This is a summary of some related points which I have just put together aided by recent impetus provided by my friend Jan Turley, MD (a physician, and a native of Eufaula, Indian Territory (OK), now retired in Carroll Co. AR).  He pointed me to a recent article by Jane Mayer–who it turns out I already knew quite well from her writings.  The article, which I had not seen, reminded me of so much.

     I have personally been wondering for some time now who exactly, what person or persons, was (were) actually behind and orchestrating the effort to reverse America’s progressive reform of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by the current anti-government, anti-citizens’ and workers’ rights, pro-elitist (top one per cent) movement.  Obviously in our lifetimes we have heard most recently of “The Tea Party” and earlier it was “The John Birch Society” and other such groups, but I have never personally heard anyone mention the name of such persons in conversation or in writing.  In much earlier times we could attribute much of the responsibility/blame/credit to Standard Oil’s Rockefeller family, John, Sr. particularly, but also to Hans Morgenthau, Jay Gould, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, Edward Harriman, et. al.  Recently, however, I have been thinking generally and without the ability “to put a face” on any individuals, so I had to envision that it just had to be many different big business interests.  Today, however, with Jan’s help I was privileged to read Ms. Mayer’s article from the August 30, 2010, issue of The New Yorker which removed a little bit of the “smog” which obviously purposefully overlay this seedy movement and revealed two of the very biggest “dogs” in this particular “hunt”–Charles and David Koch, “The Brothers Koch,” i.e., two of the “super rich” who operate under the cover of a fictional name of “Americans for Prosperity”–the single largest financial backer of both the “Tea Party” and Sarah Palin.

    It is absolutely necessary that I “introduce” you to Jane Mayer, for if you do not know the kind of writer and investigator she is, you will not appreciate the significance of her findings as set forth in her New Yorker article Covert Operations, i.e.,   [http://www.NewYorker.com/Reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_Mayer?currentpage=all ].

          Ms. Mayer is a gifted writer currently working for The New Yorker, the author of at least three investigative books, all of which were on the NY Times Best Seller” list, and she was a finalist for the National Book Club Award for her book dealing with the well-funded and organized opposition to the confirmation of Clarence Thomas. (She is thus an equal opportunity “muckraker”–to use a term from about one hundred years ago to describe investigative journalism.)  Before she “moved” to The New Yorker, she was the senior writer and front page editor for The Wall Street Journal, but she left that publication upon its change in editorial policy and reportage occurring upon acquisition by Australian media magnate and owner of Fox News, Rupert Murdock.  I have read only one of her highly successful books, i. e., The Dark Side, Doubleday, NYC, 2008, but I was most impressed by it–and I have more notes on that book than I have perhaps ever made about any author’s work since law school.  I would also say that the very subject of her work on and publication of The Dark Side and its revelation of her multitudinous findings of corruption at the highest level of purposeful violation of National and International law by the Bush-Cheney Administration, and while it was still in office, reveals much about her courage.

    The Dark Side is not for the squeamish.  It is a revelation and documentation of the Presidency of George W. Bush and Vice Presidency of Dick Cheney as they related particularly to their formulation of the Country’s posture relative to the terrorism threat after 9/11/2001 and the creation of the doctrine of pre-emptive war against other countries–upon totally false and manufactured evidence [think George Tenet, "yellow cake" and Donald Rumsfeld.]  We have all heard parts of it before, but Ms. Mayer goes through all of the details of the purposeful casting aside of the U.S. Code of Military Justice, the White House orders that the government would no longer adhere to the four United Nations treaties related to prisoners of any description (not just P. O. W’s), to all of which the U.S. is a signatory, that it would purposefully and knowingly illegally institute the practices of “extraordinary rendition” using, in particular, third world nations known for their “expertise” in interrogation by torture, and later setting up “rules” for the kidnapping of citizens of any Nation, including United States citizens, and the incremental uses over time of torture by CIA officers themselves–who actually had no instruction as to how to interrogate; rather, the C. I. A. idiotically purchased the services of two psychologists who had taught interrogation resistance to American soldiers and Marines during the Viet Nam war and assumed that was sufficient!  To the credit of the F. B. I., its officers and even Attorney General Ashcroft were at least offended by what was going on and refused to participate therein.  But they did nothing to stop it.

    There is much discussion in The Dark Side of some actual dissent within the White House (not publicly revealed until Ms. Mayer wrote her book.)   Chief among the dissenters were Jack Goldsmith and Alberto Mora.  But all of these despicable policies were actually caused to be implemented by Dick Cheney and David Addington (Cheney’s Chief aide) and Donald Rumsfeld, but also with the knowledge and concurrence of President Bush–all communication back and forth being handled by and related to him by his personal attorney, Jim Haynes–who participated in all of the briefing and planning.  And all of these policies were either drafted and created by or given the “legal approval” of Special White House Counsel John Yoo and Jay Bybee–who were being pushed very hard to form their “opinions” by Cheney and Addington in a particular way–known to be acting upon the President’s orders to give the Administration “cover” and “excuse.”  These attorneys did not act as do real attorneys.

          It is not surprising, considering the nature of the world, to note that Mr. Yoo, who was once lambasted by Congressional Committees, The American Bar Association and the Press for his malfeasance and cowardice, is now on the faculty of the Hastings College of Law at The University of California, Berkeley. 

    Ms. Mayer, quite appropriately, placed the following two quotes on the back of the dust jacket of her incredible work, i.e.:

                    President George W. Bush:  ”One by one, the terrorists are learning the meaning of American Justice.”

                     Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis:  ”The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning, but without understanding.”

    It was related in The Dark Side that Alberto Mora, General Counsel of the United States Navy, discovered what was going on within the White House and the Pentagon relative to the above issues, and he was so repulsed that he took action, unsuccessfully, with his superiors to reveal the illegal activity.  He is quoted at page 319 of that work as saying to Ms. Mayer: ”If cruelty and torture is declared public policy, it alters the fundamental relationship of man and Government.”  Interestingly, Mr. Mora is now the General Counsel of Wal-Mart’s International Division with offices in Bentonville, AR.    

    Charles and David Koch are the third and fourth richest men in America (Gates and Buffett being the only individuals more wealthy than they) when the net value of their holdings in Koch Industries (the second largest privately-owned corporation in America, behind only Cargill) is considered.  Undoubtedly, I am more fascinated with the story of “The Brothers Koch” than most might be because it is they who within the last five years purchased Georgia-Pacific, Inc., the quite large lumber, plywood, paper products and chemical development company with vast holdings in my little home town of Crossett, AR.  The revelations of Covert Operations give much more meaning to what many of us simply knew as we were growing up as “Stink Creek.”  I never gave any thought as to what was in the effluent from the ”mills” which originally went under U.S. Highway 82 and meandered its way down to within one mile of the Arkansas-Louisiana state line and emptied into the Ouachita River—and left whatever problems might exist to Louisiana.  [My wife, however, has often said that upon my demise she would not bury me; she would just throw me into Stink Creek so that the creek would simply dissolve my body!]

    When I was in high school, something of a regulatory nature obviously occurred, since Georgia Pacific constructed a series of three vast “settling ponds”, one of which was located within a half mile of my home, the old Switzer home place on Sulphur Springs road outside of Crossett and three miles from the intersection of Third Ave. and Main Street in that community.  Many times in recent years I have driven over bridges near the outlets from the various ponds and have been “puzzled” but never worried by all of the tan water and the white foam which was crossing under the bridges–still on its way to the Ouachita River.  Now, however, I have become worried because I am advised that The Brothers Koch’s various industries (including oil refineries, paper and lumber products–including plywood (which utilizes much of the known carcinogen formaldehyde in its manufacture) and toilet paper, Lycra and Stainmaster Carpets), all of which have led to more than one hundred million dollars in annual revenue for the brothers and more fines from the Environmental Protection Agency than any other company in the United States.   They appear, clearly, to be outlaws. 

    Ms. Mayer notes that Rob Stein, an independent political journalist, told her that the Koch brothers are “…smart.  This right wing, red-neck stuff works for them.  They see it as a way to get things done without getting dirty themselves.”  He added, “…the Kochs are at the epicenter of the anti-Obama movement.   But it’s not just about Obama.  They would have done the same to Hillary Clinton.  They did the same to Bill Clinton…” (remember “The Clinton Chronicles” and the supposed drug organization headed by then Governor Clinton with an air strip in Mena., AR, a significant part of his alleged operation?)…They are out to destroy progressivism in the United States.”  

    Read the Covert Operations at the link noted above.  I believe that most of you will then understand that progressivism with respect to western civilization is the result of: i) its formulation and implementation in the late 19′th century and the early 20′th century as the operative basis of Democracy as we know it; and ii.) it reversed the disastrous effects of the change from an agrarian society to an industrialized one upon the unprotected masses facing the very wealthy in control of their “capital”—their blood, sweat, tears, their very bodies and the labor thereof, without any legal, humane protections.  This erasure of progressivism, which includes the end of wage and hour laws, child labor laws, reasonable safety regulation, as well as women’s suffrage, progressive taxation, environmental and worker safety protections, and most of the personal freedoms we all cherish, will frighten each of you. 

          But if you are a “one per center” (or believe yourself invaluable thereto!) you will care not about personal rights and wish to get back to the days of what amounted to “serfdom” for most Americans.  That was the era before Theodore Roosevelt and Wisconsin’s Robert LaFollette gave light to the Progressive movement, and you will just continue to be silent and allow persons such as the Koch brothers, Jamie Dimond and so many others (the top one per centers; the “Wall Street” crowd) to do away with what amounts to the greatest achievements of Western Enlightenment. 

          Overstatement”?  I really don’t think so, for many believe that Sarah Palin may well be the creation of The Brothers Koch to act as their public lackey to appeal to the non-sentient, xenophobic, evangelical and the other generally angry amongst us.  And I keep thinking about the statement normally attributed to Britain’s Lord Acton in the Eighteenth Century that, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  Because Messrs. Bush, Cheney and Addington , and now “The Brothers Koch,” could not be more perfect examples of the truth of that proposition.

    Sadly, the jointly bound circumstances of: i.) the recession–generated almost in its entirety by Bush policies, including his orders to the S.E.C. (Chairman Chris Cox) to hold up upon any regulation of Wall Street practices; ii.) the current vast national debt–ninety five per cent of which was generated fully by Bush’s policies, especially by choosing to engage the Nation in “his” war personal war with Saddam Hussein (made much more dangerous by his bizarre choice to lower taxes on the very rich while fighting a war)–and made potentially more calamitous in prospect by borrowing from China instead of the American People as had been the American tradition, iii.) the one hundred per cent irrational “birther movement,” iv.) the continued insistence by perhaps thirty per cent of America that Obama is a Muslim, and v.) the mere fact that he is the child of a mixed race union, taken together, create a “Perfect Storm” for “The Brothers Koch” to achieve their ends.  

          To close I must note the irony I personally find in the fact that there are so many on the anti-progressive, anti-human rights side of things, for example, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Mike Huckabee, Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Sarah Palin and Sean Hannity, who actually believe they are “leading the parade” and who unquestionably believe that they are in charge of the fate of the Nation.  When, in fact, they are all essentially nothing but laughable flunkies for forces vastly more powerful than they.

Donald K. Switzer

Rogers, Arkansas

(c) September 4, 2010