First Item:

Nation of Change has published a very succinct overview of the Koch family’s various foundations, an article that includes links to further and fuller information on each of the entities.

Written by Dave Levinthal of the Center for Public Integrity, the article is available at: http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/10/31/the-koch-brothers-foundation-network-explained/.

Second Item:

A website called Inspiration Green has provided an exhaustive list of the products made by Koch-owned enterprises, as well as a detailed overview of the various activities of Koch-funded political entities.

The list is available at: http://www.inspirationgreen.com/koch-brothers-products.html.

Taken together, these two items demonstrate that hyperbole about the Koch family’s outsized influence on American politics and American life is simply not possible.

Indeed, through their political action committees and their various foundations, through which they have recruited other ultra-wealthy families to their causes, the Kochs and the Waltons have had an impact far beyond anything managed or perhaps even imagined by the Robber Barons of the Gilded Age.

The development of digital technologies has not only facilitated an unprecedented accumulation and concentration of wealth but also an unprecedented exercise of the political, socio-economic, and cultural influence that such wealth makes possible.