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hatrack

(59,442 posts)
Fri May 22, 2020, 08:51 AM May 2020

Shocked, Shocked! Same Think Tanks That Took Fossil Money For Climate Lies Now Pushing COVID Lies

EDIT

In Wisconsin, where people have protested against a stay-at-home order, the Koch-backed group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) filed an amicus brief with the state supreme court challenging the authority of the governor and the health department to continue to require people to stay home without sign-off from the Republican-controlled legislature. The court last week struck down the state’s order, calling it a “vast seizure of power”.

Charles Koch, the 20th-richest billionaire in the world, runs Koch Industries, which is involved in oil operations and energy-intensive industries. He and his late brother, David, have funded a network of conservative thinktanks. Phil Kerpen, a Koch political operative, has argued that lockdowns are “unscientific”, and “medieval” and don’t save lives. Kerpen is president of American Commitment, a group that through 2016 has received at least $6.9m from Freedom Partners, which is partially funded by the Kochs, according to DeSmog. He was previously vice-president of AFP until 2012.

EDIT

The Washington Post has reported that the Convention of States, a project launched in 2015 with money from the family foundation of the billionaire Republican donor Robert Mercer, has helped to coordinate activism against the stay-at-home orders around the country. The conservative thinktank the Manhattan Institute – which over the years has taken at least $1m from ExxonMobil through 2018, according to the environment group Greenpeace USA, as well as $3.2m from Koch foundations and $2.2m from the Mercer Family Foundation – has published commentary questioning the value of shutdowns.

The Daily Caller, a news organization that has received $3.5m through 2017 from Koch foundations through its non-profit, has run articles suggesting Democrats want to kill the economy to keep Trump from getting re-elected. “The mainstream media, which works for the Democrat party, wanted us shut down more, and for longer,” said opinion contributor Ron Hart.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/21/groups-fossil-fuel-funding-urge-states-reopen-amid-pandemic

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Shocked, Shocked! Same Think Tanks That Took Fossil Money For Climate Lies Now Pushing COVID Lies (Original Post) hatrack May 2020 OP
The conservative billionaire agenda is truly monstrous. NoMoreRepugs May 2020 #1
Wealthy families used to have foundations that helped people CanonRay May 2020 #2
Merchants of Doubt exboyfil May 2020 #3
We can have concentrations of wealth, or democracy - Justice Brandeis empedocles May 2020 #4

CanonRay

(14,038 posts)
2. Wealthy families used to have foundations that helped people
Fri May 22, 2020, 09:13 AM
May 2020

built libraries, funded science research, funded historical research and archaeological digs. Now they fund shit to fuck people up.

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