[I am sad to know David Koch of Koch Brothers died. But I can’t help but mention the massive harm they have done to us the 99%, and to mankind in general.]
How many people understand the importance of international news, or of certain extremely important people who are not daily features on mainstream media?
People know about the craziness of Donald Trump. People laugh about his desire to buy Greenland. People here in America — those who keep in touch with global news — about what’s happening in Kashmir, and what happened in Gujarat when Modi was chief minister. Right now, people are shocked to see what’s happening in the Amazon rain forest. Bolsenaro’s eerie similarity with Trump.
Meanwhile, few understand the importance of the death news of David Koch, one of the two infamous “Koch Brothers” here in the U.S. Even most Americans do not know, because they have kept a low profile, even when they have destroyed democracy in America, with their money and political power. Wall Street Journal, predictably, published an obituary on David Koch with a glossing over brush: they showed how much of a philanthropist he was.
Yet, Koch Brothers have been incredibly monstrous in their actions on a number of critical fronts: (1) They created Prosperity for America, a think tank that pumped money and political influence across the country to completely destroy FDR’s New Deal, deregulating from education to health care to social security to businesses; (2) They have been the ultimate influences to deny climate change, and bring back the fossil fuel industry (they themselves are big oil barons, with [corrected] Charles Koch spending [corrected: a part of] his entire oil fortune to establish John Birch Society, a far right anti-socialist organization); and (3) Koch Brothers were primarily responsible for enacting Citizens United, a U.S. law that legitimized big corporations to buy elections with their money, where corporations would be treated as individuals, and they didn’t have to disclose their names or amounts of contribution.
Why is a discussion on Koch Brothers important in the context of India also? Because, what Ambanis and Adanis are doing in India today is taken straight from Koch Brothers’ book. Today, around the world — from U.K. to Brazil to Sweden to India to Turkey to France — far right, violent, fascistic forces are trying to grab all the economic and political power, with financial backing of such extremely rich, conservative people and their business houses.
That discussion is critical, if we want to stop their onslaught on democracy, humanity, and the existence of earth, as we know it.
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For more on Koch Brothers:
Robert Greenwald’s documentary Koch Brothers Exposed
http://www.unkochmycampus.org/los-ch3-part-2-kochs-roots-the-john-birch-society
The John Birch Society
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Thanks Dr. Partha for another insightful article. I can always trust your judgment and insightful thoughts. The world needs more like you …
Thank you for your kind words. I hope we can write about our own thoughts and experiences on our own media, which is HumanityCollege.org . Please let friends know it exists.
Thank you very much for your commentary on David Koch. Unfortunately people know very little about ‘Koch brothers’ , and how they are poised to destroy democracy in America and around the world.
Yes, precisely. That’s why we need to let people know, and make a connection between these destroyers of democracy around the world. Thanks for writing.
What an incredibly stupid article. This comment about the Koch family reveals the absolute total ignorance of the author:
“…with their father Charles Koch spending his entire oil fortune to establish John Birch Society.”
(1) First of all, the “father” was FRED Koch (not Charles).
(2) Second, Fred Koch never spent his entire fortune to establish the Birch Society. Nobody knows how much financial support Fred gave to the JBS but it certainly was not as much as some of the billionaires who joined the JBS — such as Nelson Bunker Hunt. The JBS was established by numerous individuals during its formative decade through member dues payments along with financial contributions from many different people. By 1966 or 1968 the JBS had approximately 60,000 to 80,000 members and annual dues payments of more than one million dollars. [That is roughly equivalent to $7 million in 2019).
(3) Third, Fred Koch resigned from the JBS prior to his death because of disagreements he had with JBS founder Robert Welch. Charles Koch resigned from the JBS in May 1968 because of his dispute with Robert Welch.
(4) David Koch was never involved with the Birch Society and his personal viewpoints were anathema to the JBS because he was a social liberal. He believed in gay rights, same-sex marriage, abortion rights, reduced military spending, legalization of marijuana etc.
Thank you for writing. Yes, I was wrong: Fred Koch was the father, and not Charles Koch. Other than that, I stand by what I wrote. Just because you think it’s “an incredibly stupid article” doesn’t make it so. You are obviously coming from the far right (or rabidly libertarian), pro-Trump, pro-Koch side, and I am coming from the pro-99% side. I actually wrote in a softer tone, as opposed to your virulent tone. That’s how I write. Koch Brothers have destroyed U.S. democracy, using their money power. They have helped to destroy practically all FDR regulations, post Reagan era. They are responsible for turning American democracy and politics upside down. Citizens United is political terror. I’d ask you and your friends to watch Robert Greenwald’s documentary “Koch Brothers Exposed.” Thanks for reading and writing anyways. Read more, and think more — out of the box. It might help.
Here’s an article about Charles Koch and John Birch Society. https://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/01/13017/how-charles-koch-backed-john-birch-society-height-its-attacks-martin-luther-king
I am very familiar with what Lisa Graves has written. In fact, she and I have exchanged many emails and my comments are in the message thread appearing in the article you link. There is another posting by Lisa where she acknowledges that I found the correspondence between Welch and Charles Koch which discussed Koch’s resignation from the JBS in May 1968.
Does not matter. They have destroyed American democracy. Period.
“they” is always the lazy way of pretending that you are superior to other people
Not superior. More compassionate about us the 99 percent. I don’t support those who are killing us every single day. Thanks for your interest in our media.
So what is your position on the Koch brothers? Are you asserting that their support of various policy positions was not self serving. Are you asserting that their policy agenda has not been dangerous to the planet, to the Nation. Are you asserting that they have not used their tremendous inherited wealth to shape the direction of the Nation. From incubating the growth of the Federalist Society to control the Courts .To Koching up campuses to insure that fellowships and Teaching positions went to those that supported their extreme right wing views. To a war on Climate Science through the various think tanks they fund from Cato to Heritage … . Perhaps own would be a better description. And that is before we talk about the undue influence of their contributions to candidates and phony 501Cs.
And much like the rest of the right they are fine with the Authoritarian Demagogue in the White House as long as he delivers on policy BS about Liberal World View aside. And make no mistake they are thrilled with his policy from deregulation to tax cuts to climate change denial. On trade they know that what ever he delivers will not be a positive for the American worker.
It would be fitting for Charles to join David in Climate disaster that buries him in the toxic tar sands waste Koch industries spews out on Detroit and now Chicago. The Guillotine would be too swift.
You misunderstand my purpose in submitting messages here. I have no quarrel with anyone who is critical of the Koch Brothers. However, I believe that everybody should provide verifiable FACTUAL information and not just INVENT malicious falsehoods in order to denigrate some perceived political opponent.
There is an obvious reason why the author of this article did not provide even one footnote or bibliographic reference to substantiate his assertions. It is because there is no such credible evidence.
For example, claiming that Fred Koch spent “his entire oil fortune to establish John Birch Society, a far right anti-socialist organization” is a deliberate fabrication. There is no author on Planet Earth who has EVER made that claim. Consequently, “Onefinalblog” should just candidly acknowledge that he INVENTED that from whole cloth.
Onefinalblog also deliberately LIED when he claimed that:
“You are obviously coming from the far right (or rabidly libertarian), pro-Trump, pro-Koch side, and I am coming from the pro-99% side.”
Notice that he made that comment without asking me a single question. That is typical when someone is being intellectually dishonest and just wants to present their own personal agenda rather than verifiable facts which are accurate and truthful.
This is what is wrong in our country today. Too many people just post nonsense online and then they expect everyone to believe what they write even when they never provide one scintilla of evidence to substantiate what they assert.
Your statement is full of conjecture, and you are coming from a pro-Koch side. Now you are trying to defend yourself. I have already posted one article link, and also mentioned about the documentary Koch Brothers Exposed by Robert Greenwald. Make sure you watch that movie. And no, I do not invent stuff, and I take responsibility for what I write. You are spreading malice about me, and please stop doing it. I could have easily not published your comments, because from the go, you are here to tarnish my image and this media. But I decided to publish them, however derogatory they are. But rest assured, I do not have time to follow through with your extreme bias and name calling. Thank you, and good bye.
According to Wikipedia, “The John Birch Society is an advocacy group supporting anti-communism and limited government. It has been described as a radical right and far-right organization. ” And Koch Brothers have been linked with JBS. Here’s one link that I originally used. https://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/01/13017/how-charles-koch-backed-john-birch-society-height-its-attacks-martin-luther-king
“The Kochs’ interests in certain changes to the law was exposed by CMD (the Center for Media and Democracy) last month, when CMD documented the substantial Koch-backed effort to change criminal intent laws that would make it harder to prosecute corporations and CEOs, like Koch Industries and the Koch brothers, for any financial or environmental crimes. (The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on criminal intent.” (From the PR-Watch article cited above.)
About the so-called philanthropy of David Koch, here’s what The Nation published. https://www.thenation.com/article/even-david-kochs-philanthropy-was-toxic/