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Post by jdredd on Jul 29, 2012 23:35:35 GMT -5
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-brazil-billionaire-20120730,0,4922155.story "SAO PAULO, Brazil — For a man who had just lost $6 billion in less than 24 hours, Eike Batista was curiously upbeat. Brazil's richest man took to Twitter, as he is wont to do, to send a message to his almost 1 million followers. "My fortune is in my assets, and since I didn't sell a single share, I didn't lose anything!" he tweeted early this month. Yes, it's true that the stock prices of his stable of companies in oil, mining, gas and infrastructure could well come back up. But it was their market value that until recently kept Batista at No. 7 on the Forbes list of the world's richest people, a position he rather relished. He was in the habit of telling reporters he would become the world's wealthiest man, preferably as soon as possible." One million twitter followers, huh? I guess billionaires are big celebrities now. Who am I to disagree?
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Post by jdredd on Jul 29, 2012 23:39:13 GMT -5
www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-kochfunded-climate-change-skeptic-reverses-course-20120729,0,7372823.story "WASHINGTON – The verdict is in: Global warming is occurring and emissions of greenhouse gases caused by human activity are the main cause. This, according to Richard A. Muller, professor of physics at UC Berkeley, MacArthur Fellow and co-founder of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project. Never mind that the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and hundreds of other climatologists around the world came to such conclusions years ago. The difference now is the source: Muller is a long-standing, colorful critic of prevailing climate science, and the Berkeley project was heavily funded by the Charles Koch Charitable Foundation, which, along with its libertarian petrochemical billionaire founder Charles G. Koch, has a considerable history of backing groups that deny climate change."
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Post by jdredd on Aug 4, 2012 1:54:42 GMT -5
www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cadiz-water-20120802,0,7151398.story "One of the West's most ambitious private water marketing proposals has taken a step forward with the environmental approval ofCadiz Inc.'s plans to sell massive amounts of Mojave Desert groundwater to Southern California. The board of the Santa Margarita Water District, which serves 155,000 customers in south Orange County, voted 5 to 0 Tuesday night to sign off on the project's environmental impact report under state law. The board also agreed to buy one-tenth of the project's proposed annual yield. The actions are a boost for Cadiz, whose owner, British-born entrepreneur Keith Brackpool, has been trying for 15 years to make money off the aquifer that lies beneath his desert holdings 200 miles east of Los Angeles." This is nice. Some Brit robber baron is going to take our water and sell it back to us.......
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Post by jdredd on Aug 7, 2012 20:33:36 GMT -5
thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/07/americans-for-prosperity-begins-25-million-anti-obama-ad-campaign/?hp"ORLANDO, Fla. — Americans for Prosperity, the Tea Party organization backed by the Koch brothers, is set to begin a $25 million advertising assault aimed at President Obama, its largest effort to date. The ad campaign is the latest example of how independent political groups funded by a small number of wealthy donors are shaping the presidential campaign in key swing states. Conservative groups and “super PACs” have been particularly aggressive, pummeling Mr. Obama on the airwaves as Mitt Romney’s campaign waits until after the Republican National Convention — when it will be legally permitted to spend the hundreds of millions of dollars it has raised in recent months — to ramp up its advertising efforts." "The first ad, titled “President Obama: A One-Term Proposition,” hits the president over the rising national debt — an issue that conservative political groups like Americans for Prosperity and American Crossroads, which is run with the help of Karl Rove, believe is particularly powerful with swing voters in this election."
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Post by jdredd on Sept 12, 2012 1:48:13 GMT -5
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Post by Tired in CV on Sept 13, 2012 1:46:09 GMT -5
YAWN
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Post by jdredd on Sept 19, 2012 14:42:24 GMT -5
www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-patrick-soon-shiong-aeg-20120919,0,5314243.story "The whispers started right away: Was Patrick Soon-Shiong, a Los Angeles billionaire-doctor-philanthropist-businessman, on the shortlist of potential buyers for entertainment giant AEG? Soon after the company put itself on the block Tuesday, Soon-Shiong representative ck Kenworthy confirmed that the mogul “is keenly aware that AEG is in play” and is “interested.” When they are not trying to buy elections, those wacky billionaires are buying and selling sports franchises. You'd think they thought they owned the world. Oh wait, they DO own the world!
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Post by jdredd on Oct 20, 2012 18:05:57 GMT -5
I'm starting to think the best political development over the last few years is that the Billionaires who have been running things behind the curtain worldwide for decades are becoming overconfident and blatant about how they are pulling the puppet strings. Many people might even like what they are doing (look how popular Murdoch's Fox News is) but now at least the workings of the Plutocracy are becoming more visible. Who knows what unintended consequences may occur.
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Post by jdredd on Feb 13, 2013 16:49:51 GMT -5
Speaking of blowhard billionaires, I guess the latest fad amongst the 1% is to stick their noses into education "reform", which for them translates into Sticking It to Teacher's Unions. Lots of money flowing into various education special interests who are at odds with Unions. If I was a suspicious guy, I might suspect that billionaires, who are adept at smelling money to be made, are banking on the eventual privatization of all education. Not that it's MY problem, my grandkids are almost in college.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2013 12:39:17 GMT -5
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Post by jdredd on Feb 18, 2013 17:01:05 GMT -5
www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mayor-harold-simmons-20130218,0,7325155.story Here's a billionaire who is chipping in money for the only GOP candidate in the LA mayor's race. What is it with these ancient geezer (81) billionaires trying to buy elections? This is the same guy who bankrolled the Swiftboat smear on John Kerry in 2004. Can't we find some Home for Senior Billionaires to keep them from screwing the country any more than they already have? Oh, I forgot, they are not rich SOB's, they are "job creators"... 
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Post by jdredd on Mar 14, 2013 14:15:15 GMT -5
www.thenation.com/blog/173315/charles-koch-reflects-last-election-promises-do-more-persuade-politicians"Charles Koch, the chief executive of Koch Industries who is worth an estimated $34 billion to $44.6 billion, has a new letter to his employees. Koch and his brother spent more than ever in the last election, financing anti-Obama attack ads, phone banks voter contact efforts and more—but came up short. In his letter, sent to tens of thousands of employees through the Koch Industries’ “Discovery” newsletter, Koch warns that “November’s election results … are part of a trend that, if not reversed, will destroy the American dream.” The letter hits familiar themes, claiming regulation and taxation will ruin the economy and posits Koch’s political intervention as our only savior. Koch also implies more big-money spending on campaigns and political groups, writing, “As a company, we are committed to doing what is right in every aspect of our business. That is why we will continue doing everything we can to persuade politicians to put what is good for the country first, before it is too late.” "The economy has been so crippled under Obama that the Koch brothers have both more than doubled their fortune. The Forbes list estimates Charles and David Koch were worth $14 billion each in 2009. The same list released this year now says they're each worth $34 billion. And as Charles notes in his letter, 85 percent of his employees and a majority of his company's assets are in the United States."
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Post by jdredd on Mar 27, 2013 20:33:38 GMT -5
www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-michelle-rhee-20130327,0,3997665.story "The 43-year-old Rhee, whose children attend public school in Tennessee, where her ex-husband lives, is guided by the free-market principles that characterized her tumultuous three-year tenure in Washington." Rhee's group is not required by law to disclose its donors or what they give and declined to provide a list. But she names several in her new memoir, "Radical." "They include the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, funded by John Arnold, a former Enron Corp. trader and Democratic donor who has pushed to rein in public pensions across the country. Eli Broad, the Los Angeles arts and education philanthropist and a Democrat, is another supporter. StudentsFirst spent nearly $2 million in last year's general election to support 105 candidates across the country. The vast majority, mostly Republicans, won their races." Rhee, the school "reformer", is a Gen X tool of billionaires with dollar signs in their eyes looking to privatize public education.
But what is more interesting is the rise of anti-Union "Democrats". Still, Democrats can only keep winning if they keep the "big tent", unlike the Tea Party trying to "purify" the GOP.
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Post by jdredd on Apr 15, 2013 3:52:57 GMT -5
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_J._Perry"Bobby Jack Perry (a.k.a. Bob J. Perry) (born October 30, 1932 — April 13/14, 2013[1]), is a Houston, Texas homebuilder, owner of Perry Homes, and major contributor to a number of politically oriented 527 groups, such as the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth and the Economic Freedom Fund." "In the 2004 election cycle, Perry gave $4.45 million to Swift Vets and POWs for Truth (formerly Swift Boat Veterans for Truth), a 527 group founded by 200 Vietnam veterans; he was the largest single donor.[4] The group held press conferences, ran ads and endorsed a book questioning Kerry's service record and his military awards. The group included several members of Kerry's unit, such as Larry Thurlow, who commanded a swift boat alongside of Kerry's,[5] and Stephen Gardner, who served on Kerry's boat.[6] Chris McGreal of the left-leaning newspaper The Guardian wrote that Perry was the "leading financier" of the group, and alleged the group "smeared the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry with accusations he made false claims about his service in Vietnam."[7] Between 2011 and 2012 Perry donated another $10 million to the Mitt Romney affillated Restore our Future[13] and another $6.5 million to American Crossroads.[14] Perry is the biggest contributor to SuperPACs in the 2012 election cycle with a total of $18.5 million as of September 2012.[15]"
So billionaires DO die. Who knew? It just seems they live forever. And this one bankrolled the Swift Boat smear. Oh well, I'm sure his children will carry on his dirty work.
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Post by jdredd on Apr 21, 2013 0:57:25 GMT -5
abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/usa-today-founder-neuharth-dies-florida-89-19002838#.UXN-vkqWySp"Al Neuharth changed the look of American newspapers when he founded USA Today, filling the newspaper with breezy, easy-to-comprehend articles, attention-grabbing graphics and stories that often didn't require readers to jump to a different page. Critics dubbed USA Today "McPaper" when it debuted in 1982, and they accused Neuharth, of dumbing down American journalism with its easy-to-read articles and bright graphics. USA Today became the nation's most-circulated newspaper in the late 1990s. The hard-charging founder of USA Today died Friday in Cocoa Beach, Fla. He was 89. The news was announced by USA Today and by the Newseum, which he also founded."
Another billionaire bites the dust. This one was responsible for helping lower the standards of print journalism.
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