"Tea Party" of America Unaware of How It Has Been Purchased & Unwilling to Look at Evidence
There is a company in Green Bay, WI that still has jobs available for engineers, maintenance people and factory. The company is Georgia-Pacific and they make paper and paper products: printer paper, paper towels, toilet paper, napkins, plates, containers, cutlery, soap, skin care products--some of it looks generic, some of it is produced under names we all know, like Brawny and Dixie. These are important jobs for the people of Green Bay, especially in these tough economic times, and they are grateful for them. No one who is working right now is likely to bad mouth their employers.
That is not the case when someone leaves Georgia Pacific, however. A reading of the website "GlassDoor.com" offers former mid-level employees a chance to express the good and the bad of having worked at GP. And there is a unanimous thread amongst the voices of the ex-GP employee, and it involves the upper management of the company and something they refer to as the "MBM" environment. Here are a couple of the comments, though you are welcome to read many more that say more or less the same thing.
"MBM is a good looking veneer...Leadership style has become manage by threat since Koch took over. It's sad to watch."
"MBM Principles are used more as punishment then (sic) guidelines."
" Koch philosophy of the MBM Guiding principles and upper Management's interpretation has destroyed employee morale, created divisions within the organization and allow upper Mangement to build their "inner circle" to insulate themselves from the organization. New philosophy is to pass the blame down and not be accountable. Upper Mgmt only practices the MBM framework when it works in their favor..."
MBM? KOCH philosophy? Yes, the MBM stands for "Market-Based Management" and is a real baby of the Koch Family. They refer to it as being rooted in the "science of human action" but their employees, as you can infer from the comments above, refer to it as "veneer, punishment, lip service" and other not so subtle words that make it clear that unless you are part of the inner circle of the Koch Industries, you are not likely to benefit from the "human action." Care to see some of inner sanctum describe MBM? Watch them do so:
A line that Charles Koch uses in this video is: "If you don't challenge when you disagree, then what good are you?" Which is interesting, because his employees sure don't seem to feel that they are able to disagree openly. Read their reviews of what it is like to work there as a "UTILITY" which is the Koch bros and their upper management they actually call people who work there--they call them utilities. Comment after comment talks about how after the Kochs bought GP in 2006, the work climate became "playing the game". One person said that "I've never worked in an atmosphere before where there was so much displeasure and resentment."
Wow. Sounds like MBM is a smashing success.
So why do we hear such positive things about all things Koch industry in the media? When you open up Business Week, or the Wall Street Journal, or even turn on CNN, the news is all pretty glowing. Money may not be able to buy happiness, but it sure can help buy good press! But if you aren't careful it can lead to bad press, as it just did in the form of a big PR firm "New Media Strategies" and their employee, Jeff Taylor, who attempted to alter various Koch related Wiki accounts under the name "MBMAdmirer" (sounds like someone has a crush!) Wikipedia is used to this sort of thing though, and picked up on the "sock puppet" as these sorts of criminals are known, and put the real criminals (the Kochs) back to rights.
Getting back to my headline, the Fabulous Koch Brothers do try to use their money, well not try, they just DO use it, to keep their squeaky old, white hands clean of any involvement in their many shady doings. Including in starting up in the Tea Party. There is Tea Party member after Tea Party member stating unequivocally that he or she joined completely of his/her free will, with no one giving any encouragement.
So just where did Tea Party members find out about the Tea Party? It's not like they went searching on "GlassDoor.com" or "Monster.com" for a job, saw one posted at GP, and applied, and then the Koch Bros. contacted them and said, "Hey, want to come to a rally?" Right? No, though some GP employees do complain about the pressure of politics in the workplace. (That pesky MBM!)
Though Charles and David Koch swear otherwise, David Koch met with the 25 state chapters of the Americans for Prosperity in 2009. While there, he said:
"Five years ago, my brother Charles and I provided the funds to start the Americans for Prosperity. And it's beyond my wildest dreams how AFP has grown into this enormous organization, of hundreds of thousands of citizens from all walks of life."
Yes, filled with a "fatherly" pride, because he really IS the father of the Tea Party movement. This was all very well documented by reporter Jane Meyer in an article for The New Yorker Magazine on August 30, 2010. She details how the Kochs provided all of the funding to get those hundreds of thousands of citizens out "all on their own" (yes, I am being sarcastic), sometimes using a cover group called FreedomWorks.
Why do the Koch brothers operate under such secrecy? And they do try to be secretive. They had Melissa Cohlmia, a company spokesperson, make this statement:
Americans for Prosperity is an independent organization and Koch companies do not in any way direct their activities.
But her colleague, Venable, who is paid by Americans for Prosperity, which is Koch money, must not have drunk the Kool-Aid that morning. She stood up at a lectern, before a cheering crowd in Austin, Texas and bubbled:
"We love what the Tea Parties are doing, because that's how we're going to take back America!"
She even explained to reporter Meyer that AFP was helping to educate the Tea Party, and was also giving them ideas on what to do after the rallies, so that their energy could be channeled more effectively. Well, you are welcome Tea Partiers! And you thought you were all on your own!!! Little did you know that your friends David and Charles had your back all this time!
And what do they want from you, Tea Party America? What is it they expect to get for their millions of dollars spent on rallies, buses, fliers, commercials, and all the rest? I mean, since they have to educate you, and tell you what to do after the rallies so you better direct your energies it's pretty obvious they believe you are too stupid to do things the way they want you to all on their own. And it's true. You are. You are following them like obedient sheep. You are truly stunning in how easily you are accepting the dung they are feeding you, yet accepting that it is caviar. And you are thanking them for it!
They say they are Christian, and you are accepting it, even when your own Bibles, that you all swear you believe in, tells you just the opposite. The rich will NOT inherit the kingdom of God, Jesus said so, yet you are defending the rich, and not the poor? Do you see why liberals get so disgusted? It is the ultimate in hypocrisy. I am so fed up with "conservatives" and their supposed "Christian" agenda that it makes me feel--literally--physically ill sometimes. It is time to wake up and decide. Ask your Jesus to take the scales off of your eyes. Read that New Testament for real.
There is a wolf in your midst. No make that a FOX.
