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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPierce: 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_oiwjkThe 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:
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.
malaise
(269,186 posts)with dead scumbags
Midnight Writer
(21,803 posts)virgogal
(10,178 posts)JHB
(37,162 posts)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.
virgogal
(10,178 posts)JHB
(37,162 posts)DinahMoeHum
(21,812 posts). . .and now the disease has manifested itself, big time.
usaf-vet
(6,212 posts)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
(51,632 posts)I really do want him to burn in Hell....or the former Amazon Rain Forest he helped to destroy.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)I know it doesn't make sense, but it makes me feel better.
BigmanPigman
(51,632 posts)Coventina
(27,172 posts)FakeNoose
(32,777 posts)David Koch was the 2nd worst pox in our lifetime. His brother is the worst.
Hekate
(90,829 posts)bronxiteforever
(9,287 posts)Mc Mike
(9,115 posts)Botany
(70,589 posts)He stopped a passenger rail system in OH.
stuffmatters
(2,574 posts)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
(32,796 posts)About Prions, dont start reading now!!
RobinA
(9,894 posts)Prions were explained to me by a veterinarian. Kill me now!
Raster
(20,998 posts)...and roast in hell, David Koch, you lousy piece of shit. I *SINCERELY* hope his death was horrifically painful.
thenelm1
(855 posts)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)bronxiteforever
(9,287 posts)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.
Martin Eden
(12,875 posts)David Koch is dead.
Good.
colsohlibgal
(5,275 posts)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 Mayers 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)country. The Kochs have been handing out a few million here, an few million there, and have destroyed an entire civilization.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,447 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,368 posts)Spot on. Pierce is the best commentator in America.