Are you proud of yourselves now boys?
Welcome to Monday my beloved GUSsacks! Sorry for my absence, but it’s been slow news days, and I haven’t had anything to fill the hole with. But now there is news, and it’s almost mind boggling when you think about it a little bit. See you below the official seal of approval.
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This is the kind of stuff that really makes me glad that I dig in and look for these stories. Although some politics is involved, in keeping with our rules, it is not by it’s nature or content a political diary, I would have posted that on the main page. Trust your cranky, crusty ol’ Uncle Murf on this, and read on.
For many years now it has been an “open secret” that the Koch brothers, in cahoots with Karl Rove’s Super PAC Americans For Prosperity (AFP for short) paid for and built from scratch an artificial “Grassroots” political movement that eventually became the Tea Party. Traditional wisdom was that the Koch brothers did it as a way of advancing their conservative political agenda. This was not the truth. But what has remained unknown until very recently was the fact that Big Tobacco was in on this effort hook, line and sinker.
according to a new article from contributor Jeff Nesbit in usnews.com Big Tobacco was in this plot from the start, and it had nothing to do with politics. And Jeff Nesbit should know, at the time he was a private consultant that was included in the earliest meetings on the issue. To quote from the article;
But there wasn't time. We headed to one of their main conference rooms. We were met by several of Philip Morris's state-based government affairs experts, all of whom had significant experience in building coalitions with an eye toward blocking regulations they didn't like at the state level. The concept that CSE put on the conference table, which was quickly taken up by the Philip Morris staff, was a bit shocking to me. They proposed an unholy alliance— Philip Morris money commingled with Koch money to create anti-tax front groups in a handful of states that would battle any tax that moved. It would make no difference what kind of tax— the front groups could battle cigarette excise taxes in the Northeast and refined-oil fees at the coasts. Any tax, for any purpose, was bad— and these front groups would tackle them all, with Philip Morris and the Kochs behind them.
So, there you have it. It was not implicitly about politics, It was to advance a business agenda. At the time President Bill Clinton was releasing a budget with the novel approach of a “carbon tax”. This would cost the Koch’s millions, and they had to get rid of it. Philip Morris couldn’t give a shit less about a carbon tax, but under the agreement these groups could be helpful in fighting future possible tobacco excise taxes that could cost them dearly. The pact was sealed, probably with pricked blood oath first finger rubs to make it official. Shortly thereafter RJR Reynolds became aware of the scheme and clamored to be brought aboard. They were off and running.
And run with it they did! Both sides, but especially the Koch’s had a pretty good idea of how to rile simple folks and hide their fingerprints.
They could recruit average citizens from a variety of ideological groups to their cause. They would work side by side with corporate-directed workers and employees, providing real boots on the ground when enough activists weren't readily available. And no one would be the wiser—or even care— that these "grassroots" anti-tax groups would be jointly created and funded by the largest private oil company and the largest cigarette company in the world.
They planned carefully and well. They didn’t need universal pressure, they just needed to tip the balance. And they did. The pressure got to one Democratic moderate Senator, David Boren of OK who was on the energy committee. Then the bill came out of committee the carbon tax had done a Harry Houdini. They had succeeded, the carbon tax was defeated. Why stop here and disband when who knew what other nefarious taxes or regulations could spring up that would affect the unholy alliance?
But go dormant they pretty well did, for about 15 years. Unless odious taxes were proposed, there was nothing for them to activate over, and no reason to continue to fund them. But the blueprint, and the basic organization were there, and could be fired up at any time, simply by giving these poor, denuded souls an issue to rally around, and the promise of support and media.
And then came 2008, and the election of Barack as the President of the United States. And with it the Affordable Care Act, and a whole new outrage to rail against. Time to fire up the whoopee machine again. By this time the dread Karl Rove was on board, with all of his political organizing expertise. These groups and catch phrases are back from the 1990’s, when the Koch’s and Big Tobacco were railing against the carbon tax, but read them and tell me if they don’t sound identical to the hysterical rantings of 2009-2010.
In successive phases in the 1990s, with the Kochs' CSE as its core mobilization network partner, Philip Morris and RJR helped create state- based anti-tax and anti-regulation propaganda campaigns such as Get Government Off Our Back, Enough is Enough, and the Coalition Against Regressive Taxation.
So, there you have it. In a shameless example of corporate greed over 20 years ago, the Koch Brothers and Big Tobacco directly created the genesis and cultivated the current day Tea party movement. This naked greed and disregard gifted us with such national disgraces as Sarah Palin, Sharron Angle, Ted Cruz, and the 2016 GOP Presidential nominee one Donald J. Trump. Do the words unintended consequences not mean a thing to these people? Not bad for a days work in that rare air sphere I guess. The surprising part in all of this is that while the Koch brothers got outed fairly early on, Big Tobacco managed to keep their role in the shadows for almost 20 years!
And there is the real skinny my dear Kossacks. If you didn’t already have enough reasons to hate Big Tobacco for their legacy of addiction, death, physical pain and general mayhem and destruction, now you can mentally pillory them for Sarah Palin and Donald Trump. Finally, a twofer.
And last, but never by any means least, a hearty SHOUT OUT to our own dear, sweet Mopshell, who had surgery last week. Please keep her in your prayers, and give her a rousing GUS welcome when she returns!!!
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