Koch Network, Charlie Baker and Transportation

Koch Network, Charlie Baker and Transportation

1. Charlie Baker was one of the founders of the Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based libertarian think tank. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Baker
2. Pioneer Institute Lies about MBTA. Transportation Union objects
3. The Politically-Driven, Koch-Backed Campaign to Undermine Boston Transit Baker inflates absenteeism. 
4. How the Koch Brothers Are Killing Public Transit Projects Around the Country "Americans for Prosperity (AFP), which is financed by the oil billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch .. ". They use a ..."data service built by the Kochs, called i360, that helps them identify and rally voters ..".  "Early polling ...suggested that the $5.4 billion transit plan would easily pass." In a few months AFP had defeated the plan. The Koch conglomerate is a large producer of gasoline and asphalt. They are pushing driverless vehicles, claiming they give Americans the freedom they want.
5. The Koch brothers hate public transit. But they can’t always stop projects in their tracks The Koch network focuses on conservative cities.
6. Uber and the Koch unite in their animosity towards Mass Transit. "rideshare corporations and oil tycoons share a financial interest in a car-centric future". "Uber, together with its main competitor Lyft, boasted more lobbyists in 2016 than Amazon, Microsoft and Walmart combined". 
7. Kochs Mobilize to Kill Public Transit Plans "Americans for Prosperity counters that public transit plans waste taxpayer money on unpopular, outdated technology like trains and buses just as the world is moving toward cleaner, driverless vehicles." Americans for Prosperity is a Koch Network  "propaganda" machine.

Frank kashner - unchaindemocracy.org

http://unchaindemocracy.org/ his page on Koch

Charlie Baker - How two Republican governors in bright blue states will survive the blue wave

How two Republican governors in bright blue states will survive the blue wave

From American Exercise Institute.

Environmental Governor Needed!

Environmental Governor Needed! Your help is vital!

gailhampshire from Cradley, Malvern, U.K [CC BY 2.0]

Social Animals, like the dark, go where other cockroaches are, consume and multiply.

Putting an environmentalist in the governor's office will help us achieve 350's goals. Governor Baker is a barrier to progress. Being apolitical is often associated with environmentalist. I believe big money has been used to manipulate would be environmental activists to be politically passive. Environmentalists must get involved with political activities if they are going to save the planet. We are in the 11th hour. Loss of the Amazon represents 30% or our oxygen production. Unions are powerful political players. We need to emulate them.

Our Republican governor is more popular with Democrats. Wait, what?
"Still, it’s notable that Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican seeking a second term in November, had a higher job approval rating with independents and Democrats, 76 percent and 71 percent, respectively, than he did with Republicans, 59 percent of whom gave him high marks in a recent poll from Suffolk University and The Boston Globe."

"This matters given that a Morning Consult poll last month found Massachusetts to be the most anti-Trump state in the nation." " Massachusetts likely voters surveyed said Baker is anti-Trump,"

There is a nagging feeling that Governor Baker is not on our side. Why is that? It helps to understand Baker's connection to the Koch Network.

I first got interested in the Koch network after reading "Democracy in Chains" by by Nancy MacLean. I helped a friend, Frank Kashner, set up: 

http://unchaindemocracy.org/. The site shows 85 Koch organizations. Climate change denial is an important activity for the Kochs.

Charlie Baker on Wikipedia. "In the late 1980s, Baker was hired as co director of the newly founded "Pioneer Institute", part of the State Policy Network.

EXPOSED: The State Policy Network  The Powerful Right-Wing Network Helping to Hijack State Politics and Government

Exposed How Rights State Based Think Tanks Are Transforming Us Politics

Affiliate: Pioneer Institute, Massachusetts, 185 Devonshire Street Unit 1101 Boston, MA 02110 Phone: 6177232277. Contact: Micaela Dawson

What does the Koch Network want? David Koch ran for president in 1980 as a Libertarian. This was his platform: End all of the following:
• Aid to the poor
• All Taxation
• Department of Energy
• Department of Transportation
• Medical insurance regulation
• Environmental Protection Agency
• Federal Aviation Administration
• Federal Election Commission
• Food and Drug Administration
• Medicare and Medicaid
• Minimum Wage Laws
• Obamacare
• Public highways and railroads and waterways
• Public Schools
• Social Security
• Support for Abortion Services
• US Postal Service
• Welfare

But they are keeping the police and prisons! They believe in meritocracy, except when it applies to their relatives and friends. No estate tax for them.

Baker made secret trip to conservative meeting. By Jim O’Sullivan Globe Staff,March 16, 2016, 6:53 p.m. Baker’s trip took him to Sea Island, home to posh resorts, for the so-called World Forum, an elite, off-the-record gathering of right-leaning power brokers hosted by the American Enterprise Institute. The American Enterprise Institute's head of energy studies, Benjamin Zycher, has suggested there is doubt about man-made climate change: [5]

“The issue of the climate sensitivity of the atmosphere to increasing GHG concentrations is nowhere near resolution.”  ref: https://www.desmogblog.com/american-enterprise-institute

The Politically-Driven, Koch-Backed Campaign to Undermine Boston Transit"MBTA has its flaws, the charges against it don’t stem from a good government campaign so much as an ideologically-driven assault, filled with exaggerations and lies and backed by groups affiliated with the Koch brothers"

https://www.politicalresearch.org/2016/11/18/privatizing-massachusetts. Privatizing Massachusetts, The Right-Wing’s Blue State Game Plan

Baker Keeps a low profile How two Republican governors in bright blue states will survive the blue wave

THREAT TO PUBLIC EDUCATIONNOW CENTERSON MASSACHUSETTS "Governor Charlie Baker has made charter expansion a top priority, mirroring his privatization efforts involving transportation and other public services. Baker vows to hold the line on taxes despite the myriad unmet needs that persist year after year for our public schools, colleges and universities, as well as for early childhood education. Make no mistake: The governor remains faithful to a hard-line conservative ideology even as he puts forth a moderate front."

References:
Income Inequality
desmog database of deniers

Pioneer Institute, Kochs and Charlie Baker

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Pioneer_Institute_for_Public_Policy_Research
Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research
PI is a "partner organization" in the Charles Koch Institute's Liberty@Work program.
Former PI Executive Director Charlie Baker Takes Office as Governor of Massachusetts.

The Politically-Driven, Koch-Backed Campaign to Undermine Boston Transit

The Politically-Driven, Koch-Backed Campaign to Undermine Boston Transit"MBTA has its flaws, the charges against it don’t stem from a good government campaign so much as an ideologically-driven assault, filled with exaggerations and lies and backed by groups affiliated with the Koch brothers"

Gov. Baker was an executive director of PI

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Pioneer_Institute_for_Public_Policy_Research

Former PI Executive Director Charlie Baker Takes Office as Governor of Massachusetts

On January 8, 2015, Charlie Baker (R) was inaugurated as Governor of the state of Massachusetts.^[11] Gov. Baker was an executive director of PI for many years and the organization highlighted this on its website on the day he assumed office, "Our confidence stems in part from the fact that the new Governor was one of this organization’s first executive directors, and played a role in a number of research initiatives since that time. Our founder, the late Lovett C. “Pete” Peters, is surely smiling down on today’s Inauguration with a great deal of pride."^[11] 

^{www.sourcewatch.org}

Well that's pretty obvious.

Koch Network

ENLIST DONORS to amass a fortune to fund the effort:
• Institute for Free Speech  (Formerly: Center for Competitive Politics)
• Club for Growth Donors Trust
• Freedom Partners
• Koch seminar network (the semi-annual donor summit) The Seminar Network
• Philanthropy Roundtable

DEVISE STRATEGY, POLICY, AND TACTICS for each stage of the plan:
•American Enterprise Institute
•Americans for Tax Reform
•Cato Institute
•Heritage Foundation
•Mont Pelerin Society
•National Center for Policy Analysis (2017 extinct)
•Reason Foundation

RECRUIT AND TRAIN LARGE NUMBERS OF OPERATIVES to carry out the agenda:
• Bill of Rights Institute
• Charles Koch Foundation
• Institute for Humane Studies (indoctrination  attendance is mandatory at all activities
• Leadership Institute
• Liberty Central
• Liberty Fund
• Mercatus Center (George Mason University)
• Young Americans for Liberty

GET CONTROL OF A MAJORITY OF THE STATES and use that power to change the rules virally:
•American Legislative Exchange Council
•Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity
•Mercatus Center’s State and Local Policy Project
•State Policy Network (153 member organizations in 49 states, Puerto Rico, & D.C.)

BREAK THE POWER OF THOSE WHO MOST EFFECTIVELY BLOCK YOUR AGENDA:
•Capital Research Center
•Center for Individual Rights
• Citizens United (the organization behind the court case)
• National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation
•Project Veritas

CONSTRICT THE ELECTORATE:
•Project on Fair Representation
•Organizations listed in other categories also involved:
•Americans for Prosperity
•American Legislative Exchange Council
•State Policy Network

CREATE RIVAL IDENTITY-BASED GROUPS that exploit media “balance”:
• Association of Mature Americans
• Concerned Veterans of America
• Generation Opportunity
• Independent Women’s Forum
• Libre Initiative (aimed at Latinos)
• (Also, lay groundwork among African Americans through contributions to the United Negro College Fund, Thurgood Marshall Fund, etc.)

SPREAD MISINFORMATION to advance the agenda where otherwise losing:
• Center to Protect Patient Rights
• Citizens against Government Waste
• Competitive Enterprise Institute climate change denier
• Heartland Institute
• Independent Institute
• Judicial Watch

SACRALIZE THE AGENDA by cultivating religious allies
• Americans United for Life
• Council for National Policy
•Concerned Women for America
•Faith and Freedom Coalition
•Focus on the Family
•National Right to Life
•Susan B. Anthony List

CREATE A GRASSROOTS PROXY ARMY— for pincer action with donors pressing from above:
Americans for Prosperity
• Heritage Action
• i360 (data analytics company with “a database of over 250 million 18+ adults” sourced from “multiple consumer data compilers.”)
• National Taxpayers Union
• Stand Together

TRANSFORM HIGHER EDUCATION, to undermine its obstruction and gain legitimacy:
• American Council of Trustees and Alumni
• Campus Reform
• Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
• Turning Point USA
• Campus base camps at GMU, Florida State University, Arizona State University, and others (Charles Koch Foundation now investing on over 350 campuses)

TURN GOP INTO A DISCIPLINED DELIVERY VEHICLE by using “the accountability play” of primary challenges to enforce compliance:
• Americans for Tax Reform
• Club for Growth
• Freedom Partners
• National Taxpayers Union

CHANGE THE LAW, THE JUDICIARY, AND CONSTITUTIONAL UNDERSTANDING to entrench the
agenda:
• Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies
• Cause of Action Institute
• Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies
• Federalist Society
• Institute for Justice

• Judicial Crisis Network
• Judicial Watch
• Landmark Legal Foundation
• Project on Fair Representation
• Rule of Law Defense Fund
• Scalia School of Law, GMU
• Washington Legal Foundation

MOVE THE AGENDA INTERNATIONALLY, FOR LASTING, GLOBAL SUCCESS:
• Antigua Forum
• Atlas Network – 457 partner organization members operating in 95 nations
• Fund for American Studies
• Mont Pelerin Society
• Students for Liberty

—– Compiled by Nancy MacLean, mid-2018. Note that this is a work in progress and may not fully comprehensive (particularly of education-related efforts). Comments and suggestions welcome

Counter Koch Network

Interrelated Organizations that Counter the Koch Network (Reference Page)

NOTE: this is not a complete list, just groups we know about. Please write to us with additions or corrections.

BUILD DONOR NETWORK

• AFL-CIO, NEA, SEIU, etc?
• Democracy Alliance and Committee on States?
• Progressive foundations

DEVISE STRATEGY, POLICY, AND TACTICS for each stage of the plan:

• Center for American Progress
• Center for Economic and Policy Research
• Center for Media & Democracy
• Checks and Balances Project
• Color of Change
• Demos
• Economic Policy Institute
• Institute for New Economic Thinking
• In the Public Interest
• Institute for Policy Studies
• Institute for Women’s Policy Institute
• Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
• National Employment Law Project
• Political Research Associates

RECRUIT & TRAIN TALENT TO CARRY OUT AGENDA

• Roosevelt Institute
• Scholars Strategy Network
• Scholars for Social Justice
• Union Summer*
• UnKoch My Campus

ORGANIZE TO REGAIN STATE-LEVEL & LOCAL POWER & PROMOTE SELF-REINFORCING POLICY

• ALICE*
• Center for Popular Democracy
• Committee on States
• EARN
• Jobs to Move America
• Jobs with Justice
• LAANE, CCNE*, etc.
• Local Progress
• Our Revolution
• People’s Action
• State Innovation Exchange (SIX)
• State Priorities Partnership
• Unions
• Working Families Party

EXPAND THE ELECTORATE & DEFEND VOTING RIGHTS & PARTICIPATION

• AFL-CIO
• America Votes
• Brennan Center
• Campaign Legal Center
• Democracy Initiative
• Democracy North Carolina and equivalents elsewhere
• Every Voice
• Indivisible
• League of Women Voters
• MoveOn
• NAACP
• Our Revolution
• Working Families Party

DE- SACRALIZE THE RIGHT’S AGENDA by cultivating religious allies & advance a pro-public one

• Faith in Action
• Faith Partnerships*
• Interfaith Worker Justice
• National Council of Churches
• Repairers of the Breach

EXPOSE THE KOCH CONTERFEIT RIVALS OF PROGRESSIVE GROUPS to media & rally originals

• AARP
• Generation Opportunity: United States Student Association, etc.
• Independent Women’s Forum: IWPR, Ms. Foundation, NOW, NARAL, PP, etc.
• Libre: National Council of La Raza, MALDEF

USE WEDGE ISSUES TO BREAK UP THE KOCH PHALANX AND PEAL OFF THEIR SUPPORTERS

• Faith groups and leaders – enlist National Council of Churches etc. to convey the libertarian ethical agenda
• Veterans administration privatization – Concerned Veterans of America pushing for privatization of VA against all the venerable, real vet groups, including VFW and AL.
• Corporate interests and investors hurt by climate change (agriculture, green energy, insurance, tourism, etc.)
• AARP – expose stealth bid to privatize Social Security and Medicare
• Common sense gun control – organize union veterans and hunters against the NRA?
• Environment – strong majorities of Republican voters, too, still support protection of air and water quality, western lands and monuments, etc., so expose what the GOP is trying to do quietly and administratively

DOCUMENT KNOWING MISINFORMATION FOR THE KOCH AGENDA TO EDITORIAL BOARDS

• Brennan Center
• Climate Investigations
• DeSmog Blog
• Greenpeace
• Public Citizen
• Sierra Club
• Southern Poverty Law Center
• UnKoch My Campus

SUPPORT MEDIA THAT DO OR COULD EXPOSE AND COUNTER FOX, BREITBART, & THE REST

• Association of Alternative Newsweeklies
• Center for Media and Democracy
• DeSmog Blog & international contacts (e.g. on Mont Pelerin Society & Atlas Network)
• Little Sis
• Etc.

DEFEND HIGHER EDUCATION BY EXPOSING THE DONOR GAMBIT TO RUIN IT

• AAUP
• AAUW
• AFT
• NAACP youth groups
• NEA
• PIRGs
• Students against Sweatshops (United Students Against Sweatshops?)
• UnKoch My Campus
• United States Student Association (Facebook)

USE VOTER ACTION & PROGRESSIVE DONOR INFLUENCE TO KEEP DEMOCRATS HONEST AND ACCOUNTABLE TO VOTERS AND “MUST-HAVE” PRO-DEMOCRACY STRUCTURAL REFORMS

• Ballot Initiative Strategy Center
• Center for Popular Democracy
• Climate Hawks
• Indivisible
• League of Women Voters
• Our Revolution
• Working Families Party

THWART THE ARTICLE V CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION & ENGAGE PUBLIC INTEREST LAWYERS AND PROGRESSIVE LAW SCHOOL FACULTY TO DEVISE LEGAL STRATEGY TO BETTER PROMOTE DEMOCRACY

• ACLU
• American Constitution Society
• Common Cause
• End Citizens United
• Equal Justice Initiative
• League of Women Voters
• Public Citizen
• Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law
• [various law schools’ legal clinics]

BUILD GLOBAL INFO EXCHANGES & RELATIONSHIPS TO BLOCK “EXIT THREATS” & LIFT FLOORS

• Amnesty International
• EU folks dealing with Brexit, etc.
• Greenpeace
• International Consortium of Investigative Journalists [Panama Papers team]
• SEIU and other unions forging international partnerships
• Solidarity House
• Tax Justice Network
• Tri-continental

**** other possible state and local partners at Field Guide to the Democracy Movement: http://www.fieldguidetodemocracy.org/

*Could not find or too many choices

Book Review of “Democracy in Chains”

Rod Kessler and Frank Kashner

July 22, 2019

Democracy in Chains, by Nancy MaClean, examines how the Radical Right Billionaire Class threatens  American life, the environment and our children’s future.

The book explores some dark and scary corridors of U.S. political history. It was published in 2017. It is a readable and well-researched. “Democracy…” traces the origins and expansion of America’s most extreme and powerful political right. 

The author, Nancy MacLean, is an award-winning author and professor of History and Public Policy at Duke. In her book, she reveals how various political operators subvert our institutions without the public’s knowledge. Economists Milton Friedman and James McGill Buchanan are ...
Click to read the entire document

Land Degradation from stevenlevymath

Tags: Math, science, climate change, graph, college, environment, videoscribe, animation

Narration: This is Steven Levy and this is stevenlevymath. This Video is about land degradation.

Narration: The data for this video came from the UN's report "Livestock's Long Shadow" unless stated other wise, 

Reference: "Livestock's Long Shadow" from the UN, page 29 to 30.

Reference:
Per wikipedia: total earth surface=510, water 361, land 149 in millions of sq. km.

Narration: According to Wikipedia, the Surface area of the earth: 510 million sq km. Water is 361 and land is 149 square km.

Narration: According to Wikipedia, arable land 19 million sq km, Pasture is 39, Forest is 48. And urban is 2 million sq km.

Reference, Wikipedia: Land: arable land is13% (19 km sq), pasture 26% (39), forest 32% (48), urban 1.5% (2).

Narration: 10.9 million sq km is degraded by water, 5.5 by wind, 2.4 by chemical, and 0.8 is physical.


Advanced Image Search: https://www.google.com/advanced_image_searchI used this site to find images in Creative Commons.

Here's how I attributed works:
NAME_OF_WORK=
AUTHOR_NAME=
AUTHOR_EMAIL=
URL_OF_WORK=
FILE_NAME=
UPLOAD_DATE=
LICENSE=under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0. Full terms at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0.

Photos I used:
===========

Narration: Water does the most damage.
Degraded by Water
NAME_OF_WORK=Houghall Farm, Severe & Catastrophic Erosion

AUTHOR_NAME=Trevor Littlewood
AUTHOR_EMAIL=http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/39198
URL_OF_WORK=http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/01/41/56/1415690_9cd09683.jpg
LICENSE=under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.
Full terms at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0.

Narration: Wind strips the topsoil.
Degraded by Wind
NAME_OF_WORK=Dust storm approaching Stratford, Texas. Dust Bowl surveying in Texas
AUTHOR_NAME=NOAA George E. Marsh Album
AUTHOR_EMAIL=coastsurveycommunications@noaa.gov
URL_OF_WORK=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Dust-storm-Texas-1935.png
LICENSE=under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.
Full terms at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0.

 
Narration: Chemical pollution is expensive to repair.
Degraded by Chemicals
NAME_OF_WORK=red water pollution

AUTHOR_NAME=Auckland Council,Auckland,Australia
AUTHOR_EMAIL=http://aucklandcouncil.custhelp.com/app/ask
URL_OF_WORK=http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/environmentwaste/pollution/Pages/home.aspx
LICENSE=under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.
Full terms at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0.

Narration: Mining operations cause physical degradation.
Physical Degradation
Strip coal mining By Stephen Codrington, CC BY 2.5
NAME_OF_WORK=Strip coal mining
AUTHOR_NAME=Stephen Codrington
AUTHOR_EMAIL=
URL_OF_WORK=https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=221253
FILE_NAME=Strip coal mining.jpg
UPLOAD_DATE=12 July 2005
LICENSE=under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5. Full terms at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/



"Stop the Koch Brothers" by Free Press/ Free Press Action Fund licensed under CC 2.0