Concerned VETERANS of Am

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FRONT? ASTRO?

is this vet main?

see hegseth took over his failed 1st vet gp

Hegseth’s behavior while leading the veterans group Concerned Veterans for America, as well as reporting about his time helming the group Veterans for Freedom.

He was forced out of his roles atop both organizations.

see koch lewandowski

Justin Caporale, event strats freedom 250

see VA, also tag no A

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The New Yorker: Pete Hegseth forced out of veterans' ...

Yahoo

https://www.yahoo.com › news › yorker-pete-hegseth-f...

Dec 2, 2024 — The New Yorker: Pete Hegseth forced out of veterans' advocacy groups over misconduct allegations.

Pete Hegseth defends tenure at veterans advocacy groups ...

New York Post

https://nypost.com › 2024/12/04 › us-news › pete-hegs...

Dec 4, 2024 — Pete Hegseth defended his leadership of two veteran advocacy groups Wednesday amid allegations of misconduct during his tenure.

Missing: singer ‎| Show results with: singer

Pete Hegseth's Secret History

The New Yorker

https://www.newyorker.com › News › Donald Trump

Dec 1, 2024 — As a decorated veteran who by 2014 had become an on-air contributor to Fox News, Hegseth was the public face of the group's mission, conducting ...

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Hegseth forced out of vets groups due to drinking ...

FOX 2

https://fox2now.com › news › national › hegseth-force...

Dec 2, 2024 — Among the most damning allegations, Hegseth was so intoxicated he had to be physically stopped from joining dancers on the stage of a Louisiana ...

Missing: singer ‎| Show results with: singer

Pete Hegseth Allegedly Chanted 'Kill All Muslims!' and ...

Rolling Stone

https://www.rollingstone.com › politics › politics-news

Dec 2, 2024 — Pete Hegseth reportedly cultivated a culture of sexism, misused donor funds, and engaged in drunken behavior during stints atop two veterans ...

Pete Hegseth accused of using Veteran organization funds to ...

YouTube · WHAS11

3.9K+ views · 10 months ago

1:38

Pete Heth is facing accusations of Financial mismanagement and sexual misconduct allegations he denies according to the New Yorker magazine.

❌ No, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth didn't donate ...

Facebook · snopes.com

460+ reactions · 1 month ago

❌ No, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth didn't donate $12.9 million to a series of homeless support centers in his hometown of Minneapolis, ...

Pete Hegseth's Troubles at Work Raise Questions About ...

The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com › U.S. › Politics

Dec 4, 2024 — Hegseth's successive tenures as the head of two nonprofit veterans groups, from 2008 to 2016, ended with both in financial trouble. At the first ...

GOP insiders sought Hegseth's removal as leader of ...

CBS News

https://www.cbsnews.com › Politics

Dec 4, 2024 — GOP insiders sought Hegseth's removal as leader of veterans' group in 2016 ... donors Charles and David Koch, Hegseth stepped down, sources ...

an 12 24

Although some of President-elect Donald Trump's picks for his incoming administration are almost certain to receive bipartisan confirmation in the U.S. Senate — including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) for secretary of state and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum for interior secretary — others are extremely controversial. And one pick that is drawing vehement criticism from both the left and the right is Fox News star Pete Hegseth, Trump's choice for defense secretary.

Hegseth's critics have been arguing that although he is a veteran, he lacks the experience necessary to lead the U.S. Defense Department. Moreover, critics warn, Hegseth has faced a sexual assault allegation (although he hasn't been charged with anything) and embraces dangerous Christian nationalist views.

Now, bombshell reporting by journalist Jane Mayer in The New Yorker gives Hegseth's critics more arguments to use against him.

Mayer, in an article published on December 1, reports that "Hegseth's record before becoming a full-time Fox News TV host, in 2017, raises additional questions about his suitability to run the world's largest and most lethal military force."

"A trail of documents, corroborated by the accounts of former colleagues, indicates that Hegseth was forced to step down by both of the two nonprofit advocacy groups that he ran — Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America — in the face of serious allegations of financial mismanagement, sexual impropriety, and personal misconduct," Mayer explains. "A previously undisclosed whistle-blower report on Hegseth's tenure as the president of Concerned Veterans for America, from 2013 until 2016, describes him as being repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity — to the point of needing to be carried out of the organization's events."

Mayer continues, "The detailed seven-page report — which was compiled by multiple former CVA employees and sent to the organization's senior management in February 2015 — states that, at one point, Hegseth had to be restrained while drunk from joining the dancers on the stage of a Louisiana strip club, where he had brought his team. The report also says that Hegseth, who was married at the time, and other members of his management team sexually pursued the organization's female staffers, whom they divided into two groups — the 'party girls' and the 'not-party girls.'"

According to Mayer, a separate letter of complaint alleges that during a visit to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio on May 29, 2015, a drunken Hegseth was chanting, "Kill All Muslims! Kill All Muslims!"

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, discussed the alcohol abuse allegations against Hegseth.

Blumenthal told Mayer, "Much as we might be sympathetic to people with continuing alcohol problems, they shouldn't be at the top of our national-security structure. It's dangerous. The secretary of defense is involved in every issue of national security. He's involved in the use of nuclear weapons. He's the one who approves sending troops into combat. He approves drone strikes that may involve civilian casualties. Literally life-and-death issues are in the hands of the secretary of defense, and entrusting these kinds of issues to someone who might be incapacitated for any reason is a risk we cannot take."

Jane Mayer's full report for The New Yorker is available at this link (subscription required).}:

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5/18

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9/20 right after losers and suckers

920 an

Stewart joins veterans in DC to demand attention for a deadly policy killing US troops

Aysha Qamar / Daily Kos

see minnsota dirty trick pot legal blind wheelchiar vet, irony/cynic that trump admin cared nothing about any of thos groups, tho pretended, VA maralago grifters

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/we-were-just-used-give-trump-money-veterans-say-saudi-regime-duped-them-funnel

In a detailed new report Wednesday, journalists David Fahrenthold and Jonathan O'Connell at the Washington Post showed how the Saudi regime used a veterans group to dump hundreds of thousands of dollars into President Donald Trump's business — an incident that has become emblematic of the Emoluments Clause case against the president.

The Constitution's Emoluments Clause bars the president and other officials from receving payments from foreign governments while in office. Attorneys general from Washington D.C. and Maryland are currently bringing a case against the president because his continued control of his business empire has allowed him to receive such payments.

And the Saudis, it seems, have been big customers. The Post reported that lobbyists for Saudi Arabia spent $270,000 at Trump International Hotel in D.C. shortly after Trump's election in 2016. It also found that the regime is finding other avenues to pay Trump money:

Since February 2017, Saudi customers have boosted the bottom line at two other Trump hotels. In Chicago, the Trump hotel’s internal statisticsshowed a sharp uptick in customers from Saudi Arabia after Trump took office. In New York this year, the general manager of Trump’s hotel at Central Park said a single stay by some Saudi customers — who were traveling with Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman —was so lucrative, it helped the hotel turn a profit for the quarter.

But the D.C. case is particularly galling because of the way it used veterans.

Fahrenthold and O'Connell report that the lobbying firm Qorvis/MSLGroup, working for the Saudis, paid for groups of veterans to have lavish stays at Trump's hotel while lobbying lawmakers against legislation the reigme opposed. But many of the veterans said they didn't realize the Saudi regime was paying for the trip or that they only found out later, leaving them feeling "duped."

Michael Gibson, who helped organize the trips, insisted that the veterans were informed of the funding source and that the aim was not to win favorable treatment from the president by paying his businesses.

However, Henry Garcia, a Navy Veteran who took the trip, told the Post that once he found out the regime was behind the event, he said to himself, "Oh, we were just used to give Trump money.”

Perhaps most damning of all about the report is that the veterans weren't even provided with sufficient training to be good lobbyists. If the operation wasn't aiming to actually influence law, it seems more likely that it was used to directly influence the president.

All of this is espcially damning because of Trump's behavior toward Saudi Arabia. He has consistently touted the regime as a central ally, even though this claim is dubious, and the administration has supported the ongoing war and human rights catastrophe in Yemen. Most recently, the administration has been helping to cover up the evidence of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's involvement in the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

After receiving criticism for his shady ties to the country, the president said on Nov. 20, "I have no business whatsoever with Saudi Arabia."

Even the mere appearance of foreign corruption, putting aside the frightful amount of evidence of corruption, should be reason enough for the president to be blocked from receiving these funds. It's intolerable to think the country's foreign policy might be driven by Trump's private greed.

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https://www.prwatch.org/news**/2018/11**/13419/kochs-new-super-pac-loses-six-nine-incumbents-key-targeted-house-races

Announced in September with great fanfare, the Koch's new super PAC, Americans for Prosperity Action (AFP Action), achieved mixed results in the fifteen races it targeted in the 2018 midterm elections.

Most significant, it lost six House races against incumbents, constituting a 12-vote swing that was key to the Democrats taking control of the U.S House.

AFP Action, the new super PAC arm of its astroturf operation, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), reported spending between$75,000 and $300,000 in each race.

The Koch's undoubtedly knew that these were key to the Democrats winning a majority in the House. Most of the money in these races was spent on TV and digital advertising.

In Iowa, a state carried by Trump in 2016, both incumbents backed by AFP Action were knocked off by challengers. Given the considerable advantage of holding office, more than 90 percent of incumbents are typically reelected.

The story was the same in Illinois, Minnesota, Utah, and Virginia: AFP Action supported incumbents who were defeated by challengers. In three House races, in Ohio, Texas, and Washington, AFP Action's targeted Republican incumbents won.

AFP Action also spent between $1.5 million and $6 million each on five U.S. Senate and three gubernatorial races.

AFP Action candidates won in two Senate races, with Koch darling Josh Hawley beating incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill in Missouri and Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn taking down former Gov. Phil Bredesen in Tennessee.

But AFP Action lost big in Wisconsin where its candidate Leah Vukmir -- an American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) champion -- got crushed by over ten percentage points byincumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D).And AFP Action lost in Montana after incumbent Sen. Jim Tester squeaked out a victory over challengerMatt Rosendale (R).

Florida's Senate race between Gov. Rick Scott (R) and Bill Nelson (D) is too close to call.

In the governor's race in Wisconsin, a state Trump narrowly won, Democratic candidate Tony Evers beat incumbent and former Presidential hopeful, Scott Walker. Altogether AFP Action spent about $6 million in ads on the two races in Wisconsin, not counting opening offices, hiring staff, and canvassing, with final figures still to come.

AFP Action also lost the open seat governor's race in Nevada, a state where it spent near $3 million, supporting Republican Adam Laxaltagainst Democrat Steve Sisolak.

AFP Action backed the gubernatorial winner in Florida, another open seat, Ron DeSantis beating Andrew Gillum, although that race may still end up getting a recount.

AFP spent millions on door-to-door, mail, and digital appeals to its list and the public, but the full amount cannot be known. In addition, as the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) reported, Concerned Veterans for America Action -- a project of AFP Action -- also aided Rosendale, DeSantis, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), and Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC).

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11/18

https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2018/11/02/team-koch-steps-up-game-veterans-astroturf-operation-2018-midterms/

:{Concerned Veterans for America (CVA), the Kochs’ veterans astroturf organization, has spent millions in support of Republicans in close races that will be decided on Tuesday. The exact amount of its spending is now more difficult to pinpoint though, :{since CVA was reorganized as a “branded project” in September 2016 under Americans for Prosperity (AFP),the main political arm of the Koch machine.According to a Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) analysis of Federal Election Commission filings, Americans for Prosperity doing business as Concerned Veterans for America reported spending $1.8 million so far this cycle,}: but this is only a fraction of what has been reported in the media.Furthermore, $1.8 million is far less than CVA’s spending in previous election cycles and what its executive director suggestedthe group would spend back in January. CVA spent around $20 million on the 2014 midterms and $25 million in 2016, and executive director Dan Caldwell said that the group would make “multi-million dollar” expenditures this year.CVA has reported spending $4.7 million on ads in the U.S. Senate race against Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin alone.

Those adsattacked Baldwin for not doing enough to address the overprescribing of opioids in Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals in the Badger state.CVA is also offering support through direct mailings to Congressmen Rod Blum (IA-R), David Young (IA-R), Will Hurd (TX-R), and Dave Brat (VA-R) for their support of a partial privatization of the VA under the guise of “Veterans Choice.” Some of the Blum mailings arrived to voters in neighboring Minnesota for some odd reason.The VA Mission Act, which was signed into law by Trump earlier this year, was heavily lobbied for by CVA. The law provides veterans with an opportunity to seek care outside the VA, which critics argue is a first step to privatizing the VA.Questions remain over who will oversee the new healthcare system. “Will Congress still retain authority over this proposed shadow healthcare delivery system?” said John Rowan, National President of Vietnam Veterans of America. “Oversight with accountability is not spelled out to our satisfaction in this legislation. Who will be responsible? How will it be accomplished?

:{:{Will HIPPA affect the exchange of information called for in the legislation? What are the penalties for violation of standards of care, malpractice, accreditation, and credentialing of private providers, waste, fraud and abuse?”CVA ActionConcerned Veterans for America Action, a project of the recently launched Americans for Prosperity Action (AFP Action), is also offering support to candidates. An examination of AFP Action’s first FEC filing detailing expenditures does not designate which expenditures are made in the name of CVA Action, so the exact amount of contributions is unknown, but AFP Action has reported spending over $8 million.CVA Action launched its first ad campaign against U.S. Senator Jon Tester (MT-D). The video spot attacks Tester for saying that the VA is “doing a pretty darn good job.” Tester is in an extremely tight race with Republican challenger Matt Rosendale.CVA Action also announced at the beginning of October that it was undertaking a “six-figure” direct ad mail campaign to support U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis (R) in his campaign for governor of Florida. DeSantis is battling Democratic nominee Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum for Florida’s top post.}:

DeSantis supported CVA’s efforts to begin privatizing the VA while in Congress.Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) are also receiving help from CVA Action in the form of direct mailings and door knockings. Both have supported CVA’s efforts for partial privatization of the VA.CVA claims it has 12,000 volunteers in 13 states, according to a recent New York Times report. It’s unclear if these are unique volunteers to CVA or part of the larger AFP volunteer base. AFP lists operations in 38 states on its website and claims to have 3.2 million activists.CVA, registered as Vets for Economic Freedom Trust, reported $15.9 million in revenue in its last filing with the Internal Revenue Service. The vast majority was contributed by the Kochs’ Freedom Partners, which gave CVA $12.1 million in 2016.Earlier this year, CVA touted that it has a “seat at the table” in the White House and that it has an ally in Trump in its push to privatize the VA. Four people employed by the Trump administration used to work for CVA, according to ProPublica}:}:

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irony attack vet https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2018/05/14/unprecedented-outside-spending-floods-wisconsin-attack-us-senator-tammy-baldwin

2018 campaign cash is already flooding into races across the country. But nowhere is more awash in money than Wisconsin, where Tammy Baldwin’s U.S. Senate race has already seen more than twice the amount of the next closest contest.The spending is “unprecedented” for a U.S. Senate campaign at this stage, says Andrew Mayersohn, a researcher for the Center for Responsive Politics.As of April 23, 2018, more than $10 million had been spent by conservative groups buying ads opposing Baldwin or supporting one of her two main Republican rivals, management consultant Kevin Nicholson and longtime ALEC legislator and State Senator Leah Vukmir. In contrast, just over $1 million has been spent supporting Baldwin or attacking her opponents. The PACs and dark money “issue ad” groups trying to unseat Baldwin are connected to some of the most powerful right-wing donors in the country, including Richard Uihlein, Robert Mercer and the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers.These billionaire backers of the far right are working hard to take down Tammy Baldwin, a pro-labor, pro-environment, pro-universal health care progressive. Below, the Center for Media and Democracy details some of the biggest spenders in the race.

RICHARD UIHLEIN’S AMERICA’S PAC AND RESTORATION PAC

The biggest outside spender in the Wisconsin senate race to date is industrial supply magnate Richard Uihlein, owner of the shipping supply firm Uihlein Corp. Uihlein single-handedly turned little-known veteran Kevin Nicholson into a major threat to Baldwin’s seat. Uihlein’s “Restoration PAC,” a federal Super PAC, has spent $541,374 against Baldwin and $2,502,268 supporting Nicholson. Uihlein has bankrolled Restoration PAC with $4,225,000 as of February 2018.His “America’s PAC” has spent $2,621,565 supporting Nicholson, as well as $703,500 opposing Baldwin. Between September 2017 and February 2018, Uihlein has given America’s PAC $2.65 million.But all that money doesn’t translate into common sense. In an embarrassing gaffe, America’s PAC sent a radio ad to 20 Wisconsin stations favorably comparing Nicholson with embattled Missouri Governor Eric Greitens. Greitens is facing a criminal trial for initiating an affair with his hairdresser by strapping her arms to exercise hoops, blindfolding her, stripping her and taking a photo to make sure that she wouldn’t tell anyone. What do Greitens and Nicholson have in common? Both are veterans and both were Democrats who are now running for office on the Republican line.This isn’t the first time that America’s PAC ads have gone awry. In 2014, America’s PAC sponsored ads in Ohio, which observers such as the Black Commentator news site described as “highly obnoxious” for their attempt to portray Democrats as destroying African-American communities through support for pro-choice policies. In 2006, radio ads prepared by America’s PAC gave “the clear message that black voters need to join the Republican cause if they want to enjoy the same success as whites.”America’s PAC is attacking Baldwin for the death of several veterans at a Veterans Administration (VA) hospital because she allegedly ignored a whistleblower’s warning about “overmedicated veterans.” Politifact rated this claim “False” and reported that the whistleblower’s warning could not be tied to the three deaths in question.ROBERT MERCER BEHIND JOHN BOLTON SUPER PACThe John Bolton Super PAC, run by the same John Bolton who is now the National Security Advisor of the United States, has spent $560,570

:{:{supporting Nicholson. The PAC plans to spend $1 million to help Nicholson defeat Vukmir in the primary.The Super PAC has been largely funded by hedge fund manager Robert Mercer, one of the “blow it all up” billionaire backers behind Trump and one of the first investors in the controversial “psy-ops” organization Cambridge Analytica. Good governance groups Democracy 21 and Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint against the John Bolton Super PAC in March 2018, claiming that the PAC’s work with Cambridge Analytica and SCL Industries violated election laws prohibiting foreign nationals from “directly or indirectly” participating in American political campaigns.}:

KOCH FRONT GROUP: CONCERNED VETERANS FOR AMERICAThe billionaire Koch brothers are the also donating heavily to an array of PACs attacking Baldwin. Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) is a Koch front group based in Arlington, Virginia. CVA purports to be a grassroots group of vets who want to reform the VA. But the phony front group is the only known “veterans” group pushing for the privatization of the of the VA, which provides comprehensive health care services to the nation’s nine million veterans. After being fired via Twitter in March, Trump’s Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin warned in an op-ed in the New York Times that the VA is entangled in a “brutal power struggle” over privatization.As of March 8, 2018, CVA had spent $3.1 million against Baldwin, including ads on the same false claims made by America’s PAC that she was responsible for deaths at a VA hospital. In addition, CVA’s Executive Director Dan Caldwell flew to Wisconsin to participate as a panelist in the first GOP primary debate between Vukmir and Nicholson. The debate was sponsored by none other than the Kochs’ astroturf organization, Americans for Prosperity. The candidates predictably embraced every Koch policy as they vied for the billionaires’ endorsement and money, but the debate did allow Vukmir to savage Nicholson as a former Democrat.

:{:{KOCH’S FREEDOM PARTNERS}:

Freedom Partners is the Kochs’ non-profit 501(c)(6) dark money “trade group” funded by the Kochs and staffed with Koch operatives. As of April 28, 2018, Freedom Partners has spent more than $1.6 million on attack ads accusing Baldwin of “rigging the system” by voting for higher taxes (which paid for programs such as the Affordable Care Act).After a seemingly grassroots Tea Party uprising against the 2010 Affordable Care Act, it was later revealed that the Kochs played a major role bankrolling the many right-wing groups involved. When asked about why the Kochs were campaigning against health care, Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips told the New York Times that the plan was to discredit the government (or as he put it, the “social welfare boondoggle”) in preparation for the fight over climate change.Stay tuned, this interesting race is likely to get a lot more interesting. Leah Vukmir won the GOP straw poll at the Republican state convention this weekend with 72 percent of the vote. This is after Vukmir began tweeting out photos of Baldwin and Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the planner of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, calling them“Team Terrorist.” The crude move, allegedly protesting Baldwin’s silence on the Gina Haspel CIA nomination, was denounced as an “irresponsible campaign blunder” by far-right news outlets and “embarrassing” by Nicholson. Baldwin had been waiting to meet with Haspel, who had cancelled a scheduled meeting. }:}:

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Fox News gave its contributors Pete Hegseth and Scott Brown platforms to publicly audition to be President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of veterans affairs, a position for which they are both reportedly being considered.On the December 16 edition of Fox & Friends, Hegseth answered viewers' questions about veterans' issues and explained his vision for the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA). The hosts openly acknowledgedHegseth’s possible pick as VA secretary, and he acted as if the segment were an audition for the role, answering questions sent to the show, such as, “How will the VA combat corruption and avoid awarding bonuses to executives who do not meet targeted objectives?” and, “What will you do about the corrupt unions that continue to play politics and use intimidation tactics to keep all corruption issues quiet?”}:

In addition to pushing for firing certain VA officials and allowing the use of private doctors, he bragged that the VA union disliked him because “we've been taking them on for years.” Hegseth discussed his meetings with Trump and lauded the president-elect for being “willing to fight back” and said he will be “an amazing president.”The same day, Brown appeared on America’s Newsroom, where he also acknowledged he was “in the mix” for the VA position and was asked by co-host Bill Hemmer “what [his] big sales point” was to Trump about why he deserved the position. Brown said he had “political” and “media experience” and pushed for fixing “mismanagement” at the VA. He also praised Trump’s “plain talk” and his “positive” message.Hegseth and Brown are reportedly top contenders to be Trump’s VA secretary, and have met with Trump multiple times to discuss the position. According to The New York Times, veterans groups have strongly opposed Hegseth and Brown.

The groups told the Times that their opposition to Hegseth stems from his work with “Republican-funded activist groups and think tanks that have portrayed veterans health care as feckless and corrupt,” including the right-wing group Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) where he served as CEO. The group, which is backed by the Koch brothers and supports the privatization of the VA, has been criticized for its “partisan attacks” against Democrats. Hegseth was also criticized by veterans groups for his position that veterans should have “the choice to seek care in the private sector,” which those groups said could “siphon billions of dollars away from veterans hospitals, causing the system to collapse.”Joe Chenelly, the executive director of the advocacy group Amvets, told the Times that Brown “lacks the experience to run a nationwide health care and benefits system with 350,000 employees.” Brown, a former Republican senator, has used Fox multiple times previously as a platform to criticize the VA and the Obama administration’s promise to help veterans.If picked to head the VA, Hegseth or Brown would join the multiple Fox personalities who have joined or are being considered for the incoming Trump administration.}:

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:{:{bread for god stealth wellbeing bs Housed within the foundation arm of Americans for Prosperity, the Koch network’s largest group, the program represents “the new way to advance freedom,” Stefano boasted. “And so that’s why, today, you’ll see Americans for Prosperity Foundation reaching out to new communities offering not just classes on the Constitution, and knowing your rights, but on couponing and how to turn your passion into profit by helping other people be successful, to not just tell them about the economy and economic freedom, but to show them that we want them to economically thrive, and how to do it.”Bridge to Wellbeing last week served hot dinners to crowds of dozens of primarily African American attendees at a church in Miami and a community center in Orlando. A chef offered tips on how to prepare “dinner on a dime,” while attendees were guided into “learning about freedom,” according to the Twitter feed of one AFP staffer.The Koch efforts can seem at times almost like a post-Citizens United version of turn-of-the-century political machines like Tammany Hall ― part privatized social-service agency, part voter mobilization. But liberal critics see it as a craven and patronizing gambit to bribe the disadvantaged into supporting a de-regulatory agenda that helps the haves at the expense of the have-nots."It won't work. They can't hide their agenda of lower wages, no unions and no health care, which would be devastating to these communities, merely by trying to 'help' them with a food coupon," said David Brock, who founded a liberal non-profit group that tracks the Koch network.}:

He added, "It's also creepy. It sounds like something Hezbollah would do to get recruits."Like most else in the Kochs’ expansive network, which plans to spend as much as $889 million from the industrialist Koch brothers and hundreds of allied mega-donors in the run-up to the 2016 election, the so-called well-being efforts, as they are known within the network, are only partly about electing Republicans.Charles Koch has long argued ― mostly privately until recently ― that government welfare and regulation actually hold back many of its ostensible beneficiaries. His network's goal, he told hundreds of ultra-rich conservatives he had summoned to a tony Southern California resort this summer, “is to remove the shackles preventing all Americans, especially the disadvantaged, from pursuing their dreams. That’s what’s happening in this country. We are crushing ― these policies are crushing peoples’ dreams,” including by making "it nearly impossible for the poor to start a small business or, in many cases, even work.”

Koch went on to call his network "the most effective movement in history for helping people improve their lives and making the world a better place."In addition to Bridge to Wellbeing, Koch-backed wellness efforts include the Hispanic-focused LIBRE Initiative, which has given away holiday turkeys and toys, as well as Spanish-language training for drivers’ licensing, GED exams and tax-preparation. Another network group, Concerned Veterans for America, is expected to begin offering similar well-being programs for veterans, according to sources. There are also initiatives aimed at the homeless, developmentally disabled and mentally ill. And there’s a new group called Stand Together for America focused partly on using well-being-related outreach to appeal to what network officials call “the middle third” ― persuadable voters who are mostly disengaged. And the Charles Koch Institute in 2013 launched a “Well-Being Initiative” to provide intellectual firepower for the overall network effort.“Sometimes, we have not been as good at explaining the virtues of economic freedom and individual liberty to people who are struggling,” said Americans for Prosperity’s president Tim Phillips. He also conceded that well-being initiatives could help AFP’s main arm satisfy an Internal Revenue Service requirement that the group spend most of its money on educational or charitable purposes, not political or policy advocacy. “Part of it is we are a social welfare organization. And, so, yes, we do try to help folks live more prosperous lives. That’s not related to direct policy.”

The Koch brothers have fired their first salvo--that the public knows about--in the 2016 election year.The Koch-funded Concerned Veterans for America is beginning to air a $700,000 broadcast and digital advertising buy throughout Nevada supporting U.S. Representative Joe Heck's candidacy for Senator Harry Reid's seat. Senator Reid will be retiring at the end of his term and Rep. Heck's bid for the vacant Senate seat will be contested by Reid's preferred successor ex-Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto.}:

:{:{The advertisement can be found here.Koch Industries has been one of Rep. Heck's top contributors throughout his career, and Heck voted with Koch-held positions nearly 90 percent of the time in 2015. In 2014, the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity also ran a $200,000 advertisement in support of Heck.The Concerned Veterans for America ad appears to be the first political ad aired in 2016 by a known Koch front group, although the shadowy Koch network may also be funding election activities without public disclosure. Concerned Veterans for America also began an advertising campaign in October 2015 against Colorado Senator Michael Bennet, Indiana Senator Joe Donnelly, Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey, and North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp.}:

Concerned Veterans for America and its related organizations have received nearly $21 million in funding from Freedom Partners, which Politico has described as the Koch network's "secret bank," and has received nearly $2 million from the Koch-linked TC4 Trust since 2011. The Koch brothers' donor network has pledged to spend close to a billion dollars in the race for the White House in 2016 and has already spent nearly $400 million in 2015. The details of this spending may not be known for years it at all.The Kochs have denied being involved in the presidential primary--despite Freedom Partners president Marc Short joining Marco Rubio's presidential campaign--but Concerned Veterans for America also ran a digital ad attacking Hillary Clinton last November, and issued a press release deriding Donald Trump's Veteran's Administration reform plan in 2015.Learn more about this group at Sourcewatch.org.}: