Study: Tea party a long-planned creation of big tobacco, Koch brothers

[ms maggie]

Far from a genuine grassroots uprising, this astroturf effort was curated by wealthy industrialists years in advance. Many of the anti-science operatives who defended cigarettes are currently deploying their tobacco-inspired playbook internationally to evade accountability for the fossil fuel industry's role in driving climate disruption.The study, funded by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institute of Health, traces the roots of the Tea Party's anti-tax movement back to the early 1980s when tobacco companies began to invest in third party groups to fight excise taxes on cigarettes, as well as health studies finding a link between cancer and secondhand cigarette smoke. [...]


This has got to be one of the funniest things parading as serious thought that I've seen in a long time. The only thing missing is Donald Pleasance stroking a white Persian cat. (You old guys know what I mean.) This guy must go looking for Bigfoot when he's not connecting random dots for Huffpo, or should it be called Puffpo?

What part isn't true? CSE wasn't funded in part by the tobacco companies? Big tobacco didn't adopt the strategy of using third party "independent" groups like CSE to further their agenda? Dick Armey and the Koch Bros weren't tied into CSE? CSE didn't spin off FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity? Those organizations aren't right wing big Tea Party funders?

I know you are in stitches but once you stop chuckling, perhaps you could enlighten us?

[Calamari]

Besides, where are the anti-war protests now? Democrat president. They're gone.

That might have something to with the Iraq war (that you so supported then) being over. This isn't complicated stuff.

[bullmikey]

From the link:

Methods We used the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library, the Wayback Machine, Google, LexisNexis, the Center for Media and Democracy and the Center for Responsive Politics (opensecrets.org) to examine the tobacco companies’ connections to the Tea Party.

Yep, sounds like a serious academic study. I'm not surprised they found what they knew to be true all along. I mean how could thye not have?

[Calamari]

It sounds like they did a lot more research than you did.

[ms maggie]

From the link:



Yep, sounds like a serious academic study. I'm not surprised they found what they knew to be true all along. I mean how could thye not have?

The Wayback Machine: http://www.infotoday.com/online/mar02/OnTheNet.htm

The Wayback Machine is a front end to the Internet Archive's collection of public Web pages. It includes more than 100 terabytes of date—a huge collection with huge storage requirements. The Wayback Machine provides access to this wealth of data by URLs. It is not text searchable—a user needs to know the exact URL of a particular Web page, or at least the Web site, to be able to enter the archive.

LexisNexis:

LexisNexis Group is a corporation that provides computer-assisted legal research services.[2][3] During the 1970s, LexisNexis pioneered the electronic accessibility of legal and journalistic documents.[4] As of 2006, the company has the world's largest electronic database for legal and public-records related information.[5]

http://www.lexisnexis.com/en-us/home.page

Pikers.