David Koch died of cancer a few days ago. He and his brother funded the free-market libertarianism that fueled the rise of the Tea Party and Trumpism. They zealously fought to destroy any government program that helped people, from Medicare to Social Security.
They were major funders of ALEC. They opposed any government regulations.
The story in the New York Times falls to mention that they funded attacks on public education and teacher certification, and they zealously supported charter schools and vouchers.
Interesting from the article:
In addition to Southampton, Mr. Koch had palatial homes on Park Avenue in Manhattan, in Aspen, Colo., and in Palm Beach, Fla. He kept a yacht in the Mediterranean for summer getaways and rented it out for $500,000 a week. His friends and acquaintances included Bill and Melinda Gates, Prince Charles and Winston Churchill’s grandson Winston Spencer Churchill.
No mention of the fact that the Koch brothers set up institutes to spread libertarianism at more than 300 colleges and universities. A resistance group called Unkoch My Campus emerged to expose their malign influence.
They insisted that they adhered to a traditional belief in the liberty of the individual, and in free trade, free markets and freedom from what they called government “intrusions,” including taxes, military drafts, compulsory education, business regulations, welfare programs and laws that criminalized homosexuality, prostitution and drug use.
More:
Among the groups they supported was the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization of conservative state legislators and corporate lobbyists. Alec, as the group is known, drafts model state legislation that members may customize for introduction as proposed laws to cut taxes, combat illegal immigration, loosen environmental regulations, weaken labor unions and oppose gun laws.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
They weren’t really after “liberty” just no restrictions on what they wanted to do in their businesses. If they had gotten that, they would have stopped promoting “liberty.” In other words, they were just dissembling. They just didn’t want anyone interfering with their ability to make money. Since that had more money than they could spend, it seems that they were operating just about of spite (not civic pride).
The opposite of liberty for the 99%, is ALEC and ACCE. When citizens wanted to protect their property by opposing fracking, libertarians passed laws at the state level denying them local control.
When libertarians selected national politicians who refuse to act on global warming they destroy property that belongs to all of us.
The Koch network will disintegrate into the back stabbing and double dealing we witness in the NRA- a fitting tribute to two evil brothers.
Jeremianic, Linda.
Beautifully said, Linda. I do hope that you are right about this!
Bill Maher doesn’t mince words about Koch’s passing.
“Condolences pour in from all the politicians he owns … ”
Jack: I loved the video . Read the comments. People, except for a rare few, were condemning liberals and Bill in particular for being so vile towards someone who died. Obviously these commenters are not aware of the damage Koch has done to the whole world with their excessive greed and non-caring.
I posted a comment and I’m sure I’ll get a blast back because I said I couldn’t feel sorry for his going.
Thanks, Jack.
“Three decades after David Koch’s public steps into politics, analysts say, the Koch brothers’ money-fueled brand of libertarianism helped give rise to the Tea Party movement, strengthened the far-right wing of a resurgent Republican Party and played a significant role in the election of Donald J. Trump as president in 2016.”
I’d like to say I’m sorry for seeing him pass on, but I can’t. Nobody has the right to destroy so much of our democracy. He should have no more power than I do.
“We the PEOPLE of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
It does not start out, “We, the billionaires of the United States….”
There might be one person who doesn’t agree with this hatred of him.
You might have skipped this little known fact reported by PJ Media and the NY POST and NPR.
Although he was most famous for donating to political causes, Mr. Koch was extremely generous to other causes as well. Take this example, reported by the New York Post (HT: Adam Ford):
Koch, who fought prostate cancer after being diagnosed 27 years ago, donated a record $150 million to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in 2015 through the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation. The hospital named a cancer center in his name after getting its largest donation ever. [Emphasis added]
Amazing, right? $150 million! To one cancer center. These funds helped the center provide better care for its patients, who are, therefore, the actual recipients of this amazingly generous gift.
Guess who’s among those patients? NPR reports:
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has just completed three weeks of radiation treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, the U.S. Supreme Court disclosed Friday.
So wait. First David Koch donated $150 million to this cancer center, after which Justice Ginsburg received treatment there? The first, who was positively hated by the left (with TV show hosts saying they hoped his end was painful), basically funded the treatment of the second, who is absolutely loved and adored by those same leftists?
Jscheidell,
Men who have made great fortunes through foul deeds use philanthropy to try to whitewash their name. The Sacklers developed and marketed opioids and 200,000 people died of overdoses. The Sackler name is in museums and university buildings around the US and England.
The father of the Koch brothers built the family fortune by developing the energy industry for Stalin and Hitler.
How do you like that? Still your hero?
Memorial Sloan Kettering was a great cancer treatment center before getting Koch money.
So, I’m going to say this, and you may judge me as you wish.
I am sad that David Koch has died, and I am offended by the cartoons and comments that portray him as deserving an afterlife in “hell” or whatever.
David Koch died of the same cancer that killed my dad. It is the cancer that I am (so far) surviving.
David Koch contributed to prostate cancer research. I have no way of knowing, but it’s possible that this work had or will have something to do with my situation, that of others I know, or that of those who will be diagnosed in the future.
I hate cancer. “Hate” is not a word I use lightly. It is a strong verb. Too many die from this thing. Children die from this. Innocent, young children die from cancer.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is surviving cancer.
David Koch did not.
I do not give a fig for the differences in their politics. There is no reason why one should die and one should live because of political views.
So, I may make many arguments against “the Koch brothers,” and approve of posts I read that attack them; but, I will take no joy in seeing a man succumb to prostate cancer.
If we’re going to eliminate this terrible thing, we’d better figure out that it does not discriminate on the basis of ideology. It just finds a way to grow and take those we love from us.
“David Koch contributed to prostate cancer research. ”
He took money away from public causes, such as cancer research, by not paying enough taxes. He then donated back a very small proportion of the money he witheld.
When billionaires are spending money, they are spending our money. They make their money by takiing money away from their workers’ by paying them less than what they produce and they make money using the infrastructure built by our tax dollars.
Personally, I do not want billionaires influence cancer research. I do not want them to decide what’s important in science or in education or in art. I want scientists, educators, artists decide what’s most important. I just trust these experts more.
“I will take no joy in seeing a man succumb to prostate cancer.”
I agree completely. I understand where Maher’s anger is coming from but I am also flinching while listening to his video. This is one of the reasons death penalty is questionable. It’s one thing to punish a murderer and it’s another thing to see him executed.
On the other hand, I ponder about the question, how many people succombed to cancer because of poverty and lack of access to proper healthcare? The answer is that our system allows billionaires to exist by giving them the freedom to exploit the labor of other people and to create and maintain an economy that is becoming more and more efficient in exploiting the 99.9%. And the Kochs have been the most active people in exploiting our system to their advantage and they see nothing wrong with it.
“Mr. Koch was extremely generous to other causes ”
He was extremely generous with the money he withold from taxes using the taxlaws he helped creating by bribing politicians.
We have to stop pretending that the billionaires’ money is legimitaly theirs.
The Koch Brothers, ALEC and the Savage Assault on Democracy
DECEMBER 9, 2011
…For the Koch brothers and their kind, less democracy is better. They fund campaigns with millions of dollars in checks that have helped elect the likes of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Ohio Governor John Kasich. And ALEC has made it clear, through its ambitious “Public Safety and Elections Task Force,” that while it wants to dismantle any barriers to corporate cash and billionaire bucks’ influencing elections, it wants very much to erect barriers to the primary tool that Americans who are not CEOs have to influence the politics and the government of the nation: voting….
That crude calculus, usually cloaked in bureaucracy and back-room dealmaking, came into full view in 2011…
The point is not just to make it harder to vote. The point is to make it harder for citizens to elect legislators, governors, members of Congress and presidents who will regulate and tax multinational corporations such as Koch Industries, while at the same time establishing programs that meet the needs of the great mass of Americans. “Now, just as before, they are seeking to block us from voting in order to make it easier to come after our other rights,” says Mike Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers. “Everything we care about is at stake, from the right to a quality education to the right to a fair wage.”…
https://www.thenation.com/article/koch-brothers-alec-and-savage-assault-democracy/
Video: What’s the worst thing the Koch brothers have done?
bravenewfoundation
Published on Mar 30, 2011
Thanks for the video, Carol.
Tim,
Tell the American soldiers who were killed in the Revolutionary war (and all other wars) that politics was not a reason for them to die.
1 down and 1 to go. Good riddance! I know that sounds awful, but they are/were horrible people.
Yes, but…
https://www.theonion.com/david-koch-pumps-billions-of-dollars-into-campaign-to-s-1837513455
Ed, did you see Andy Borowitz’ post from yesterday?
“David Koch’s Will Leaves Over One Hundred Republican Congressmen To His Brother”
Ed, NY: hilarious!!!
Get on your best shoes, y’all, and proudly start doing your happy dance.
Good riddance to one if the most malignant, despicable examples of the human species. I hope he suffered and that he rots in hell, given the suffering he oligarchically caused millions of people and the destruction to the environment.
One down, ……..
Agree completely- no tears shed for malignancies named Koch.
Somewhere I heard that William F Buckley had referred to him as a anarco-totalitarian back in the day.
If you are to the right of Buckley, that is saying something.
That would not surprise me, in the least. Buckley was openly hostile to the extreme right wing of the Republican party. He did not consider the John Birchers (of which the elder Koch helped found) actual conservatives .
Buckley was just too much of a snob for those unwashed backwoods Repugnicans, but he was every bit as cracked. He had a fairly decent vocabulary, a good education, a lot of attitude, and a little pea brain that couldn’t put together a rational argument.
I always assumed that their sentencing reform activities had the ultimate goal of reducing white collar crime sentences.
I don’t think so. I think that this is doctrinaire Libertarianism–government bad, less government good. The Libertarian CATO institute supports marijuana legalization, drug decriminalization, gay rights, prison reform, and the right to choose and opposes standardized testing and the Common [sic] Core [sic]–all because these are “smaller government” positions. In these matters, CATO is out of step with both Neoconservatives (like Dick Cheney) and Nativist troglodyte conservatives (like Trump) and reflects the views that David Koch himself held. Koch described himself as a liberal on social issues and a conservative on fiscal issues. But, ofc, Koch funded ALEC, which has consistently opposed all of these social issue positions.
Why did he support organizations like ALEC that opposed views that he himself espoused (and sometimes supported with donations)? Because more important to him, I guess, than any of these was making the world safe for the rich to get richer.
“Opposed laws that criminalized drug use” – the three strikes law linked to ALEC guaranteed long sentences for people who had a single drug conviction among their three offenses.
In keeping with Koch-style Libertarianism, Trump and McConnell plan, after having increased the deficit enormously with their tax cut for the wealthy, to make major cuts in Social Security and Medicare if they get a second term.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/teresaghilarducci/2019/08/23/trumps-second-term-plan-for-social-security-starve-the-beast/#18859afc3794
Koch was a big funder of privatization efforts of all kinds. As a doctrinaire Libertarian, he was opposed to the Common [sic] Core [sic] State [sic] Standards [sic], a position that I emphatically share. However, as a major funder of ALEC, he supported an organization that has been key to the test-and-punish legislation that has propped up the Ed Deform movement.
Good riddance.
May he rot in Hell and his brother quickly join him.
Theres a thought.
The expression “rot in Hell” has always puzzled me.
If Hell indeed exists and is as hot as normally claimed, I don’t believe human flesh has a chance to “rot”.
McConnell is already rotted. You can boil him and make turtle soup, but don’t eat it!
SDP: Dante offered many more views of hell I the inferno. Rotting seems rather tame compared to some of the imagined punishments man has cooked up over the centuries. My favorite is listening to popular music endlessly.
The evil that men do lives after them —
the good is oft interrèd with their tax shelters.
ROFLMAO!!!! Oh, my, that is good!!!
Koch’s friends included Bill and Melinda Gates. I suppose at dinner, while they plotted destroying public education and turning the entire world into a corporate libertarian oligarchy, Koch leaned his head to the right and Billinda leaned theirs slightly left? That would seem the only difference between them.
Di-ed Koch?
All Koch Zeroes.
Corporate libertarians are for liberating corporations.
That furthers individual liberty about as much as the plantations owners of old.
Corporations and millionaires calling themselves small businesses are on welfare and the working class is paying for it. Privatization of schools plays a big part.
Yay! 👍 Good riddance to EVIL.
Yesterday, when I told my husband about David Koch’s death, he couldn’t contain his joy!
The Kochs were/are Libertarians, but they made their money in the dirtiest of industries, and even Friedrich Hayek, author of one of the Libertarian scriptures, The Road to Serfdom, believed that businesses like those run by the Kochs should be regulated because of their “negative externalities”–the costs that they push off onto others, in this, case, in health and environmental degradation:
“Nor can certain harmful effects of deforestation, or of some methods of farming, or of the smoke and noise of factories, be confined to the owner of the property in question or to those who are willing to submit to the damage for an agreed compensation. In such instances we must find some substitute for the regulation by the price mechanism. But the fact that we have to resort to the substitution of direct regulation by authority where the conditions for the proper working of competition cannot be created, does not prove that we should suppress competition where it can be made to function.” (Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, 1944)
Some people enjoy really fine lifestyles far away from the horrors that support them, don’t they? But they know the horrors are there, and they just don’t give a . . . .
https://truthout.org/articles/david-koch-is-dead-we-must-now-take-on-his-harmful-legacy-in-higher-education/
David Koch Is Dead. We Must Now Take On His Harmful Legacy in Higher Education.
“David Koch Is Dead. We Must Now Take On His Harmful Legacy in Higher Education.”
“…then, you’d trust them even with the rod…”, a defense for Catholic school administrators’ use of corporal punishment- made in an article, “Catholic Schools and Truth Decay”, July 3, 2018, Manhattan Institute.
The article’s author who is a senior fellow at the Koch-linked Manhattan Institute reported that he listened to one black parent’s view in New Orleans. His article summarizes what he says was the point the parent made. Then, the author takes the opportunity to draw the conclusion in the opening quote of the above paragraph.
The superintendent of the Los Angeles Archdiocese of Catholic Schools was given a fellowship by the Gates-funded Pahara Institute the same year.
Reach your own conclusion about the education that Gates and the remaining Koch brother want for their billion dollar investment to privatize public schools.
Because of your anti-Catholic-school slant, what resonated w/you was a snippet of Manhattan Institute’s author Eden’s 2019 conversation w/a charter-disillusioned NOLA parent that he was using to make a different point: that “there is more to a quality education than short-term test-score effects”; that ed-reform’s “social-justice elitists” promote distrust in schools & teachers; that charters sever the connection between school & community, & (in linked article) one of the ways they do it is via Natl Assoc of Charter Sch Authorizers’ point system which results in discrimination against minority-run charters.
The parent’s beef was that one parent’s lawsuit threat had resulted in “teachers at an old and venerable Catholic school were no longer permitted to administer corporal punishment.” That school was almost certainly the historically all-black boys’ hisch St Augustine’s– the last school in NOLA parish to allow paddling: NOLA’s Archbishop put a stop to it in 2011. The decision was roundly criticized among parents/ community.
The author uses the conversation to demonstrate his sense of the chasm between ‘liberal’ ‘social justice warriors’ & ‘discipline reformers’ of both private and public schools and the conservative values of the communities they’re supposed to serve. I suspect he’s mostly wrong, but nowhere does he make “a defense for Catholic school administrators’ use of corporal punishment” (which is now policy non grata in all NOLA Catholic schools).
BTW, I find so much wrong w/this MH Inst article, it’s a real mishmash. Eden picks up on most of what’s wrong w/charters– unusually, for a conservative, even the disintegration of communities– , & ‘accountability systems’ overtesting in public & private schools — even touches on unsolved discipline issues — yet concludes: “Policymakers ought to provide parents with education savings accounts and give them the freedom to choose schools that reflect values that education reformers might not necessarily share (faith) and offer value-propositions that standardized tests can’t measure (self-discipline).” He’s not really following his own lines of thought to their logical conclusions.
Respectfully, Bethree, was the article read naively?
The Koch’s continued commitment to privatization speaks more to their intent than what I perceive as last year’s crocodile tears for people in New Orleans whose public schools were turned over to profiteers or “non-profits”.
Employees of think tanks are paid by people who have an ideology. Given the reputation of the Koch’s, I do not take a work product linked to their network at face value. Which is it- a faithfully recounted discussion with an unidentified person that leads to an “…even trusting them with the rod” conclusion or, a construct of an author’s viewpoint? In an 11 paragraph article how many times were the words, discipline, control, acting out, disruptive, behaved, little respect for authority, corporal punishment, authority, etc. used?
Often the term,” conservative values”, has a pejorative meaning that sends up a red flag. Generalizing the “communities they are supposed to serve” with that descriptor seems presumptuous.
My “anti-slant” is toward the use of tax dollars for organizations that make money off of kids, and that promote theologies selling notions like, “To be sure, humans are fallen creatures” to vulnerable children.
Nope, sorry, you’re not convincing me. What you picked up on from the article was that Koch forces (& probably Gates as well) were behind some kind of return to antique notions of Catholic-school corporate punishment.
Yes, I agree that the author seems to be trying to prettify a racist subtext that black kids need strict [read punitive] methods in order to improve academically, & shamelessly used one individual’s anachronistic anecdote to suggest black parents are all for it. Even tried to plump it up in support of tax dollars for religious schools. However, I approve of this conservative’s entertaining the concept that charters break up community ties, & do not listen/ respond to what the communities they serve actually want for their kids, & that that approach is part of what ails the school-choice movement.
Just checking you on the anti-Catholic-school bit. Agree they should not get tax-supported tuition, but not because I believe they’re all about student abuse. They’re the same as any religious school: you want it, you pay for it. I’d go so far as to say, if DofEd pushes vouchers for religious schools [or any other govt favoritism toward religious institutions, including allowing tax-exempt religious hospitals to deny abortion/ birth-control], taxpayers should push back w/a movement to eliminate the tax-exempt status of churches.
What would colonialism look like?
The first sentence of your second paragraph makes a significant point. The opposition of political conservatives to BLM also makes a point. Given their libertarian views, what part of the conservative viewpoint attracts the Koch’s? A pro-business stance describes neo-liberals and, CAP is proof that Dems promoted privatization of a major government service- schools so, what appealed to the Koch’s about the GOP? I’m sure it doesn’t surprise the Koch’s that critics have called them racist.
A return to the 1950’s, returns the U.S. to a period of widespread discrimination and sanctioned, white violence against black people. The return also might make the House of Representatives look white and male. BTW- Based on announced departures, there will be zero, black GOP representatives (and only 11 women) out of almost 200 representatives.
“Breaking up communities” is evidently not a big concern for the Manhattan Institute, if they are linked to a network that created the problem by introducing charter schools and continues to fund the “break up” situation. When the Institute’s solution is faith communities and the illustration chosen is corporal punishment in a Catholic school, we will have to agree to disagree about the subtext of the article. It was novel or audacious for the author to legitimize a community’s own religious to use the rod by citing the “unfortunate” lawsuit against a Catholic school.
An article in the Washington Post, January, 2014, about a politically influential priest in D.C., McCloskey, worth a read. Also the Unofficial Opus Dei FAQ site.
Evangelicals are singled out for scrutiny for their right wing support, not so much, the other faiths.
Linda,
You should not lump together Catholics and evangelicals.
For the record- one of my strongest biases is against the religious who try to destroy common goods.
Linda, I agree with YOU! For centuries, the ruling elite have used God and religion as a way to suppress, conquer, murder, exploit, annex, acquire, and seize.
Ruling elite Evangelicals, most of them, are a joke, but so are other faiths. Organized religion in general is a major way to control people and keep them at bay, preventing them from spreading adequate equity across their society.
Plain and simple.
1,000,000 Irish died of starvation- the role of Ireland’s Catholic Church-“rights of property were paramount and laissez faire economic theories were sacrosanct. The consequences of these theories, no matter how harsh were the working out of God’s will.”
The period has been described as the Irish holocaust.
Evangelicals are new to political power. ALEC and the Federalist Society were founded about 40 years ago. Labor’s economic/ political power and, income equality have suffered substantially during the past 4 decades.
Catholic and evangelical political influencers “shouldn’t be lumped together”- they’re different- as proof, we see organizations that rival and oppose ALEC and the Federalist Society. They are funded by Catholics and Catholics who have political power engage in promoting them ….wait..
McCloskey, an influential priest in D.C. about 15 years ago who advised political notables, said it was impossible for a person to be a liberal Catholic.
If the point of the argument is that one- third fewer Catholics than evangelicals go to the polls and vote Republican. Noted, it is not as large a majority as the evangelical’s 80%.
Why lump all Catholics together, Linda? Just because Bethree5 makes the mistake of lumping them together by saying “we are the most liberal Catholics”, doesn’t mean, they should be talked about as a single entity. I believe, bethree5 is liberal. Do we need more?
It’s as nondescriptive and unfair as lumping all Amricans together. Should every American feel guilty about Trump’s actions?
Which, all boys, schools send their students to DC to take part in a campaign to take away women’s rights?
Through time, society at large and victims individually repeatedly ask the question, “When will they stand up to protect the values they claim to believe?” And, the answer is, “not me and not at this time”.
The scary thing is that of the three Koch brothers, Charles is the most dangerous, and now Charles’ son is getting into the family business – the ‘disruptive technology’ part.
One wicked wimp of the West is dead.
Hooray.
Scott Walker must be crying, “Momma!”
Which do you prefer? Koch or Di-ed Koch?
Di-ed Koch is better
Better than the Koch
Cuz di-ed Koch is deader
Than the living bloke
Also, Di-ed Koch has no callow Rhees
We’re all being fed a steady diet of Kochtopus and Koch Class-ick. Or Classist-ick. Or just Koch Classist. And there’s someone in the White House who’s somehow living on Big Macs and Vanilla Orange Koch. O course, now that we know Gates is friends with Kochs, the whole ed deform attack army seems involved — Cherry-Chetty Koch. Chetty Koch. All empty calories that will rot your teeth and guts, made from wasted natural resources, bottled in oil-based plastic that will rot the Earth for many generations to come. That’s it for humanity, folks. Koch is it! Have a Koch and a smile! A toothless smile.
Empty callowRhees.
Well said, LeftCoast, SomeDAM!
I wish Koch would or could have taken that toxic filth known as libertarianism with him into the afterlife. No such luck, we are still stuck with libertarianism but Koch will not be able to take his billions with him into the great black hole of infinity. Libertarianism is just terrific and peachy keen if you happen to be a billionaire, like that freak Steve Forbes who has been pushing the flat tax scam. Libertarianism is like a zombie many-headed Hydra, it just keeps shambling on in spite of all the damage it’s done.
The gift that keeps on giving, just like the pollution from the Koch paper mills
Is there a part of the economy they do not own? Sounds like Vonnegut’s RAMJAC corporation in (Slaughterhouse Five maybe?)
Is there a part? Yes. Warren Buffet owns that.
excceptionally useful line: “Libertarianism is just terrific and peachy keen IF you happen to be a billionaire…”
Is there are greater force for evil in the world, today, than ALEC? I doubt it.
A positive sign: Barron’s reported that Chase has invested in criminal-justice-reform initiatives, including getting companies to hire former convicts — Koch Industries told Business Insider it was one of the very first large companies to do this, using its “ban-the-box” policy of removing criminal-history questions from its job applications. –From Business Insider. The article also reports that Chase has less of an interest in conservative politics and more of an interest in the social justice side of Libertarian thought. Perhaps he will put money behind decriminalization of drugs, prison reform, and other social justice causes. Lets hope so. Who knows, perhaps he can even be enlisted in the fight against standardized testing and the Common [sic] Core [sic]. One can dream.
I will NEVER forget what they did to Jefferson County Colorado School Board. Thank goodness for the good public ed parents who fought back. And they did the same thing to the school district where I currently live here South of Nashville TN!
& let’s not forget their re-segregation attempts by buying a school board in Wake Forest, NC in 2011 (due to the resilience of the stakeholders, they failed). They attempted evil in other parts of the U.S., as well…as if they could buy themselves the whole country.
I’ve read Dark Money, but I strongly recommend the 2014 Sons of Wichita.You will learn even more.
Also, a large group of protesters descended upon the Park Ridge, IL offices of Koch Foods (the day before David died, in fact), accusing the company of giving ICE access to their MS plants.
The owner of Koch Foods originally worked for father Fred, who gave him shares in the co., then sold the company to him (his name escapes me now). However, I had earlier noted that our fiend (nope, no typo), Paul Vallas, received the largest contribution to his mayoral war chest from the president of Koch Foods here, in IL.
As cola can rust metal, everything the Koch name touches means ruin. (The eldest Koch sons–Frederick & William–don’t seem to be interested in the evil doings {although they were involved in an ugly family lawsuit RE: division of monies, & did not talk to Chas. & David for years}.) So, it’s Chas. left to worry about.
Well, perhaps now Mr. Gates can purchase the later Mr. Koch’s impressive collection of state and federal political bobbleheads and action figures to complete his own already considerable holdings.
And this just in: in honor of the benefactor who gave us the David Koch Theater, home to the New York City Ballet, famed Choreographer Bob Shepherd will be mounting a production of his avant-garde, minimalist “Homage to American Carcinogens,” the first ballet to feature an entirely invisible cast representing, simultaneously, unseen industrial chemicals spilled into the nation’s air and waterways and unseen model bills spilled into the portfolios of state and federal legislators. All proceeds will go to trying to start cleaning up the mess. Hazmat suits available at the door.
The Kochs and their ilk are Capitalists.
In a Capitalist society everything is for sale.
Politicians are for sale.
Government is for sale.
People are for sale.
There’s a name for that, and it’s not Liberty.
There’s a name for that, and it’s not Liberty.
YES!!!
This petition was sent to my Senator Todd Young [R-IN] and Trump [Ugh]. Doubt it will do any good but what can we do to help children who are being barely surviving in war zones?
……………………………………………………..
Help kids living in war zones go to school
It’s back to school season, but sadly, for the 75 million children around the world living in war zones or as refugees, school is just a dream.
Soon, world leaders will gather in New York to discuss ways to address these kinds of problems. This is our chance to persuade the U.S. to support funding for Education Cannot Wait, a global fund that helps children living in war zones go to school.
I just took action by encouraging our leaders to secure children’s futures and fund Education Cannot Wait. Will you join me?
https://www.savethechildrenactionnetwork.org/actions/urge-congress-and-the-president-that-education-cannot-wait/?sp_ref=509346030.225.198854.e.0.2&tag=email
You guys are all correct, but I don’t like to beat up a deadman. I think watching this benign looking video about the Kochs, we get a glimpse of where they are coming from, how they see the world—-and they beat themselves up in the process.
Thanks for this, Mate. I’ve often seen the Kochs be made the object of generalized hatred of conservatives and have often seen people attribute to them of positions that they did/do not espouse or support financially. There are, I think, two reasons for this. 1. People don’t really understand what a “classical liberal” is, and 2. The Kochs have often supported politicians and organizations that pushed agendas they didn’t/don’t espouse (e.g., the Common [sic] Core [sic]) because those same politicians and organizations pushed agendas that they did/do espouse (e.g., school “choice”).
The fundamental beliefs of the classical Liberal/Libertarian are that 1. free markets work to the greater good and 2. interference with the free market destroys individual incentive and creates free riders. As a Social Democrat, Democratic Socialist, or whatever label you want to put on my brand of politics, I take these positions very seriously as challenges to my own, and I must, while rejecting them, confront the truth in them. “Facts are stubborn things,” John Adams wrote in response to the Boston Massacre. So, the questions for me are, “How do you achieve more equity and economic justice in the world without destroying market checks and balances and incentives for individual industry?” I have ideas about these matters, but those are a long, long story.
I must say that Koch’s claim, in this interview, that he is entirely above-board and transparent in his giving is extraordinarily disingenuous given the mode of operation of organizations like ALEC, which he has so handsomely supported, and all the astroturf organizations working to prop up charters and vouchers that pretend to be grassroots groups.
“I must say that Koch’s claim, in this interview, that he is entirely above-board and transparent in his giving is extraordinarily disingenuous”
He is lying through his teeth there.
What Libertarianism boils down to is rule by strongman. It is the most primitive of ideologies. Do what you want is the sum of the law.
Libertarian are openly antidemocratic. More generally, freedoms and democracy have a hard time coexisting. I think both are needed, and the challenge of our times is to figure out a way for this coexistence.
I think the Scandinavian countries have done an examplery job here.
Yes. There are existence proofs of better ways!
From the article: “A gregarious, socially prominent New Yorker who loved the ballet, Mr. Koch saw his name emblazoned on cornices at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the American Museum of Natural History and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital — the Manhattan institutions on which some of his $1.2 billion in charitable gifts were bestowed.”
In other words, he gave $1.2 billion back from the $40 billion of taxes he witheld using the laws ALEC helped creating.
Again, all-read Sons of Wichita–there is a particularly sickening incident in there which tells you all you need to know about the Kochs (& you’ll know it as soon as you read about it). Charles & David (don’t R.I.P.) are the very definition of villainthropy.
In fact, I had them in mind when I coined the term.
Villainthropy. Much needed, that one.
In other news: orange, sluglike creature slithers through 67 Summit, disconcerting world leaders. Story at 11:00.
Unless I’m crazy (& who wouldn’t be, given these times?), I heard that Macron pulled a fast one on IQ45. If anyone reading would care to elaborate, please do. We all enjoy any piece of good news/cheer, & thanx in advance!
He invited Iran’s foreign minister to the Summit.
cx: G7, ofc
Thank you, Bob!
The Donald has empty space inside his head. Now, he’s claiming to be the “greatest environmentalist to ever be president”. Does he know what an environmentalist stands for? It isn’t drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. “Environmentalist’ is too big a word for the Swamp Monster to comprehend.
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Donald Trump Skips G7 Session on Climate Change and Amazon Fires
President Trump was the only G7 leader not to show up for the session dedicated to climate change and the crisis in the Amazon.
President Trump was a no show at a crucial session on climate change, biodiversity, and the devastating fires ravaging the Amazon rainforest at the G7 summit in Biarritz, France, on Monday. Trump’s chair was empty as leaders discussed developing a $20 million emergency fund to help countries affected by the Amazon fires. Trump aides had suggested earlier in the summit that the agenda set by French president Emmanuel Macron was meant to embarrass Trump by focusing on what they called “niche issues” like climate change and gender equality. When asked if he had attended, Trump told reporters, “We’re having it in a little while,” according to the Guardian. He then did not answer a reporter who informed him that the climate meeting had already ended. A White House spokesperson said a senior member of the Trump administration had attended instead….
Later in the day, Trump claimed to be the greatest environmentalist to ever be president while taking questions from reporters. When asked what he thinks the world “should be doing about climate change,” and whether he still harbors skepticism about climate science, Trump did not respond to either question, but instead boasted about America’s “tremendous wealth.” “The wealth is under its feet,” Trump said, alluding to oil and gas deposits. The president specifically mentioned his administration’s approval of drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, stating: “I was able to get ANWR approved—Ronald Reagan wasn’t able to do it.” Latest profit estimates from the federal government show the refuge yielding less than half the revenue that the White House originally claimed it would…
https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-skips-g7-session-on-climate-change-and-amazon-fires?source=email&via=desktop
Trump skipped the climate meeting, claiming that he had scheduled talks withAngela Merkel and President of India. Both attended the climate meeting.
Trump lied.
Diane: Trump lied.
OH NO! That can’t possibly be true. It must be all the fake news that is traveling around the world. Trump never lies. [Actually I think he is so demented that he can’t remember what he said in the past.]
Carolmalaysia,
Did you ever see the television program about Egypt and the failure of their great empire?
The change of weather over 6,000 years ago created the Sahara desert by destroying the North Africa grasslands and forests.
It was claimed to be the result of orbit shift.
Not much human population back then and little source of CO 2 as compared to today.
The Vikings enjoyed warm weather and sailed the ice deprived North Sea.
And a further thought – can anyone explain why the Obamas would fork out close to 15 million on a mansion built by the sea in Martha Vinyards when he knows it will be under water in 10 to 12 years? I guess he knows som e little secret we are not told?
And the best little story you might want to follow is Mann – Mr. Hockey Stick – trial that this Penn State University, who is the creator of the “hockey stick graph” that appears to show global temperatures taking a noticeable swing upward in the era when humanity has been burning fossil fuels and dumping CO2 into the atmosphere. The graph was first published in 1998, prominently featured in the 2001 UN Climate Report, and formed part of Al Gore’s 2006 movie, An Inconvenient Truth.
Mann commits contempt of court in the ‘climate science trial of the century.’ Prominent alarmist shockingly defies judge and refuses to surrender data for open court examination. Only possible outcome: Mann’s humiliation, defeat and likely criminal investigation in the U.S.
The defendant in the libel trial, Canadian climatologist, Dr Tim Ball … is expected to instruct his British Columbia attorneys to trigger mandatory punitive court sanctions, including a ruling that Mann did act with criminal intent when using public funds to commit climate data fraud.
Trial – six long years ago, has astonished legal experts because Mann refused to comply with the court direction to hand over all his disputed graph’s data. Mann’s iconic hockey stick has been relied upon by the UN’s IPCC and western governments as crucial evidence for the science of ‘man-made global warming.’ court may rule he hid it because it is fake. As such, the court must then dismiss Mann’s entire libel suit with costs awarded to Ball and his team.
No wonder Trump didn’t want to waste his time. Maybe he knows what Obama knows?
Jscheidell,
When you write drivel like this about climate change, you make a fool of yourself.
jscheidell: Trump definitely knows more than 15,000 scientists. He knows more than anybody about absolutely everything. Aren’t we pleased to have such a remarkable person in charge of our country?
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15,000 scientists issue dire warning that “time is running out” on climate change. A huge iceberg floating on the Arctic Ocean. Twenty-five years after a small group of scientists penned the first “warning to humanity” in 1992, a new letter has been created that says time is running out to save the planet.
carol,
We have been told we were going to be under water back in the 70s and now the IPCC has chosen to add crop disaster to the list…but don’t worry we were to die 10 years back and it never happen — The IPCC claim that global warming undermines crop production is not supported by the current facts. According to the British Geographer, world agricultural production since 1961 has increased by 240 percent and at a rate far faster than world population growth, and it shows no sign of slowing. Reliable data collected from other sources also show a steady uptick in global food production since 1960. During the period in which global warming was supposedly decimating cropland via drought, flood, and storms, total global cropland has risen from 4.38 billion hectares (1960) to 4.87 billion hectares, with no decade showing decline. The IPCC claims that global warming, underway since before 1990, is decimating cropland. It isn’t. So where’s the beef?
The underlying theme of all previous IPCC reports seems to be that a global system must be put in place to regulate fossil fuel usage so as to mitigate warming. In the end, every human activity, including the existence of human beings themselveswill have to be restricted in order to achieve the experts’ goals. If it is necessary to ban burgers in order to save the Earth, what else does the IPCC have in store for us? We’ll see, since the IPCC is planning further reports, including one on the condition of the world’s oceans. One can expert more headlines of environmental catastrophe and more ideas on expanding global government.
The crucial fact that the experts leave out of this year’s global catastrophe update is that mankind craves liberty and I will continue to eat and drink as I please….
Go ahead, jscheidell, keep making a fool of yourself.
I guess you never heard the quote from Lincoln, who said it is better to remain silent than to open your mouth and show the world what a fool You are.
“And the best little story you might want to follow is Mann – Mr. Hockey Stick – ”
Are you a scientist, jscheidell? Experts write
More than two dozen reconstructions, using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records, have supported the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph, with variations in how flat the pre-20th century “shaft” appears.
Politicians and other ousiders write what you write. The main difference is that scientists’ consensus is based on scientific evidence while politicians’ concensus is based on ideology, their extensive belief system and their supporters’ demands.
Science has always, without exception, won over belief, hence only fools defend and repeat ideology based or baseless arguments.
Scientist? No – just a human who is not arrogant enough to think we can change nature – let alone a blue green ball floating in space for over 4 billions of years….
The hoax of man-caused climate change is one of their principal schemes to frighten the youngest among us into abject servants of the state.
Leftists today, all of whom embrace the ridiculous notion of catastrophic climate change, instill it into their children practically from toddlerhood. It is the ultimate in virtue signaling among the left if their first grader can discuss sustainability and the crime of over-watering one’s lawn.
The left denies science and every one of the twenty-plus Democrat candidates have embraced this nonsense with everything they’ve got. They are all trying to out-greenie each other which is why the debates later this week are sure to be tedious, unless Trump actually does live-tweet them. That would be enormously entertaining.
As always, the leftists assume the deplorables are both gullible and stupid. As they try to alarm us all into giving up our cars, plane trips, and meat, which they will never do, we are chuckling at their faux performances as saviors of the earth. But the earth is just fine and likely to remain so, as George Carlin so wisely observed sometime in the early 2000s.
In 7 minutes – worth a chuckle https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=george+carlin+global+warming&view=detail&mid=10C24DD8F9E143E2016E10C24DD8F9E143E2016E&FORM=VIRE
I don’t often say this. You are ignorant.
98% of the world’s scientists agree that climate change is real and dangerous.
Jscheidell,
I will delete all future comments by you. Go to your MAGA meeting and don’t come back.
JScheidell watches Fox because he, like its other viewers, wants the network to think for him.
Seeing how much Trump was loved at the G7 meeting, I’m sure all the world leaders are excited about staying at one of his resorts. He is just plain stupid.
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Trump Suggests His Doral Resort as Next Location for G7 Summit
He called his golf resort near Miami a “great place.”
President Trump on Monday suggested that he wants to host the next Group of 7 summit meeting at his Doral golf resort near Miami. Trump called his resort a “great place,” and said it made perfect sense as each delegation could have its own building. “It’s got tremendous acreage, many hundreds of acres, so we can handle whatever happens,” he boasted. “It’s really — people are really liking it and plus it has buildings that have 50 to 70 units.” Critics say the move would be a dangerous merging of business and politics, as the president would be promoting and also profiting from foreign governments spending money at one of his properties. Ethics lawyer Deepak Gupta told The New York Times, “Trump would basically be compelling foreign governments to spend money at his personal resort while promoting the resort on the world stage,” adding that it was “inconsistent with both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution.” Trump raised eyebrows in 2017 when he hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach for a summit.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-suggests-his-doral-resort-as-next-location-for-g7-summit?source=email&via=desktop
Seems the other world leaders tiptoed around him, afraid of his wrath.
This is off topic, sort of. Trump is making up his own news. This is a dumb thing to do when dealing with other countries. China has people much smarter than Trump and won’t fall for his lies. Fox doesn’t dominate the news in China.
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China’s Foreign Ministry ‘Not Aware’ Of Calls To U.S. About Restarting Trade Talks
08/26/2019
Shortly after President Donald Trump said Monday in France that Chinese officials had reached out by phone to restart trade talks, a representative of China’s Foreign Ministry said he was “not aware” of any such calls.
Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang clarified twice at a press briefing in response to reporters’ questions: “I am not aware of the phone calls over the weekend,” and “I haven’t heard of the calls.”…
Trump had told reporters at the Group of Seven summit earlier: “China called last night our top trade people and said, ‘Let’s get back to the table,’ so we will be getting back to the table, and I think they want to do something …. This is a very positive development for the world.”
He added: “We’ve gotten two calls and very, very good calls. They mean business.”…
Article: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/china-foreign-ministry-unware-of-trade-phone-calls-trump_n_5d645c72e4b008b1fd1f95f6
Trump comes up with the most brilliant ideas. [SARCASM!!!!!] The empty head of our country speaks out again. What was that quote from Lincoln about keeping your mouth shut so you don’t prove you’re a fool?
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Scoop: Trump suggested nuking hurricanes to stop them from hitting U.S.
Aug 25, 2019
President Trump has suggested multiple times to senior Homeland Security and national security officials that they explore using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes from hitting the United States, according to sources who have heard the president’s private remarks and been briefed on a National Security Council memorandum that recorded those comments.
Behind the scenes: During one hurricane briefing at the White House, Trump said, “I got it. I got it. Why don’t we nuke them?” according to one source who was there. “They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they’re moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. Why can’t we do that?” the source added, paraphrasing the president’s remarks.
https://www.axios.com/trump-nuclear-bombs-hurricanes-97231f38-2394-4120-a3fa-8c9cf0e3f51c.html
Where does this man get his insane ideas?
The Onion is saying things about bulletproof vests. How sad that our schools are spending money for possible gun threats while Congress and Trump do nothing to address the overwhelming amount of surplus guns nor work to pass strict gun laws.
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School Administration Reminds Female Students Bulletproof Vests Must Cover Midriff
HUNTINGTON, WV—Explaining that such suggestive armor was inappropriate for an educational environment, Huntington High School officials reportedly reminded female students Tuesday that their bulletproof vests must cover their midriffs. “We’ve been seeing some students wearing revealing bulletproof vests, so I just wanted to remind all you ladies that your kevlar must cover all your vital organs,” said Vice Principal James Nelson on the morning announcements, forewarning students that if they lift their arms up and any part of their stomach is exposed, then they would be sent to the nurse’s office and forced to borrow one of the school’s own ballistic vests, which are large and unsightly…
https://local.theonion.com/school-administration-reminds-female-students-bulletpro-1837617262%3Futm_medium=sharefromsite%26utm_source=_email&utm_campaign=top