I read the NYer article after getting an email alert. Thanks, toadfrog, for starting a thread about them. The things they have done to inveigle themselves with what I consider to be the more altruistic side of America, while quietly furthering their own, widespread, far *wrong* agenda is chilling to say the least. It is said they are the "Standard Oil" of our times.
Before anyone chides us for being conspiracy theorists, please read the article in full and do further research of your own. I do not think it was a "scheduling conflict" which kept Michelle Obama from standing on the same stage as one of them. If they were waging war against my husband, no matter appearances, I would not have been there, either.