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babylonsister

(170,962 posts)
Fri Aug 23, 2019, 06:10 PM Aug 2019

Pierce: The Koch Money Was a Primary Vector for the Prion Disease That's Infected the Republican Pa

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a28798394/david-koch-dead-climate-denial-republican-politics/?fbclid=IwAR0X2PNiQ2j-Z6EqKeuCHHvEqHeLBYQeLo7tvjkMJyoUZWXhQgggr_oiwjk


The Koch Money Was a Primary Vector for the Prion Disease That's Infected the Republican Party
David Koch's worst legacy, however, will be on climate.
By Charles P. Pierce
Aug 23, 2019


Fair warning. I am about to speak very ill of the dead. David Koch went to his eternal barbecue spit on Friday. Except for his surviving brother, Charles, no man had a worse effect on American politics since the death of John C. Calhoun. Every malignancy currently afflicting us can be traced in one way or another into their wallets, and that's not even to mention the lasting damage they've done to the planet as a whole. Sorry, Morning Joe gang, I wouldn't care if they opened branches of the National Museum of Puppies and Rainbows in every congressional district in the United States. The Koch brothers financed the wrecking ball that is still doing damage, and now one of them is dead, and, if I am not rejoicing, I am breathing deep sighs of relief and praying deep prayers of thanksgiving.

Jane Mayer, of course, has written the fundamental text on how the Kochs financed the destruction of American democracy and the ruination of planet Earth. (Here's a shorter version that was published in The New Yorker.) There's no need to dive deep into how they sabotaged campaign finance, bankrolled the Tea Party idiocy, dropped Scott Walker on Wisconsin and, worst of all, lavishly financed the climate denial movement until now it may be too late to undo the damage they've done. Other people will handle all of that better elsewhere. (One hopes.)

I'd like to talk about the one thing that always symbolized how effectively the Koch money acted as a vector for the prion disease that has now consumed the higher functions of conservatism. From Mayer's New Yorker piece:

Only the Kochs know precisely how much they have spent on politics. Public tax records show that between 1998 and 2008 the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation spent more than forty-eight million dollars. The Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation, which is controlled by Charles Koch and his wife, along with two company employees and an accountant, spent more than twenty-eight million. The David H. Koch Charitable Foundation spent more than a hundred and twenty million. Meanwhile, since 1998 Koch Industries has spent more than fifty million dollars on lobbying. Separately, the company’s political-action committee, Kochpac, has donated some eight million dollars to political campaigns, more than eighty per cent of it to Republicans. So far in 2010, Koch campaigns Industries leads all other energy companies in political contributions, as it has since 2006, more than eighty per cent of it to Republicans. In addition, during the past dozen years the Kochs and other family members have personally spent more than two million dollars on political contributions. In the second quarter of 2010, David Koch was the biggest individual contributor to the Republican Governors Association, with a million-dollar donation. Other gifts by the Kochs may be untraceable; federal tax law permits anonymous personal donations to politically active nonprofit groups.


Let's look at one particular project. In 2018, the city of Nashville proposed to build a $5.4 billion rapid-transit project involving high-speed rail. To pay for it, the city proposed to raise four taxes, including the sales tax. Which is about when someone lit up the Koch Signal. The Kochs hate rapid transit. It keeps people from buying cars, which run on the fuels that make the Koch family rich. They also produce the asphalt for the roads on which those cars run. Acting through a Koch-funded astroturfing operation, Americans For Prosperity, the Kochs lavishly funded the opposition and killed the plan. This kind of eye-on-the-sparrow bludgeoning is a measure of how thoroughly the Koch money has infected our politics all the way down to the local level.

Of course, the most lasting damage done by the Kochs is in the area of the climate crisis, in which their money and influence may have paralyzed the response to it until, now, things have gone past the point of control. It is in that spirit that I make the following proposal: If David Koch is to be cremated, I suggest we dispense with all the fuss and bother and just drop his corpse from a helicopter into the fires now consuming the Amazon rainforest. Let him be one with his legacy.
29 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Pierce: The Koch Money Was a Primary Vector for the Prion Disease That's Infected the Republican Pa (Original Post) babylonsister Aug 2019 OP
About time we stopped being nice malaise Aug 2019 #1
Dark Money by Jane Mayer details the extent of these billionaire influence buying schemes. Midnight Writer Aug 2019 #2
What on earth do prions have to do with the Kochs? Color me confused. virgogal Aug 2019 #3
Prion dieases, like Mad Cow Disease, are brain degenracies. JHB Aug 2019 #6
I know what Prion diseases are. virgogal Aug 2019 #8
In this case, they're a metaphore. JHB Aug 2019 #9
Yep, the GOP ate the chilled monkey brains decades ago. . . DinahMoeHum Aug 2019 #10
CWD in deer in Wisconsin. Koch's Scott Walker disrupted the DNR manage on so many fronts. usaf-vet Aug 2019 #19
I wish I weren't an atheist on days like this... BigmanPigman Aug 2019 #4
I'm pretending not to be just for special cases like this. smirkymonkey Aug 2019 #23
Sounds good to me...I think I will adopt that stance too. BigmanPigman Aug 2019 #25
K&R for truth!!! n/t Coventina Aug 2019 #5
Blistering truth from Mr. Pierce FakeNoose Aug 2019 #7
Kick and Rec Hekate Aug 2019 #11
Kick and recommend. Hell yes on the burial proposal. bronxiteforever Aug 2019 #12
Bircher nazi. Mc Mike Aug 2019 #13
John Kasich was and still is a Koch Sucker. Botany Aug 2019 #14
Koch(s) bankrolled ALEC, Citizens United, the Federalist Soc & our Clarence Thomas Supreme Court stuffmatters Aug 2019 #15
Interesting use of terms in the title Prions.. if you don't want to be frightened and don't know Thekaspervote Aug 2019 #16
You Got That Right! RobinA Aug 2019 #29
Thank you, Charles Pierce... Raster Aug 2019 #17
Koch & climate change thenelm1 Aug 2019 #18
David Koch Escaped the Climate Hell he helped create bronxiteforever Aug 2019 #21
Kochs have continued to deny human causation for climate change bronxiteforever Aug 2019 #22
Only speak good of the dead Martin Eden Aug 2019 #20
My Feelings Exactly colsohlibgal Aug 2019 #24
You know what shocks me? How small the amount of money is that has corrupted an entire Nay Aug 2019 #26
Pierce keeps me from beating my head on the wall Hermit-The-Prog Aug 2019 #27
"drop his corpse from a helicopter into the fires now consuming the Amazon rainforest" muriel_volestrangler Aug 2019 #28

JHB

(37,130 posts)
6. Prion dieases, like Mad Cow Disease, are brain degenracies.
Fri Aug 23, 2019, 06:35 PM
Aug 2019

The Kochs have funded just about everything that has driven the Republicans to the extremes.

They haven't been alone, but they were there, and instrumental at setting up the conservative/libertarian structures (think tanks, political groups, etc) that have enabled a constant pushing of their agenda.

DinahMoeHum

(21,737 posts)
10. Yep, the GOP ate the chilled monkey brains decades ago. . .
Fri Aug 23, 2019, 06:46 PM
Aug 2019

. . .and now the disease has manifested itself, big time.

usaf-vet

(6,094 posts)
19. CWD in deer in Wisconsin. Koch's Scott Walker disrupted the DNR manage on so many fronts.
Fri Aug 23, 2019, 08:52 PM
Aug 2019

One was deer management. CWD research and game farm management. The politically motivated decision often overruled scientific research and data. Which in turn has allowed CDW disease to spread in Wisconsin. CWD is a Prion disease.

For more info see:

https://www.wiscontext.org/chronic-wasting-disease-wisconsins-deer
https://www.wpr.org/hundreds-escapes-state-deer-farms-reported-2013
https://www.wpr.org/wisconsin-dnr-secretary-doesnt-expect-more-rules-manage-cwd
https://www.wpr.org/state-agencies-step-back-walker-era-cwd-regulations

BigmanPigman

(51,430 posts)
4. I wish I weren't an atheist on days like this...
Fri Aug 23, 2019, 06:28 PM
Aug 2019

I really do want him to burn in Hell....or the former Amazon Rain Forest he helped to destroy.

 

smirkymonkey

(63,221 posts)
23. I'm pretending not to be just for special cases like this.
Sat Aug 24, 2019, 12:11 PM
Aug 2019

I know it doesn't make sense, but it makes me feel better.

FakeNoose

(32,349 posts)
7. Blistering truth from Mr. Pierce
Fri Aug 23, 2019, 06:38 PM
Aug 2019

David Koch was the 2nd worst pox in our lifetime. His brother is the worst.

stuffmatters

(2,574 posts)
15. Koch(s) bankrolled ALEC, Citizens United, the Federalist Soc & our Clarence Thomas Supreme Court
Fri Aug 23, 2019, 07:59 PM
Aug 2019

Anything that could destroy the planet for Koch profit, turn our democracy into Koch oligarchy, misinform and corrode the national intelligence, David Koch was right f'ing there. Koch's damage to democracy and this planet are incalculably massive.
R.I.H.

Thekaspervote

(32,606 posts)
16. Interesting use of terms in the title Prions.. if you don't want to be frightened and don't know
Fri Aug 23, 2019, 08:08 PM
Aug 2019

About Prions, don’t start reading now!!

Raster

(20,996 posts)
17. Thank you, Charles Pierce...
Fri Aug 23, 2019, 08:09 PM
Aug 2019

...and roast in hell, David Koch, you lousy piece of shit. I *SINCERELY* hope his death was horrifically painful.

thenelm1

(843 posts)
18. Koch & climate change
Fri Aug 23, 2019, 08:27 PM
Aug 2019

I seem to remember the Koch bros acknowledging climate change in some article(s) several years ago.

I found this via google, but I don't think this this was the same article that I read back then.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/charles-koch-admits-clima_b_7153084

bronxiteforever

(9,287 posts)
22. Kochs have continued to deny human causation for climate change
Sat Aug 24, 2019, 12:08 PM
Aug 2019

Since publishing this blog, Charles has talked with two more reporters on the subject of climate change, repeating his basic recognition that temperatures are rising but consistently denying the scientific proof that humans are the driving cause of recent un-natural temperature trends.

colsohlibgal

(5,275 posts)
24. My Feelings Exactly
Sat Aug 24, 2019, 12:45 PM
Aug 2019

He was an evil, greedy evil excuse for a human being and his death made my day. The Damage they have facilitated is ongoing.

I have Jane Mayer’s book “Dark Money”. They owned a plant in Virginia that leaked harmful chemicals into a stream that was within a community. Multiple children living along the stream died of cancer and the their families sued the Koch family. The brothers were incensed, a few kids dying of cancer was, in their opinion, a small price to pay on their way to Riches.

Nay

(12,051 posts)
26. You know what shocks me? How small the amount of money is that has corrupted an entire
Sat Aug 24, 2019, 06:29 PM
Aug 2019

country. The Kochs have been handing out a few million here, an few million there, and have destroyed an entire civilization.

muriel_volestrangler

(101,152 posts)
28. "drop his corpse from a helicopter into the fires now consuming the Amazon rainforest"
Sun Aug 25, 2019, 03:09 PM
Aug 2019

Spot on. Pierce is the best commentator in America.

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