Tag: Koch Brothers

The latest fashion among right-wing trolls?  Attempt to halt all criticism of the Koch Brothers by bringing up the name of environmentalist billionaire Tom Steyer.  We have our billionaire political donors, you have yours - what's the difference?

Ah, false equivalency, the last refuge of the simple mind.  Well, in case you need some troll repellent, here are four fun facts demonstrating the enormous differences between Steyer & the Kochs:

1) Making money vs. losing it: As Steyer puts it, the Kochs' priorities "line up perfectly with their pocketbooks - and that's not true for us."

If you want to know why the Koch brothers went to the bother of spending hundreds of millions of dollars to create a vast infrastructure for casting doubt on climate science, well, it's not too hard to find a motive.  Just check out their stake in oil and petrochemicals, investments whose value is likely to go down the moment we put a price on carbon dioxide emissions.

They've clearly leveraged that investment with the millions they've spent indoctrinating rubes through their multitudinous Tea Party organizations such as Americans for Plutocracy (er, I mean "Prosperity").  Convince an army of ignorants that climate change is a Vast Conspiracy of Evil Scientists and you can spend more time relaxing at the golf course knowing that your oil and coal investments are safe and sound.  

B: Label all attempts at dealing with this issue a "tax" and get soulless politicians to pledge to oppose any action.

Such has been the strategy of the Koch Brothers in directing their wholly-owned subsidiary, the Republican party. Their "No Climate Tax" pledge has attracted the signatures of 411 political hacks, only 3 of whom were Democrats -- and every one of whom needs to be politically targeted with the goal of ending their political careers, for the sake of a healthy future for our kids.

You can see the list of signatories here. I've listed Virginia signers below, to put all our allies on notice of the need to work hard to send these losers into involuntary retirement.

A few points:

- Note the presence of Republicans like Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and Rep. Scott Rigell, who have sometimes been alleged to be "moderates" -- but clearly not when the money and support of the Koch brothers and Fossil Fuel Lobby are at stake.
- This list underscores the importance of finding strong Democrats to run against potentially vulnerable Republicans on this list, like Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel.
- Interesting that a coastal community like Virginia Beach would actually have a City Councilwoman (Rosemary Wilson) willing to let it bear the ravages of sea level rise and more violent and frequent storms.

And here is the Commonwealth's Climate Rogue's Gallery: