Circus. You have your choice, folks. A cowboy, a curmudgeon, a biker or a normal guy. Were a wasting all kinds of wood out there, and theyre burring it and smogging this place up. I dont like political correctness. Can i say this, it sucks. As it says in my motorcycle club, hey Diddle Diddle right up the middle is my style. Because those guys will be on the ballot in your state. Oregon is getting nasty too with Senate Candidate monica wehby and a 911 call in which her exboyfriend calls her a stalker and which her exhusband accuses her of slapping him and throwing items at him. Nasty in kentucky where mcconnells campaign has challenged bevin with an east coast con man and attacking him for an appearance at a cockfight. Paul brown, the one who called evolution a lie straight from the pit of hell and phil gingrey who tried to bolster his fading prospects with this tv ad. Georgians can send a true conservative but will we promote teenage homosexuality . The nastiest in my opinion involve candidates you probably have not heard of but which feature the person most likely to emerge interest this election cycle as a new tea party star. Its the senate race in mississippi where sixterm senator thad cochran trying to hold off a tea party aligned lawyer and talk show host named chris mcdaniel. Mcdaniel made it clear he knows how to rally the base. Let me just get crazy with it. If they pass reparations and my taxes go up, i aint paying taxes. Get crazy with it, chris. This primary is still a couple weeks away and the polling out of mississippi is pretty spotty but mcdaniel became a real darling of the right wing media trying to take out cochran in which the dominant narrative has been the return of the gop establishment. And curiously, recently stories have been popping up in conservative Media Outlets pushing rumors that the incumbent thad cochran, whose wife has been in a nursing home for 14 years with progressive dementia, that cochran was engaged in an affair with a staffer. We have absolutely no confirmation of this rumor nor does anyone else but has been pushed hard in stories like this one on brightburn. Com. On friday in an absolutely insane development, a blogger named clayton kelly, who is a mcdaniel supporter, was arrested for allegedly sneaking into the nursing home in which Thad Cochrans wife lives, photographing her as part of a gutter attack on cochran himself. It appears to be related to the attacks on cochran over the alleged affair and sheds light on just why it is the tea party has been so effective in the last four years in bending the Republican Party to its will. Because the costs of primary challenges are so high for incumbents and establishment figures high in money, in time, in reputation, theyre so high that even when the tea party loses, it wins because theyve made those who cross them pay a price. Whatever the result and whoever ends up heading to washington from the great state of mississippi, they will go there thinking in the back of their mind, how the heck do i avoid slogging through something as ugly as that the next time around. Joining me now, robert costa for the Washington Post and, robert, that has been the dominant narrative. This is the sort of Empire Strikes back round. This is the establishment coming back, but i think if you scratch the surface and look at whats happening in georgia you are seeing establishment candidates have only won insofar as they can take up the tea party mantel. Thats correct. We have not seen a diversion on ideology from the republican establishment. If anything, theyre moving farther to the right and championing people like ted cruz when theyre in Republican Senate primary debates so we see the tea party temperament is not necessarily winning when it comes to candidates and establishment style of being more business and polished seems to be doing okay in the primaries but when it comes to the platforms, theyre in step with the rest of the contenders. You see that in georgia where you have the candidates that people call the frontrunners or the establishment frontrunners and thats kingston and purdue and handel, a longtime republican congressman who was a big kind of pork barrel, go along, get along, log rolling kind of guy has now reinvented himself as a firebrand kind of tea party insurgent, and he is now near the top at the head of the pack. Thats something to really watch. Can jack kingston, whether this is appropriate or in the house who hasnt necessarily shied away from his role in congress, hes battling karen handel who has been endorsed by sarah palin for the second slot in the primary runoff. If karen handel can slip through and beat him, thats a victory for the tea party. If kingston and purdue get in the runoff, a win for the socalled establishment. I was having dinner and some folks were talking about the candidate who was poised to win the primary. A woman by the name of monica wehby. She sounds like a formidable person, a pediatric neurosurgeon, telegenic, pretty good in front of a microphone. Her campaign is absolutely imploding. A tweet from a general assignment reporter with an affiliate said gop Senate Candidate wehby appears to have gone underground. This is a nearly unprecedented implosion happening. Monica wehbys situation in oregon is really indicative of how the narrative of this primary cycle has some fault lines and has some problems because monica wehby was this doctor, republican woman who was supposed to represent the establishment, had a backing of a lot people close to the nrsc running against jason conger, who is endorsed by Rick Santorum and has a fiery temperament. As we see with the reports, monica wehby is having problems and just necessarily not if youre the establishment candidate and touted by those in washington doesnt mean youre going to win the general election or be a solid contender in the general. You know, interesting fact about cochran in mississippi coming back to that race, which is fascinating and find this whole the level of dirty ops happening breaking into a womans nursing home, cochran, when you clear away all the nastiness, cochran actually is more moderate than he should be given what state hes from, and it is a perfectly rationale enterprise for people to his right like the tea party to primary him into line. More moderate than 85 of the caucus that is in a state that no democrat is going to carry into the foreseeable future. Thats right. And it is surprising to see how the Mcdaniel Campaign in mississippi is focusing, it seems, on cochrans personal life or at least the allies of mcdaniel are doing that with their attacks, but cochrans voting record of bringing back pork to mississippi as you say, chris, alarming to Tea Party Activists but its not catching on right now as a narrative in cochran though the top target for the tea party isnt vulnerable yet. This is a guy it occurs its not that dissimilar in mcconnell, run in his state and won time and time and time again and a lot of times the way they have won is by bringing back the pork to the state and whether theres an ideological opposition emanates out of the cato institutes, poor states like kentucky and mississippi voters dont necessarily mind someone looking out for them in washington. Robert, thank you so much. Thank you. Coming up, Jill Abramson, the fired the New York Times editor broke her silence for the First Time Since the whole ugly incident today. A couple of students who i was talking to last night after i arrived, they know that i have some tattoos and one of them asked me, are you going to get that times t that you have on your back removed . Not a chance. Do you think thats awkward wait until you hear the latest installment of what happens when the worlds most Important Media enterprise covers itself. Thats next. Coming up premiering all in america on the road in the conservative heartland as we travel to kansas. A story of kansas most powerful native sons and their unlikely defeat. You dont want to miss it. Lets see what you got . Rv covered. Why would you pay for a hotel . I never do. Motorcycles check. Atv. I ride those. Do you . No. Boat. Ahoy, mateys. House. Hello, dear. Hello. Hello. Van with airbrushed firebreathing dragons. Ah check. Thank you. The more you bundle, the more you save. Now, thats progressive. The most brutal pr train wreck in america got even more train wreckier this weekend. What has become a cant look away battle between Jill Abramson and the person who deposed her the Times Publisher arthur sulzburger. Other news outlets are reporting on the times. The times is reporting on itself and employees are expressing support and di sent. Sulzburger finally taking another shot and yet another statement about her dismissal and then today abramson made her first public remarks since fired by speaking at the Commencement Ceremony for wake forest university. Sure, losing a job you love hurts, but the work i revered, journalism that holds powerful institutions and people accountable, is what makes our democracy so resilient. Whats next for me . I dont know. So im in exactly the same boat as many of you. [ laughter ] joining me emily bazelon, Senior Editor at slate who knows Jill Abramson. Emily, are you astounded at how ugly this entire thing has gotten . I just cannot believe every day that passes more leak, mor more. Sulzburger coming out to say she was terrible . Its headspinning. Its gotten so bad and so public so fast. Its true. You know, the media is obsessed with the New York Times and obsessed with the story and so i think part of what were seeing here is a kind of feeding frenzy where everyone is thinking about this problem at the New York Times and taking sides. Weve seen battling kind of accounts of what was prompted her ouster. Originally there was talk about pay equity. Jill abramson, it was reported that Jill Abramson was paid 475,000, a starting salary compared to that of 559,000 of her predecessor, her salary was raised and only after she protested and the idea was that she had got to the times and protested and that was part of her dismissal and seen in the New York Times david carr their media reporter writing a column saying, so i like jill, my reporter including interviews with senior people backs up the conclusion of sulzburger this was not about pay equity. How do you make sense of this whether that was the issue . I think david is right. I think the pay equity story is a sideshow and there was a lot of unrest and division at the New York Times and discontent with having an editor who was really aggressive, brusque, whatever adjective you want to use. It is also true that sometimes adjectives like that get used about women in a way that are different from men but that doesnt necessarily mean this was a sexist firing. So i think that is a really key point that everything seems overdetermined here. It seems to me the possibility this is someone who had a whole lot of sexist expectations put on her and there were sort of sexist ways in which she was interpreted and how to manner that rubbed people the wrong way and those could both be true. Yes, i think thats right and to me its been important that we have not seen an upriding on the part of women of the New York Times. There are a lot of women like me who are grateful to jill. She was a tremendous promoter of women. But that doesnt mean that people cant see some of her weaknesses. Yeah, Lydia Pollgreen saying there has been no revolt. Many conversations but though womens revolt over Jill Abramsons firing at the New York Times and struck me as an interesting moment in as we all as everyone enters a world in which social media becomes a platform for people from all the way from someone who has a job at an office, an Insurance Company all the way up to the New York Times the public story of someones firing or conflict and acrimony in a workplace is more and more going to be a public matter, not just to the New York Times but everywhere else because everyone has an outlet to express the discontent and peel the curtain back. Thats right and in some ways the fewer facts the more dahm marks the more room for speculation and this is the kind of office soap opera that everybody is identify with. Weve all had a harsh boss. Weve all wondered if that person would ever get fired or if the people running the show would just tolerate their behavior. So i think theres a way in which this plays into lots of peoples interests. And theres always, of course, the final conclusion which is that when you work for a family business, the family patriarch doesnt like you youre out. Emily bazelon from slate, thank you. Marco rubio was approximately 16 years old when kids all over the nation were being inundated with this psa. Are these your drugs . Look, dad, its dont you get it . Answer me. Who taught you how to do this stuff . You, all right. I learned it by watching you. Did marco rubio learn anything from that psa . That mystery ahead. Just a couple years ago the dea coauthored growing up drugfree. Detailing how to talk to your kids when it comes to drugs. The report states at some point your childs likely to ask have you ever used drugs . Be honest. If your answer is no explain to your child how youre able to avoid temptation and peer pressure. If our answer is yes expand on why you dont want your child to do the same thing you did that reads like pretty sound advice. Marco rubio did not take it. When asked that question that all politicians with white house aspirations get which is have you ever smoked marijuana rubio gave this tortured response. Heres the problem with that question in american politics. If you say that you did, then suddenly there are people out there saying its not a big deal. Look at all these successful people who did it. I dont want my kids to smoke marijuana and i dont want others to smoke marijuana. I dont think there is a recreational uss for it. If you tell them you didnt they wont believe you. If you didnt you can say you didnt. I understand its a question that people think they need to ask but the bottom line is i dont think people should smoke marijuana. We have new technology here so let me run that answer through my handydandy republican president ial translator machine. Yes, i smoked weed but would like to be the nominee when its deeply divided among itself on precisely that issue with libertarians at the throat of older conservatives like bill oreilly who think the country is literally going to pot. I dont want to take sides and expose myself ill give you the most preposterous dodge ever. It appears rubios clearly more concerned with the people who hate marijuana and stand firm than the likes of the cato institute. This chart from fox. Com shows just how terrifying the drug marijuana is in 2010 leaving out indirect causes of deaths for Traffic Accident there were, wait, zero death as tributed to marijuana but 16,000 to prescription and nonprescription drug overdoses and 20,000 to alcohol and half a million to tobacco. Marco should be way more worried about them smoking parliaments than pineapple express. Its a big night for all in telling you about all in america going on the road this spring and sum story find story as cross the country and across the political spectrum, stories at the ground level of American Life that illuminate the biggest conflicts we have in american politics. Tonight kicks off a weeklong examination of a state that lives in our imagination for a couple of reason, first, the wizard of oz and second a book written ten years ago by thomas frank, it was in june 2004 that frank published a book which became not just a best seller but the defines story of the bush years. He looked at his state of kansas and showed how it it had gone to the frontier of the extreme right wing. Ten years later kansas is no longer just the frontier, it is the laboratory for ultra conservative ideas that are being exported throughout the entire country. Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, today he signed into law a bill that requires kansas voters to prove their u. S. Citizenship before registering to vote for the first time. Kansas Governor Sam Brownback signed into a law that requires a drug test for recipient of welfare and Unemployment Benefits in the state. Republican Governor Sam Brownback signed into a law a measure that bans certain abortions and life begins at fertilization. He signed it into law that cuts taxes for the richest people in the state and raises taxes on poor people. You might have noticed that kansas has been something of an innovator it political absurdism. The kind of state that threatens to exploit its draconian ideas as other states look to it as an example. But it wasnt always this way. You like ike i like ike everybody likes ike for president hang out the banners beat out the drums we take ike to Washington Home state of Dwight Eisenhower has a long history of being the kind of place where moderation ringels and common sense is prized in politics. The Governors Mansion has been occupied by an equal number of democrats and republicans over the past 50 years. So bipartisanship has been a way of life in kansas. Until recently. The state of our state is strong and getting much stronger and we are leading an american renaissance. The states recent sprint to the right started with Sam Brownback, a man Bloomberg Businessweek described as having been a tea party before the tea party was born. He was elected governor in a landslide, 2010 after 15 years in congress. When he took office in to 11 governor brownback said about turning his home state into a laboratory of ultra conservative policies. Specifically what do you want to do on state income tax. Get it to zero. The whole thing. His road map for kansas was not built on broad bipartisan consensus, in fact, it wasnt even built on republican consensus. There arent many moderates left serving in the legislature because of the attempts to defeat them by conservatives. He saw a group of modal republican state senators as roadblocks so in 2012 he got involved in their primaries. The governor recruited republicans to run against his own partys incumbents and with the help of americans for prosperity and the Kansas Chamber successfully ousted most of those moderate republican senators. With the moderate majority defeated in the state senate the grand conservative experiment has been allowed to proceed unchecked in kansas. Brownback now has in the numbers in the house and senate that he can do pretty much whatever he wants without working in any sort of bipartisan manner. Local progressives have coined the term brownbackistan to describe it. Brownback calls it a red state model. You say you dont change america by changing washington. You change america by changing the states. That model includes massive tax cuts which according to the center on budget and policy priorities are costing the state about 8 of the revenue it uses to fund schools and other public service, a hit comparable to a midsize recession. But when state tax revenue fell 92 million short last month kansas republicans blamed federal tax policies. Still americans for tax reform called kansas the story of the next decade. The cato exec called the overhaul one of the most impressive of any state in recent years and conservatives are already creating buzz around the idea of a Sam Brownback president ial room in 2016. It is about lower taxes, less government, family values, its about us being america again. Of course, kansas wouldnt be a modern red state model without a restrictor voter i. D. Law, the one of the strictest in the nation drafted by conservative darling kris kobach, former Bush Administration lawyer who helped craft arizonas infamous papers plea Immigration Law before he became secretary of state in kansas. You have to remember that every time a noncitizen casts a vote in an election thats effectively canceling out the vote of a u. S. Citizen. Thats just the beginning. Name a fight and youre likely to fight republicans trying to shut down abortion clinics and stripping School Teachers of due process, refusing to expand medicaid for kansans and voiding local gun laws. But 2014 brings a reckoning. As election day draws near there are signs of rebellion from teachers who want union rights restored. We have angry citizens, angry parents, angry teachers. Moderate republicans who want their party back. There are moderate republicans out there, i think, that feel like the party is not their party anymore. Because kansas is not just a model of unfettered tea party power, it also may provide an answer, the most important question in american politics at the moment. Just how far to the right can the Tea Party Conservatives push things before the system snaps back into place . We come back a look at two of the most famous and influential kansans in the country and what they are doing to certain thriving businesses in their own state. The Koch Brothers are involved in the oil industry and look at wind as being a direct competitor to them. Very powerful people. I think they wanted to make an example of kansas and try to defeat wind here then defeat it in other states. How that is going next. T nc ] fs atushi[ rarewo dn terwh dnot inncshu udee r , tr atrsurn. If youre looking to buy a car,t this . . Now is the time and truecar is the way. Just go to truecar. Com to lock in guaranteed savings. Without negotiation. Thank you happy memorial day weekend Koch Brothers are spending managers to support their kind of political candidates but none of them strike as close to home as the election of 1980 which featured the one which a koch brother was on the ballot itself. The New York Times had a story on david kochs campaign for the Vice President ial nomination on the Libertarian Party in 1980. The article provides a window into just how long the Koch Brothers have been advocates for their vision for america and how much more sophisticated theyve become at doing it over the years. But as we continue our special all in america reporting, no matter how much they honed it theyve been given a defeat in their own home state of kansas. And speaking of conservative heroes, the Koch Brothers bought a table here tonight, but as usual they used a shadowy right Wing Organization as a front. Hello, fox news. [ laughter ] charles and david koch who have helped fund efforts across the country to stymie solar power, to repeat Renewable Energy mandates and foster Climate Change, even to get members of congress to promise to vote against Climate Change legislation unless it is linked to tax cuts. Those brothers are from kansas. Kansas is koch country. Wichita is the home and headquarters of koch industry, the hundred billion dollar oil and Industrial Company that provides the Koch Brothers with often of their 80 billion fortune. The brothers help finance the 2012 overthrow of republican moderates in the Kansas Legislature in what one ousted republican deemed an effort to use their home state as a laboratory for their ideas, turning it into what he called an ultraconservative u taupy. Koch industries has been one of the biggest contributor to Sam Brownback and congressman mike pompeo. Ive read countless studies and they disagree. And one of the biggest contributors to senator jerry moran who recently read out a koch brother oped on the floor of the United States senate. This is an opinion piece from todays wall street journal written by a kansan, charles koch. Reporter they have been fighting Renewable Energy everywhere across the country from oklahoma to North Carolina to ohio to arizona. The fight has been particularly toxic in kansas. Against the states renewable portfolio standard which requires Utility Companies to get 20 of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. The koch funded americans for prosperity spent 300,000 on the campaign against that kansas law. Before Kathleen Sebelius went to washington to overtake our Health Care System she proposed a mandate that would limit the sources of kansas electricity. The director of afp kansas admitted to helping set up a group that send out postcards to kansans saying green energy makes their electric bills go up and state activists say afp and their allies have tried six times just this year to repeal the Renewable Energy mandates in the Kansas Legislature. So why is the fight against green energy so important in kansas . Could it possibly have anything to do with the fact that if you want to see some of the best examples of benefits of Renewable Energy you need look no further than the Koch Brothers own backyard. We hope those in greensboro will remain in your shelters. A tornado emergency declared by the National Weather service. The night of may 4th, 2007, a massive tornado more than a mile and a half wide tore through the tiny western kansas town of greensburg. 11 people died. It is utterly destroyed. 95 of it erased but when it came time to rebuild the city decided to embrace the same force of nature that leveled it. 100 of the consumption of the city of greensburg is from alternative energy, the wind. Not only is it the wind that destroyed our community, its the wind now thats generating electricity for our community. Not only is the city now powered by wind, townhouses are energy efficient, city hall has solar panels and Geothermal Heating and the school, the hospital, even the local john deere building are lead certified. The mayor there says going green made sense to him as a republican. As we thought about the process of talking about, quote, being green since we were greensburg, your First Impression in Rural America was, oh, that is something that is political. Thats left wing. Thats new age. Thats secular stuff. When, in fact, its not. Its not an issue of whether its democrat or republican or up or down or right or left. Its about our issue to leave legacy for future generations. And the group behind the greening of greensburg says the citys success stands as a real world rebuttal to the Koch Brothers arguments against green energy. I think the reason the renewable portfolio standard bill was defeated was greensburg, because greensburg has been a model of what can happen when you embrace these new technologies. But its not just tiny cities like greensburg renewing it, its happening on ranches across the state. Were standing on the highest point in the foothills. Great place for a wind farm. Wind blows here all the time. If youll notice over there those trees are actually leaning. Theyve never had a windless day in their lives. Pete farrells family has been on this land raises cattle since 1888. But over the past couple years kansas has seen a severe drought. Fortunately pete is raising more than just bison and cattle on his ranch right now. Wind is my most drought resilient crop. The wind blows even during a drought even when i cant have livestock on the ranch. Half of the went turbines from the wind farm are on the farrell ranch. Ive heard as high as 60,000 homes being serviced by this wind farm. Basically because of the quality of the wind. It tends to blow here all the time. Like many ranches in kansas, farrell ranch has some Oil Production which provides the family with some secondary revenue. But it takes a toll. This is just one of 100 leaks that has happened on this oil field since it was put in years ago. Once you bring that oil to the ground, up out of the ground its going to spill somewhere. And this grass will never be the same. The tragedy is that this just keeps occurring over and over and over and every oil field in america has this going on right now. Which is part of the reason farrell ranch has embraced the kansas wind. The grass and the wind are inexhaustible. Again, if treated properly we can be doing this centuries from now. So the hallmark of this landscape is sustainability. We can keep doing this and not deplete the biological capital of this place. Wind energy is a 2 billion industry and employs thousands of people in kansas. Which is what makes the Koch Brothers stance so baffling to those who harness it. There are some powerful people that try toad repeal the renewable portfolio standard. Those individuals are deeply entrenched in petroleum and petrochemicals and all sorts of things that i guess they want to protect because i can only imagine why they have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to defeat something that is so incredibly logical especially here in kansas where we have an abundance of wind. And that is why despite a valiant effort involving thousands of dollars from the coke funded afp efforts to repeal the Renewable Energy standards keep faying in the Kansas Legislature. As a representative leading repeal efforts describes it there are a number of republican members that are western kansas based and right in the middle of the Wind Farm Development territory. So, you know, they have rhines to want to protect that. Its not just republicans in the house who are willing to go up against such powerful interests. Even governor brownback supported almost his entire career by the Koch Brothers strongly supports wind energy. Now is the time to buy kansas wind and i hope you will join me in saying to the rest of the country, now is the time to buy kansas wind. Now just because they havent succeeded yet doesnt necessarily mean the Koch Brothers arent going to keep tilting at those wind turbine. The Koch Brothers are involved in the oil industry and they look at wind as being a direct competitor to them so, yeah, i have no doubt theyll be engaged in these upcoming house elections and try to elect, you know, more conservative house members who will then vote to repeal the rps. But so far one of the most conservative legislatures in the country keeps rejecting efforts to kill Renewable Energy mandates and the Koch Brothers back governor keeps supporting wind farms and the efforts the koch funded for prosperity and allies and chamber of commerce and Legislature Exchange council keeps coming up short. I think they warranted to make an example of kansas and try to defeat wind and then in other state. What is happening in kansas is the fossil fuel industrys worst nightmare. That once alternative energy gets its foot firmly in the door, it will be impossible to ever get it out. We asked both of the Koch Brothers and Kansas Branch of americans prosperity to come on the show and talk about all this, they declined. Koch industries did issue a statement from the president and coo of kochs Public Sector that reads theyve consistently opposed all as it relates to Energy Policy demonstrated in our longstanding opposition to such misguided and market destroying policies as a renewable fuel standard, the wind production credit and ethanol mandate. Government should not mandate the allocation or use ofnatural resources in the production of goods and expansion of subsidies increases the governments control over and i love this phrase the means of production. History shows the free Market Driven by free choice is a far better way to allocate resources. When we come back hi history of the Koch Brothers itself in a brandnew book, the first ever unauthorized biography of the Koch Brothers three years in the making and the author will join me right here next. 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If you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or any allergic reactions like rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. Ask your doctor about experiencing cialis for daily use and a free 30tablet trial. Underneath flat wheat fields of kansas there is oil. Hundreds of small wells owned by small producers. Federal investigators believe in the winter of 1973 and 74 when oil was short, some of the most widespread cheating in the country went on right here, now agents are pocusing on suppliers of a large independent pipeline and Refining Company called Koch Industries. The government believes well owners koch dealt with may have overcharged as much as 200 million, 200 million. Koch has no comment on the investigation. Koch family in the news for a long time from the federal investigation to oil overcharging in the mid1970s to david kochs run as Vice President ial candidate in 1980 before president obama got elected making headlines and getting a look at how they became so very influential. Joining me another jones reporter Daniel Schulman which hits bookshelves tomorrow called sons of wichita. It is an excellent read and was an excellent teething opportunity for our producers 8monthold babe on the plane to kansas this month. Thank you for that. We should note we invited the Koch Brothers who i would love to sit here and kibitz with, come on and talk. Okay, i feel like i sort of knew about the Koch Brothers and then all of a sudden they became this big thing partly partly the obama era but take us back. Whats the origin story. Whats Koch Industries . What did it do and come from . Okay, fantastically phenomenally interesting family. Fred, the patriarch was born in the texas panhandle son of a newspaper man. He didnt see promise in that profession. But this was pathetic. This was at a time when automobiles were really coming on the scene and he got into the oil industry. He developed a process for refining oil and it was a novel process. He ended up making his first million, in fact, in the Stalin Soviet Union where he helped to modernize their oil industry. He went to Stalin Soviet Union and helped modernize their oil industry and made his first million there. The company made 5 million, in fact, creating 15 refineries in Stalins Soviet Union and his experience there actually he really became an ardent staunch anticommunist after that. In the 50s he was literally in the room when the John Burch Society was created and became one of that groups national leaders. Johns society an ultra right wing group in the u. S. Kicked out of the conservative movement by william f. Buckley jr. , also prone to kind of paranoid conspiracy theory, et cetera. Yes, that sort of hinge. He was a big i mean, this is they have it in the blood is what youre saying, this is back in the 1950s their father, the Koch Brothers father was a big millionaire right wing funder of right wing causes. And, in fact, he was one of a couple people who led the drive in kansas in 1958 to pass the right to work in kansas at that point. Right to work, of course, a method of union busting. Now, charles koch joined the John Burch Society in the 1960s and he was sort of influential member who sort of transitioned into the Libertarian Movement of the early 60s through an Organization Called the Freedom School which was run by a very colorful antigovernment guru named bob lafave. So these guys charles and david are heirs to this family fortune of Koch Industries and thats in the petrochemical business doing refinery and branching out and getting their politics to some extent from their father becoming politically active. Indeed. I should say in terms of the origins of the company, it was oil engineering, oil refining, their father bought a number of cattle ranches in the 1950s, in 1940s and 1950s. So thats basically what it was at the time when their father died and charles ended up taking the helm of the company in 1967. Okay, so they charles takes the helm and tell me, the company massively expands, right . I mean its just remarkable i mean fred koch would not recognize what charles has done with that company. It was worth perhaps 50 million at the time that he took it over. This is now 115 billion a year company with 100,000 employees, a presence in 60 countries around the world. I mean this is just not the same company. Okay, and now tell me how the brothers politics and influence in politics has morphed from the kind of somewhat quixotic libertarian fringiness to ha theyre doing now which is setting the agenda for a huge part of the right and Republican Party. Charles has been on a 5060year quest to mainstream libertarian free market ideas, austrian economics and that sort of thing. Originally he saw the Libertarian Party as the vehicle to do this. But it all got a little weird for him and charles and david. I mean, you had kind of a stew of all sorts of rod cal theirers, anarchist, disaffected sds member, all that sort of thing. In that Libertarian Party of the which is combustible and 1980 election when david koch ran as the Vice President and central candidate it was like a powder keg and the whole movement exploded after that. And they transitioned out of there. They formed an Advocacy Group citizens for a sound economy and they had a political adviser who remains their top kind of ideological adviser named richard fink who ran it for a sound economy and has sort of been the architect along with charles of their political strategy over all these years. Its amazing to me what youre describing is, you know, six, seven decades of a family with a certain set of beliefs in a certain amount of wealth essentially using that to kind of make that vision come through and as time has gone on, the laws have changed to make them so much more able to influence whats going on. Daniel schulman author of the brandnew book shonns of wichita which hits bookshelves tomorrow. Thank you, dan. All in joined by thomas frank to take a look at how kansas is becoming petri dish for conservatives and including what Sam Brownback and what the republican Led Legislature have done in slashing funding for kansas public education. What that means for communities now losing their schools. Kind of the heart of community, were one of the largest employers in town and everyone participates at school but also participants in activities and groups in town so its all intermingled and just part of what makes a small town tick. Its hard its just kind of hard to put into words because its just like youre losing a part of your family like a part of your family is being torn away from you and so its an extreme loss. It really is. Just be a big adjustment for everyone going somewhere else and not everything is new. Were going to bring thaw report tomorrow. Theres lots more about our reporting tonight and other stories from kansas on our website allinwithchris. Msnbc. Com and bring you more stories on the road you will not want to miss it. That is all in and the Rachel Maddow show starts right now. Amazing work, chris. Well done. Thank you very much. Looking forward to this. Thanks for joining us. Last may, last may day in fact so last may 1st the governor of oregon stood before a cheering, chanting group of very excited supporters and he waved a bill in the air that had just passed the Oregon Senate and had just passed the oregon house and passed by a comfortable margin and governor kit hopper was in favor of it and there to sign it in front of this and big very excited and happy crowd and the governor signed that bill and he waved it in the air and it did not become law. And that is because of this man. Many people have neck and shoulder tension and they dont know why. Well, i can tell you this from much experience, there are good reasons why they have neck and shoulder tension and they would be better off without it and so what im going to do is do this little exercise for you and its purpose that man is the most prolific funder of conservative causes in the great state of oregon. Everat