David Koch dead at 79!

[superpatriotman]

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/right-wing-activist-david-koch-dead-at-79-report/?fbclid=IwAR0YofGGSNhBSFZoGyzLZXKhOtXhhnamxG6VYfg6aKTx5FbuLvf31VLIh0w

David Koch, the billionaire industrialist and conservative activist, has reportedly died.

Sources close to the family confirmed the 79-year-old Koch, who retired from the privately owned Koch Industries last year, passed away, according to New Yorker reporter Jane Mayer.

He was ranked the 11th-wealthiest person in the world upon his retirement, with an estimated net worth of $51 billion, and both he and his brother donated much of their fortune to conservative political candidates and causes.

Koch was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1992, and he also donated significant sums to medical research, as well as museums, theaters and other artistic endeavors.

[AirmensMom]

1. Is it ok to celebrate?

I know grave-dancing is frowned upon, but it seems like there should be some exceptions.

[superpatriotman]

5. The world should be dancing on this grave

Dancing and spitting

[AirmensMom]

8. That was my first thought. n/t

[FoxNewsSucks]

76. Same here,

too bad his evil brother still stalks the earth

[magicarpet]

83. I've got to pee,... is it necessary that I find a restroom ?

... or is this grave right here okay ?

[gopiscrap]

130. totally agree

[gopiscrap]

132. can we protest at his funeral?

[Lochloosa]

6. Yep.

[rzemanfl]

9. Urine luck.

I never could dance, but I can still piss.

[Blue_playwright]

27. Lol!

[lagomorph777]

77. If you can still piss, you're younger than me.

...I can still wield a spray can though!

[rzemanfl]

109. 72. n/t

[MontanaMama]

91. Bwaaaahaaaaa!

Thank goodness I’m on an iPad. That was priceless.

[Clash City Rocker]

33. "Did a large procession wave their torches as my head fell in the basket

“And was everybody dancing on the casket?”

[TruckFump]

98. I was soooo glad to hear this.

Celebrate and throw parties, IMO. Some evil has left this world. I hope the POS was wearing asbestos on his death bed. IMO, he's gonna need it.

[nini]

100. yes..

It's unpatriotic to not.

[lsewpershad]

108. Can't wait for

the other one to go.

[onetexan]

114. Steinbeck: we should remember our dying and try to live so our death brings no pleasure to the world

i.e., if others rejoice then one has not lived a moral life.

Given the devastation Koch's dark money has caused to this democracy i'd say we BREAK OUT THE CHAMPAIGNE & CELEBRATE!!

[backscatter712]

117. Excuse me while I get in line to piss and tapdance on his grave...

As Mark Twain put it, "I didn't attend the funeral, but I wrote a very nice letter saying that I approved of it."

[in2herbs]

2. Thoughts and prayers . . . . not. eom

[backscatter712]

118. Malicious thoughts and imprecatory prayers.

[Fullduplexxx]

3. Oh well that's just too bad ... thoughts and prayers

I thought i saw satan greasimg up his pitchfork

[lagomorph777]

78. My prayers were answered.

Last edited Fri Aug 23, 2019, 11:11 AM - Edit history (1)

Not bad for an atheist!

[TalenaGor]

88. lol!

[denbot]

4. Rot in hell asshole.

Fuck him and his brother.

[Meadowoak]

7. Hopefully Charles will be right behind him!

[sharedvalues]

19. Charles is far worse

David gave money to medical research and other causes.

Charles was focused on giving money to help him acquire more power and wealth. While screwing the rest of us.

[Meadowoak]

23. I doubt David would have given anything to medical research, had he

Not have prostate cancer himself.

[tavernier]

106. Yes, I've read that David was quite different from

the other brother, and was actually charitable and concerned about global warming. Whether that was just PR, I have no idea.

[Botany]

10. If you can't say anything nice about the dead ...

[superpatriotman]

14. With thanks to Bette Davis:

You’re not supposed to say anything bad about the dead. Only good.
Charles Koch is dead. Good.

[moose65]

24. Great minds think alike!

I just posted something similar on another thread about this!

[cabot]

38. My first thought as well

She gave us a lot of great quotes, but that’s one of my favourites.

[geardaddy]

62. I love that quote!

Never heard it before. Thanks!

[moose65]

116. I think I found the actual quote

According to the LA Times, when Davis received word of Crawford's heart attack and subsequent death in 1977, she allegedly said, "You should never say bad things about the dead, only good… Joan Crawford is dead. Good.”

[Javaman]

11. where's his grave? I want to do a jig on it. nt

[Frustratedlady]

12. I've been taught not to speak poorly of the deceased...

but it sure is tempting.

Thoughts and prayers.

Oooooo, this is hard!

[procon]

13. Waiting for a twofer. nt

[tenderfoot]

15. I'd celebrate but know full well there's another repulsive family member that will fill the void.

eom

[rpannier]

47. Too bad he didn't drag his brother down with him

Last edited Fri Aug 23, 2019, 09:47 AM - Edit history (1)

[tanyev]

16. Dang, have to wait until after work to pop some champagne.

[UpInArms]

17. No words ...

💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽

[Takket]

18. Great news! Thanks for posting

I have no issue with celebrating the death of someone who spent their life causing others misery to help improve their own bank account.

Burn in hell, Koch

[Newest Reality]

20. Oh my! What a shame...

That his brother is still around to continue the agenda and that there are a gaggle of businesses and front organizations and policies polluting our gestalt that will live on.

[Act_of_Reparation]

21. Good riddance to bad company.

[Dagstead Bumwood]

22. I'm going to suspend my disbelief in the entire concept of hell

Just long enough to savor the thought of him rotting in it. Good riddance, you treasonous bastard. May your evil sibling be right on your heels.

[2naSalit]

25. Finally!

Seems like I've been waiting for centuries for this! One down, one to go. Your move, Charles... do the world a favor.

[Liberal In Texas]

26. One down, one to go. n/t

[Shrek]

30. Two

Everyone forgets about Bill for some reason.

[rpannier]

70. Bill sold his shares

It is an interesting and pathetic story.
Sad part is, in the beginning I side with Charles who used the profits to expand the business
Bill (and Frederick) wanted money

The father was whacked. The four sons became rather pathetic

Article is a good read on the whole litigation and the family fighting

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/05/koch-brothers-family-history-sons-of-wichita/

[sharedvalues]

134. The problem is billionaires have too much control

I feel bad for them that they had a f*cked up family life.

But just because they have money, they shouldn’t be able to take out their childhood trauma on us and the planet.

We need to rein in American oligarchs, period.

[quickesst]

28. my response?

?itemid=12477623

[Takket]

74. Lol! Thread winner

[quickesst]

111. Heh...

[smirkymonkey]

97. Hah! That was my very first thought!

We think alike! I am hoping for a chain reaction. Best news I have heard in ages.

[quickesst]

112. I think a few had that response....

mine was just a little bit more.... expressive?

[Amishman]

29. Fucker was worth 42 billion

I knew he was a billionaire but didn't realize he was worth quite that much.

Can't find details on his will. Afraid the bastard has it set up to pump fuck you money into every regressive right-wing organization

[FakeNoose]

71. I think that's the value of their companies

...that's not the cash in his bank accounts.

Yes the Koch family has more money than they can spend in a lifetime, and that's how they can piss it all away on these libertarian schemes of destroying the government. There's still plenty more dough until the other brother goes down.

[BannonsLiver]

113. You can't take it with you

And none of it could buy him one more second longer. I take comfort in that. I bet at the very end the money didn’t mean squat. These people spend their lives accumulating this money and then forget to live in the process. In a way I pity them.

[citizen blues]

31. And he couldn't take a penny of it with him! NT

Last edited Fri Aug 23, 2019, 01:17 PM - Edit history (1)

[Volaris]

105. I was just thinking the same thing. Not one dirty cent went with him into The Beyond.

Guys like this, are why the inheritance tax was invented in the first place. Yeah, keep enough so that maybe the kids dont really HAVE to work, if they dont have the same kinds of 'ambition' as the old man, but otherwise...

You can either leave it legally to approved charities, or the government can take it and do that FOR YOU.

If he had left billions of dollars to prostate cancer research, I'd be ok with that. We both know damn well that he didnt.

[zentrum]

32. Will not be missed.

[Mike 03]

34. Good news seems to break on Fridays. nt

[Clash City Rocker]

35. Well, he's in a much warmer place now

[PCIntern]

36. Good news for the righteous. Nt

[47of74]

37. Good.

[Recursion]

39. Everyman, it may not be by no way

I set not by gold, silver nor, riches,
Ne by pope, emperor, king, duke, ne princes.
For and I would receive gifts great,
All the world I might get;
But my custom is clean contrary.

[Claritie Pixie]

40. The start of a trend perhaps? Thoughts and prayers.

[vsrazdem]

41. I'm sure his spawn will carry on his legacy.

[rpannier]

52. That would be Chase and it appears the answer is no

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/12/14/koch-brothers-chase-charles-next-generation-223099

[Pachamama]

55. Chase is David Koch's nephew

Charles Koch is his father and he is very much alive.

[vsrazdem]

82. You have the wrong brother. It is David that died, not Charles.

[jcgoldie]

42. Charles your table is ready!

[walkingman]

43. Thoughts, no prayers.

[live love laugh]

136. ❤️😂

[RVN VET71]

44. He's already been reborn

in a hovel in Guatemala, one of eight, already flea bitten and fighting its siblings for high-tit.

At least, one might hope so.

[kpete]

45. Hallelujah

& Amen

[Bigredhunk]

46. -

He stepped away from the company a year or so ago do to poor health (Alzheimer's, I think). Charles is supposedly the more political of the two. He'll be 84 in November.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-meaning-of-a-koch-brothers-retirement

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

50. Prostate cancer

[MontanaMama]

93. Tick tock Charles!

You’re next.

[Bettie]

48. I feel for any family members who

loved him and will miss him.

But, I can't help thinking the world is a tiny bit better without him in it.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

49. All that money

And he couldn't make it to 80.

[sigpooie]

51. Ah one left..maya's statement fits this asshole

Its not what he said.
It's not what he did.

It's how he made us feel.

[Farmer-Rick]

53. All his money couldn't save him from death and he left his riches all behind

So, he basically did nothing good. Not compared to what he could have done.

Here's hoping the grim reaper visits that family more often.

[Bluethroughu]

54. Hell is no longer empty...

I felt the universe a bit lighter this morning.

[Takket]

75. Scalia has a playmate now

[malaise]

56. Good riddance

to bad rubbish.

Hope the brother now sees that you can't take it with you or continue to fuck up the planet from the grave

[Deb]

57. And the Lord called home his piece of work.

[live love laugh]

67. That's the lord of Hell -- not heaven calling ☎️

[Stinky The Clown]

58. To those who will miss his ass . . . . .

[ChoppinBroccoli]

59. Hope All The Money He Made On The Backs Of Poor People Comforts Him Where He Is Now

Oh, that's right.

[Linda Ed]

60. The polluters of our country

and got away with so much pollution with their 100 billion dollar business..their father Fred Koch, who made his first fortune building oil pipelines for the Russian dictator Joseph Stalin in the 1930s. Back in the states, Fred Koch supported racial segregation and white supremacist groups like the John Birch Society.

Koch-funded efforts include the Republican national effort to unduly police the voting process to discourage young people, minorities and senior from casting ballots.

Koch Industries is a major polluter, with ongoing incidents and violations of ... Koch's negligence toward environmental safety has led to tragic losses of life.

I for one am not sad to hear this news as they have done much damage to our democracy and our earth with all their pollution in killing people with cancer...
David Koch is dead .. unfortunately, the damage he's done to the world lives on

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/here-are-11-things-the-koch-brothers-didnt-want-you-to-know/?utm_source=push_notifications

[Freddie]

61. "And when they finally put you in the ground

I’ll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down”

- Elvis Costello

[get the red out]

63. The body won't be cold

Before the right has theories of how he was murdered by liberals all over social media.

[Freddie]

68. Hillary did it, of course!

According to the RWNJ press she’s leaving a trail of bodies. Last one was Jeffrey Epstein.

[Miles Archer]

64. "Brilliant doctors and state-of-the art meds." This is excerpted from his brother's statement:

Twenty-seven years ago, David was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and given a grim prognosis of a few years to live. David liked to say that a combination of brilliant doctors, state-of-the-art medications and his own stubbornness kept the cancer at bay.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/david-koch-died-conservative-donor-and-philanthropist-dead-age-79-2019-08-23/

[dalton99a]

92. It's a shame he didn't get to experience pain and suffering like the hoi polloi

[live love laugh]

65. Thoughts and prayers 🙄

[lindysalsagal]

66. Thoughts and prayers. NOW, sell back the states you bought.

You can buy a state but you can't inherit.

[dalton99a]

69. He lived too long.

Burn in hell or wherever, asshole

[BlueStater]

79. Not as long as he could have, at least.

His money couldn't save him. Gives me hope the same will be the case with human garbage like Trump and Cheney. Not all these fuckers are destined to live as long as Strom Thurmond.

[Ponietz]

72. Sane estate tax policy would begin to redress his plutocratic ratfuckery

[panader0]

73. "Mother Earth" by Memphis Slim--'I don't care how great you are, don't care what you're worth

[KG]

80. !

[liberal N proud]

81. Ding dong the Kock is DEAD!

[pwb]

84. Was he the bad brother or the worst?

.

[raccoon]

85. How many of y'all going out to happy hour today? Nt

[ffr]

86. That cannot be. Demons are immortal.

Like the tRump family. The deal they've made with the Devil gives them eternal life.

[Scurrilous]

87. ...

[Thekaspervote]

89. Ding dong the wicked witch is dead!! Oh dotard... your friend is on the line, he says bring shorts

It’s really really hot here!!!!

[TygrBright]

90. He's going where he belongs: Six feet under and well tamped down. n/t

[RockRaven]

94. An irredeemable blight on the world. Nothing can ever undo the damage he caused to others. nt

[ffr]

95. That makes two evil deaths. They usually go in threes. Who will be the third evil demon to go?

[eppur_se_muova]

96. Time to drag out this old post again ...

When I first read this eulogy, written for a Christian demagogue nearly sixteen centuries ago, it occurred to me that it would be perfectly appropriate for DDDDDick Cheney. And when Old Ironheart* passed away a couple of days ago, it occurred to me that it could serve as well for many of the venal neocons in thrall to the worldview shared by Cheney and his ilk. I know that news organizations keep on file frequently updated short bios of important public figures, so that they can quickly go 'on air' with an obit should that person suddenly die. So, why not keep this item on hand, and re-use it as a template as Bu**sh**, Cheney, Bliar, Berlusconi, Feith, Addison, Rumsfeld, etc. each go to their eternal rewards ?

The original was written to honor the patriarch Cyrillus, who ordered a crowd of young Christians to enter the house of Hypatia, the pagan philosopher and mathematician, drag her out into the streets, hack her to pieces and burn her remains in the public square (according to one account, she was hacked to pieces while still alive). After Cyrillus' death in 444, one of the bishops of Alexandria pronounced the following funeral eulogy:

"At last this odious man is dead. His departure causes his survivors to rejoice, but is bound to distress the dead. They will not be long in becoming fed up with him and sending him back to us. Therefore, place a very heavy stone on his tomb so that we will not run the risk of seeing him again, even as a ghost."

At the very least, that first sentence sets the right tone.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10022656603 (original post)

[Coventina]

99. Hooray!!

[intheflow]

101. Wow, I thought he and Chaney had a made pacts with Satan

to be immortal and take down the human race. Good to learn he's mortal - and dead.

[Blue Owl]

102. Will he be cremated in a Koch oven?

n/t

[MyNameGoesHere]

103. I have no morals so

Glad you're dead fucker. May the vultures feed upon your blood money.

[Heartstrings]

104. Sad.....

Sad he couldn't have redeemed his rotten old soul before 'check-out time'. "May he be reincarnated to a family of impoverished beggars in a third world nation where 'this time around' he may learn humility, kindness and compassion".

[RainCaster]

107. He has done a great thing for our country

One less Russky in our political system

[AllaN01Bear]

110. this

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212402887

[bdamomma]

115. Karma

you reap what you sow. Ha! Hey don't they say in comes in 3's who's next, Epstein was the first, Koch the second, okay who's next???

[Fritz67]

119. I take no joy in anyone's death.

That said, there are people I do not mourn either.

David Koch is one of the ones I will never mourn.

[Sugar Smack]

120. Fingers crossed it wasn't in his sleep.

[onetexan]

121. NYMAG: Koch's monstrous legacy

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/08/david-kochs-monstrous-legacy.html

[dalton99a]

122. +1. Greedy evil monster

Last edited Fri Aug 23, 2019, 07:08 PM - Edit history (1)

Koch, who ran for office on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1980, helped funnel billions into climate-change-denying organizations for decades. His motivation wasn’t a mystery: He did it because he was greedy. Political action to arrest climate change threatened Koch’s business interests. His family originally made its money in oil and gas, and Koch Industries, as Tim Dickinson laid out in a 2014 piece for Rolling Stone, is one of the biggest polluters in the U.S. “Thanks in part to its 2005 purchase of paper-mill giant Georgia-Pacific, Koch Industries dumps more pollutants into the nation’s waterways than General Electric and International Paper combined,” he wrote.

The legacy of David Koch cannot be extricated from the work he undertook with his brother. As Jane Mayer reported for The New Yorker in 2010, the brothers were ideologically sympatico, bound together by their disbelief in climate science and their opposition to industry regulation. Their work had massive reach, though their use of shell trusts and foundations can make their money difficult to trace. Mayer, however, has reported much of it out over the years, in pieces for The New Yorker and in her 2016 book, Dark Money. Through the Cato Institute — which was co-founded by Charles Koch, and where David Koch once sat on the board of directors — the Kochs funded analysts and researchers who denied the extent of man-made climate change for years. They donated copiously to the Heritage Foundation, which wraps climate change denial into a broader conservative platform that opposes LGBT rights and legal abortion. They helped establish the anti-regulatory Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and that came with certain privileges; in 2018, Inside Higher Ed reported that the university had given the Kochs a say in faculty hiring. Similar funding agreements also existed at Florida State University and Utah State University. Koch money bankrolled right-to-work groups that have worked for decades to reduce union membership — a goal that has, according to most experts, contributed significantly to America’s increasing wealth inequality.

But what’s bad for workers tends to be good for the Kochs. Unions cut into a corporation’s bottom line; they make it slightly more difficult for lowly businessmen to purchase Park Avenue penthouses worth millions. The same principle of self-interest applies to one of David’s pet projects. Through the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which he founded, the family fortune helped mobilize the tea party movement. The id they unleashed — the naked white nationalism, the anti–big government hysteria, all those conspiracy theories — helped seed the ground for Donald Trump. David and his brother refused to donate to Trump, but he is in many ways the culmination of their work.

The consequences of the groundwork laid by the Koch brothers will shape American politics beyond Trump. David helped his brother build an infrastructure to train a generation of lawyers, scholars, and politicians who would carry the Koch mission into the future. And in a memo reported by CNBC in June, APF’s CEO said the group would now consider backing Democrats. But this shift was hardly proof that the Kochs, or the organizations they helped found and fund, had liberalized. Instead, APF wanted to keep the Democratic Party from moving left by protecting incumbents “who lead by uniting with others to pass principled policy and get good things done.” In other words, conservatives who might find themselves targeted by the next Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and would support the family’s in oil and gas interests from the Green New Deal.

David Koch died before he could reap the full bounty of his works. We will not be so lucky. His legacy is poisoned water and dirty air, decimated unions, and Donald Trump. No amount of arts patronage can purify that stain. It is likely not coincidental that the small government the Kochs desire would leave artists and scientists at the mercy of billionaires’ largesse. It’s as if he and his brother wanted to pitch us all on their vision for the world: If we let their companies gobble as much as they could, they would throw us a scrap or two. Never enough to live on; just enough to hold us until the next handout. They would allow us a glimpse of beauty, a mirage of progress, so that we would readily accept a cage.

[onetexan]

124. Yup, i would call him Smaug for devastating the environment

And spreading the myth of climate change denial. All for greed. Now he has to answer for his crimes to the Man Upstairs. As the article said, no amount of giving to the arts can take away his sins.

[chowder66]

123. Good article. nt

[live love laugh]

137. Wow 😮 that is a hard-hitting article. Thanks nt

[Martin Eden]

125. My mother taught me to only speak good of the dead

David Koch is dead.

Good.

[guillaumeb]

126. A climate change denier. eom

[applegrove]

127. At least we know they are not hoarding some immortality drug. I wonder

what the children are like?

[pamdb]

128. Koch

I guess money can't buy you everything.

[ellie]

129. Good.

[gopiscrap]

131. His family has my rocks and pears

[enid602]

133. connection

I wonder if there's a connection between being a dick all of one's life and spending the last third of your life with prostate cancer.

[Raine]

135. I don't like grave dancing

but with this guy I make an exception! there's a special place waiting for him in hell!

[jimlup]

138. can't say i'm sad

unfortunately another monster will fill the vacuum.