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The Quartet That’s Most Responsible for America’s Decline

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The four most despicable and repugnant Americans are Charles and David Koch, Karl Rove and the occupying army of corporate tarts constituting the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). This unholy quartet will be responsible for the deaths of probably hundreds of thousands (millions?) of more people than even the most pitiless of mass murderers. In a political sense, all are child abusers. Ever been around a dying child with deep respiratory distress brought on by pollution? These four share the blame.

Progressives who tune out the million-dollar mumblings of propaganda radio, TV, Websites and newspapers get it. Just enough of the citizenry doesn’t, and in the primary and general elections, tap the screen by names that will ruin their lives. The voter then goes home and wonders why he/she, with a PhD earns $23,000 a year as an adjunct professor or why Junior spends most of the day coughing up phlegm or why little Missy’s public school has a dozen less teachers this year.

On one level this quartet is to be acknowledged for recognizing early-on that roughly 30% (my guesstimate) of the U.S. population is vulnerable to strategies that tap into the refusal of this 30% to read anything that requires thought. It was Rove who initially advised Bush to phony up a “born again” proclamation to further his chances for higher elective office. And, boy, tragically, did it ever work. Here’s that “born-again” Christian who was the driving force (puppet would be more accurate) in taking Trillions out of the economy through absurd tax breaks for hugely wealthy millionaires and billionaires. It was Bush who lied us into a war that claimed at least 4,500 American lives and you know those numbers are pure under-counted rubbish. Iraqi civilian casualties numbered anywhere from 100,000 to upwards of one million residents. The number of casualties grows to this day.

Ralph Nader recently scolded Mr. “born again” for apparently expressing no regret or remorse over the deaths of innocent Iraqis and the displacement of over 2 million men, women and children from their homes.

In addition to the blood lust of the Bush-type of Christian, there’s the matter of man-made climate change and global warming. The world’s climate scientists agree, well into the 90 percentile, that man is at the core of a hotter planet, the implications being that within a relatively short period of time, earth may become essentially uninhabitable. The Progressive Magazine’s Nick Surgey has already written that if the current fossil fuel reserves are tapped by Koch-type corporations, our temperatures will relatively soon increase by 11 degrees, leaving earth, as described by Surgey, as being “a planet straight out of science fiction.

Let’s start our background with the Koch brothers. Charles, 78, is Chairman and CEO or Koch Industries, the parent company of a diverse family of mostly polluters. David is Executive Vice President at 74. Both hold master’s degrees from MIT. They’re not dumb, just sleazy. They’re one of the Teflon crowd with the money to get away with any corporate malfeasance you want to name. They will not pull even an overnight stint in jail for deeds that would get you put away for decades. Space does not allow for all of their immoral, unethical and illegal (for anybody else) misconduct. Website, ‘Oil Watchdog’, does a good job in listing just how dishonorable this duo has managed to be over the corporate life of Koch Industries up to 2010. It tells you all you need to know about the Tea Party as they enthusiastically slobber all over the Koch’s. Wonder how much money that took? One thing you must know is that money changes hands between the billionaire mentors and the so-called leaders of these “true believer” movements. Much of that money remains in the pockets of the leadership.

Here’s a wonderful piece from a site called “Damned Liberal.” Its operator is not a fan of either party, but is an even lesser fan of the Koch Brothers. The site features 55 minutes of a Koch expose’ from documentary master, Robert Greenwald. “Koch Brothers Exposed” is a journey from daddy’s exploitation of soviet oil to the inherited money allowing the Koch’s to do more harm to this country than the communists ever could.

Karl Rove is the perfect complement to the greed breed being featured here. He couldn’t be more politically unethical and immoral. How does a kid turn out to be a Karl Rove? As for money, Rove is a piker compared to the Koch brothers. His estimated worth is in the 6-7 million dollar range. Your local auto dealer might be able to match that. How is it possible to be worth, relatively speaking, so little, while traversing the very peaks of power? Well, it’s not. If Rove is worth a cent less than $50 million, I’ll be stunned. Use your common sense. He puts people in power and positions to profit by millions upon millions. Likely, multiple billions when added all up. Rove net worth, 6 million?

He’s 63 now and still at it. It’s been about 35 years since he first released his unique form of squalid tactics on a trusting constituency. For all his religious advice to Bush, Rove himself is on spouse number three. Velarie packed her bags in 1980.

He peeled off another wife, Darby, in 2009 after a union of nearly a quarter-century. While he worked for assorted Bushes in DC, Karl and Darby lived in a $1.1 million dollar home, owned another one in Florida in addition to a bed and breakfast in Texas. Can you pass me those net worth figures again? As for the divorce, here’s a revealing quote from the former Mrs., “Even in croquet he’d be hitting my ball so far I was crying on vacation.” A quarter of a century of THAT? Karl is currently keeping house with Karen Johnson. He married her in July of 2012. He did what most 60 plus power boys do, he married somebody about 15 years or so his junior. And guess what? She’s a lobbyist. Go figure. The Washington Post reported that Vegas casino billionaire Steve Wynn, flew the couple to Naples for their honeymoon. H’mmm; what do you do for a Steve Wynn to get that kind of “gift?”

So raise you glasses high to the dirtiest of dirty tricksters, Karl Rove, who is currently immersed in several Super PACs, including one with Tea Party ties. Rove also co-founded Crossroads GPS, laughingly billed as a 501 (c)(4) Organization that spends all its waking hours (and money) buying commercial airtime for Republicans during election season. The Federal Election Commission is suspicious that Crossroads GPS may not be offering as much time to its ‘social welfare’ requirements as spelled out in the law. You think?

As for ALEC, enter the name in our ‘Search in site’ window and you’ll find dozens of articles chronicling their wildly skewed corporate definition of America’s manifest destiny.

I know you’d like to see Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Cruz, Ryan, Malkin and company included here, but if I listed all Republican political miscreants, there would be no room for other stories.

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Dennis S

Raised rural & small town, then lived in N.Y., Chicago & LA. Widely traveled. Returned from world wandering to pursue media life of anchorman/reporter and major, medium and small market talk radio. Highly active in politics. Once worked as orderly & security in Mens Lock Ward for the Criminally Insane at a state institution. Much more rational population than current Teapublicans. Great concern for country run by and for the extreme wealthy. The inhumane current running through this country has no precedent in modern history.

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