Hackers broke into the computers of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and released a treasure trove documenting the aggressive efforts to spread right-wing ideology.
I posted about these documents earlier, citing an article called “Weaponized Philanthropy” by Mary Bottari.
There is so much material that there will be many articles and books about the political uses of an allegedly charitable foundation.
Here is another article about the Bradley Foundation by Alex Kotch, which appeared in Raw Story and AlterNet.
He writes:
New investigations by Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Mary Bottari of the Center for Media and Democracy analyze hacked internal documents, which reveal that much like the Koch network, the Bradley Foundation has launched a national strategy to help conservatives control the branches of state governments and alter state policy to lower taxes, shrink government and attack labor unions.
The Bradley Foundation, which has historically supported taxpayer-funded “school choice” initiatives and work requirements for welfare recipients, is named after Lynde and Harry Bradley, two brothers who founded the profitable factory automation manufacturer Allen Bradley Co. After Lynde’s death in 1942, the Allen-Bradley Foundation was established. When Allen Bradley was sold to Rockwell International in 1985 for $1.7 billion, the foundation’s assets ballooned and it became the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation as it added a focus on promoting the brothers’ conservative ideology on a national scale.
Thirty gigabytes of Bradley Foundation internal documents hacked by a group named Anonymous Poland reveal that after a $200 million influx of cash in late 2012 from the trust of Caroline Bradley, Lynde’s wife, the Bradley Foundation geared up to fund networks of conservative think tanks, legal centers, candidate recruitment organizations, media outlets and advocacy groups in 13 states, based on the foundation’s successful efforts in Wisconsin. The foundation had already laid the groundwork for a welfare-to-work program and a private school voucher system and defended GOP Gov. Scott Walker in a campaign finance probe, helping him survive a recall election prompted by his dismantling of public-sector unions.
Now the foundation is focusing on five states it views as having a strong conservative infrastructure, thus making them ripe for rightward change. The foundation is working to expand conservative power in Colorado, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin by funding established networks of right-wing organizations that promote conservatism and help far-right candidates win elections. It’s a long-term strategy that “can take decades,” according to the longtime CEO of the foundation, Rick Graber, who recently stepped down from his post.
Be prepared, if you live in Colorado, Noth Carolina, Oregon, Washington, or Wisconsin. The Bradley Foundation is coming for your public schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The Enemy Within disguised as the Bradley Foundation. Death To Democracy is the family motto.
Sooner or latter “the pitch forks are coming” .
later
I know, I know, I shouldn’t, but….
So let me get this straight. Hacking a right-wing organization to reveal their attempts to unfairly and undemocratically take over government through money and influence = good, but hacking the DNC (if indeed they were hacked and not leaked) to reveal their attempt to unfairly and undemocratically take over government through money and influence = bad. Do I have this correct?
There’s a difference in hackers and whom or what was hacked. Who said hacking a right-wing organization was good? It was hacked and so we have this revelatory information. Why ignore it?
Dienne,
It may surprise you, but I actually agree with you. Hacking is theft. My opinion is that journalists should discourage hacking by not publishing stolen documents. But once they are out in the public eye, it is impossible to ignore them. I would not have been the first to publish the Bradley papers. Where I disagree is your continued insistence that the DNC emails were leaked, not hacked. The intelligence agencies identified what they called known Russian hackers as the culprits. Although Trump continues to insist that the DNC was hacked by China or someone else, he has never said they were leaked.
“The intelligence agencies identified what they called known Russian hackers as the culprits.”
No, that statement is not true, Diane. We have allegations of supposed Russian hackers but not positive, irrefutable evidence. If you have positive, irrefutable evidence please show it and I will retract my statement and take a different view of the situation. Allegations do not equal positive identification.
Whatever the CIA and FBI showed members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, convinced them of Russian hacking. I haven’t heard any of them question the evidence that they saw.
If you don’t believe them, get a meeting with Mike Pompeo, the head of the CIA.
He doesn’t doubt Russian hacking.
I saw Bernie Sanders on CNN last night. He doesn’t doubt Russian hacking.
I know you are from the Show-Me State.
Call Pompeo now.
Or the director of the FBI, if there is one.
Like the last line!
In other which agencies determined which persons to be the hackers. Name names. And that information will have been fully vetted by someone, some other outside entity that would be legitimate computer hacking experts.
Without that, it is all allegations, without that type of verification of the source, which one would think that the agency itself would seek to buttress their allegations, I can’t and won’t believe the allegations.
Both are wonderful my problem is not with the hacks of the DNC,,
They revealed nothing about the Democrats we didn’t already know.
My problem is with the collusion of the Trump campaign with a an unfriendly foreign power to release those hacks and benefit from them. .
I think obstruction of justice is a garbage charge. Treason on the other hand can be a capital offense. If someone could release , hack Trumps tax returns showing us how in bed with the Russian mob he was . It would go a long way to explaining how he wound up with Page, Manafort and even Tillerson . While the bodies of those affiliated with the Trump affair piled up in Moscow.
The laws and enforcement of oligarchies are untethered to “good and bad” e.g. the prohibition of photo taking that could be used to establish industry animal cruelty, the imposition of the rich man’s testing and then, the conviction of Atlanta teachers for doing what they felt they had to do to keep their jobs (but no penalty for Indiana’s Bennet nor Oho’s Hansen), the lack of penalty for Cheney in the Plaine CIA outing, the charges for illegal treatment of immigrant labor limited to the contractors not the businesses that allowed it and profited from it, the Trayvon Martin murder, the Cincinnati prosecutor’s jury selection in the first Tensing trial, etc.
Beyond the hacking of the Bradley Foundation is the Republican campaign to create a “permanent majority.” This overall aim is evident in gerrymandered districts, voter suppression and intimidation, non-profits set up to support creation science, demolish collective bargaining, enable ALEC and the “baby ALEC” working to control city, county, and municipal policies, and school board elections.
And, there’s Gates-funded New America stink tank, a group that appointed themselves to subvert higher education. Universities are a threat to the oligarchy. Read New America’s plan for higher ed., at its site – “student outcome measures”. A former New America employee co-wrote the Center for American Progress plan for faculty replacement in the accreditation process-replaced with student outcome measures.
Like all colonialist societies, there will be a top tier of legacy admission schools. From the 2nd tier, the rich will exact money, e.g. Bridge International Academies-the schools-in-a-box investment of Gates, Z-berg, Pearson,….
Cross posted the article itself, at
https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Documents-reveal-a-secreti-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Document-Release_Far-right_Ideology_Ideology-Conservative-170824-945.html#comment670928