Like most, I’ve been dazed and confused for a bit on what happened in this year’s election. I now have the following to offer for our collective understanding. When foreign and domestic interests conspire to rig the US Elections, and give power to the Oligarchs, does that make it a coup?
From the Watergate days, I’ve held onto the idea that if you want to know “who done it”...just follow the money to those who profited the most. Seems to keep working, right up to today.
Chapter 1: The connections begin to emerge
As Trumps cabinet and agency appointments began to be announced, I kept hearing “ (Person ‘X’ [fill in the Trump appointee]) is deeply tied to the Heritage Foundation” over and over. These ultra-conservative cabinet and agency head appointments are all deeply associated with either the Heritage Foundation, or ALEC. The Heritage Foundation and ALEC are some of the more outwardly known tentacles of the Koch Brothers octopus (aka Kochtopus), that have been working to subvert our country and government for 30+ years now. [If this does not ring with you, you’ve got lots of reading to do; and I heartily encourage you to get started.]
As I mulled these revelations over, it became clear that Trump is following the Koch brother’s play book to the letter! I knew that Trump was a Climate Denier…but I was not prepared for an evisceration of all things environmental and political ala full-blown, neoliberal economic (unconstrained) capitalistic attack. The following article pretty clearly states what I see:
Trump’s Cabinet choices reflect deep Koch influence
A rundown of the people with ties to ALEC, the Koch brothers and federal land transfer legislation. (Lyndsey Gilpin, pub. In the High Country News, 12/15/2016)
www.hcn.org/...
According to an ongoing analysis by the left-leaning Washington D.C.-based policy research and advocacy organization Center for American Progress, nearly a third of Trump’s transition team has ties to Charles and David Koch
Here’s the specific list presented in the article:
Vice President Mike Pence has had Koch ties for many years. The Nation reported that in 1991, Pence became president of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, which is part of the State Policy Network. Koch Enterprises and Koch Industries have been big campaign donors throughout his career.
Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State nominee, is the CEO of Exxon Mobil, a corporation that advises and is a top sponsor of ALEC. He has no experience in the public sector, having worked for Exxon since 1975. The company has acknowledged the issue of climate change, but it’s unclear what his political stance is on most environmental and climate issues.
Rick Perry, Energy Secretary nominee, is on the board of Energy Transfer Partners, which is funding the Dakota Access Pipeline. Energy Transfer Partners has agreements with subsidiaries of Exxon, a member of ALEC. In July 2016, Perry gave a speech at ALEC’s annual meeting.
Mike Pompeo, CIA director nominee, is a longtime ally of Koch Industries. He has business ties with the Koch brothers: they’ve invested in his firm Thayer Aerospace and Sentry International, a company that sells pumping units for oil and gas development, of which he is the president, partnered with Koch Industries through its Brazilian distributor. Pompeo also received campaign contributions from Koch Industries and is involved with Americans for Prosperity, a Tea Party group founded by David Koch.
Scott Pruitt, EPA administrator nominee, is affiliated with the Federalist Society, a nonprofit organization of conservatives and libertarians. The Koch Foundation has funded the society. Koch Industries has contributed to Pruitt’s Attorney General campaigns in Oklahoma, as have many other companies with ties to ALEC. Pruitt is currently suing the EPA, and is a proponent of looser federal regulations on the oil and gas industry and increased drilling on federal lands.
Jeff Sessions, Attorney General nominee, has received campaign contributions from Koch Industries.
Ryan Zinke, Interior Secretary nominee, currently sits on the House Natural Resources Committee. He has opposed land transfer legislation in his state of Montana, but is a proponent of pipelines and the recipient of large oil and gas-linked campaign donations.
Wilbur Ross, Commerce Department Secretary nominee, is a billionaire who has been cited multiple times as a friend of David Koch.
Nikki Haley, United Nations Ambassador nominee, is a former ALEC member and has pushed many of ALEC-sponsored model legislation, including one about voter identification laws and a charter school bill.
Tom Price, Health and Human Services Secretary nominee, led a campaign for representative in Georgia that was partly funded by Koch Industries.
Betsy DeVos, Department of Education head nominee, is a billionaire who has given millions of dollars to Republican candidates and super PACs. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, she has attended many Koch fundraisers and has donated to Americans for Prosperity and other Koch-funded organizations. DeVos has also pushed legislation for the privatization of school systems – which ALEC is a proponent of and has model legislation for.
Myron Ebell, who is leading Trump’s EPA transition team, works for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank that is funded by Exxon and the Kochs and a member of ALEC’s State Policy Network. Ebell is affiliated with the Heartland Institute, which has partnered with ALEC in the past.
Elaine Chao, Transportation Secretary nominee, is affiliated with the Heritage Foundation, which is a member of the State Policy Network.
Doug Domenech, who is leading Trump’s Interior transition team. He was a George W. Bush administration as the deputy chief of staff to the Secretary of Interior who now works at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank partially funded by the Koch brothers and member of the State Policy Network. Domenech has reportedly brought up lawsuits against BLM over public land ownership issues.
Ned Mamula, on the Interior transition team, works for the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. Cato has long pushed for the privatization of public lands. More recently, the institute sent representatives to speak at FLAG (Federal Land Action Group), a Congressional group with the goal of seizing public lands.
Scott Cameron, a member of the Interior transition team, wrote a blog post during Cliven Bundy’s Bunkerville standoff in 2014 that proposed it is time to “fundamentally reconsider land ownership in the West.” He wrote: “Wouldn’t everyone be better off if the Western states were to be given more authority over much of this multiple use real estate?”
Thomas Pyle, who has been leading Trump’s transition team for the Energy Department, is a former Koch Industries and National Petrochemical and Refiners Association lobbyist. He is also the president and founder of the American Energy Alliance, an affiliate of the Institute for Energy Research, which supports free market energy policies.
Ok…so it’s pretty clear that this election was a huge win for the Koch Brothers and their gang of billionaires…and BIG OIL.
Chapter 2: Russia? Trump was clearly aware of a Russian connection during the campaign…
The fog begins to clear as Rex Tillerson is nominated as Secretary of State. Tillerson is a huge Russian sympathizer and friend of Putin. Remember how much praise Trump has for Putin? Now….
Remember Dick Cheney? Well guess who’s back in the game. Here’s the guy who ran the George W. presidency from the VP Office; who brought us endless WAR and fracking and on and on. His job is to ensure that Tillerson gets the job -and- lifts sanctions against Russia. It’s all explained here:
Politico article By Eliana Johnson on 12/16/16 01:44 PM EST:
www.politico.com/...
Just a quick quote to summarize:
During the campaign, Donald Trump trashed the hawkish foreign policy of the second Bush White House. But now, he and his team are relying on the man most closely identified with that regime — Dick Cheney — to help ensure that Rex Tillerson is confirmed next year as Trump's secretary of state.
As Republicans have voiced reservations about Tillerson’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Cheney — himself a former oil executive, a longtime Tillerson friend, and perhaps the country’s most famous foreign policy hawk — is serving as a bridge between the Trump team and skeptical Republican senators.
Chapter 3: And the money trail leads to…All of the above!
(An old saying goes: if there are two plausible scenarios / parties / causal agents / motivations, it might just be both of them)
The following article by Alex Stephen, posted on Medium.com, cements the elements and provides a clear motivation for all parties to make Trump the 45th president. In many ways, the parody last Saturday on SNL was exactly correct: it’s all about oil and removing the sanctions against Russia for their transgressions in the Ukraine.
The article is, to me, a must read for anyone who wishes to understand the world today. It assembles a host of timely political and economic elements of our times that I’ve not heard from one source before. It’s well written. It presents a comprehension that I believe is vitally important. If you’ve read Pepe Escobar’s Pipelineistan, this will all be much clearer. (and, if you’ve not read this book, here’s another highly recommended read)
Link to the article that is the MAIN POINT OF THIS POST:
medium.com/...
I can’t do it justice, but my best shot at a synopsis is:
- Within the last few years, international banks realized that if Climate Change demands that we leave the oil in the ground, then all those petro assets are worthless.
- We’ve reached the critical stage in international Climate awareness wherein a huge host of national governments have signed on to the Paris Accords.
- There is now a comprehensible “carbon bubble’ that could burst and devalue all the petro assets.
- The bursting of that bubble is perilously close at hand. As soon as a petro-free future is visible, as in real climate action and implementation of renewables on a global scale, and “POP”…
- So the denial game (aka Exxon, Koch Brothers, et. al. obfuscation and denial) just got a huge kick in the pants to back-peddle climate science and climate action.
- Russia is a petro economy. They have strong business ties with Exxon and the Koch Brothers, who all want to see the bubble continue for as many years as possible.
- Exxon, and Tillerson, are the biggest players in Russian oil.
- Russia is suffering under the economic sanctions; Exxon and Tillerson will help them get these lifted; and the Koch brother’s influence in our government will ensure it happens soon.
- It’s Soup! Plenty of financial motivations for collusion. The Koch brothers kept a low profile and worked on the “down ballot” candidates. States where Republican control is strong, like Michigan, successfully suppressed the vote just enough. Even the FBI gets into the act.
And finally, just to cement the evidence
Chapter 4: The plan in action – Exxon helps defeat US sanctions against Russia.
www.politico.com/...
Implementation of the plan; get Rex, with support from Cheney, to pressure Congress to lift sanctions against Russia. Objective number one will be done.
Conclusion: I seriously believe that history will show that the NRC, Russia, and the Koch machine were all complicit in rigging this election for Trump. They all had the capability, they all stood to profit, and the national stage was ripe. Did the Donald know what was happening? Was he scripted? Does it matter? If you are using Machiavellian techniques, as Trump and the Republicans surely are, then the first to say that the election is rigged is provably the one who’s rigging the election.
That was Trump; and behind him were...
We all thought we were going through an election cycle. It seems more like a Coup D’etat.