Am I the Last Person to Realize the GOP is Just an Extension of the Oil Companies? Not That the DNC is Much Better
I have had an obsession with the Koch brothers for years. Not an unwarranted obsession, as every time I would dig around and find a political manipulation, or some other wacky position regarding free speech, or states rights, the EPA, whatever, they had at least a hand in it, if not a total puppet master role. (I did a piece on them, I’ll link at the bottom)
Aside from greed that borders on cartoonish, they had no problem being the front for an unabashedly insane, planet-destroying group of people so evil that should the human species exist in 150 years, I’m convinced they may be viewed in similar regard to Adolf Hitler or Stalin.
I knew they control a giant network (last presidential election they spent and controlled close to $4 billion) of rich guys trying to keep oil pumping and tax breaks coming, but I didn’t exactly realize Exxon is right there in terms of gross money “invested”.
In a Congressional Memo from 2021, it’s outlined that EXXON, BP, CHEVRON, and SHELL only spent (just below) a half-billion dollars lobbying between 2011 and 2020. But the lobby efforts weren’t focused on the Paris Accord or Carbon, it was primarily on tax avoidance.
It’s pointed out that, “Almost none of the Oil lobbying was focused on the Paris Accord since 2015.” But what happened in 2016? President Donald Trump proclaimed his intention to pull out of the Paris accord. (formally scheduled and executed in 2020)
Exxon only spent a little over $3,000,000 directly on the 2020 elections. Of course, they spent almost $10,000,000 on lobbying in 2020 alone. That also doesn’t include the dark money and “donations” to universities that produce climate denial bullshit to confuse the average voter.
For the 2014 election cycle (2013 and 2014), Exxon spent $25,000,000 in lobbying with a large portion going to fight the Paris Accord. 86% of the money spent on the elections was spent on GOP candidates who would denounce the accord and lie to America about climate change.
So when touting how they “left the Paris Accord alone”, it’s fair to point out, that they already had the people in place to pull out, so why throw more money at it?
As of 2020 things balanced out a little with only 64% being donated to the GOP or GOP candidates, while Democrats pulled in 34%. Joe Biden received almost 1/3rd of that going directly to Biden for President.
The House Majority Staff who penned the earlier memo I linked received almost $50k as an entity before anyone else got a check. The Majority were democrats at the time. Here’s a complete list of the 2020 EXXON donations.
As I said, they all suck. The modern political bullshit system where Exxon can legally pay a group to pen a memo that sells Exxon’s talking points for $50k is why all of this is happening. (again, I explain how the Kochs did this in detail in the link at the end of the story)
Since 2012 when bribery was legalized, America has fallen off a cliff. No one is happy with the tribalism the Roberts-led Supreme Court created on that fateful day in 2012, yet most people argue over the symptoms and ignore the cancer that is killing America.
The DNC is a moralless group of duplicities windbags, but they display Gandhi-like character compared to the GOP.
The Playbook
Why is the GOP subservient to BIG OIL?
Man or woman is elected to the Senate or House on the back of a campaign funded directly or indirectly by big oil. You hear “CLUB FOR GROWTH supports Ted Cruz”, but what does that mean?
CLUB FOR GROWTH is a bunch of very rich, some might say a “corrupt and evil” group that spends competitively with the Koch Network for the right to own people like Ted Cruz. Because, if you pay for someone to get elected, they will do as you say after they are elected.
Let’s use Ted Cruz as an example.
Ted Cruz’s top three donors since 2011:
CLUB FOR GROWTH $985,494.00 SUPER PAC
Robert Mercer, (part-owner of Cambridge Analytica) Peter Thiel (Facebook, Paypal, gay/rightwing/fascists) John W. Childs (former president of Carbon Canada, but was more private equity for energy than oil directly), and many, many others.
CFG’s mission is to “Challenge sitting Republicans”. What the statement does not say is, “challenge sitting Republicans with other Republicans we own and will do what we tell them.” Which of course is what they mean.
SENATE CONSERVATIVES FUND $602,579.00 SUPER PAC
Doesn’t SENATE CONSERVATIVES FUND sound like a group your grandpa met once a month at the local Rotary Club and ate cookies with?
From Wikipedia
SCF has aligned itself with U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and has levied attacks on Senators Mitch McConnell and Lamar Alexander. In 2013, the fund orchestrated a robocall and direct mail campaign to generate signatures for an anti-Affordable Care Act petition. SCF also endorsed a strategy to defund Obamacare that culminated in the 2013 shutdown of the federal government.[9] Republican Senate leaders have criticized SCF for targeting incumbent Senate Republicans.
They have been “criticized” for attacking elected republicans, which means, “we own you or will destroy those of you we don’t own”.
These scumbags started a fund specifically to help keep Josh Howley in office on January 7th, 2021. These are the people who funded the insurrection. And I mean that literally.
Woodforest Financial Group: $285,241.00 (corp)
Woodforest Financial is really Woodforest National Bank. Woodforest is a solely owned (by Walmart) financial services company that works for/with Walmart.
Unlike the two previous groups that gave 100% of their money to GOP candidates, Woodforest has given money to both parties. They only gave 97.6% of their donations to GOP candidates, so they can say they gave money to Bernie Sanders, Liz Warren among others. Of course, while giving Ted Cruz directly $11,200 (with the shell game now played by the political machine filtered through PAC’s no idea how much Cruz actually received) they gave Warren, Sanders, and Beto around $2,500….combined.
But credit where credit is due. $425 dollars to Beto O’Rourke and Elizabeth Warren makes you bipartisan.
In exchange for that “support,” Ted Cruz will go anywhere and say anything he’s told to. At that level, rich people buy politicians like you might pay William Shatner or the Island Boys to sing happy birthday to your brother-in-law on Cameo for $250.
But the real and most obvious intertwining of the GOP and Big Oil is right in front of us all.
The last two GOP US presidents.
Yes, George W. Bush was in oil, but he was a dilettante as much as anything which is why they tied him to Dick Cheney.
Although a former political maven having spent years in public service Cheney had been in Big Oil for the better part of the 1990s and CEO of Haliburton from 1995 to 2000. If you don’t know, Haliburton is Big Oil.
So his place as the Vice President on the ticket wasn’t too weird given his political past, I guess. Although at the time no one pulled from the private sector to be the number 2 on a major presidential ticket.
Like I said earlier, if you pay for someone to be elected you expect them to do as they are told.
Fast forward to the next GOP winning ticket. Trump.
Big oil is very smart and putting an oil guy in as the VP every time is pretty obvious. Trump (let’s face it, he’s an idiot with few redeeming qualities) needed the Christians on his side so he plucked Mike Pence from the heartland to be his running mate and more or less, vouch for Trump as having some Christian beliefs. Of course, anyone selling Trump as a good leader or man of character has no character.
We all know how that turned out.
But once he won, Trump pulled someone from the private sector to be Secretary of State.
This had two really baffling elements to it.
#1: In retrospect, Trump hated appointing people and refused to do it for most of his presidency. So to jump on the Secretary of State like he knew what the fuck he was doing is weird.
#2: I went back through the last 20 or so Secretaries of State and they are all either former diplomates or well-established Senators. Usually with State Department experience on some level. It’s a very important job and not one you put up a Craigslist ad to fill.
Trump has said publicly he didn’t know who Rex Tillerson was nor did he know what the SECRETARY OF STATE did exactly. So he was advised by the OIL LOBBY to make the move.
To clarify, Big oil paid enough money to enough GOP members to get them to install the HEAD OF EXXON as the US SECRETARY OF STATE.
If Bernie Sanders wanted his running mate to be Sundar Pachai people would have gone crazy. If Obama tried to make Steve Jobs Secretary of State, people would have rioted. But the GOP lets Big OIL pick the parts of the presidential cabinet they want and the GOP lines up to approve them.
I’ll leave you with a list of the people the GOP rubber-stamped to fill the cabinet of the most powerful man in the world.
Original APPOINTMENTS.
Reince Priebus, chief of staff
A bone to the GOP rank and file.
Steve Bannon, chief strategist
Robert Mercer’s righthand from when Mercer financed Breitbart
Jared Kushner, senior adviser
Married his daughter and had a voice like 14-year-old girl.
Kellyanne Conway, counselor
Early Supporter
Rex Tillerson, secretary of state
EXXON’s compensation for support.
Steve Mnuchin, treasury secretary
Hey, Goldman Sachs put up a lot of coin as well
James Mattis, defense secretary
Qualified
Michael Flynn, national security adviser
An early supporter was indicted after 2 weeks
Jeff Sessions, attorney general
An early supporter was fired for being honest
Don McGahn, White House counsel
The Federalist Societies handpicked get
John Kelly, homeland security secretary
Qualified
Mike Pompeo, CIA director
Never understood it. Early supporter, I guess
Betsy DeVos, education secretary
Giant personal donor
Elaine Chao, transport secretary
Mitch McConnell’s wife
Ben Carson, housing secretary
Supporter and filed another need
Rick Perry, energy secretary
Another Big OIL choice, but had a plausible background
Ryan Zinke, interior secretary
Hand-picked by Charles Koch
Sonny Perdue, the agriculture secretary
I have nothing
Wilbur Ross, commerce secretary
King of Bankruptcy, another Big Bank Get
Alex Acosta, labor secretary
Best known for letting Trump supporter and friend Jeffrey Epstein go the first time
Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the UN
Another bone to the GOP.
Scott Pruitt, Environmental Protection Agency administrator
Koch puppet for years and years.
Link to Koch Piece.
