Tea Party Created by Big Tobacco & Koch Bros.

joseph brand

A new study of this 'wholesome', 'grass roots' movement, reveals what we already knew, except those Tea Partiers who tirelessly defended it and will no doubt label this study as nothing more than liberal, communist propaganda.

A new academic study confirms that front groups with longstanding ties to the tobacco industry and the billionaire Koch brothers planned the formation of the Tea Party movement more than a decade before it exploded onto the U.S. political scene.

Far from a genuine grassroots uprising, this astroturf effort was curated by wealthy industrialists years in advance. Many of the anti-science operatives who defended cigarettes are currently deploying their tobacco-inspired playbook internationally to evade accountability for the fossil fuel industry's role in driving climate disruption.


The study, funded by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institute of Health, traces the roots of the Tea Party's anti-tax movement back to the early 1980s when tobacco companies began to invest in third party groups to fight excise taxes on cigarettes, as well as health studies finding a link between cancer and secondhand cigarette smoke.

Quote stolen from reddit.com:

A "movement" steeped in so much cognitive dissonance will have no problem shaking off this report.

Boulevardier

I am not a bit surprised about this.

It is truly disturbing how close this "movement" came to destroying Obama's presidency.

When I despair about Irish democracy, I sometimes think how much worse off we could be!

InTheTrees

The "Tea Party".

Eugh.

And what a dumbass name (yes, yes, I understand about the boston protest and taxes etc etc). Especially to anyone on the other side of the atlantic.

It makes me think of the Mad Hatter.

20Cent

Nothing new it was known the whole time as an Astroturf organisation.

CollardGreens

It is truly disturbing how close this "movement" came to destroying Obama's presidency.

The truth is, we don't have to do anything to destroy obama he's doing it all by himself!


:P

Chuck Stone

They owe inheritance of wealth to Uncle Joe Stalin the hypocritical pricks. Nothing new for nanny state conservatives masquerading as libertarians.

Jonny7

CollardGreens wrote: »

The truth is, we don't have to do anything to destroy obama he's doing it all by himself!


:P

Doing a pretty bad job, second term and 60% approval, internationally well respected.

KyussBishop

Not just the tea party either, almost every notable figure/organization in the entire austrian/libertarian political/economic landscape, can be shown to tie right back into corporate-funded think-tanks, at all levels.

When you dig down enough, you see eventually that it is all largely about creating a narrative, where the express purpose is to legitimize the (veiled) denial of science/evidence/truth, to advance the interests of those with a lot of money; that's the entire conservative (be that economically or socially conservative) political narrative: creating 'respectable' denial of the truth.

That conservative economic narrative has been so successful in its neoliberal form, that it has dominated all discourse about economics for about 30 years, and continues to now as well.

KyussBishop

Here's a good article fitting my point well, which exposes conservative funding for climate change denial:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/14/funding-climate-change-denial-thinktanks-network

InTheTrees

Jonny7 wrote: »

Doing a pretty bad job, second term and 60% approval, internationally well respected.

Shhhh. They live in their own little world.

The world that told them last October that Romney was going to win by a landslide.

All the time smearing the pollsters who were telling the truth. Really ugly sh*t.

Its garbage politics. The celebration of stupidity.

It seems a very similar situation to that of the brit Labour Party when it was being eaten alive by "militant" in the 70's/80's? (I'm no expert on this stuff.) But of course the TP has no interest in history or foreigners.

Honestly we can only hope they continue to fester and rot the Republican party because it will help Democrats in 2016.

InTheTrees

And lets not forget the role of Fox News in this mess.

Unrelenting 24 hour a day right wing corporate propaganda. With advertising.

Thankfully their ratings have been slipping though. And the trend is downwards.

Amerika

Hmmm… Seems rather odd that I never got the memo sayin’ we’re beholdin’ to Big Tobacco & Koch Bros. And here I thought I joined in hopes of reducing government spending, debt, and taxes.

CollardGreens

Hmmm… Seems rather odd that I never got the memo sayin’ we’re beholdin’ to Big Tobacco & Koch Bros. And here I thought I joined in hopes of reducing government spending, debt, and taxes.

Same here, I didn't even know who the Koch Brothers were until recently. The Big Tobacco part, heck, I'm in Tobacco country ~ Tobacco is on it's way out, they are losing money! (look for them to be promoting wacky tobacky next, lol, seriously, but that is another thread later).

Our Tea Party is meeting with the Sheriff this week and I'm looking forward to it. Am hoping the Sheriff realized how much power they hold?!

On another thread I had mentioned how the tea party is successful in vetting the candidates ~ something that should have been done when O got elected to show who the real O is, now he's more protected than a teenage girl with her Deddy & his shotgun in tow!

We drill the candidates like nobodies business and they realize that the vote is where it's at.

Denerick

Amerika wrote: »

Hmmm… Seems rather odd that I never got the memo sayin’ we’re beholdin’ to Big Tobacco & Koch Bros. And here I thought I joined in hopes of reducing government spending, debt, and taxes.

Its not just that the policies you believe will create some new utopia are in themselves dystopian, it's that they are informed by an entire informational infrastructure controlled by a vast right wing conspiracy, the likes of which no civilised country has experienced since the years leading up to the creation of the third Reich. You, and your ideological bedfellows, are the pawns in a much more sinister and ultimately degenerate game. Ideological conservatism of the American variety is the perfect explanation for why so many 19th century liberals shuddered at the thought of universal suffrage. To entrust so incapable an electorate with the responsibilities and duties of citizenship threatens the fabric of the democratic republic itself.

Amerika

Denerick wrote: »

Its not just that the policies you believe will create some new utopia are in themselves dystopian, it's that they are informed by an entire informational infrastructure controlled by a vast right wing conspiracy, the likes of which no civilised country has experienced since the years leading up to the creation of the third Reich. You, and your ideological bedfellows, are the pawns in a much more sinister and ultimately degenerate game. Ideological conservatism of the American variety is the perfect explanation for why so many 19th century liberals shuddered at the thought of universal suffrage. To entrust so incapable an electorate with the responsibilities and duties of citizenship threatens the fabric of the democratic republic itself.

LOL, Well I not into all that conspiracy theory crap, so I'll just keep fighting government spending, taxes and debt... The government STD's. They're real problems, aren't they?

Chuck Stone

Amerika wrote: »

I'll just keep fighting government spending, taxes and debt... The government STD's. They're real problems, aren't they?

You're about 30+ years too late I'm afraid. Ronald Reagan began the US' affair with debt and Keynesianism (military).

Economists Wallace C. Peterson and Paul S. Estenson argued in the Journal of Post Keynesian Economics that the Reagan administration's combination of income tax cuts and aggressive increases in military spending was classic Keynesianism in everything but name.

usnews.com

During Regan's tenure:

the U.S. borrowed both domestically and abroad to cover the Federal budget deficits, raising the national debt from $997 billion to $2.85 trillion. This led to the U.S. moving from the world's largest international creditor to the world's largest debtor nation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaganomics

Funny too that he's held up as some sort of fiscal conservative hero figure. Powerful propaganda.

Amerika

Chuck Stone wrote: »

You're about 30+ years too late I'm afraid. Ronald Reagan began the US' affair with debt and Keynesianism (military).



During Regan's tenure:



Funny too that he's held up as some sort of fiscal conservative hero figure. Powerful propaganda.

Yes, Ronald Reagan raised the debt substantially, primarily in the military, because Jimmy Carter decimated the military and it needed to be rebuilt. (I wonder if anyone has calculated any savings in US military spending with the collapse of the USSR?) But he did increase the debt!

Under GW Bush it went up to $10.6 trillion, an increase of $4.9 trillion in his 8 year term. Bush was certainly not a fiscal conservative.

Under Obama, the national debt has increased from $10.6 trillion to $16.4 trillion, an increase in 4 years of $5.8 trillion (almost a 55% increase). And I've read the national debt will increase to about $25.4 trillion in 2022, under President Obama’s budget plans.

You just can't keep bleeding the people with more and more taxes. The middle class can't afford more taxes. The rich will only pay so much. Many are already moving from high income tax states to lower ones. Then they'll just find ways to shelter it.

An how about that $40 billion tax increase he's getting from the rich in new taxes this year, which was supposed to start trimming the deficit? Well, it has already been spent. A $50.4 billion spending bill, mostly for Hurricane Sandy related aid, just took it all and then some.

This trend has to stop, or it will crash. And us in the US won't be the only ones to feel pain.

I don't get why people seemingly have no problem with where we are heading, and why journalism has been on vacation from their responsibilities for over 4 years?

Chuck Stone

Amerika wrote: »

Yes, Ronald Reagan raised the debt substantially, primarily in the military, because Jimmy Carter decimated the military and it needed to be rebuilt.

Ah I see - it was all Jimmy Carter's fault - that's a familiar tune. The Soviet system was collapsing from within - the threat was played up by factions in the CIA to help divert funds to the military industrial complex. Reagan also ramped up the war on drugs people (another bullshit smokescreen for the US to meddle in the affairs of sovereign nations and push social conservatism at home).

(I wonder if anyone has calculated any savings in US military spending with the collapse of the USSR?)

The US Department of Defence War is the world's biggest employer. I think that speaks for itself.

Black Swan

MOD CHARTER REMINDER:

Dr Galen wrote: »

Thread derailing will be treated particularly harshly.

Denerick

To be fair Amerika, the Fiscal deficit is a rather easy problem to solve. Democrats are willing to concede on spending. Why won't Republicans budge on taxes? You talk about being a high tax country but you're among the lowest taxed developed economies in the world. Murder drones, bridges and tanks - they cost money. As do the entitlement systems like medicare and social security that most Republicans support. So when will the cognitive dissonance end, and when will the Republicans and their supporters embrace reality? America spends like Scandanavia but taxes like Switzerland. What do you think is going to happen in those circumstances?

InTheTrees

Denerick wrote: »

and when will the Republicans and their supporters embrace reality?

One would have thought after the humiliation of the last election.

Except in true tea Party fashion they saw their defeat as a signal to move further right!

Funny really. Its like the brit labour party in the 80's.

CollardGreens

Under Obama, the national debt has increased from $10.6 trillion to $16.4 trillion, an increase in 4 years of $5.8 trillion (almost a 55% increase). And I've read the national debt will increase to about $25.4 trillion in 2022, under President Obama’s budget plans.

You just can't keep bleeding the people with more and more taxes. The middle class can't afford more taxes. The rich will only pay so much. Many are already moving from high income tax states to lower ones. Then they'll just find ways to shelter it.

Amerika is right, the middle class are getting poorer and poorer and that is a big reason the tea party is growing. We ARE getting taxed to death ~ it's a train wreck getting to happen if the taxes and regulations don't stop. This is the only way we know how to stop it, holding up signs isn't going to work, we have to vote the bad ones out starting with the local politicians.

The only ones I have talked with from Ireland that seem to understand are the ones that have lived in the states or are living there now.

InTheTrees

CollardGreens wrote: »

The only ones I have talked with from Ireland that seem to understand are the ones that have lived in the states or are living there now.

I'm from Ireland living in the United States and I think the tea party are a bunch of uneducated morons.

On the other hand I'm also a Democrat so I have no problem witnessing the republican party in self destruct mode. I've been enjoying watching the party beat up on karl rove, its priceless.

We're praying sarah palin runs for president in 2016.

Denerick

CollardGreens wrote: »

Amerika is right, the middle class are getting poorer and poorer and that is a big reason the tea party is growing. We ARE getting taxed to death ~ it's a train wreck getting to happen if the taxes and regulations don't stop. This is the only way we know how to stop it, holding up signs isn't going to work, we have to vote the bad ones out starting with the local politicians.

The only ones I have talked with from Ireland that seem to understand are the ones that have lived in the states or are living there now.

The tax burden dropped significantly over the past decade and yet real incomes continued to drop. The reason why the middle class is in decline is because the corporate elites own the political system and game the system so that it serves their own interests. The middle class have some, not very influential lobbies. The poor have none. The rich own the lobby groups. How can you not see that? Every time I see a conservative I feel a huge amount of pity, its like they are incapable of recognising that Washington is run by the behemoths, for the behemoths, and screw everybody else.

CollardGreens

Washington is run by the behemoths, for the behemoths, and screw everybody else.

Well THAT statement I will agree with you on!

Remember, David did slew Goliath! I'm not a quitter, they will have to bury me before I stop fighting for my country and my rights given by the fathers of the constitution.



BTW, I'm not a Sarah fan and don't know any tea party ppl that are however she sure does get under a lot of the left's skin???? She must be doing something "right"

Denerick

CollardGreens wrote: »

Well THAT statement I will agree with you on!

Remember, David did slew Goliath! I'm not a quitter, they will have to bury me before I stop fighting for my country and my rights given by the fathers of the constitution.

David slew Goliath and then proceeded to become a more subtle and sophisticated version of Goliath. Thats the moral I always took from that biblical tale.

And please, less of this 'founding fathers' guff. Half of the founding fathers owned slaves. Sons of Liberty my ass.