Uranium Mining Is Coming To The Grand Canyon, If Koch-Backed Group Gets Its Way

A dark money group backed by Charles and David Koch is behind a well-funded effort to undermine protections at the Grand Canyon and overturn the Antiquities Act, the law President Teddy Roosevelt used to permanently protect the area in 1908. If successful, the campaign could stop a permanent ban on uranium mining near the canyon’s rim, despite support for such a ban by a vast majority of Arizonans....
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/03/02/3755751/kochs-uranium-mine-grand-canyon/

The Koch Brothers' Top Political Operative Just Went to Work for Marco Rubio

Here's why that's a big deal.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/02/marc-short-kochs-top-political-operative-jumps-rubio

Top operative for Koch brothers will join Marco Rubio's campaign

A key player in the Koch brothers' inner political circle will work directly on Sen. Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign, bringing deep connections to the brothers' vast network of donors and experience helping oversee their sophisticated political operation...
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/02/23/top-operative-koch-brothers-join-marco-rubios-campaign/80799762/

The Koch Brothers Are Now Funding The Bundy Land Seizure Agenda | ThinkProgress

The political network of the conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch signaled last week that it is expanding its financial and organizational support for a coalition of anti-government activists and militants who are working to seize and sell America’s national forests, monuments, and other public lands...
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/02/11/3748602/koch-brothers-funding-bundy-agenda/

How the Kochs Are Writing America's Story Through Wealth and Power — and What Progressives Can Do to Counter It

One side fights against collectivism. The other, against inequality. For the latter to win, the government must protect and provide for all...
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/how-kochs-are-writing-americas-story-through-wealth-and-power-and-what

Who's Funding Voter Suppression? | Al Jazeera America

Web of conservative funding groups lines up behind key voting rights Supreme Court case...
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2016/2/12/whos-funding-voter-suppression.html

Keystone XL May Be Dead, But Oil Companies Are Still Trying To Seize Americans’ Land For Pipelines

As it first announced in 2014, the company wants to build a pipeline that would transport oil from North Dakota’s oil-rich Bakken Formation, to a market hub located near Patoka, Illinois...
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/02/09/3747286/bakken-pipeline-eminent-domain/

How Dark Money Stays Dark: The Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson and the Right's Destructive Racket

Internal memos reveal the slimy tactics political donors use to hide their campaign contributions from the public.
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/how-dark-money-stays-dark-koch-brothers-sheldon-adelson-and-rights-destructive-racket

Koch Brothers' Propaganda Pushes Economic Pain on All But the Very Rich

Campaign finance reform is a hot topic this election, and the Kochs' ideology is a threat to that progressive turn.
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/koch-brothers-propaganda-pushes-economic-pain-all-very-rich

Can the Koch Brothers Stop Trump? | Vanity Fair

“Everything is on the table,” says one source. That includes sitting out 2016.
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/02/koch-brothers-take-on-trump

This Is How Much the Koch Brothers Hate Donald Trump

If Trump performs poorly in New Hampshire, the Koch network may be able to avoid a damaging showdown. But if he wins, it may already be too late to halt the runaway Trump train, especially if there's no Trump-targeting campaign in the can. So what happens if Trump seizes the nomination? Here's where things get very interesting...
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2016/02/koch-brothers-have-donald-trump-problem

'Hidden History' Of Koch Brothers Traces Their Childhood And Political Rise (Terry Gross, Fresh Air)

"These are the groups that are called 'dark money groups,' and they thus become kind of secret banks that affect American politics in a huge way without most people understanding who is behind them."
Interview:
http://www.npr.org/2016/01/19/463565987/hidden-history-of-koch-brothers-traces-their-childhood-and-political-rise

The Road to the White House Begins in Iowa, But Is It Already Sold to Wealthy Donors?

Spending by so-called "dark money" groups—political super PACs and other organizations who can hide their funders—is already far ahead of previous election cycles, with estimates it could reach up to half a billion dollars. Outside spending has surged since the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which removed limits on campaign spending by ruling that donor money is a form of free speech. We are joined by The Intercept reporter Lee Fang, who’s been following the money trail, from the politicians at the podiums to the money in the shadows.
https://youtu.be/fwiXlDZcLZM

Marco Rubio Is Ready And Willing To Let Florida Drown

Marco Rubio still doesn’t think that human activity is responsible for climate change, even as his home state of Florida braces for utter destruction as a result.

Rubio, who represents the climate change-imperiled state of Florida in the U.S. Senate, has taken a lot of heat for denying the role that humans are playing in climate change, but at the same time, he has received partial credit for acknowledging that the climate is changing. Rubio’s semantic trickery is not an admission that he believes in climate change. It is simply a tool that allows him to play both sides. He can construe his statement to “prove” that he accepts the reality of climate change, or he can downplay its meaning and say that he was referring to something as simple as weather patterns.

In either scenario, Rubio comes out the winner. His denial of the role of human beings will be forgotten quickly, and all that will remain on the record is his statement that the climate is always changing.
https://youtu.be/IFbnJJU7vFc

Henry A. Wallace, The Danger of American Fascism

A cautionary message from the 33rd Vice President of the United States...
http://newdeal.feri.org/wallace/haw23.htm

Koch-linked group blasts John Kasich in ad buy

“John Kasich — not a conservative. Not even a moderate. An Obama Republican,” the ad’s narrator says. The ad zeroes in on Kasich’s purported support of Common Core educational standards, Medicaid expansion and tax increases...
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2016/1/28/koch-linked-group-blasts-john-kasich-in-ad-buy.html

How The One Percent Reshaped Democracy In Their Image

It’s no secret that our democracy today is owned by large corporations and the wealthy elite. And for most Americans coming of age today, this is simply how things have always been. But rest assured – this is not how the government has always been run.
https://youtu.be/B0JymEu4VrE

Terrified Republicans Try One Final Time To Derail Trump’s Insane Campaign

A week out, and Donald Trump is still in the lead, with Ted Cruz in a distant second. This comes as no surprise to anyone who’s looked at a poll in the last two months, but it isn’t what the Republican establishment wanted to see a week before the first caucus.

Like most of us, the Republican establishment never imagined that Donald Trump would make it this far in his campaign. They assumed that Jeb Bush would be the frontrunner and that the race would basically be over before voters in Iowa even made it to the polls. But as we’ve explained in the past, the establishment grossly underestimated their own base – a base that they lost touch with when the Tea Party burst onto the scene with the help of the Koch brothers.
https://youtu.be/ccBvL2-7E0k

What is political 'dark money' — and is it bad?

Secret cash is influencing elections. Here’s how...
http://www.publicintegrity.org/node/19156

How secret donations influence US elections

The two most common vehicles for dark money are politically active nonprofits and corporate entities, such as limited liability companies. Certain politically active nonprofits — notably those formed under sections 501(c)(4) and 501(c)(6) of the tax code — are generally not required to publicly disclose their donors. And limited liability companies formed in states such as Delaware and Wyoming are essentially black boxes through which donors can make secret donations to super PACs or to intervene directly in election campaigns...
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2016/1/20/how-secret-donations-influence-us-elections.html