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Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right Hardcover – January 19, 2016

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Why is America living in an age of profound economic inequality? Why, despite the desperate need to address climate change, have even modest environmental efforts been defeated again and again? Why have protections for employees been decimated? Why do hedge-fund billionaires pay a far lower tax rate than middle-class workers?
     The conventional answer is that a popular uprising against “big government” led to the ascendancy of a broad-based conservative movement. But as Jane Mayer shows in this powerful, meticulously reported history, a network of exceedingly wealthy people with extreme libertarian views bankrolled a systematic, step-by-step plan to fundamentally alter the American political system. 
     The network has brought together some of the richest people on the planet. Their core beliefs—that taxes are a form of tyranny; that government oversight of business is an assault on freedom—are sincerely held. But these beliefs also advance their personal and corporate interests: Many of their companies have run afoul of federal pollution, worker safety, securities, and tax laws.
     The chief figures in the network are Charles and David Koch, whose father made his fortune in part by building oil refineries in Stalin’s Russia and Hitler’s Germany. The patriarch later was a founding member of the John Birch Society, whose politics were so radical it believed Dwight Eisenhower was a communist. The brothers were schooled in a political philosophy that asserted the only role of government is to provide security and to enforce property rights. 
     When libertarian ideas proved decidedly unpopular with voters, the Koch brothers and their allies chose another path. If they pooled their vast resources, they could fund an interlocking array of organizations that could work in tandem to influence and ultimately control academic institutions, think tanks, the courts, statehouses, Congress, and, they hoped, the presidency. Richard Mellon Scaife, the mercurial heir to banking and oil fortunes, had the brilliant insight that most of their political activities could be written off as tax-deductible “philanthropy.”
     These organizations were given innocuous names such as Americans for Prosperity. Funding sources were hidden whenever possible. This process reached its apotheosis with the allegedly populist Tea Party movement, abetted mightily by the
Citizens United decision—a case conceived of by legal advocates funded by the network.
     The political operatives the network employs are disciplined, smart, and at times ruthless. Mayer documents instances in which people affiliated with these groups hired private detectives to impugn whistle-blowers, journalists, and even government investigators. And their efforts have been remarkably successful. Libertarian views on taxes and regulation, once far outside the mainstream and still rejected by most Americans, are ascendant in the majority of state governments, the Supreme Court, and Congress. Meaningful environmental, labor, finance, and tax reforms have been stymied. 
     Jane Mayer spent five years conducting hundreds of interviews-including with several sources within the network-and scoured public records, private papers, and court proceedings in reporting this book. In a taut and utterly convincing narrative, she traces the byzantine trail of the billions of dollars spent by the network and provides vivid portraits of the colorful figures behind the new American oligarchy.
    
Dark Money is a book that must be read by anyone who cares about the future of American democracy.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

ONE OF NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S TEN BEST BOOKS OF 2016

A
Washington Post Notable Book of 2016

"Mayer is. . . a writer whose reporting can leave a reader breathless. . . . I urge you to read 
Dark Money."
—Bill Moyers

"Jane Mayer's 
Dark Money is utterly brilliant and chilling — no matter how much you think you already know. . . . Read it!"
—Naomi Klein, bestselling author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism and This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate 

“Jane Mayer’s 
Dark Money. . . is absolutely necessary reading for anyone who wants to make sense of our politics. Lay aside the endless punditry about Donald’s belligerence or Hillary’s ambition; Mayer is telling the epic story of America in our time. It is a triumph of investigative reporting, perhaps not surprising for a journalist who has won most of the awards her profession has to offer.... She’s a pro, and she’s given the world a full accounting of what had been a shadowy and largely unseen force. . . . Remarkable.”
The New York Review of Books

"The book is written in straightforward and largely unemotional prose, but it reads as if conceived in quiet anger. Mayer believes that the Koch brothers and a small number of allied plutocrats have essentially hijacked American democracy, using their money not just to compete with their political adversaries, but to drown them out. . . .
Dark Money emerges as an impressively reported and well-documented work. . . . The importance of Dark Money [flows] from its scope and perspective. . . . It is not easy to uncover the inner workings of an essentially secretive political establishment. Mayer has come as close to doing it as anyone is likely to come anytime soon. . . . She makes a formidable argument.”
­—From the cover of the New York Times Book Review
 
“Revelatory. . .persuasive, timely and necessary. . . . Only the most thoroughly documented, compendious account could do justice to the Kochs’ bizarre and Byzantine family history and the scale and scope of their influence.”
­—The New York Times

About the Author

Jane Mayer is a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of three bestselling and critically acclaimed narrative nonfiction books. She co-authored Landslide: The Unmaking of the President, 1984–1988, with Doyle McManus, and Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas, with Jill Abramson, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her book The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals, for which she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, was named one of The New York Times’s Top 10 Books of the Year and won the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, the Goldsmith Book Prize, the Edward Weintal Prize, the Ridenhour Prize, the New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. It was also a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. For her reporting at The New Yorker, Mayer has been awarded the John Chancellor Award, the George Polk Award, the Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting, and the I. F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence presented by the Nieman Foundation at Harvard. Mayer lives in Washington, D.C.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Doubleday; 1st edition (January 19, 2016)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 464 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0385535597
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0385535595
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.75 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 6,720

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4.6 out of 5 stars
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6,720 global ratings
The Depressing Truth About Greed and Coverup
5 Stars
The Depressing Truth About Greed and Coverup
Excellent book, though reading about such rampant corruption, manipulation, and greed within our "democratic" society is a bit depressing. That said, Mayer does an outstanding job of investigatory reporting!-Bill Brier
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Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2016
Jane Mayer’s Dark Money is the carefully-researched, well-written story of how the American “conservative movement” and the Republican Party became little more than a well-financed storefront operation and sales force for plutocracy, sponsoring and placing political figures that are just sock-puppets for wealthy donors who dictate their policies. This is a political force that uses racism, misogyny, nativist xenophobia, media manipulation and sheer human gullibility, along with heaps of cash and other tools, to accomplish its ends. It is the story of how a few hundred extremely wealthy individuals and families, in a determined effort to avoid taxation and evade government prosecution of their own often financially-corrupt and polluting business enterprises, are engaged in a decades-long ongoing coup d’etat as much against the American people as against our government.

The billionaires involved—principally but by no means exclusively the brothers Charles and David Koch; Richard Mellon Scaife; John M. Olin and the Bradley brothers—were raised within families of astounding wealth and privilege. They inherited hundreds of millions of dollars, plus businesses that produced yet more income. They also appear to have disliked and feared two things: taxation that would mitigate and reduce their family wealth; and being called legally to account for the public health, environmental and financial violations of their enterprises. They turned those fears into an ideology whose basic premise was: we should be able to do whatever we want, and any restriction on that is not only unjustified but un-American. They equated their personal interests and preferences with the good of the nation, and they funded a movement to raise their own self-interest to the status of a political crusade and an ideological war of principle. They lied to themselves and everyone else. As Thomas Frank wrote in What’s the Matter With Kansas, “Libertarianism is supposed to be all about principle, but what it is really about is political expedience. It is basically a corporate front, masked as a philosophy” (quoted from Dark Money, p. 123).

A primary vehicle for putting the plutocratic campaign into practice was an ingenious tax dodge. It involved creating foundations and funneling money through nonprofit organizations (usually of the donors’ own creation) in such a way that the funds were tax-deductible. So, in lieu of paying more taxes, they used the money instead on a form of fake "philanthropy", claiming a social benefit for what were really investments in their own self-interest--very affordable investments with an enormous payoff. Basically, they bought staff to come up with "research” and “studies" that justified and promoted a disguised plutocracy; and followed that up with “policy” shops that would develop and advocate for specific legal and judiciary measures that would enshrine their interests into law. Finally, they created and funded staged “citizens’ groups” (like the Tea Party) that would give their campaign an appearance of popular support. They also learned that they could get the support of some of the victims of these policies by giving them something non-financial that they wanted, whether that was support for their religious preferences, sanction for their hatreds or whatever.

The Kochs have tried to obscure their influence and that of their billionaire donor network, by hiding behind a web of "nonprofit" organizations with innocuous names, seeming to represent popular interests but actually funded and controlled by the Kochs and their fellow plutocrats. They even have a central donation organization, the "DonorsTrust", set up to obscure further the identities of the donors while funneling money to the campaign.

The Kochs seem to have been good at identifying talent who could carry out their plans without revealing their direct involvement. The “conservative movement” is just another growth industry to which many people attached their careers when it became clear that the billionaires calling the shots would spend lavishly on it. The conservative publication National Review and the careers of many professional conservative journalists and scholars benefited greatly from this industry. The donors put literally billions of dollars into this effort over decades, which enabled them to buy an awful lot of conservatism.

I enjoyed the many stories, anecdotes, incidents and quotes through which Mayer tells her tale. The fact that it is done in both journalistic and scholarly style, with many, many named people saying very telling things, made it a researcher’s delight. My own copy is filled with underlined passages and bookmarked pages.

This is an eminently quotable book, with extensive end-note references. For instance, Steve Clemons, formerly an analyst at the Nixon Center, is quoted on page 82 saying: “Funders increasingly expect policy achievements that contribute to their bottom line….We’ve become money launderers for monies that have real specific policy agendas behind them.” On the Citizens United decision, Mayer writes on page 248 that: “…the Kochs were part of a national explosion of dark money. In 2006, only 2 percent of ‘outside’ political spending came from ‘social welfare’ groups that hid their donors. In 2010, the number rose to 40 percent, masking hundreds of millions of dollars.” And on page 249, there is a note about a meeting in April of 2010 in Karl Rove’s living room at his house in Northeast Washington, DC. Mayer quotes Kenneth Vogel, from his book Big Money, describing the meeting as “the birthplace of a new Republican Party—one steered by just a handful of unelected operatives who answered only to the richest activists who funded them.” Perhaps my favorite quote in the book is from Karl Rove who, right after the 2010 Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case, met with Republican donors at the Dallas Petroleum Club, to plot out how best to take advantage of the decision. Rove told the gathering: “People call us a vast right-wing conspiracy, but we’re really a half-assed right-wing conspiracy. Now…..it is time to get serious.” (p. 242)

Jane Mayer has done a service to us all with this remarkable book. Get it, read it and tell everyone you know about it.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2016
Dark Money by Jane Mayer

Ms. Mayer has written a non-fiction murder story. A story that is being told everyday in our mainstream media and on the inter-net. It is a story of murder of political institutions (Congress, the GOP, Supreme Court) of academic institutions (universities and law schools seduced by grants and research monies) of the democratic approach to resolving conflict by compromise (organized disruption of public meetings), of the government of the United States (“government is the problem not the solution”) of science (deliberate lies and covering up of anthropomorphic climate changes), Machiavellian gerrymandering of voting districts, false claims of voter fraud when the biggest fraud was the gerrymandered districts. The list of “murders “ is long. The criminals unpunished, in many cases rewarded. The “Kochtopus” has been growing for years and is now poised to consume whatever remains of the “last best hope on Earth.”

And, now that they have been exposed, the secrecy that they revered for years is no longer effective, the Kochs and their billionaire brethren have worked up a new brand. Disconcerted by the revelations of their huge contributions to sway the elections and the consequent low opinion held by a majority of Americans about money corrupting politics, the Kochs are embarking on a “Well-Being” campaign. The most substantive “part of this image building has been a drive for criminal justice reform,” as Bill McKibben reports. [The New York Review, March 10, 2016.] Regardless of the new image plan, the Kochs plan to spend $889 million on the forthcoming national election, an unheard of amount of money spent on a political campaign.

Dark Money is a well researched book crammed with the details of the Kochtopus spreading throughout the country, destroying anything and anyone in the way. We’ve heard and read snatches of this before but Jane Mayer pulls it all together. Ms. Mayer ends the story in all its destructive details. We are all headed for Gomorrah by this account. The killers will be left to sift through the climate’s warm ruins and ruminate over the deposed values of a broad-based prosperity in the ashes. Knowing what we are facing from oligarchy rule to climate warming disinformation, we have to take it from here. And, all across this country, empowered Americans are doing just that. This is the gift of Dark Money.

Dark Money by Jane Mayer

Ms. Mayer has written a non-fiction murder story. A story that is being told everyday in our mainstream media and on the inter-net. It is a story of murder of political institutions (Congress, the GOP, Supreme Court) of academic institutions (universities and law schools seduced by grants and research monies) of the democratic approach to resolving conflict by compromise (organized disruption of public meetings), of the government of the United States (“government is the problem not the solution”) of science (deliberate lies and covering up of anthropomorphic climate changes), Machiavellian gerrymandering of voting districts, false claims of voter fraud when the biggest fraud was the gerrymandered districts. The list of “murders “ is long. The criminals unpunished, in many cases rewarded. The “Kochtopus” has been growing for years and is now poised to consume whatever remains of the “last best hope on Earth.”

And, now that they have been exposed, the secrecy that they revered for years is no longer effective, the Kochs and their billionaire brethren have worked up a new brand. Disconcerted by the revelations of their huge contributions to sway the elections and the consequent low opinion held by a majority of Americans about money corrupting politics, the Kochs are embarking on a “Well-Being” campaign. The most substantive “part of this image building has been a drive for criminal justice reform,” as Bill McKibben reports. [The New York Review, March 10, 2016.] Regardless of the new image plan, the Kochs plan to spend $889 million on the forthcoming national election, an unheard of amount of money spent on a political campaign.

Dark Money is a well researched book crammed with the details of the Kochtopus spreading throughout the country, destroying anything and anyone in the way. We’ve heard and read snatches of this before but Jane Mayer pulls it all together. Ms. Mayer ends the story in all its destructive details. We are all headed for Gomorrah by this account. The killers will be left to sift through the climate’s warm ruins and ruminate over the deposed values of a broad-based prosperity in the ashes. Knowing what we are facing from oligarchy rule to climate warming disinformation, we have to take it from here. And, all across this country, empowered Americans are doing just that. This is the gift of Dark Money.

Dark Money by Jane Mayer

Ms. Mayer has written a non-fiction murder story. A story that is being told everyday in our mainstream media and on the inter-net. It is a story of murder of political institutions (Congress, the GOP, Supreme Court) of academic institutions (universities and law schools seduced by grants and research monies) of the democratic approach to resolving conflict by compromise (organized disruption of public meetings), of the government of the United States (“government is the problem not the solution”) of science (deliberate lies and covering up of anthropomorphic climate changes), Machiavellian gerrymandering of voting districts, false claims of voter fraud when the biggest fraud was the gerrymandered districts. The list of “murders “ is long. The criminals unpunished, in many cases rewarded. The “Kochtopus” has been growing for years and is now poised to consume whatever remains of the “last best hope on Earth.”

And, now that they have been exposed, the secrecy that they revered for years is no longer effective, the Kochs and their billionaire brethren have worked up a new brand. Disconcerted by the revelations of their huge contributions to sway the elections and the consequent low opinion held by a majority of Americans about money corrupting politics, the Kochs are embarking on a “Well-Being” campaign. The most substantive “part of this image building has been a drive for criminal justice reform,” as Bill McKibben reports. [The New York Review, March 10, 2016.] Regardless of the new image plan, the Kochs plan to spend $889 million on the forthcoming national election, an unheard of amount of money spent on a political campaign.

Dark Money is a well researched book crammed with the details of the Kochtopus spreading throughout the country, destroying anything and anyone in the way. We’ve heard and read snatches of this before but Jane Mayer pulls it all together. Ms. Mayer ends the story in all its destructive details. We are all headed for Gomorrah by this account. The killers will be left to sift through the climate’s warm ruins and ruminate over the deposed values of a broad-based prosperity in the ashes. Knowing what we are facing from oligarchy rule to climate warming disinformation, we have to take it from here. And, all across this country, empowered Americans are doing just that. This is the gift of Dark Money.

Dark Money by Jane Mayer

Ms. Mayer has written a non-fiction murder story. A story that is being told everyday in our mainstream media and on the inter-net. It is a story of murder of political institutions (Congress, the GOP, Supreme Court) of academic institutions (universities and law schools seduced by grants and research monies) of the democratic approach to resolving conflict by compromise (organized disruption of public meetings), of the government of the United States (“government is the problem not the solution”) of science (deliberate lies and covering up of anthropomorphic climate changes), Machiavellian gerrymandering of voting districts, false claims of voter fraud when the biggest fraud was the gerrymandered districts. The list of “murders “ is long. The criminals unpunished, in many cases rewarded. The “Kochtopus” has been growing for years and is now poised to consume whatever remains of the “last best hope on Earth.”

And, now that they have been exposed, the secrecy that they revered for years is no longer effective, the Kochs and their billionaire brethren have worked up a new brand. Disconcerted by the revelations of their huge contributions to sway the elections and the consequent low opinion held by a majority of Americans about money corrupting politics, the Kochs are embarking on a “Well-Being” campaign. The most substantive “part of this image building has been a drive for criminal justice reform,” as Bill McKibben reports. [The New York Review, March 10, 2016.] Regardless of the new image plan, the Kochs plan to spend $889 million on the forthcoming national election, an unheard of amount of money spent on a political campaign.

Dark Money is a well researched book crammed with the details of the Kochtopus spreading throughout the country, destroying anything and anyone in the way. We’ve heard and read snatches of this before but Jane Mayer pulls it all together. Ms. Mayer ends the story in all its destructive details. We are all headed for Gomorrah by this account. The killers will be left to sift through the climate’s warm ruins and ruminate over the deposed values of a broad-based prosperity in the ashes. Knowing what we are facing from oligarchy rule to climate warming disinformation, we have to take it from here. And, all across this country, empowered Americans are doing just that. This is the gift of Dark Money.

Dark Money by Jane Mayer

Ms. Mayer has written a non-fiction murder story. A story that is being told everyday in our mainstream media and on the inter-net. It is a story of murder of political institutions (Congress, the GOP, Supreme Court) of academic institutions (universities and law schools seduced by grants and research monies) of the democratic approach to resolving conflict by compromise (organized disruption of public meetings), of the government of the United States (“government is the problem not the solution”) of science (deliberate lies and covering up of anthropomorphic climate changes), Machiavellian gerrymandering of voting districts, false claims of voter fraud when the biggest fraud was the gerrymandered districts. The list of “murders “ is long. The criminals unpunished, in many cases rewarded. The “Kochtopus” has been growing for years and is now poised to consume whatever remains of the “last best hope on Earth.”

And, now that they have been exposed, the secrecy that they revered for years is no longer effective, the Kochs and their billionaire brethren have worked up a new brand. Disconcerted by the revelations of their huge contributions to sway the elections and the consequent low opinion held by a majority of Americans about money corrupting politics, the Kochs are embarking on a “Well-Being” campaign. The most substantive “part of this image building has been a drive for criminal justice reform,” as Bill McKibben reports. [The New York Review, March 10, 2016.] Regardless of the new image plan, the Kochs plan to spend $889 million on the forthcoming national election, an unheard of amount of money spent on a political campaign.

Dark Money is a well researched book crammed with the details of the Kochtopus spreading throughout the country, destroying anything and anyone in the way. We’ve heard and read snatches of this before but Jane Mayer pulls it all together. Ms. Mayer ends the story in all its destructive details. We are all headed for Gomorrah by this account. The killers will be left to sift through the climate’s warm ruins and ruminate over the deposed values of a broad-based prosperity in the ashes. Knowing what we are facing from oligarchy rule to climate warming disinformation, we have to take it from here. And, all across this country, empowered Americans are doing just that. This is the gift of Dark Money.

Dark Money by Jane Mayer

Ms. Mayer has written a non-fiction murder story. A story that is being told everyday in our mainstream media and on the inter-net. It is a story of murder of political institutions (Congress, the GOP, Supreme Court) of academic institutions (universities and law schools seduced by grants and research monies) of the democratic approach to resolving conflict by compromise (organized disruption of public meetings), of the government of the United States (“government is the problem not the solution”) of science (deliberate lies and covering up of anthropomorphic climate changes), Machiavellian gerrymandering of voting districts, false claims of voter fraud when the biggest fraud was the gerrymandered districts. The list of “murders “ is long. The criminals unpunished, in many cases rewarded. The “Kochtopus” has been growing for years and is now poised to consume whatever remains of the “last best hope on Earth.”

And, now that they have been exposed, the secrecy that they revered for years is no longer effective, the Kochs and their billionaire brethren have worked up a new brand. Disconcerted by the revelations of their huge contributions to sway the elections and the consequent low opinion held by a majority of Americans about money corrupting politics, the Kochs are embarking on a “Well-Being” campaign. The most substantive “part of this image building has been a drive for criminal justice reform,” as Bill McKibben reports. [The New York Review, March 10, 2016.] Regardless of the new image plan, the Kochs plan to spend $889 million on the forthcoming national election, an unheard of amount of money spent on a political campaign.

Dark Money is a well researched book crammed with the details of the Kochtopus spreading throughout the country, destroying anything and anyone in the way. We’ve heard and read snatches of this before but Jane Mayer pulls it all together. Ms. Mayer ends the story in all its destructive details. We are all headed for Gomorrah by this account. The killers will be left to sift through the climate’s warm ruins and ruminate over the deposed values of a broad-based prosperity in the ashes. Knowing what we are facing from oligarchy rule to climate warming disinformation, we have to take it from here. And, all across this country, empowered Americans are doing just that. This is the gift of Dark Money.

Dark Money by Jane Mayer

Ms. Mayer has written a non-fiction murder story. A story that is being told everyday in our mainstream media and on the inter-net. It is a story of murder of political institutions (Congress, the GOP, Supreme Court) of academic institutions (universities and law schools seduced by grants and research monies) of the democratic approach to resolving conflict by compromise (organized disruption of public meetings), of the government of the United States (“government is the problem not the solution”) of science (deliberate lies and covering up of anthropomorphic climate changes), Machiavellian gerrymandering of voting districts, false claims of voter fraud when the biggest fraud was the gerrymandered districts. The list of “murders “ is long. The criminals unpunished, in many cases rewarded. The “Kochtopus” has been growing for years and is now poised to consume whatever remains of the “last best hope on Earth.”

And, now that they have been exposed, the secrecy that they revered for years is no longer effective, the Kochs and their billionaire brethren have worked up a new brand. Disconcerted by the revelations of their huge contributions to sway the elections and the consequent low opinion held by a majority of Americans about money corrupting politics, the Kochs are embarking on a “Well-Being” campaign. The most substantive “part of this image building has been a drive for criminal justice reform,” as Bill McKibben reports. [The New York Review, March 10, 2016.] Regardless of the new image plan, the Kochs plan to spend $889 million on the forthcoming national election, an unheard of amount of money spent on a political campaign.

Dark Money is a well researched book crammed with the details of the Kochtopus spreading throughout the country, destroying anything and anyone in the way. We’ve heard and read snatches of this before but Jane Mayer pulls it all together. Ms. Mayer ends the story in all its destructive details. We are all headed for Gomorrah by this account. The killers will be left to sift through the climate’s warm ruins and ruminate over the deposed values of a broad-based prosperity in the ashes. Knowing what we are facing from oligarchy rule to climate warming disinformation, we have to take it from here. And, all across this country, empowered Americans are doing just that. This is the gift of Dark Money.

Dark Money by Jane Mayer

Ms. Mayer has written a non-fiction murder story. A story that is being told everyday in our mainstream media and on the inter-net. It is a story of murder of political institutions (Congress, the GOP, Supreme Court) of academic institutions (universities and law schools seduced by grants and research monies) of the democratic approach to resolving conflict by compromise (organized disruption of public meetings), of the government of the United States (“government is the problem not the solution”) of science (deliberate lies and covering up of anthropomorphic climate changes), Machiavellian gerrymandering of voting districts, false claims of voter fraud when the biggest fraud was the gerrymandered districts. The list of “murders “ is long. The criminals unpunished, in many cases rewarded. The “Kochtopus” has been growing for years and is now poised to consume whatever remains of the “last best hope on Earth.”

And, now that they have been exposed, the secrecy that they revered for years is no longer effective, the Kochs and their billionaire brethren have worked up a new brand. Disconcerted by the revelations of their huge contributions to sway the elections and the consequent low opinion held by a majority of Americans about money corrupting politics, the Kochs are embarking on a “Well-Being” campaign. The most substantive “part of this image building has been a drive for criminal justice reform,” as Bill McKibben reports. [The New York Review, March 10, 2016.] Regardless of the new image plan, the Kochs plan to spend $889 million on the forthcoming national election, an unheard of amount of money spent on a political campaign.

Dark Money is a well researched book crammed with the details of the Kochtopus spreading throughout the country, destroying anything and anyone in the way. We’ve heard and read snatches of this before but Jane Mayer pulls it all together. Ms. Mayer ends the story in all its destructive details. We are all headed for Gomorrah by this account. The killers will be left to sift through the climate’s warm ruins and ruminate over the deposed values of a broad-based prosperity in the ashes. Knowing what we are facing from oligarchy rule to climate warming disinformation, we have to take it from here. And, all across this country, empowered Americans are doing just that. This is the gift of Dark Money.
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TomR
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read to see how the to 1% rich cut down their tax bills at the 99% expense.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 19, 2023
A must read to see how top 1% rich cut down their tax bills, shows how the billionaires get a free ride while the rest of us are taxed to the hilt and how they control their so called 'independent' think tanks and buy off politicians who are only too willing to help them achieve their goals.
I highly recommend this book, it lifts the curtain!!!
Arjun
5.0 out of 5 stars Un libro que cambia tu visión de la política estadounidense
Reviewed in Spain on August 2, 2022
Jane Mayer ha hecho un trabajo increíble en este libro, el nivel de investigación y de periodismo de investigación es simplemente irreal. Este libro realmente cambió mi visión de la política estadounidense y fue el primer libro que explica la razón por la que Trump ganó en los Estados Unidos. Es un libro muy bien investigado que explica el movimiento republicano para ganar poder usando el dinero que se remonta a mediados de 1900. Explica cómo el dinero de los ricos donantes republicanos, especialmente los hermanos Koch, han influido lentamente en la política estadounidense. Finalmente, conduciendo a la elección de Trump y quiénes eran los verdaderos actores que manipulaban al público, operando desde la sombra. Ella explica la cantidad de trabajo de base que se llevó a cabo para traer este cambio y cuánto tiempo y esfuerzo tomó. Realmente tuvo un gran impacto en mi comprensión de la política estadounidense. Definitivamente lo recomendaría a cualquiera que esté interesado en la política internacional y en el periodismo de investigación.
One person found this helpful
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Coutinho, edson vieira
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente
Reviewed in Brazil on August 9, 2018
excelente
One person found this helpful
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Anna v. D.
5.0 out of 5 stars Uncanny
Reviewed in Germany on October 17, 2017
This thoroughly researched book provides us with a compelling - and uncanny - explanation of how politics in the United States deteriorated into a state of hyper-polarization, producing almost irreconcilable rifts among the electorate and thus giving rise to political radicalism and the denouncement of compromise and constructive dialogue. Jane Mayer's book describes meticulously how a handful of heirs to vast industrial empires with amounts of cash at their disposal that outstrips entire state budgets of minor countries together with ultra-conservatives shaped a political movement that, under the guise of "philanthropy" began setting up tax-privileged foundations. These foundations in turn aim at subverting academia and political decision-making to steer public opinion by financing scholars and thinkers in return for research that ennobles their donors'egotistical agendas with academic terminology and "findings". The uncanny alliance forged between ultra-conservatives, foremost at the fringes of the GOP, and a minority of "libertarian" billionaires gave rise to an historically unparalleled political monster unchecked by the consitution and its democratic institutions and which poses a viable threat to democracy in the United States and beyond. Their influence shaped political debates from Reagan's presidency onwards to this day. Their activism actively subverts democracy, delutes the electorate with false ideals and promises of a great future while benefitting only the agendas of social- and fiscal arch-conservatives and the bank accounts of the super-rich. This isn't capitalism based on equal chances for everyone under democratic auspices but plutocracy in the making. Ultimately, the destruction of the GOP and the rise of Mr Trump and the likes to power are an indirect result of the unchecked actions of these "donors" to "philantropic" foundations. Where these individuals prefer to stay in the shadows, Jane Mayer drags them out in the spot-light. After reading this book, one feels that it is not building a wall and bringing back "beautiful coal" is what would make America great again but holding these people accountable for their actions and reinstating the prerogative of a democratic state over those with money.

Ultimately the destruction of the Grand Old Party from within its core
3 people found this helpful
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Grüezi
5.0 out of 5 stars it's true
Reviewed in France on December 23, 2016
we hoped that the MurdKoch gang didn't exist
that all the scary signs we saw were just "bad luck"
jane mayer proved it exist ,not just a bad nightmare
thanks
(but no thanks)
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