title:  Koch Brothers Hold Dark Money Conference To Plot Election 2016 Dirty Tricks
text: The Koch Brothers arranged their meeting of wealthy right-wing billionaires this weekend in order to come up with the best strategy in order to move America further to the right.As befitting wealthy right-wing industrialists, the Kochs held their $100,000 per seat affair at a luxury hotel. 500 of the super rich right showed up, with about 150 of them new converts to the conservative donor network that already spent close to $400 million in 2015 to lay the groundwork for the 2016 campaign.Many of the Koch network members   which include some of the biggest-spending conservative families in America, such as Michigan s DeVoses and the Adelsons from Las Vegas   spend tens of millions each year advancing their favored politicians and causes.In his introductory speech, Charles Koch told the donors he had four goals to change the trajectory of American government and society.The first is to  reverse the policies that are moving us toward a two-tiered society,  which include corporate welfare.The second is to end  irresponsible government spending. Of course, the Kochs don t mind it too much when their multibillion dollar enterprises are the beneficiaries of government spending and regulation. The brothers and their allies spend heavily in order to ensure politicians, mostly Republicans, are in place to enact or oppose legislation that affects their bottom line.Charles Koch also told those attending the meeting that free speech is  under attack everywhere.  Of course, to the Kochs that isn t free speech in the way most Americans think about it, but rather laws and regulations requiring disclosure about who spends money on elections. The Kochs believe in the supremacy of  dark money  in politics, so that they can make their influence be felt without being held accountable for it.That s the reason why, after the Kochs were called out for their spending in the 2010 and 2012 campaigns, they have mounted a huge effort to advertise their company s philanthropy on television (often during news programming and especially on the influential Sunday morning talk shows). Charles Koch has also recently released a business book, with no mention of course of his company s underhanded practices, fines from the government for pollution, or the violations of election law that affiliates of the Koch network have been caught in.Featured image from Flickr