So what's up with the Koch brothers (watching the Newsroom)

[Martinus]

Ok the name of Soros and Trump has been mentioned here before as rich men with their fingers in US politics but I have never heard about the Koch brothers before the Newsroom and it seems they are real.

They own the Cato Institute (which has been quoted here many times) and have extensive funding connections to the tea party, but I don't recall anyone ever referring to them here.

What gives?

[The Brain]

We've talked about them.

[Martinus]

Ok.

[The Brain]

Ayup.

[Admiral Yi]

I missed the news about the Koch brothers buying the Cato Institute.

[Zanza]

They have been in the news for years now. I am sure they must have been mentioned here.

[Razgovory]

Their dad was a crazy John Birch society type (people who thought Dwight D. Eisenhower was a communist agent). who also helped the Soviets with their oil industry.  A company owned by the Koch Brothers was fined millions of dollars for stealing oil on US government land.

[Tamas]

Apparently, they are super-rich libertarians who (mistakenly) think they can control the right-wing mob for their own benefit.

[Tamas]

Oh, and I don't think you qualify as "rich man" if your finger is not in your country's politics.

[Zanza]

Oh, and I don't think you qualify as "rich man" if your finger is not in your country's politics.

[OttoVonBismarck]

Yes, they are totally real. Koch Industries is probably one of the largest (if not the) largest private companies in the United States, so each of them is worth over $20bn. Charles Koch originally founded the Cato Institute (it originally bore his name), but he is no longer heavily associated with it. His brother, David, is on the Cato Institute board of directors. The Kochs are definitely the major drivers behind the Cato Institute, but I believe it's technically a not-for-profit foundation so doesn't have shareholders or owners, but obviously big donors hold a lot of power in those sort of organizations.

Both Kochs give heavily to Tea Party type causes. Lots of people on the left argue the Tea Party is not a popular movement at all, but a manufactured movement fueled almost solely by Koch dollars, even going so far as to pay people to show up at protest rallies and etc. (I've never dug into that enough to judge its validity, but it seems like to me the Tea Party and its ideas fit in perfectly with fairly mainstream types of stupidity in this country so I tend to think it's legitimately got organic legs.)

I also think sort of like the brothers who founded Aldi, the Koch brothers while involved in the same stuff I think are personally estranged from each other and haven't spoken in years.

[OttoVonBismarck]

Also, there are actually four "Koch Brothers." The two that are by far the wealthiest and have like 40% stakes in Koch Industries are Charles and David, and they are the ones most commonly being talked about. Frederick Koch (the oldest brother) has never had too much to do with the company, but he did side with his youngest brother (William) in some battle over control of the company in the 70s/80s against the two middle brothers. The two middle brothers won, the oldest brother is sort of a socialite/art collector type that I've never heard being particularly involved in politics. The youngest brother is far less wealthy than the middle two (he has around $4bn), but he's donated some big dollars to Mitt Romney Super PACs.

[citizen k]

Oh, and I don't think you qualify as "rich man" if your finger is not in your country's politics.

You think there is a "rich man" that has less influence than a poor?

[Admiral Yi]

You think there is a "rich man" that has less influence than a poor?

Sure.  Compare Bill Gates pre-anti trust with a random poor member of AARP.

[Sheilbh]

I missed the news about the Koch brothers buying the Cato Institute.

It's not an accurate description, but it was a huge story when they tried to turn Cato from being just libertarian to more aimed at getting Republicans elected.  I generally don't get the anti-Koch feeling but a lot of what I read from Cato staff changed my opinion.  Here's an article on it:
http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/the-battle-for-cato/

As Zanza says they've been in the news a lot and mentioned here many times.  Also is the Newsroom as bad as it seems?