NYTimes put together a piece on a recording of Richard Berman soliciting millions from energy industry execs, back in June.
The company executives, Mr. Berman said in his speech, must be willing to exploit emotions like fear, greed and anger and turn them against the environmental groups. And major corporations secretly financing such a campaign should not worry about offending the general public because “you can either win ugly or lose pretty,” he said.
“Think of this as an endless war,” Mr. Berman told the crowd at the June event in Colorado Springs, sponsored by the Western Energy Alliance, a group whose members include Devon Energy, Halliburton and Anadarko Petroleum, which specialize in extracting oil and gas through hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking. “And you have to budget for it.”
Berman didn't know he was being secretly taped by one of the executives at the meeting. The executive found Berman's presentation offensive.
A transcript of the hour long power-point presentation can be found here. But here are just a couple of the comic book type quotes from the first ten minutes:
Concerning the ACA:
...And so we put this ad in the New York Times, and basically said, "Hey, you ought to be concerned about the health care bill." But, we didn't really say "why". All we said is "seniors might have to pay more money", or "your premiums might go up", but there wasn't any fact here. So this is an attempt at creating public opinion about something. Kind of soft top-line.
About "being on the offensive":
...we'll take the labor unions for example. I am well known for going after the labor unions for a thousand different reasons. And people say, "Well, what's your offense?" I say, "I get up every morning and I try and figure out how to screw with the labor unions. That's my offense."
Attacking minimum wage:
We're not experts and so you don't want them [the general public] trying to be experts. But if you put enough information out there and say, "Well it could go to $10.10, but you could also lose a lot of jobs, the Congressional Budget Office says you can lose a lot of jobs." And again, we got a lot of ads on this thing.
You get in people's mind[sic] a tie. They don't know who is right. And you get all ties because the tie basically insures the status quo.
On using repetition to create "common knowledge":
That's common knowledge. And that comes from people hearing something enough times from enough different places, people repeating it to each other, that you reach a point where you have solidified your position.
If we can solidify the position on drilling, fracking, etc. We have achieved something the other side cannot overcome because it's very tough to break common knowledge.
It's very tough to break first opinions. You know the guy that gets to make the first opinion, the first impression, has a huge advantage because people don't want to admit they were wrong the first time.this is not what the republicans say is going on but like the article said he didn't like Romney those before and after know they were being taped. this is good while they are scrutinizing waiters and bus boys one of their own is pulling off a "DEEP THROAT" of Watergate fame, priceless it will be interesting how they plan to guard against this when it could be one they invited??????
if you have listened to Trump toot his own horn this kind of backroom deal making is right up his alley. the polls say he's leading but who are they asking those who think it's ok to lie and cheat and deceive to get what the rich want because those same people are in the same barrel with the rest of us, how will you feel knowing your vote unleashed the oligarchy kracken on America with them in the jackpot too??????????
