Koch Brothers, Worth $50 Billion, Sue Widow Over $16.00 of Nonprofit’s Stock
Secret Owners of Cato Institute Surface as Oil Billionaires Move to Take Control
With the Koch brothers, it’s all about control. They reign over
the largest private oil company in the U.S. with estimated revenues of
$100 billion. They wield power over a sprawling network of nonprofit
front groups with unbridled influence over everything from the Tea Party
to economics professors at publicly funded universities. Forbes lists
their personal wealth as $25 billion each. They own mansions in the
toniest towns in America. And last week, in a decidedly Scrooge-esque
maneuver, they filed a lawsuit against a widow who lost her husband to a
stroke a mere four months ago over stock she inherited in the Cato
Institute worth a measly $16.00.
Save Cato from the Koch brothers. . .on Facebook?
By Allen McDuffee
(Facebook via screengrab) I suppose it was just a matter of time before the lawsuit the Koch brothers filed to gain control of the Cato Institute took on an activist element. And that’s exactly what happened when, on Friday, a Save the Cato Institute Facebook page appeared.
Battle for control of Cato Institute highlights unusual structure
The Cato Institute, one of the largest think tanks in Washington, is governed by four people, each with a 25 percent stake in the organization. That stake can be bought and sold for cash under an arrangement, only legal in a handful of states, that is frowned upon by the Internal Revenue Service.
The incomplete media debate on Iran
Ehud Barak and President Barack Obama (Credit: AP)
On January 25, the New York Times Sunday Magazine published a lengthy article by Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman that conveyed the views of multiple Israeli officials about Iran in order to conclude that an Israeli attack is likely. That the entire article was filled with quotes from Israelis meant the piece served as a justification for such an attack while masquerading as a news story about whether the attack would happen. Indeed, the very first paragraph contained this bit of manipulative melodrama: “‘This is not about some abstract concept,’ [Israeli Defense Minister Ehud] Barak said as he gazed out at the lights of Tel Aviv, ‘but a genuine concern. The Iranians are, after all, a nation whose leaders have set themselves a strategic goal of wiping Israel off the map’.” Note that we are told that Barak uttered this article-shaping blatant falsehood “as he gazed out at the lights of Tel Aviv.” So solemn, contemplative and profound.
What Goes Around Comes Around. by Skip Oliva
History may
be repeating itself in the Koch vs. Cato battle, at least if you
believe the late Murray Rothbard’s account of his 1981 “purge”
as a Cato shareholder and director. A
1981 article in Rothbard’s Libertarian Forum essentially
portrays Ed Crane in much the same light that Crane and his allies
now portray Charles Koch. Only in Rothbard’s case, Crane and
Koch worked together to oust him.
Did Obama Let You Down? There’s Still Hope! by Bretigne Shaffer
Three years
ago, I wrote an article
in which I made some very specific predictions about the incoming
Obama administration. I wrote the piece in the form of a letter
to my pro-Obama friends and said that by the end of his term, Obama’s
administration would not look very different from that of George
W. Bush. I told them that if I was wrong about my predictions, I
would re-think all of my beliefs about our political system and
about politics generally, and if I turned out to be right, I asked
them to do the same.
I don’t know
if any of my friends took me up on my challenge – I’m guessing they
didn’t, since I never heard from any of them about it. But I do
know that many of them are disappointed in what Obama has done so
far, and that many are feeling hopeless about the upcoming election,
resigned to their belief that there is "no better alternative."
Incredibly, some of them plan to vote for Obama again.
Salaries: Dim Light, Long Tunnel. by Gary North
MarketWatch
ran an
article on the lack of optimism for the American job market.
It offered no analysis of why the market is bad, but it made it
clear that it is not likely to get better anytime soon.
The article
focused on the job market since 2008. It included a chart on salaries
since 1980. It has three categories: college graduates, high school
dropouts, and total. The chart reveals that there has not been
much improvement for a decade. The flat-lining of salaries began
a decade ago, not in 2008.
Conclusion:
things are a lot worse than the article reported.This flat-lining
is not simply a result of the recession of 2008-9. It is a long-term
condition.
The salaries
of workers have not changed much. The number of laborers employed
has. There are six million fewer people employed today than in
2007.
The Elite's Military Problem
US 'turns page on a decade of war' ... The United States is "turning the page on a decade of war", President Barack Obama
said, as he unveiled a major strategic review that will cut $489
billion in defence spending over the next ten years ... As the wars of
the September 11 era pass, Mr Obama said America should abandon its
traditional capability of fighting two major wars at once and focus on
becoming a "leaner and smarter" fighting force with an emphasis on
counter terrorism, reconnaissance, cyber warfare and maintaining a
nuclear deterrent. In a rare appearance in the Pentagon press briefing
room, Mr Obama however insisted that the US military would comfortably
maintain its military supremacy, with proposed spending still larger
than that of the next 10 countries combined. – UK Telegraph
Economy Squeezed As Debt Accelerates
– by Ron Paul
Dr. Ron Paul
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