Also, according to Wikipedia, former California governor Gray Davis was William Rhodes Davis's grandson.
On Mon, Jan 11, 2016 at 10:26 PM, Tom Walker <[email protected]> wrote: > William Rhodes Davis appears to have been a bit more than a Nazi > "sympathizer." According to Wikipedia, captured Nazi documents released > by the U.S. govt. in 1957 showed that Davis "funneled Nazi funds into the > 1940 U.S. elections." Davis also funded a radio address against Roosevelt > during the 1940 election by United Mine Workers and CIO president, John L. > Lewis, > > On Mon, Jan 11, 2016 at 6:15 PM, Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote: > >> NY Times, Jan. 11 2016 >> Father of Koch Brothers Helped Build Nazi Oil Refinery, Book Says >> By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE >> >> The father of the billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch helped >> construct a major oil refinery in Nazi Germany that was personally >> approved by Adolf Hitler, according to a new history of the Kochs and >> other wealthy families. >> >> The book, “Dark Money,” by Jane Mayer, traces the rise of the modern >> conservative movement through the activism and money of a handful of >> rich donors: among them Richard Mellon Scaife, an heir to the Mellon >> banking fortune, and Harry and Lynde Bradley, brothers who became >> wealthy in part from military contracts but poured millions into >> anti-government philanthropy. >> >> But the book is largely focused on the Koch family, stretching back to >> its involvement in the far-right John Birch Society and the political >> and business activities of the father, Fred C. Koch, who found some of >> his earliest business success overseas in the years leading up to World >> War II. One venture was a partnership with the American Nazi sympathizer >> William Rhodes Davis, who, according to Ms. Mayer, hired Mr. Koch to >> help build the third-largest oil refinery in the Third Reich, a critical >> industrial cog in Hitler’s war machine >> The episode is not mentioned in an online history published by Koch >> Industries, the company that Mr. Koch later founded and passed on to his >> sons. >> >> Ken Spain, a spokesman for Koch Industries, said company officials had >> declined to participate in Ms. Mayer’s book and had not yet read it. >> >> “If the content of the book is reflective of Ms. Mayer’s previous >> reporting of the Koch family, Koch Industries or Charles’s and David’s >> political involvement, then we expect to have deep disagreements and >> strong objections to her interpretation of the facts and their >> sourcing,” Mr. Spain said. >> >> Ms. Mayer, a staff writer at The New Yorker, presents the Kochs and >> other families as the hidden and self-interested hands behind the rise >> and growth of the modern conservative movement. Philanthropists and >> political donors who poured hundreds of millions of dollars into think >> tanks, political organizations and scholarships, they helped win >> acceptance for anti-government and anti-tax policies that would protect >> their businesses and personal fortunes, she writes, all under the guise >> of promoting the public interest. >> >> The Kochs, the Scaifes, the Bradleys and the DeVos family of Michigan >> “were among a small, rarefied group of hugely wealthy, archconservative >> families that for decades poured money, often with little public >> disclosure, into influencing how the Americans thought and voted,” the >> book says. >> >> Many of the families owned businesses that clashed with environmental or >> workplace regulators, come under federal or state investigation, or >> waged battles over their tax bills with the Internal Revenue Service, >> Ms. Mayer reports. The Kochs’ vast political network, a major force in >> Republican politics today, was “originally designed as a means of >> off-loading the costs of the Koch Industries environmental and >> regulatory fights onto others” by persuading other rich business owners >> to contribute to Koch-controlled political groups, Ms. Mayer writes, >> citing an associate of the two brothers. >> >> Mr. Scaife, who died in 2014, donated upward of a billion dollars to >> conservative causes, according to “Dark Money,” which cites his own >> unpublished memoirs. Mr. Scaife was driven in part, Ms. Mayer writes, by >> a tax loophole that granted him his inheritance tax free through a >> trust, so long as the trust donated its net income to charity for 20 >> years. “Isn’t it grand how tax law gets written?” Mr. Scaife wrote. >> >> In Ms. Mayer’s telling, the Kochs helped bankroll — through a skein of >> nonprofit organizations with minimal public disclosure — decades of >> victories in state capitals and in Washington, often leaving no >> fingerprints. She credits groups financed by the Kochs and their allies >> with providing support for the Tea Party movement, along with the public >> relations strategies used to shrink public support for the Affordable >> Care Act and for President Obama’s proposals to mitigate climate change. >> >> The Koch network also provided funding to fine-tune budget proposals >> from Representative Paul D. Ryan, such as cuts to Social Security, so >> they would be more palatable to voters, according to the book. The Kochs >> were so influential among conservative lawmakers, Ms. Mayer reports, >> that in 2011, Representative John A. Boehner, then the House speaker, >> visited David Koch to ask for his help in resolving a debt ceiling >> stalemate. >> >> “Dark Money” also contains revelations from a private history of the >> Kochs commissioned by David’s twin brother, William, during a lengthy >> legal battle with Charles and David over control of Koch Industries. >> >> Ms. Mayer describes a sealed 1982 deposition in which William Koch >> recalled participating in an attempt by Charles and David to blackmail >> their fourth and eldest brother, Frederick, into relinquishing any claim >> to the family business by threatening to tell their father that he was >> gay. >> >> David Koch has since described himself as socially liberal and as a >> supporter of same-sex marriage. >> _______________________________________________ >> pen-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >> > > > > -- > Cheers, > > Tom Walker (Sandwichman) > -- Cheers, Tom Walker (Sandwichman)
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