In an article today, the Miami New Times explains the details of the ballot initiative that could help grow the solar industry in Florida. But the Koch brothers are still working tirelessly against the solar power amendments up for a vote in the Sunshine State next year. Despite the Kochs’ claims that they are in politics to fight for less government interference, the billionaire brothers are actually pushing for more regulations on solar energy because it helps their bottom line.

In his new book, Good Profit, Charles Koch writes that “bad profit is generated by businesses that rely on corporate welfare, special treatment, short-sighted opportunism or outright fraud to prosper.” The Kochs’ attempts to stunt the solar power industry’s growth in Florida is a perfect example of just that. The Kochs are more than willing to take advantage of Floridians as long as it means more money in their pockets.

In his new book out today, Good Profit, Charles Koch sets out to deceive readers that the Koch family’s prominence and wealth has been built on sound, ethical, and even patriotic principles. In reality, the Koch brothers and their business empire has been built on a foundation of what Koch describes as “bad profit.”

Good Profit is just another attempt by Koch to pull the wool over the American public’s eyes and hide the fact that the billionaire Koch brothers and their profit driven business and political philosophy hurts real families and working people across the country.

If you’re picking up a copy of Good Profit today, you might want to think twice. Publisher’s Weekly gave Koch’s book a brutal early review calling it a “rambling rah-rah for his company’s operating philosophy,” “a book-length advertisement for Koch Industries’ products, and for himself as a businessman,” and “self-congratulatory and slim.”

This week as the Koch PR machine […]

NPR reports that in August, leaders from the Koch network’s so-called constituency groups — the LIBRE Initiative, Concerned Veterans for America, Americans for Prosperity, and GenOp — appeared on a panel together and admitted that they’re working together, not to help the constituencies they claim to represent — Latinos, veterans, millennials, and others, but playing politics, electing Republicans, and advancing the Koch agenda.

In an audio recording of the panel obtained by NPR, CVA CEO Pete Hegseth admits the Koch “network” organizations are working together to push the Koch agenda in communities in swing states across the country:

HEGSETH: What makes this network different – AFP, GenOp, Libre, Concerned Vets for America – is that we’ve been in these communities now for three, four years and we’re going to be in them in 2017 and 2018 and 2019.

OVERBY: Those names that Hegseth rattled off – Concerned Veterans, the Libre Initiative, Generation Opportunity […]

A bipartisan discharge petition on the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank reached the necessary 218 signatures this afternoon, according to POLITICO’s Jake Sherman. The petition will force the bill out of the House Financial Services Committee and to a vote on the floor on October 26.

After a huge lobbying effort from the Kochs and their biggest front group, Americans for Prosperity, the Ex-Im expired at the end of June. By dismantling the 81-year-old bank, Republicans put American jobs and the economy at risk, all because their billionaire puppet masters want to boost their bottom line.

In a recent Forbes interview with Charles Koch, the Koch network even took credit for “succeed[ing] in killing the Export-Import Bank.”

The Ex-Im has been essential to keeping American companies competitive around the world. Already since its expiration, General Electric has announced it will be forced to ship 500 American jobs overseas.

As the effects of […]

Despite the Koch brothers’ best efforts, Karl Kessel was this week elected mayor of Alaska’s Fairbanks North Star Borough, drawing from “a broad base of support involving liberals, moderates and conservatives,” according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

Americans for Prosperity ran an aggressive anti-Kassel TV ad campaign, notably the first Outside group to target a local candidate in Fairbanks, but their spending backfired, angering voters upset by the spending: The ads catalyzed a near-immediate fundraising boost for Kassel, who finished his campaign with triple the sum of opponents’ fundraising, the News-Miner reports.

“I’m going to send [Americans for Prosperity] a thank you note,” Kassel reportedly said.

Charles and David Koch may have lost this battle, but they haven’t given up the war. What they lack in integrity and altruism they more than compensate for in self-interest and dedication.

AFP Alaska yesterday vowed to keep fighting: “Our organization has worked to educate borough residents […]

In a big time Koch PR failure, a University of Wisconsin student has penned an op-ed calling out Charles and David for their support of Scott Walker, and for their selfish anti-environmental, anti-student agenda.

Some background: Koch Industries is currently running Jumbotron video promotions during Badgers football games “as part of an image rebuilding and employee recruitment program,” according to The Capital Times.

But students are seeing through Charles and David’s PR smokescreen.

University of Wisconsin-Madison junior Connor Touhey today published a scathing op-ed for The Badger Herald, calling Koch Industries “a direct affront to values UW and residents of Wisconsin hold dear.”

Here’s Touhey’s column in full:

Badger Herald: Koch partnership with UW athletics a slap in face

Republican monetary giants do not align with Madison’s values on higher education or environmental protections

By Connor Touhey, 10/7/15

There’s a new sponsor of University of Wisconsin Athletic Department, and they’re no small-time car dealership. Their ad ran during the first […]

Rob Portman’s record of pushing the Koch brothers’ self-enriching agenda has not only hurt Ohio’s middle class and working families but has become a major political liability for him and his reelection campaign.

Today, a new Senate Majority PAC poll in Ohio reveals that to know the Koch brothers is to dislike them:

“We also asked Ohio voters in the survey about the Koch brothers to see if voters are aware of these out-of-state billionaires who have flooded Ohio airwaves. The results suggest that while voters’ awareness of the Koch brothers is just beginning to grow, voters who are familiar with the Koch brothers do not approve of their deceptive attacks or self-serving agenda: 36% of Ohio voters are familiar with the Koch brothers, with 3 to 1 saying they feel unfavorably toward them. Portman’s reliable support for the Koch agenda in Washington will end up being a liability for him as voters learn more […]

The Kochs’ massive failure of a youth outreach front group is still around, apparently. And Generation Opportunity’s latest effort at encouraging “creative disruption” looks suspiciously like encouraging “law breaking.”

With a recent blog post entitled, “How Food Trucks Are Using Social Media to Get Around Government Regulators,” Generation Opportunity cleverly taps into millennials’ well-documented weakness for food trucks, while subtly emphasizing the perils of “burdensome government regulations.”

Such regulations are of course also known as “laws” — and the Generation Opportunity post is all about “innovat[ing]…around” them. Or, as the practice is more popularly known: “Breaking the law.”

But then again, in characteristic Koch front-group fashion, Generation Opportunity has never had the best interests of its target audience at heart. From opposition to student loan forgiveness and Medicaid expansions, to actively discouraging young people from getting health insurance, Generation Opportunity has consistently weighed Charles and David’s priorities — and bottom […]