueling Republican Campaigns

(click on image to enlarge)

(Mike Luckovich, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Here's a graphic that shows where the outside Super PAC "dark money" (thanks, Supreme Court!) is going so far in this election cycle (click on image to enlarge):

(Washington Post)

A more detailed look at the mega-donors (over $500,000) supporting Super PACs for various candidates is here.  Not surprisingly, these oligarch donors represent 62 percent of the money raised by Republicans so far, as compared to only 12 percent for Democratic candidates.

Scott Walker's (Latest) Dark Money Scandal

Investigative reporter Mike Isikoff has been looking into the "dark money" that has gone to Koch brothers employee of the year Gov. Scott "Koch Head" Walker (R-Kochland) and has found someone competing with the Koch's for Walker's attention (h/t Charles Pierce):

John Menard Jr. is widely known as the richest man in Wisconsin. A tough-minded, staunchly conservative 75-year-old billionaire, he owns a highly profitable chain of hardware stores throughout the Midwest. He’s also famously publicity-shy — rarely speaking in public or giving interviews.

So a little more than three years ago, when Menard wanted to back Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — and help advance his pro-business agenda — he found the perfect way to do so without attracting any attention: He wrote more than $1.5 million in checks to a pro-Walker political advocacy group that pledged to keep its donors secret, three sources directly familiar with the transactions told Yahoo News.

Menard’s previously unreported six-figure contributions to the Wisconsin Club for Growth — a group that spent heavily to defend Walker during a bitter 2012 recall election — seem to have paid off for the businessman and his company. In the past two years, Menard’s company has been awarded up to $1.8 million in special tax credits from a state economic development corporation that Walker chairs, according to state records.

And in his five years in office, Walker’s appointees have sharply scaled back enforcement actions by the state Department of Natural Resources — a top Menard priority. The agency had repeatedly clashed with Menard and his company under previous governors over citations for violating state environmental laws and had levied a $1.7 million fine against Menard personally, as well as his company, for illegally dumping hazardous wastes.

It's long but very interesting reading.  Isikoff has a reputation as a dogged pursuer, so we can only hope he will be on Scotty like white on rice.

Menard is, to say the least, a piece of shit work.  He's a throwback to the Ebeneezer Scrooge School of Management and has few moral scruples in his private life (kind of like the perfect plutocrat Republican and, therefore, a perfect bedfellow for Walker).

(Image:  Watch out, Kochs!  Scott loves him some other plutocrats, too!)

Letters We Wish We'd Written - Dark Money Edition

As we noted a while back, "dark money" (untraceable political contributions) has been exposed for the anti-democratic cancer that it is (again, thanks Roberts Court!).  To its credit the once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle had an editorial on January 13 (following up on reporting by Matea Gold) on the extraordinary lengths to which far right-wing plutocrats =cough=Koch brothers=cough= go to hide the obscene amounts of money sloshing around the world of right-wing politics.  Here's a letter on the subject which appeared in today's paper:

The Post’s Jan. 13 editorial “Dark money labyrinth” asked of the conservative groups flooding our electoral process with hundreds of millions of dollars: “What do they fear from disclosure of their political investments?” It may be that these groups and other Republicans favor secrecy because most Americans do not agree with their positions.

Even most Republicans favor raising the minimum wage and extending unemployment benefits. Most Americans favor a balanced approach to the deficit, rejected by Republicans, that includes new revenue from tax reform.

Those backing such groups also probably don’t want to advertise their support for a party that considers protecting the wealthy’s privileged tax breaks as its primary priority and that relegates the plight of the unemployed and the slow economic recovery to secondary status. From minimum wage to immigrationto extending unemployment insurance to voter suppression to assaults on union workers and women’s rights, Republicans have fixed their sights on regular, hard-working Americans. If I were supporting that party and those efforts, I would want secrecy, too.   [our emphasis]

Bill Conrad, Alexandria

Money is not free speech, and corporations aren't people, no matter what the plutocrats and their toadies would have us believe.  Not only does it have the potential to subvert the democratic process, it's (yes, Justice Kennedy) corrupting.  More light needs to be shed on the problem by the media, followed by heat from the electorate.