Episode 71: The Distortion Factories Part I

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(This episode is part of the series The Powell Movement.)

Once a bunch of extremely rich people heard the organizing call from Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr.; once their fortunes established philanthropic foundations professionally staffed with the best money could hire; what happened then? This is the topic I explore in Episode 71: The Distortion Factories Part I.

I decided to dive deeply into what I think is a good example of such a Distortion Factory, one that suckered me in back in '90 or so: The Breakthrough Institute.

(Cards on the table: I am neither pro- nor anti-nuke: I feel there are a lot of promising technologies one can find that happen to function through nuclear fission; I also recognize that there are a lot of bad designs that should be retired and scrapped as soon as possible. The Breakthrough Institute initially got me interested in its brash rejection of traditional "environmentalism" and, yes, its embrace of nuclear tech. They lost me with their convoluted logic and embrace of *all* things nuke. Once I learned about distributed generation—the very antithesis of centralized nuke plants feeding a hub-shaped power grid—I started to realize how business-centric the Breakthrough Institute really was.)

In this episode, I read from: the Breakthrough Institute's premiere piece, "The Death of Environmentalism;" from the Breakthrough Institute's web site listing their sponsors; and from a couple of web sites run by those supporters and supporting organizations. One supporter, Ross Koningstein, who works for The Searchies, had an interesting paper that I both read from an, with help from a rebutting essay, rebut.

Musically, I played a couple of pieces from Jahzzar's album "Tumbling Dishes Like Old-Man's Wishes"; "The Flowers Are Still Standing," and "No End Ave." I opened the show with KMFDM backing Henry Giroux.

Episode 70: Foundations of Deceit

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(This episode is part of the series The Powell Movement.)

Why reinvent the wheel? If it's round, it rolls. And the legal entity chosen by many previously discussed Unusual Suspects, the legal format that has benefited many a billionaire and corporation over the years whether or not they had Powell-y machinations of society in mind, has been the philanthropic foundation. Many not only rolled with foundations… they rocked them.

In this Episode 70: Foundations of Deceit, I take a longish look at how billions of dollars are protected from taxation and other liberal meddling, while simultaneously allowing those billions to warp our society one foundation at a time.

In this episode, I read from Thomas Picketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century, and from Jane Mayer's Dark Money. I also threw out some historical numbers I found on a website run by The Tax Foundation.

And once again, D. L. Myers helped me out by reading from The Memo Itself. He is a poet and reader of weird poetry. Many of his readings, both of his own poetry and the work of others, can be found at his online video channel.

Musically, I threw in three from Podington Bear's album Yearning. In order, you heard "Infant," "Yellow Line," and "Squiggly Line." KMFDM and Henry Giroux opened the show, and Mistle Thrush once again backs the close.

Oh, and Dr. Evil got into the episode somehow. He seemed (Jim extends a pinkie to one corner of his lip as the camera zooms in) appropriate!