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Sons of Wichita

How the Koch Brothers Became America's Most Powerful and Private Dynasty
voisjoe1
Jul 30, 2014voisjoe1 rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
This book is valuable for exploring the lives of one the wealthiest and most right-wing families in America. The four sons of Fred Koch (a founder of the right-wing John Birch Society), inherited his fortune, and their current, combined wealth is more than $75B. Three of the sons are in the oil, etc. industry, with the two wealthiest sons, David and Charles, spending 100’s of millions of dollars on think tanks and election campaigns with the goal of basically eliminating oil industry restrictions, reducing or eliminating taxs for the 1% and getting candidates favoring the 1% take over Congress and the Presidency. Their most famous organizations are the Cato Institute, the Americans for Prosperity, Freedom Works (ideological arm of the Tea Party), and the Mercatus Center of George Mason University. While 97% of the world’s scientists believe that oil and coal, etc. use by humans are a major cause of climate change, the Kochs and Exxon Mobile fund the 3% deniers. Unfortunately, the media then give the two sides equal time making many Americans believe the 3%, resulting in worse and worse climatic disasters each year. The Kochs have spent $67million in the last 15 years spreading their climate denying “theories.” The Kochs and their cohorts spent hundreds of millions of dollars in 2012 in their effort to elect Mitt Romney, who would surely have been lowering taxes on the 1% and allowing the proliferation of air and water pollution by the oil industry.