In 1925, Fred C. Koch entered into a partnership with Lewis Winkler, a former employee of Universal Oil Products. Winkler developed a cracking apparatus for heavy crude oil with no patented difference in comparison to his former employer's intellectual property; in 1929, UOP sued Winkler-Koch for patent infringement. Also that year, nearly three years before the patent case went to trial, Winkler-Koch signed contracts to build petroleum distillation plants in the Soviet Union, which did not recognize intellectual property rights.
The extended litigation effectively put Winkler-Koch out of business in the U.S. for several years. "Unable to succeed at home, Koch found work in the Soviet Union". Between 1929 and 1932 Winkler-Koch supported the Kremlin and "trained Bolshevik engineers to help Stalin's regime set up fifteen modern oil refineries" in the Soviet Union during its first Five Year Plan.
In 1934, Koch partnered with William Rhodes Davis to build the Hamburg Oil Refinery, the third-largest oil refinery serving the Third Reich, a project which was personally approved by Adolf Hitler.
Surprise surprise, Koch Industries remains in business with the planet's leading fascist scumbag.
How Koch industries and their ilk were allowed to survive following WWII is shocking, and how they continue to work against their country to this day is beyond belief!
I was in tears over Volodymyr Zelensky's speech to Congress and cannot feel the slightest compassion toward those who back Putin.
"The West, [Putin] said, is trying to split Russians and is using that 'fifth column' to achieve its goal of destroying Russia. He called for Russians to distinguish true patriots from 'scum and traitors'—political opponents and dissidents—and to get rid of the latter like bugs. 'I am convinced that such a natural and necessary self-purification of society will only strengthen our country, our solidarity, cohesion and readiness to respond to any challenges.'" (HCR)
When a leader refers to factions of his own people as "bugs" and "scum", he reveals his own depraved moral compass and soul. Putin's speech reminds me of al Bashir calling his opposition "cockroaches" that should be crushed! That the Koch brothers and certain members of the GOP remain so lewd and vile in their support of totalitarian leaders speaks volumes about their character and brutish inhumanity.
I’m behind our Pres. Calling Vlad the Madman a “War Criminal “. And according to the polls 83% of us agree with that as they want the U.S. to support Ukraine. There still some decent GOP’ers left.
NEVER forget that 100% of R's vote against ALL legislation designed to improve America...100% of all R's are not patriotic American's...eliminate every one of "Them" this November.
That approach certainly makes it simple, but is not neccessarily correct. Nationally, If you delete those gutsy Republicans like Kitzenger and Chaney, and those who mouth the defeated former president's lies only to avoid losing his support in a primary, and those fearing defeat in a primary who have chosen not to run for reelection, and fence-sitters like Murkowski, Collins and Romney, the number is closer to 75%. But on the State and local level, where there are many not-so-savvy voters, 100% is probably correct. (And how can a Republican be unpatriotic if they have an American flag on their front porch?)
Kitzenger, Chaney, Murkowski, Collins, Romney, "... and those who mouth the defeated former president's lies only to avoid losing his support in a primary, and those fearing defeat in a primary who have chosen not to run for reelection ..."
EVERY ONE OF THESE NON-PATRIOTIC CONGRESSIONAL MEMBERS VOTED against critical American improvement legislation...
Oh! How quickly we forget, Eh!?
The almost non-existing attention span of the American voting population truly amazing!!!
Senate Democrats fail to advance voting and elections bill ...
Oct 21, 2021 — All 50 Republicans voted against advancing to debate. Prospects had appeared dim for the bill, a revised effort by Democrats to advance voting rights
Republicans block Democrats' voting rights push in the Senate
Jan 19, 2022 — Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked President Biden's voting rights ... Senate Democrats unanimously supported the John R. Lewis Voting ...
Senate Republicans block S1 For the People Act bill - CNBC
Are we at the point where the only good thing we can say about Republicans is that they don't eat their babies? I agree that the Republican Party is the enemy of American Freedom, but we must find a way to reach those who, failing to recognize that, vote them into office. Many, in fact, believe that the Democratic Party is the enemy of American Freedom.
Easy: if they do not truly believe in the values put forth by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. A majority of the ?GQP have made it clear that they prefer the values of fascists and fools such as Putin and Trump.
They really don't understand either document, particularly the Declaration of Independence. The legitimatization of ignorance by right wing media here is the problem. In Russia today, most of the people have been similarly innoculated against truth. But things can change, here and there.
Koch was not alone as American businesses aiding Germany in WWII. GM owned Opel , the German automobile mfr, and most likely was well aware of Hitler’s plans to invade Poland, because vehicle repair operations were part of the invasion plans.
IBM was critical to Hitler’s ability to run death camps. The complexity of the Nazi system required IBM punch cards.
And Preston Bush helped fund the growth of the Nazis, then refused to get rid of his German holdings he was given after 1934, and only avoided indictment under the Trading With The Enemy Act by getting elected Senator.
That's not widely publicized. I hate to think of how I worked with IBM cards in New York Life Insurance in 1968 ... Makes me shudder at the connection.
I contend that not only did these and many corporatists stick with the idea that they, “could do business with Hitler” they continued their ideological support of the Nazis beyond WWII. The primary rationale (beyond typical Capitalist profiteering) was in their mutual hatred of Communist Russia. Most saw the genocide of the Jews as at best a nasty business that someone had to do.
Think I’m kidding simply look at the anti-Semitism of Henry Ford Sr.
Tucker is the Koch’s communication director. Without their support of his daily caller, Tucker would be unemployed, would not have made it to Rupert’s Fox.
Marian, good answer to MLMinET’ s question. You could’ve added, by an individual thought to be a loyal citizen. Your choice of Tucker Carlson was an excellent choice. His unAmerican behavior has been obvious to many!
I personally would label the Fat Man from Maralago, MTG, and her ilk in Congress, The January 6 attackers, QAnon, and the truck convoy crew a fifth Column🇺🇦
They are, in fact, a fifth column, and their acolytes are indeed fighting against our democracy in favor of an autocracy/dictatorship where they think they'll be "first" but have no freaking clue how little they matter to the oligarchs.
Historian Nancy MacLean (Democracy in Chains) made it clear that the Kochs purposefully kept their plans covert to create a multi-tentacled infrastructure to undermine democracy in favor of government by an elite few as they well knew this agenda would be wildly unpopular. Of course, it included vast limitations on the federal government and its power to impose regulations on corporations. MacLean’s book was the first in a series by historians and investigative journalists looking at vast investitures of dark money that ill serve democracy. Seems to me they’ve gone beyond the protections of free speech if light were to ever be shed on the full extent of their dealings and stronger accountability measures were in place. Maybe some day…
I’m sure we have some spies in the Kremlin and in their military. Russia is too big not to have some educated officials with historical perspective that want their country back from Putin.
Mike I remember that ‘fifth column’ was a common phrase in WW II. Though it has origins in the Spanish Civil War, I recall it being used as a reference to Quislings and his followers in Norway. These person were a group that sought to undermine the government and worked surreptitiously to support the Nazi invaders.
For me it had a negative connotation as distinct from the underground in France and elsewhere working against the Nazi occupiers.
From Wikipedia, “A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or nation. The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine. Forces gathered in secret can mobilize openly to assist an external attack. This term is also extended to organised actions by military personnel. Clandestine fifth column activities can involve acts of sabotage, disinformation, or espionage executed within defense lines by secret sympathizers with an external force.“
"Fifth column...was inspired by a boast by rebel general Emilio Mola during the Spanish Civil War. Mola predicted Madrid would fall as four columns of rebel troops approaching the city were joined by another hidden column of sympathizers within it. In a 1936 article in the New York Times, William
described those secret rebel supporters as the fifth column...[The term] gained widespread popularity after Ernest Hemingway used it in the title of a 1938 book, and it was often applied to Nazi supporters within foreign nations during
And Americans who fought with the resistance faced scrutiny and distrust in America for decades. They were favorite targets of the John Birch Society, AKA Koch family .1 —
'A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or nation. The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine. Forces gathered in secret can mobilize openly to assist an external attack. This term is also extended to organised actions by military personnel. Clandestine fifth column activities can involve acts of sabotage, disinformation, or espionage executed within defense lines by secret sympathizers with an external force.' (Wikipedia) As in the link provided by Mike S.
Fern, your examples are well chosen…I wonder if by adding real life American examples, like Fox News and some of our more odious, strike that, I meant…obvious…elected officials. Might serve to bring your examples home with a more personal emphasis!.
Yes, Bob, journalists, historians, experts in the fields of political and social science... and LFAA subscribers have been connecting the dots between elected representatives, 'think tanks', Fox News, social media outlets, oligarchs with anti-democracy policies and movements. Just today TC began a chain of comments about Charles Koch's (Koch Industries) strong influence on government policies and anti-democracy movements. The following article touched upon this issue:
'What billionaires want: the secret influence of America’s 100 richest' (excerpts)
'We have come to this conclusion based on an exhaustive, web-based study of everything that the 100 wealthiest US billionaires have said or done, over a 10-year period, concerning several major issues of public policy. For each billionaire we used several dozen carefully selected keywords to find all publicly available information about their specific talk or actions related to any aspect of social security, any type of taxation, or anything related to abortion, same-sex marriage, or immigration policy.'
'Most of the wealthiest US billionaires have made substantial financial contributions – amounting to hundreds of thousands of reported dollars annually, in addition to any undisclosed “dark money” contributions – to conservative Republican candidates and officials who favor the very unpopular step of cutting rather than expanding social security benefits. Yet, over the 10-year period we have studied, 97% of the wealthiest billionaires have said nothing at all about social security policy. Nothing about benefit levels, cost-of-living adjustments, or privatization. (Also nothing about the popular idea of shoring up social security finances by removing the low “cap” on income subject to payroll taxes and making the wealthy pay more.) How can voters know that most billionaires are working to cut their social security benefits?'
'In fact, people who pay the closest attention to the media may actually be the most misled, because most of the very few billionaires who have spoken out about social security – like Buffett and Soros – have supported a generous social security system in television interviews and newspaper op-eds.'
'Or consider the estate tax. Our study ferreted out quiet activity by 12 of the wealthiest billionaires – including the Kochs and (perhaps unsurprisingly) several wealthy inheritors of the Walton and Mars fortunes – aimed specifically at cutting or abolishing the estate tax. They gave money to policy-oriented organizations seeking to abolish the tax, or founded such organizations, and served on their boards. Not a single billionaire took such activity to support the estate tax.'
'Yet here, too, citizens could be badly misled by what a handful of famous billionaires said in public. Among those who spoke out, more than half actually supported the estate tax. These include our usual suspects – Gates, Buffett, and Bloomberg – who are very atypical of US billionaires as a whole.'
'Our findings help illuminate how the political network assembled by the Koch brothers could have become so powerful. The Kochs have had a fertile field of less-well-known conservative billionaires to cultivate for hundreds of millions of dollars in in secret, unreported contributions. The Kochs’ entrepreneurship and organizational skills, together with stealthy contributions by these little-known billionaires, have produced a political juggernaut.'
'Both as individuals and as contributors to Koch-type consortia, most US billionaires have given large amounts money – and many have engaged in intense activity – to advance unpopular, inequality-exacerbating, highly conservative economic policies. But they have done so very quietly, saying little or nothing in public about what they are doing or why. They have avoided political accountability. We believe that this sort of stealth politics is harmful to democracy.' (guardian) See link below.
As Franco's Nazi-backed forces attacked the loyalists who were attempting to preserve democracy in Spain in 1938, they boasted that in addition to their four columns of troops marching on Madrid, there was a 'fifth column" of sympathizers within the city aiding them. (Something like the 40% of Americans who still support our defeated former president's attempt at autocracy here.)
It comes from the Spanish Civil War. The Nationalists attacked Madrid with "four columns" - divisions of troops. After they took the city, the commander said they were able to take the city with the four columns because they were aided by a "fifth column" of supporters inside the city.
during the Spanish Civil war, there was an attack on a city- I think Madrid, but am not sure. The attacking general said he had four columns arriving from the north south east and west, and a fifth column of "patriots" would arise from within the city to defeat the government.
unfortunately, it is easy for putin to evoke in russians the notion that they are fighting fascism. only russia sent military (not in uniform) to fight against franco and the fascists. and of course, russia went to war with germany after hitler invaded russia in june of 1941. most of the americans and others in the famous lincoln brigade that fought in spain were communists as well. communists were the only ones willing to fight in what was called the dress rehearsal for ww2. the only country besides russia to assist the loyalist side was mexico, but not with troops. putin, like trump, wants to make his country great again by turning the clock back.
I have started a new "war effort" on my FB page. When I post about Koch or any of that ilk, I call it the Putrid Putin Party (thanks to someone here who coined that name) and I remind my followers that these are people who call themselves "Republicans." And I advise them to stay away from them. As far as I am concerned, it's no longer "certain members of the GOP" but ALL of them. Anyone who aligns himself or herself with a party that takes its orders from a criminal murderous warlord in Moscow is complicit, I don't care what they say. One penny of their money going into the coffers of that party is enough of a label for me. And I'm calling them all out.
Interesting. Our two-party system would work better if people paid attention to primary elections. More than two leads to the need for coalitions. Coalitions sound good and, I guess, can be. But they also can lead to legal bribery (“I’ll give your group special tax breaks if your party joins my party”).
War profiteering is an old story, but no less horrifying for that fact. Check out this Wikipedia article about Edwin Black's "IBM and the Holocaust." IBM with its Hollerith punchcard technology enabled Nazi Germany to keep the trains delivering munitions to where needed, and prisoners to the death camps.
John, In fact, it was from Edwin Black’s book that I learned this about GM’s and IBM’s roles in WWII. If I remember correctly, there were 7 large American companies which assisted the Nazi’s, some even accepting reparations funding after the War. If corporations are considered by SCOTUS to be individuals in the context freedom of speech, shouldn’t they (or their bds of directors) also be be subject to laws of treason? And shouldn’t Charles Koch and Tucker Carlson be now? We need to pierce the corporate shield.
Yes, Thomas Watson, you will recall, walked around with a letter of commendation from Hitler for his service to the Reich. Harry Truman was hell on wheels going after war profiteers.
Capitalism has always required an element to exploit. It is not ethically committed to anything but its own existence and continuation.
Local capitalism which supports key local businesses is one of the few options left for us to build healthy communities and cities.
The billionaire class is not going to save us. It is only going to eat our children.
I was in college when Milton Friedman was all the rage. My view was and remains that the ultimate extreme of capitalism is murdering of one’s competitors. IN OTHER WORDS, capitalism, in its extreme is the same as authoritarianism where might makes right.
Inequality is an inevitable result of capitalism. In equality can be limited by building up local economies to produce as much locally as it makes sense to do, keeping capital within the community, not sending it out of the community to distant corporate entities.
Check out "The Economics of Hope" by Russ and Dave Beaton. (disclosure: I am friends with the authors) But they have done a very good job of making the case for strong local economies.
The “fifth column” defines the primary means by which the Fascist Loving billionaires and theocrats in the U.S. realized was the most expedient way to achieve their vision.
We as followers of HCR’s remarkable work owe an incredible amount of thanks to an array of women historians and journalists like Jane Mayer, Nancy MacClean, Caroline Anderson and Naomi Klein. Their excellent in-depth work castes light on the dark world of the far right billionaires, from the Koch Bros. to the DeVoss family, the Mercers, Adelson and other oligarchs numbering perhaps under 100 in number who collectively control wealth and power that is literally beyond our ability to grasp.
It is hard for us to imagine what drives the motivations of these people. The brilliant (another women) Psychiatrist Bandi X. Lee has informed us as to Trump’s psychological makeup, that as in step with the other women above as both insightful and frankly deeply disturbing.
One thing I feel about the methods the Billionaire Fascists employ in a 5th Column, is in fact that they know (thanks Nancy MacLean) that their ideas and vision can not withstand the critique of open debate. In straightforward terms, what they want is an anathema to most Americans. That is why they have always sought the use of stealth, lies and propaganda to give their sick beliefs a veneer of intellectual respectability.
Over 50 years they have used the money they grift from exploiting the public coffers, the commons, with rent seeking and outright fraud to cynically build pseudo think tanks, buy and install insane politicians, and normalize their self proclaimed divine right “entrepreneur” status to engage in rampant unfettered capitalism.
Now they are throwing open the gates to let the maniacs storm the Capital of our nation and tear Democracy to shreds.
Thank you. I am sending your words to everyone that I know (even though they are tired of hearing all this history stuff).
Koch brothers history is simply fascinating. I had no idea.
I do note, however, that the Koch brothers have found a (quite) happy home in these United States of America where, it does seem, if you have money you can also avoid all of the laws and rules that, say, I have to abide by here.
And, it is also perfectly legal for those brothers to purchase, say, Brett Kavanaugh at his auction right here in these free United States.
So, as we all rail against the "evil regime" of the "evil" Putin (which he is, no doubt) I am reminded of Jesus interesting and thoughtful statement: "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."
Mike, “if you have money you can also avoid all of the laws and rules” has been a sad, but true policy for a lot of human history, but humans conveniently manage to forget that fact time after time.
And Koch likes it when Putin subsidizes his contributions to radical right PACs. That’s the $ root of the collusion. Partners, 50/50 investing in the GOP to end democracy.
Charles Koch is an extreme libertarian, who basically thinks he should be able to do whatever he wants because he has lots of money, an attitude he evidently learned from his father, Fred. He is a robber baron just like those of the Gilded Age. Forget the term “oligarch”. Just use robber baron; that term would be understood by more people. The Koch ads on TV showing ordinary employees make the country seem benign. It is absolutely not!
I am now checking out my paper products to be sure they aren’t produced by Georgia Pacific, a small thing I realize.
I am glad to see that my "brands" are not there. Now, for the fibers... sad to say, those are harder to give up. I use a Koch product fiber as a swim shirt in lieu of sunscreen to avoid damage to coral. I guess I gotta find a substitute.
Thank you So helpful to read back story. And when I think of the John Birch society. Allegedly rabidly anti communist yet am guessing Koch funded it. Makes you really see the past in different way
I think playwrights and screenwriters have dropped the ball. The level of hypocrisy. Years of it !!! And no broad popularly packaged exposee. A book just doesnt reach enough people. No Shakespeare. Arther Miller Lorraine Hansbury to clarify and distill. Make so deeply human the particular affect of the social phenom, the economics and its effect on “ the people”. Dopesick does just what I mean with its portrayal of the Sackler criminal greed and the effect it had on the country. The same could be said for the koch bros and the pain they have brought thru their govmt coopting Buying the senators representatives and judged they wany
When a monopoly owns that much, they buy sway in media and other outlets, even the arts by donations to trusts and such. The New Yorker and The Atlantic writers have exposed a lot of how the Koch’s navigate/manipulate Public opinion in NYC to their benefit.
And its easier to manipulate opinions when you have your own branding companies as the New York Times & Washington Post. I posted this several days ago but here it is again. I never realized this. Check out the companies involved!
"For newspapers like The New York Times and Washington Post their reputation precedes them. They have a global reach of tens of millions and influence most heads of state would envy. They revel in their power, even boast about it at times and to capture a job at these companies is the premier choice for most young journalists. Hiding under the façade of fact based reporting these companies hide a dirty secret. This secret is so insipid they hide it in plain sight, literally, as they offer up a website specifically touting the benefits. Most people with ethics would prefer to guard this, hide it away from prying eyes and questioning minds. I don’t think many even know of its existence. I’m talking about the private branding companies these two well known newspapers have; the New York Times calls is TBrand and the Washington Post calls it Creative Group."
I wish they would expose our own fascists. We have way too many in office. The ones who frighten me most are the countless fascists taking over school boards and city councils.
HCR's citation of Judd Legum's crew bears repeating: Koch Industries "continues to operate in Russia. Meanwhile, a network of pundits and groups is arguing against economic sanctions against Russia. Unmentioned: Their financial backing from Charles Koch."
And, Koch industries operates quite happily right here in the good ole USA.
Unhindered by any laws that might limit the Koch group from selling fascism to the 45% of Americans who breathlessly believe anything anyone tells them.
Unhindered by any laws that might prevent them from contributing to, say, Matt Gaetz re-election campaign or even, for example, buying Matt Gaetz a house or a trip to whatever teenage girl wonder island he wants to go to next.
Koch Industries to stay in Russia, says exiting does ‘more harm than good’
Koch Industries, the American manufacturing giant that employs 122,000 people across the world, said Wednesday it would not exit its operations in Russia because doing so would put its “employees there at greater risk and do more harm than good.”
Dozens of corporations are still in Russia. It’s getting harder for them to leave.
However, according to a list compiled by Yale management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and his research team, Koch Industries is one of about 30 companies described as “digging in” and “defying demands” for an exit or reduction of activities in Russia. Others on the list include Reebok, Cargill, Halliburton, LG Electronics and food brands such as Cinnabon and Subway.
In an address to Congress on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Peace is more important than income.”
“All American companies must leave Russia … leave their market immediately, because it is flooded with our blood.” He urged American lawmakers to “take the lead” and “make sure that the Russians do not receive a single penny that they use to destroy our people in Ukraine.”
Koch brothers have been enemies of America forever, thank you TC. The story of the John Birchers is a Koch story I gather, always eager to call everyone communist, even Ike. Also the co-worker who rejoiced over the JFK killing, calling him a “commie.” Seems the “commies” are now in Congress, where, oh where is McCarthy now?
I was going to post the same question. And who was McCarthy’s Attorney Jeri ? Roy Cohn. Donnie The Destroyer’s mentor and Atty. and friend. Well up until Cohn told him he had AIDS and was dying. Donnie walked out and never saw him again alive. Cohn’s family asked Donnie not to come to Cohn’s funeral. Donnie did anyway cuz ya know” the important who’s who were all going to be there “. McCarthy ruined Ppl’s livelihoods and lives not proving anything but even just by being called out. Now they’re in the spotlight and it’s “oh well “?
Thanks, TC. Am I surprised? This morning I'm looking out at the grey Wiesbaden sky, tinged rose from the annual Sahara sand. It looks like blood to me.
Oh! Now I get why the sky is blanketed in weird grey here in Brussels when the forecast (and preceding week's clear, dry conditions) suggested sunshine.
Rosalind and Carla and others - I love seeing comments from people living in other countries, whether they're Americans by birth or native to those lands. So important for Americans to be constantly reminded that we are not the only voices on this planet!!
Hi Eileen, I grew up north of Seattle, and have lived in Belgium for a few decades. Today the sky is, as my late mother-in-law would say, "blue as a gendarme's britches," (which I understood as completely intense blue, but may originally refer to a patch of blue peeking through clouds). As souvenir of Sahara sand the cars here now sport a light veil of dust.
My father, age 18 (1926), took a Cook's Tour in North Africa, including a foray across the Atlas Mts to the Sahara. I have a box of Sahara sand he brought back -it's very very "silty" so no surprise that it's easily lifted and blown north.
Would those be the Nazi Romanian Oil Fields in WWII? My Uncle Bob was a B-24 Pilot & got shot down there and did time in a Nazi POW camp in Romania in Sep 1944. Makes me think that war profiteers like Koch should be serving time somewhere, but I suppose big money buys personal undeserved freedom, while others suffer & die in war.
I am not a religious fanatic, but have laughed to myself (a lot!) about the Christian Right’s fixation on the Book of Revelations “touch not the oil” advice from the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The irony!
👍 I said F U also to Putin and any Rethuglican Trolls on the Forum today. I sat here thinking how they said F U, Screamed that out loud to our President and did anything bad happen to them ? No ! Let them go over to Russia and try that, see what happens ? Putin is putting Ppl in Prison @ hard labor for 15 yrs if the say the word “War “. Do those fascist among us want to live like that really ? Putin isn’t going to ever stop what he’s doing( done ) if he’s not stopped. 💙💛
The Kochs became rich beyond imagining as a result of federal contracts they received during World War II. In other words, they got rich thanks to taxpayers funding the war effort. In return, they helped start the John Birch Society and have fought federal government ever since.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is opening an investigation into war crimes by Russia. What struck me in his interview on CNN (and I paraphrase) is that while there is a process which will be followed (but there is overwhelming evidence) hand wringing, talking, and doing nothing will only open the door for more such war crimes. I would say (and have said repeatedly) the exact same thing regarding the January 6th investigation. We simply cannot let trump and his minions off the hook . . . there is way too much evidence that proves they are more than worthy of indictments, etc. Merrick Garland where the heck are you and the DOJ?!!
Every single republican in Congress, who voted "not guilty" in each of trump's 2 impeachment trials, knowingly supported 1) a violent coup attempt to topple our government, 2) a “dictator wanna be” in trump, and 3) a weakening of Ukraine (by trump's attempt to withhold military aid). These are the most unethical, horrible group of people this country has seen in our lifetime and their presence and clapping for Zelensky on March 16th made me sick. They are hypocrites (that is the most polite term that can be used) of the highest order.
Recent arrest and detainment of Enrique Tarrio and court documents describing documentary film crew taping Jan 5 meetings of the planning for Jan 6. That’s where Merrick Garland and the DOJ have been keeping themselves busy. I would think the Boeberts and Greens and Hawleys and their ilk are getting nervous. They are next. Letting Stone bring his film crew along. What a bunch of dangerous egoists.
Love this, nobody is more proud of his evil works than Roger. He was disappointed that he was too young and unimportant to go to jail for Nixon; may he rot there for chump
Let's hope they get him back behind bars, the sooner the better. He's responsible for so much mayhem in his crooked life. The "Brooks Brother's riot" comes to mind.
Bill Browder, born in Princeton, was the grand son of Earl Browder, head of the American Communist Party until 1945, when he broke with Moscow. Bill established a profitable finance operation in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. When it became ‘too profitable,’ either Yeltsin or Putin sought to seize it. Bill Browder was able to flee. His second in command was arrested and killed.
Bill was an ‘American oligarch’ in Russia who was treated similarly to many Russian oligarchs who were crushed or imprisoned by the Russian autocracy. Business is bloody in Russia under Putrid Putin.
Hi Keith, My curiosity was aroused by investigative reporter Robert Parry's critical look at the matter. Parry's work brought the Iran Contra scandal and other important stories to the public. Director Andrei Nekrasov, known for his films strongly criticizing Putin and the Russian government, had embraced Browder's story and worked with him on a docudrama until Browder's story fell apart! The narrative proved false and self serving. So while the film that became an investigative documentary - The Magnitsky Act: Behind the Scenes - was being suppressed by stiff legal challenges from Browder aimed at distributors and theaters, I found a copy online. (As a photojournalist during the civil rights struggles I saw my own newspaper let the community down by its coverage and have been interested in questions of censorship ever since.) The movie is 2 hours long. Dramatic, even lurid scenes that Browder inspires are early, then the director sets out to be sure what actually happened. Don't take my word for it. Watch the film for $5 via https://www.reelhouse.org/pirayafilm/the-magnitsky-act-behind-the-scenes or for free at the Swiss Policy Research website and you'll make your own decision. Oh... the film includes a few minutes from a deposition where Browder was confronted with questions about his accusation of companies he said were part of a theft against him. He'd say, "I don't remember." I had a long afternoon chore that didn't require full attention and I ran the full deposition posted on Youtube. Very interesting watching Browder squirm, and dodge and dodge. The only public showing in the U.S. I know of, except for a media ethics series I schedule in Chapel Hill, was at the Newseum just outside DC, after they rejected the threats from Browder's legal team. Journalist Seymour Hersh who exposed the My Lai massacre led the post viewing discussion.
If there was ever any doubt that Charles Koch has worked against the U.S. for decades, look no further.
"Koch Industries, the second-largest privately owned business in America, is staying put. Political groups affiliated with right-wing billionaire CEO Charles Koch oppose broad sanctions and have suggested the U.S. should remain neutral in the crisis."
Women?? There are plenty of men who use Amway too! Amway sells an array of products not just detergents. We all really need to boycott Koch Industry products such as Quilted Northern and Dixie Cups. Koch is heavily invested in plastics which, of course, are made from oil. Ironic how both the Koch brothers and TFG’s dads were both named “Fred”.
My Swedish immigrant maternal grandfather’s name was Enfred, but here he went by Fred, thanks for the translation, I never knew/heard that!
And incidentally my Norwegian immigrant fraternal great uncle’s name was Fred. Never knew my grandfather because he died when Mom was 18, but love, love, loved Uncle Fred!
Considered calling first born son Fredrik, as husband half Swedish (I am only 1/4), however, Benjamin won out, do not remember why, that was 42 years ago 😵💫
Jeff, thank you for sharing the link to this speech given by Bernie Sanders. What an eye opener for me. I admit to being a political novice, awakened by the candidacy of DJT. I fear that the VAST majority of voting age Americans continue to be in the dark about the “behind the scenes” shenanigans that go on with regards to elections, and so we end up where we are today- on the brink of losing what our Founding Fathers fought so hard for. We end up with a vast number of voting age Americans who are willfully believing lies, even when the truth is right in front of them. These people have absolutely no idea that they are willing to vote against their own best interests, because the big money machine behind the election propaganda is so efficient. In my opinion, Citizens United will be the single most determining factor in the demise of American democracy.
I live just outside of the “international headquarters” of Amway (Ada, MI) and drive by there on occasion. Large complex spanning several blocks with large loading docks & office buildings. 1970’s styling with a half circle of several international flags showing that they are a grand international company. And yet, I never see their product. Rarely meet anyone who works there, and when I do they have vague descriptions of what they do. Never see product being loaded on trucks, never see it on store shelves (the grocery store across the street does not carry any Amway product). Never meet a pyramid marketer “friend” trying to sell me product. Does anyone else see their product? How does Amway make money?
It's an MLM company. Dispursed distribution and home-based marketing based on recruitment of new people to sell product, which they pay for ahead of time out of pocket. SOP for outfits like that. They make money, while recruiter are rewarded, and the people at the bottom get shafted and often stuck with unsold product.
Here's and up-to-date list from yesterday of companies withdrawn/suspending operations/staying put in Russia. Amway has "suspended" operations, while Koch is "staying put". (Now I see Daria posted this below...like minds!)
I feel infuriated that people like Charles and David Koch and other ultra wealthy people think they have the right to make money at the expense of everyone else.
We have gone down the capitalistic hole without regulations or enforcement for so many decades, IMO it is essentially beyond repair. There is so much money (power) in the hands of a relatively few oligarchs and mega-wealthy that we have lost control of our elections, government, companies, the arts, i.e. just about everything.
20 years ago, I got elected at the local town level (uber-wealth was not the issue but control, power, and non transparent dealings were) to shine the light on what was going on and found myself on the receiving end of vitriol, nastiness, and threats (I even received one "note" with the letters cut out of a magazine!!!) As I put in my letter of resignation as chairperson, bullying and attacking competent people (who are volunteers no less and are working for the residents) is a very effective method to neutralize transparency and retain "control" by a few.
And, I remember thinking, Jimminy Cricket if this goes on at the small town level (where the stakes are actually very low) imagine at the state and federal levels where some real money changes hands. Well, now we know!
The Koch Industries supporting Russian imperialism reminds me of the SAME REPUBLICAN OLIGARCHS here in America striking out against voting rights to ensure that our vote is NOT our voice for students, the aged, low income, the disabled and fighting against affirmative action (a stated goal of Donor's Trust on their website).
So when the John Birch Society/Donor's Trust gang (DeVos, Kochs and/or their ilk) funded the attack on Voting Rights (funding Shelby County v Holder to end pre-clearance of any voting laws in states where Blacks were systematically denied their right to vote and Citizens United to ensure that CORPORATIONS as "people" can attack the right to vote and fund through PACs using unlimited funds to continue to support candidates with shared Republican values and attacking with $$$$ those who stood for the rights of citizens to vote, and then take over at least 19 state legislatures who in turn pass repressive voting laws, control the Republicans in the Senate of the USA (and perhaps Sinema and Manchin?) by supporting the filibuster to stop the correction of the Supreme Court decisions and the Republican-state controlled suppressive voting laws and continue by now passing laws to allow these same Republicans to control the validity of the election itself.
We are having our own internal takeover of democracy. WAKE UP AMERICA. FIGHT FOR YOUR DEMOCRACY. URGE YOUR SENATORS TO STAND UP FOR DEMOCRACY AND VOTE FOR THE FREEDOM TO VOTE /JOHN LEWIS VOTING RIGHTS ACT and defeat the fascists here in America picking off voting rights (and other civil rights) via their buying legislatures. STAND up for every American citizen having unfettered access to the ballot box. Don't let your zip code determine your right to vote. Pass federal election laws. STOP THESE KOCH Brother OLIGARCHS .
What will it take to make the Foxites aware of theses fascists? How many innocents have to die? If Putin’s war crimes aren’t enough to expose our national denial and the traitors among us parroting Putin talk what will? How many Ukrainians have to die? How much of Ukraine has to be destroyed by the arch war criminal in his video linked bunker? We need more profiles in courage in the corrupted GOP like Liz Cheney. Mitt Romney where are you?
We have no heroes in the GOP, not even Cheney or Romney. It is a party made up entirely of sociopaths. Just a few years ago, Cheney was considered hard right with a dangerous agenda. It's fascinating how nobody seems to remember that now. She has NOT changed. She is not our friend.
Ppl I know in Mass feel shafted by Romney. "Reasonable and moderate" while in Mass because that's what Mass expects. He reverted when he went back to Utah. He's not an evil man, but you have to understand Mormon culture to grasp the influence of the church on its members. He does have something to lose: his standing in the Mormon culture which is very important to believers. So he is not likely to step far away from expectations and actually lead.
True to a point. I agree he' a shape shifter, but that could be said of a lot of Mormons who learn to "fit in" when it is expedient. It was easier for George because back then the church had not yet had the exposure it has now - nor social media to expose the underbelly of its hierarchical organization. And Mitt has made some political mistakes that diminish his political reputation. I've Romneys in my family tree, so we're probably cousins in some convoluted way. My family has been out for several generations now, but I'm only 3rd gen out in my line (2 gens after me, though) so got exposed to the culture in my early years. That actually turned out to be beneficial, because some of the elders who were not officially out but were decidedly not practicing (and probably got excommunicated) had a lot of great first hand stories to tell about the church in early days that are definitely not in the official history. .
I think Zelinskiy may end up being the most admired man of our time. Every time he speaks he has something valuable to say. How he does it, I don't know, with the stress he is under and lack of sleep. I just hope he will continue to have strength, and that the tide will turn for him and for Ukraine.
One individual should not have the right to upset the world.
But it's present on a grand scale in Putin's Russian opponents.
See Navalny's messages from prison in the new Popular Politics site via YouTube.
See the extraordinary courtroom speech by Ioulia Galyamina -- excuse my spelling, I read this in French...
These people may be a persecuted minority, but their resistance is as fearless as that of John Lewis and America's bravest champions of civil rights in the 1960s.
One narcissistic, power hungry, evil man at a time is always the cause of chaos throughout the world. And, for some reason they get people to do their dirty, horrific deeds.
People are terrified. Watch Frontline on Putin today and in the first 5 min (!) you will see the extent of FEAR in every one of the men and women close to and working for Putin. He is Putler as someone wrote earlier
No question that fear of retribution and death is the overwhelming method of forcing people to be compliant. Benefitting financially is another huge factor.
However, there is no excuse for republicans in congress to have violated their oaths of office and sold this country out to the lowest bidder; i.e. trump.
I didn't know about this Frontline piece but looked it up on my local PBS schedule, found that it will repeat three times at 10 pm, tonight and twice in April. I'll try to stay awake to watch it (no DVR).
One single male diseased in body and mind could destroy the world.
It's women who enable peoples to survive war and all the horrors they bring in their wake.
Yet, the trouble lies far deeper than gender. It lies in the grossly unbalanced psyche, both individual and collective. It lies in the extreme, even caricatural, dominance of the masculine mind in our societies. It spills over from the males and poisons women's minds too.
The image for this sick society of ours: a bird with one wing.
We are a male dominated violent and ruthless species. Women do not start wars nor do they kill children. There are wars and genocides all over the world, every continent, and throughout history-all egregious and horrifying. In the U.S. we supply, support, and protect the ownership of military style weaponry in the hands of civilians to slaughter our own people. Chemical and biological weapons are a part of "modern" warfare and of course if all else fails to intimidate, control, and destroy, nine nations have the ultimate tool of destruction: nuclear weapons.
The word "species" is surely overdoing it... Our species is very varied, thank goodness. There are many cultures, but some of the supposedly very advanced ones are dangerously sick. Sick enough to threaten the survival of most other species even without indulging in obscene forms of warfare with the help of criminal politicians and criminal manufacturers.
You rightly mention the firearms now made available to American civilians thanks to a criminally irresponsible misinterpretation by your Supreme Court of provisions adopted over two centuries ago; "small" arms more vicious and powerful than those carried by soldiers in two world wars...
But now, after years of quite gratuitous King-of-the-Castle games played by Exceptional Americans, so much "more equal than others", at the expense of those supposedly less equal, we have a worldwide proliferation of would-be Titans, and one very real but very paranoid titan, maddened by years of provocations and cold shouldering, unleashing hell on his neighbors... on his own people... on himself.
This is a very special case and the only general inference we can and must draw from it is how extraordinarily dangerous our current craze for ultra-individualism and would-be supermen is.
That "some reason" is called patriarchy. When our culture shifts from a patriarchal, dominator society to a matrix based on cooperation, collaboration, and community we will evolve into a truly democratic culture. It's lunacy that millions of people give up their agency to the whims of one man. The situation with Putin reveals how utterly dysfunctional patriarchy is.
I was thinking yesterday of how it would be if Zelinski had cracked down on your fifth column trump republicans, where he had been supposed to be involved. He did something much more important, and worthy of a great leader: he supported the unity of the US where Russia has sowed split.
Zelinskiy is genius. Every day I am impressed and awed by his comments, his integrity, his astute assessment, and his ability to motivate. A truly admirable man.
Today a representative from Bellingcat testified before Congress. Among other things, he mentioned that Russian encryption has failed and so there is access to phone conversations in the field showing that commanders and troops know they are targeting civilians. They are assembling evidence for any future tribunal. Although it is important to remove fake posts, it is important for the companies to preserve and archive them so that sources and custody chains can be maintained for evidence.
Another expert testified that Putin is very isolated and taking advice from just a few people. Not everyone in the Kremlin agrees with the invasion, no one will go up against Putin, but some would testify at a war crimes tribunal.
Putin is using Wagner Group mercenaries, their version of BlackWater, giving butchers free reign and keeping government deniability.
Elsewhere, I also heard the author of The World's Butler - investigative reporting on how Britain become the servant of oligarchs. And how seizing assets is one things, but keeping them is entirely different. How not only international banking but what he called 'colanders masquerading as laws' let the oligarchs and other crooks slip through. Interesting, that the art and real estate industries have no rules for reporting cash payments. Not even to the standard of small businesses.
If we want "to keep justice in history" we will need to document and prosecute war crimes, but we will also need to reform regulation of many industries whose business as usual encourages and overlooks abuses.
Yes! Prosecute war crimes. Let the Russian officers in the field know,
“We know your location, unit, armaments. We are watching what crimes you have committed against unarmed civilian non-combatants, and u will be held to account at the Hague’…unless this switchblade drone takes u out in 3,2,1 boom.
Here’s an important interview with (among others) Oliver Bullough, the author of “Butler to the World” where he says,
“(money laundering in America)… incentivizes more theft than would happen otherwise. So, you know, places like Ukraine have been looted by their rulers over the years. Somewhere like Russia, where half of all the nation's wealth is held outside of Russia. You know, astonishingly unequal. Just 500 people essentially own everything in the country. I mean, more unequal than it was before the Bolshevik Revolution. It's astonishing to think about. Yeah, that has been facilitated, that theft, epic theft, probably the greatest single campaign of theft that has ever been, that has been facilitated by us in the West.”
This is a fascinating interview. It appears that the oligarchs (and autocrats, and others too big to fail) are so interwoven into the global financial system through the lack of regulation and other loopholes, that to reform the system is about as difficult as political campaign finance reform. The powers-that-be in global finance are in control; the beneficiaries would have to stop the benefits. Of course, a good deal of this money is supporting Republican politicians in America.
‘The Treasury Department also began today to offer bounties of up to $5 million for information leading to “seizure, restraint, or forfeiture of assets linked to foreign government corruption.”
“We have all the capital we need coming in from Russia”- DJT jr
Sounds like easy money to me. Just unlock tfg’s tax returns, licensing deals, condo and property sales by dark LLC’s. You’ll find plenty of Russian oligarch ties and get rich for it! But if that doesnt work just crack the safe at the GOP headquarters, there’s a black book with all the Russian donors to conservatives PAC’s.
"Between 1929 and 1932 Winkler-Koch supported the Kremlin and trained Bolshevik engineers to help Stalin's regime set up fifteen modern oil refineries in the Soviet Union during its first Five Year Plan...The company also built installations in countries throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia...In 1934, Koch had partnered with William Rhodes Davis to build the Hamburg Oil Refinery, the third-largest oil refinery serving the Third Reich, a project which was personally approved by Adolf Hitler."
And they were far from being alone in profiteering from dictatorship. Ford building vehicle plants for Hitler for example. Such people still insist that money is odourless!
Well after reading that it is evident to me that I knew very little about the man, that is quite a story, I remember his museum having visited it when I lived in LA. Thanks, that filled in a lot of gaps.
Allen, I looked for you hours ago but got caught up with joining the team here exposing Koch Industries still operating in Russia, earliest among climate change denial, control of red state legislatures...Unsurprisingly TC started the chain -- talk about 'oligarchy' in the USA.
Back to you and Tanya. How are you and Tanya? - PLEASE answer that question. Speak your mind Allen. I am paying attention to news of Ukraine. Eager to hear from you.
Allen, Great news! I'm not sweating. My heart is smiling along with my mouth! 💓💓💓 Where in Canada will you be? I'm looking foreword to hearing Hingston and friends Canada band. Please give Tanya a hug for me whenever you can. Take good care of yourself. Blessings on you, on Ukraine and and on all the good people. F.
I think he passed a long time ago, if my memory is right, he was initially known for selling pencils ✏️ to the Russians, he ended up with Occidental Petroleum. They have a museum in LA with some impressive Rembrandts, (all Rembrandts are impressive), I think he was a contemporary of J Paul Getty who was also known for his oil and his art collection, I guess the two kind of go together.
Hi Allen - I hope that you and Tanya have been able to get to Canada, where you can get some peaceful rest, and feel nurtured by family and old friends.
That’s unfortunate, Allen. Thank goodness you are in a safe place and that your and/or Tanya’s symptoms are mostly gone. The upside is that you will have ample antibodies to keep you safe from COVID for awhile, at least. Here’s hoping that you continue to recover and that you’ll be able to board your flight on the 23rd. You and your family are in my thoughts every day.
Yes! Stalin sold Ukraine’s wheat to Germany to pay for industrializing Russia, at the expense of starving to death more than 4 million Ukrainians, and sending more than a million to gulags who spoke out. No one knows the exact number of protesters who were executed for doing so.
One of Anne Applebaum's Ukraine history books may have the best data. Ali Belshi's iinterview of Anne tonite on MSNBC in Rachels time slot has Anne`s succinct summary of where things are at now: "Help Ukraine Win."
And Fukuyama on The Last Word was excellent last nite. Whether the worlds trend towards autocracy continues depends on the fall of Putin, which Fukuyama sees as happening.....perhaps by someone in Russian military or elite Russians. If Putin is defeated there is no reason to keep him around. And he must know that.
I'm finding Ali Velshi Lawrence O'Donnell to be rich sources of information to help understand much of what is going on. Right now I'm watching DW News, another objective source, with a European perspective. Today, there was a good 10 minutes on Zelenskyy's address to Germany's Bundestag, much sharper language than used yesterday at U.S. Congress.
Yes, Ali Belshi has really stepped us his game at the right monent & completes his Homework diligently. .We all have benefited greatly By Larewnce's prior job as Chief Staff member on the Senate Judiciary Committee. O'Donnell knows inside baseball & has many contacts, Will check out DW. I have. been relying on 'The Guardian UK in the am when the Euro day is half over. Thanks'
It was never necessary to have opened one's mouth or actually said or done anything.
The NKVD were meeting targets -- or doubling them to show zeal. Anyone could end up at Magadan or in a mass grave in some northern forest, but while Hitler's mass murders targeted segments of society, Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, Communists, the mentally handicapped, etc., the NKVD tended to go for anyone who stood out.
Not just Ukraine's. Ukraine was the greatest victim, but from Krasnodar to the southern Urals and Kazakhstan, vast numbers died in the famine caused by collectivization and commandeering all the cereals people needed for their own food.
I understand that Churchill asked Stalin about this and Stalin himself spoke of about 10 million dead, presenting this as the price of his forced march to industrialization.
The price of his hatred for peasants and their mentality...
Yes. I know. We used to send flour, sugar and food to family members left behind living under soviet rule.
But it wasn't just his hatred of peasants. His goal was to eliminate anyone who might have influence over others. He sought out the educated and sent them gulags, Siberia or executed them, as happened to everyone in my family except a great aunt. She was forced to move from Riga and relegated to live in a small city.
Thanks. It's on my list to watch. In other republics, Stalin shipped in cattle cars to Siberia anyone he thought might be averse to Soviets, took over their homes and moved Russians into them. The goal was to dilute and eliminate the resistance. They knew Russia was unwanted.
Others were executed or sent to Gulags. Millions of people died under Stalin's rule.
On couple of days ago, Anne Applebaum had a piece in The Atlantic titled, American Needs A Better Plan to Fight Autocracy. She suggested that there were three parts to the strategy we should be embracing. One, we should be making laws that end transnational kleptocracy, so that have good laws to defeat money laundering and we jail people who break these laws everywhere in the world. Two, we need to be taking charge of the information war so that instead of just counting on democracy to speak for itself, we do what the autocrats do and send the message out all over the world on why democracy is a good thing tailoring it to each culture. She says that the living example of this being well done is the Ukrainians who are using the technology to get their message out. We should be doing that all the time every day everywhere. Russia is of course also sending out a message, which they are sharing in areas they control, and so we need to be countering that message, here, there and everywhere. Three, she says we should be making democracy the center of our foreign policy. This belief in democracy is something we share which is why we are united in our support of Ukraine and to boycott Russian oil even if it leads to higher prices. We identify with fighting for freedom because this is how we define ourselves.
I think she is really right. I see these letters by HCR, with their discussions, as a fight for democracy. I hope that the Democratic Party sees that they can do more to help their cause by messaging all the time about democracy. Not necessarily about individual candidacies, but the democratic principals that we should all be standing up for. Then, at election times it would be easier for candidates to point to how they are going to be supporting democratic principals that have been messaged about all the time. Currently, we need to support Ukraine since their democratic nation is under attack, at the same time we all need to be working to support democracy here at home by getting the word out on democracy. If Putin can get his people to buy into his message we can get them to buy into our message as well. I think NATO nations are starting to send that message, but they all have a lot of undemocratic individual actions to overcome. Colonization, and racial imperialism is not easily erased. Now is the time to forge a new image of unity and helpfulness.
My wife and I viewed Zelensky’s address to Congress. His manner, words and video had us in tears. :’-(
Considering the seismic battles there - and here… Words are failing but I have, we have chosen the side of equality and justice and good governance - we’re siding with love. The other side has lost the ability to love - fear and rage inform their choices.
Let’s hope that the federal government can take action to stop or deter Koch Industries from operating in Russia. And I expect we will soon see a list of its products, which we can boycott.
If you have been following news about the Koch brothers, you might be curious as to which products they manufacture.
It turns out, the Koch Brothers, with a net worth of over $40 billion each, own stakes in a ton of industries like paper and wood products, chemicals, textiles, plastics, etc.
Here are a list of companies and industries in which the Koch brothers own a stake:
Paper Products: Angelsoft, Brawny, Dixie, Mardi Gras, Quilted Northern, Soft n Gentle, Sparkle, Vanity Fair
Wood: Georgia-Pacific (largest plywood manufacturer in US – also owns most of the paper companies above).
Textiles & Plastics: Polarguard, Stainmaster, Dacron, Lycra, CoolMax/SolarMax, Thermolite, and more.
Chemicals, Coal, & Oil: Crude oil processing, Flint Hills Resources, lots of other commodities handled.
Nitrogen: One more reason to make your own fertilizer – Koch Industries produces many synthetic fertilizers.
Those are just the best known brands – there’s many more on the list below.
Angel Soft, Brawnie, Dixie Cups, Quilted Northern, Soft'n Gentle, Sparkle. Georgia-Pacific owns all of the brands above, and also distributes paper towels, napkins and soap dispensing systems used in commerical settings. Some GP commercial toilet paper brands: Envision, Coronet®, SCA, Tork and Fort James. GP also produces Pacific Garden liquid soaps.
Georgia-Pacific produces ink and office paper under the labels: Advantage, GP (including GP Harmon recycled papers), ImagePlus and the Spectrum® family of office paper products.
These are under the Koch Brothers brand Invista Products: Stainmaster, Dacron, Lycra, CoolMax, SolarMax, Polarguard, Thermolite, Antron, Comforel fiberfill, DBE® dibasic esters, Tactel, Tactesse Carpet Fibers, Terathane, ADI-Pure®, Polyshield®, Polyclear®, Oxyclear™, Performa®, Cordura fabric, Supplex® Fabric, Somerelle® Bedding.
“American oligarchs have more in common with Russian Oligarchs than with regular Americans” -Tim Snyder
Are we beginning to see the bigger picture? Are we beginning to see the light? Tfg is a symptom. The disease is inequality, an obscene wealth gap, and the false assumption that capitalism is a cure all and insurance of eternal democracy.
Democracy must guide and regulate capitalism, not the other way around. Capitalism is neither good nor bad - it is our country's economic engine. Democracy Capitalism cannot function when capitalists are allowed to buy the Supreme Court, The Senate, The Congress, The Vote...
Thanks for hammering that hard truth in. But as MaryPat Sercu reminds us, the perverse form of capitalism these people hawk is a disease. They are free radicals spreading cancer through the body politic.
Have you all watched the Brave New Films documentary on Georgia Pacific and Koch Brothers killing of hundreds of people living nearby where they contaminated the waterways by pouring toxic waste. https://www.bravenewfilms.org/koch_brothers
300 or more filed a class action in the court and the State Supreme Court, bought and funded by Koch Brothers ruled against the class action on the basis that each of the victims had different claims of cancer and thus not a valid class. Look what was done in Ohio when one man fought against Dupont (Dark Waters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvAOuhyunhY ) helping 68k WestVirginians and ultimately the world >
The Koch Brothers own the courts in Arkansas and no doubt elsewhere and continue their evil acts. Ethics or Civil Rights means nothing to these Oligarchs.
Thank you for the listing of Koch related products. It’s extensive. Reminds me of the lists of big brand corporations controlling multiple products of different name brands: “10 Companies control almost everything we eat” - includes an extensive illustrated Oxfam chart:
We need to know where our food and other products come from, how they’re grown and produced. What Fair Trade means and why it’s more expensive. I am privileged enough to afford to buy organic and Fair Trade but these foods are often too pricey for many families. I buy for nutritional value, but also because I’m hoping the farm workers aren’t exposed to dangerous chemicals used in mass production. Chemical industry and Lobbyists Monsanto and DuPont sell chemicals worldwide. In Mexico it’s common to see graffiti slamming Monsanto. Food there too is often unaffordable because of the control of the chemical industry.
Can’t ❤️ this but I try and buy organic and Fair Trade products also. You're right though, they are expensive.
I despise lobbyists. I especially despise Monsanto and Dow Chemical. They are both responsible for Agent Orange used in Vietnam. Monsanto is responsible for causing cancers if you use their weed killer.
Yes, Monsanto, Dow, DuPont, and then there’s Nestle. And more. They leave their mark worldwide. And that’s NOT a good thing. I was in Vietnam in ‘07 and saw the country trying to rebuild. So much was destroyed and so much was being replanted. That was the land which was bombed to nothing. And chemicals destroyed the lives of many Vietnamese and American soldiers. Still so many years later people were warned in some areas to watch out for land mines, especially in jungles and on the beach. Years later. And many people were walking around crippled and worse. The truth there and in every country, WAR NEVER ENDS. And chemicals are one more weapon. Corporations get rich in every war.
I have a friend who only buys second hand, thrift stores, etc. so any products listed and still in circulation will get used before ending up in the landfills and she doesn’t add to them first hand. There’s a lot to say for being a conscientious consumer. It’s not easy.
THE KOCH FAMILY IS THE SECOND WEALTHIST FAMILY IN THE USA
In support of TC's info about Koch Industries:
'Koch Industries, Inc. is an American privately-held multinational conglomerate corporation based in Wichita, Kansas.
Headquarters: Wichita, KS
CEO: Charles Koch (1967–)
Revenue: 115 billion USD (2020)
Founder: Fred C. Koch
Founded: February 8, 1940
Number of employees: 100,000 (2019)' (Wikipedia)
The Koch family's combined net worth is $100 billion, which is up from $98.7 billion at the end of 2018 and is good enough to make them the second wealthiest family in America. The family is also extremely influential in politics, especially in far right-wing issues Jan 5, 2021 (Wikipedia)
To see how Koch Industries presents itself see the link below:
Thank you for the list, TC. Do you know if the Kirkland brand, especially their paper products that Costco sells, are Koch products? I've tried for years to find this out, unsuccessfully.
Very interesting! That's more info than I've been able to find out before. The fact that the maker of their paper goods is undiscoverable makes me wonder if it is Koch Bros. Thanks!
Ukraine, by its fight for democracy, has further awakened the sleeping giant of people no longer complacent about the future of a democratic republic in the US. President Zelensky has shown great fortitude as well as empathy. I and my friends will never again take our democracy and political norms for granted. I hope that we haven’t awakened too late to save our country from autocracy.
Charles Koch, along with others (including TFG and family) shows the corruption that results from the love of money and power.
File under Lenin Was Right ("Some decades, nothing happens, then sometimes decades happen in days."): Today, Senator John Cornyn compared President Biden with FDR. Favorably.
How many of you thought three weeks ago those words would come out of the mouth of John Cornyn of Texas?
UPDATE: I was misinformed (so was Michael Beschloss, apparently - my source). John Cornyn is still John Cornyn, Texas-sized asshole, and the sun will continue to rise in the east.
From The Hill:
But Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) appears to have a dissenting opinion of the 32nd president. On Saturday morning, Cornyn attempted to smear President Joe Biden by comparing him to FDR.
“’The era of big government is over,’ POTUS Bill Clinton famously declared in his 1996 State of the Union address. versus: Biden has consciously cloaked himself in the legacy of FDR, to hark back to an earlier age of liberalism when government pulled the country out of despair,” Cornyn tweeted.
Born in Texas in 1952 during the post-war economic boom, Cornyn knows better. Thus, the responses he received from the Twitterverse were absolutely – and appropriately – brutal.
Users all but stopped short of castrating the Texas Republican for what they interpreted as an unconditionally stupid take.
When he says he will now vote for the Freedom to Vote/John R Lewis Voting Rights Act and Build Back America, I will begin to believe Senator John Cornyn.
What happens to seized Russian assets? Can frozen cash be used to feed and house the refugees? Can yachts and jets be auctioned off and that cash be utilized to rebuild Ukraine? Give the people some hope of reclaiming their land and their lives after the war is over, as well as demoralize the oligarchs.
In all likelihood, the Koch industries Russian subsidiaries are operated independently from US divisions. It ought to be possible to block their products and the transfer of money from their operations just as easily as other Russian goods and services. I wouldn't give US companies staying in Russia any more consideration than Russian companies attempting to do business across the Russian border.
We have made it clear that the US won't take direct action to secure Ukrainian airspace. Stinger missiles aren't enough to stop bombing of Ukrainian cities. The West is going to have to offer Ukraine some higher tech, higher power military hardware to allow Ukraine to protect themselves from air assaults. The other way Ukraine can win will be to inflict heavy enough human casualties on the Russian military to make continuation of the war untenable to Russia. That means getting up close and personal with their front lines. Ground assaults deserve close air support or the equivalent if there is such a thing, perhaps drone technology. I hate to say it, but there's nothing like a real war to test every manner of new mini offensive drone technology in attacking the artillery and supply lines that support the Russian front lines. It can't take all that long to train Ukrainians to use them, given the incredible asset of years of electronic gaming expertise in young adult warriors. There are multiple countries with more skin in the game and more guts than the US who can act as fronts for our best technology to reach the front lines, and don't doubt that there are any number of CIA and other clandestine Western assets already on the ground in Ukraine providing consulting, intelligence, etc. The stuff we don't hear about probably outweighs what we DO hear about by several fold...
Switchblade drones. Operated by smart phones can deliver an explosive punch to light armor vehicles and destroy artillery/rocket launcher vehicles used by the Russians. This allows infantry to advance with stingers and javelins to hit the tanks and BTR’s.
I expect there's a lot we (U.S., NATO, EU) are doing that we don't hear about. Just read this in a WaPo article: "...the extent and speed of intelligence sharing is jaw-dropping. “In Washington and Germany,” the Times reports, “intelligence officials race to merge satellite photographs with electronic intercepts of Russian military units, strip them of hints of how they were gathered, and beam them to Ukrainian military units within an hour or two.” https://wapo.st/3KT4TFR (free article)
"It can't take all that long to train Ukrainians to use them, given the incredible asset of years of electronic gaming expertise in young adult warriors. "
In 1925, Fred C. Koch entered into a partnership with Lewis Winkler, a former employee of Universal Oil Products. Winkler developed a cracking apparatus for heavy crude oil with no patented difference in comparison to his former employer's intellectual property; in 1929, UOP sued Winkler-Koch for patent infringement. Also that year, nearly three years before the patent case went to trial, Winkler-Koch signed contracts to build petroleum distillation plants in the Soviet Union, which did not recognize intellectual property rights.
The extended litigation effectively put Winkler-Koch out of business in the U.S. for several years. "Unable to succeed at home, Koch found work in the Soviet Union". Between 1929 and 1932 Winkler-Koch supported the Kremlin and "trained Bolshevik engineers to help Stalin's regime set up fifteen modern oil refineries" in the Soviet Union during its first Five Year Plan.
In 1934, Koch partnered with William Rhodes Davis to build the Hamburg Oil Refinery, the third-largest oil refinery serving the Third Reich, a project which was personally approved by Adolf Hitler.
Surprise surprise, Koch Industries remains in business with the planet's leading fascist scumbag.
How Koch industries and their ilk were allowed to survive following WWII is shocking, and how they continue to work against their country to this day is beyond belief!
I was in tears over Volodymyr Zelensky's speech to Congress and cannot feel the slightest compassion toward those who back Putin.
"The West, [Putin] said, is trying to split Russians and is using that 'fifth column' to achieve its goal of destroying Russia. He called for Russians to distinguish true patriots from 'scum and traitors'—political opponents and dissidents—and to get rid of the latter like bugs. 'I am convinced that such a natural and necessary self-purification of society will only strengthen our country, our solidarity, cohesion and readiness to respond to any challenges.'" (HCR)
When a leader refers to factions of his own people as "bugs" and "scum", he reveals his own depraved moral compass and soul. Putin's speech reminds me of al Bashir calling his opposition "cockroaches" that should be crushed! That the Koch brothers and certain members of the GOP remain so lewd and vile in their support of totalitarian leaders speaks volumes about their character and brutish inhumanity.
I’m behind our Pres. Calling Vlad the Madman a “War Criminal “. And according to the polls 83% of us agree with that as they want the U.S. to support Ukraine. There still some decent GOP’ers left.
NEVER forget that 100% of R's vote against ALL legislation designed to improve America...100% of all R's are not patriotic American's...eliminate every one of "Them" this November.
VOTE INTELLIGENTLY
DO IT!
That approach certainly makes it simple, but is not neccessarily correct. Nationally, If you delete those gutsy Republicans like Kitzenger and Chaney, and those who mouth the defeated former president's lies only to avoid losing his support in a primary, and those fearing defeat in a primary who have chosen not to run for reelection, and fence-sitters like Murkowski, Collins and Romney, the number is closer to 75%. But on the State and local level, where there are many not-so-savvy voters, 100% is probably correct. (And how can a Republican be unpatriotic if they have an American flag on their front porch?)
Kinzinger and Cheney are good on the topic of January 6, but both of them voted with the R's and Trump on 95%+ of congressional votes.
Kitzenger, Chaney, Murkowski, Collins, Romney, "... and those who mouth the defeated former president's lies only to avoid losing his support in a primary, and those fearing defeat in a primary who have chosen not to run for reelection ..."
EVERY ONE OF THESE NON-PATRIOTIC CONGRESSIONAL MEMBERS VOTED against critical American improvement legislation...
Oh! How quickly we forget, Eh!?
The almost non-existing attention span of the American voting population truly amazing!!!
Senate Democrats fail to advance voting and elections bill ...
https://www.cbsnews.com › news › freedom-to-vote-act...
Oct 21, 2021 — All 50 Republicans voted against advancing to debate. Prospects had appeared dim for the bill, a revised effort by Democrats to advance voting rights
Republicans block Democrats' voting rights push in the Senate
https://www.latimes.com › politics › story › democrats-...
Jan 19, 2022 — Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked President Biden's voting rights ... Senate Democrats unanimously supported the John R. Lewis Voting ...
Senate Republicans block S1 For the People Act bill - CNBC
https://www.cnbc.com › 2021/06/22 ›
Jun 22, 2021 — Senate Republicans blocked a sprawling Democratic voting rights and government ethics bill Tuesday.
Republicans block Democrats' biggest push for voting rights
https://www.npr.org › 2021/10/20 ›
Oct 20, 2021 — The procedural vote to move forward with the Freedom to Vote Act failed despite Democrats' effort to craft a compromise bill
100% OF REPUBLICANS!!!
NEVER FORGET WHO IS THE ENEMY OF AMERICAN FREEDOM
Are we at the point where the only good thing we can say about Republicans is that they don't eat their babies? I agree that the Republican Party is the enemy of American Freedom, but we must find a way to reach those who, failing to recognize that, vote them into office. Many, in fact, believe that the Democratic Party is the enemy of American Freedom.
Easy: if they do not truly believe in the values put forth by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. A majority of the ?GQP have made it clear that they prefer the values of fascists and fools such as Putin and Trump.
They really don't understand either document, particularly the Declaration of Independence. The legitimatization of ignorance by right wing media here is the problem. In Russia today, most of the people have been similarly innoculated against truth. But things can change, here and there.
War criminals, like Serbia's Milosevec twenty years ago, are put on trial.
As bad as he’s treated his own people while living in the lap of luxury, it would suit me just fine if they solved the problem.
Koch was not alone as American businesses aiding Germany in WWII. GM owned Opel , the German automobile mfr, and most likely was well aware of Hitler’s plans to invade Poland, because vehicle repair operations were part of the invasion plans.
IBM was critical to Hitler’s ability to run death camps. The complexity of the Nazi system required IBM punch cards.
And Preston Bush helped fund the growth of the Nazis, then refused to get rid of his German holdings he was given after 1934, and only avoided indictment under the Trading With The Enemy Act by getting elected Senator.
🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮
😢
The tattooed numbers on Jews are IBM punch card numbers. Computerized human tracking system.
That's not widely publicized. I hate to think of how I worked with IBM cards in New York Life Insurance in 1968 ... Makes me shudder at the connection.
I contend that not only did these and many corporatists stick with the idea that they, “could do business with Hitler” they continued their ideological support of the Nazis beyond WWII. The primary rationale (beyond typical Capitalist profiteering) was in their mutual hatred of Communist Russia. Most saw the genocide of the Jews as at best a nasty business that someone had to do.
Think I’m kidding simply look at the anti-Semitism of Henry Ford Sr.
https://olflawriduhcracker.substack.com/p/fascism-in-america-born-in-the-usa?r=38b45&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Can Anyone tell me what a “fifth column” is?
Someone who sabotages the best interest of a country from within. An example is Tucker Carlson.
Tucker is the Koch’s communication director. Without their support of his daily caller, Tucker would be unemployed, would not have made it to Rupert’s Fox.
SOMEONE NEEDS TO SEW TUCKER'S MOUTH SHUT!
Kremlin is looking for a new Communications Director. Tucker should apply.
Marian, good answer to MLMinET’ s question. You could’ve added, by an individual thought to be a loyal citizen. Your choice of Tucker Carlson was an excellent choice. His unAmerican behavior has been obvious to many!
I personally would label the Fat Man from Maralago, MTG, and her ilk in Congress, The January 6 attackers, QAnon, and the truck convoy crew a fifth Column🇺🇦
You beat me to that comment!
They are, in fact, a fifth column, and their acolytes are indeed fighting against our democracy in favor of an autocracy/dictatorship where they think they'll be "first" but have no freaking clue how little they matter to the oligarchs.
This is from Rep Cheney’s twitter retweeted by HCR. She is referring to MTG.
Putin is targeting and slaughtering civilians in a brutal unprovoked war against Ukraine, a sovereign democratic nation.
Only the Kremlin and their useful idiots would call that “a conflict in which peace agreements have been violated by both sides.”
pic.twitter.com/Ld9WomOStd
It seems to me that if the US went after all these “fifth Column” people, the courts would run till Kingdom comes. I wish they would try though.
Yes. And they are using Putin’s talking points.
BINGO!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_column
The term has been widely used by many, including in the United States at various times.
The Koch brotehrs could be defined as a fifth column against Democracy in the United States. Except, here that is called free speech.
Historian Nancy MacLean (Democracy in Chains) made it clear that the Kochs purposefully kept their plans covert to create a multi-tentacled infrastructure to undermine democracy in favor of government by an elite few as they well knew this agenda would be wildly unpopular. Of course, it included vast limitations on the federal government and its power to impose regulations on corporations. MacLean’s book was the first in a series by historians and investigative journalists looking at vast investitures of dark money that ill serve democracy. Seems to me they’ve gone beyond the protections of free speech if light were to ever be shed on the full extent of their dealings and stronger accountability measures were in place. Maybe some day…
The Ides of March. Would that some knives were drawn in the Kremlin.
Very, very interesting line of thought, Bronwyn. Where is Russia's Brutus?
My husband and I have been asking each other that question for weeks.
I’m sure we have some spies in the Kremlin and in their military. Russia is too big not to have some educated officials with historical perspective that want their country back from Putin.
Mike I remember that ‘fifth column’ was a common phrase in WW II. Though it has origins in the Spanish Civil War, I recall it being used as a reference to Quislings and his followers in Norway. These person were a group that sought to undermine the government and worked surreptitiously to support the Nazi invaders.
For me it had a negative connotation as distinct from the underground in France and elsewhere working against the Nazi occupiers.
😢
Too true.
From Wikipedia, “A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or nation. The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine. Forces gathered in secret can mobilize openly to assist an external attack. This term is also extended to organised actions by military personnel. Clandestine fifth column activities can involve acts of sabotage, disinformation, or espionage executed within defense lines by secret sympathizers with an external force.“
"Fifth column...was inspired by a boast by rebel general Emilio Mola during the Spanish Civil War. Mola predicted Madrid would fall as four columns of rebel troops approaching the city were joined by another hidden column of sympathizers within it. In a 1936 article in the New York Times, William
described those secret rebel supporters as the fifth column...[The term] gained widespread popularity after Ernest Hemingway used it in the title of a 1938 book, and it was often applied to Nazi supporters within foreign nations during
WWII." (from Mirriam-Webster)
Just to note that Madrid held out for more than 18 months against the fascists.
And Americans who fought with the resistance faced scrutiny and distrust in America for decades. They were favorite targets of the John Birch Society, AKA Koch family .1 —
When men who had fought with the Lincoln Battalion tried to enlist during WWII, they were labeled "pre-mature anti-fascists." True fact.
FIFTH COLUMN (definition)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
'A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or nation. The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine. Forces gathered in secret can mobilize openly to assist an external attack. This term is also extended to organised actions by military personnel. Clandestine fifth column activities can involve acts of sabotage, disinformation, or espionage executed within defense lines by secret sympathizers with an external force.' (Wikipedia) As in the link provided by Mike S.
Fern, your examples are well chosen…I wonder if by adding real life American examples, like Fox News and some of our more odious, strike that, I meant…obvious…elected officials. Might serve to bring your examples home with a more personal emphasis!.
Yes, Bob, journalists, historians, experts in the fields of political and social science... and LFAA subscribers have been connecting the dots between elected representatives, 'think tanks', Fox News, social media outlets, oligarchs with anti-democracy policies and movements. Just today TC began a chain of comments about Charles Koch's (Koch Industries) strong influence on government policies and anti-democracy movements. The following article touched upon this issue:
'What billionaires want: the secret influence of America’s 100 richest' (excerpts)
'We have come to this conclusion based on an exhaustive, web-based study of everything that the 100 wealthiest US billionaires have said or done, over a 10-year period, concerning several major issues of public policy. For each billionaire we used several dozen carefully selected keywords to find all publicly available information about their specific talk or actions related to any aspect of social security, any type of taxation, or anything related to abortion, same-sex marriage, or immigration policy.'
'Most of the wealthiest US billionaires have made substantial financial contributions – amounting to hundreds of thousands of reported dollars annually, in addition to any undisclosed “dark money” contributions – to conservative Republican candidates and officials who favor the very unpopular step of cutting rather than expanding social security benefits. Yet, over the 10-year period we have studied, 97% of the wealthiest billionaires have said nothing at all about social security policy. Nothing about benefit levels, cost-of-living adjustments, or privatization. (Also nothing about the popular idea of shoring up social security finances by removing the low “cap” on income subject to payroll taxes and making the wealthy pay more.) How can voters know that most billionaires are working to cut their social security benefits?'
'In fact, people who pay the closest attention to the media may actually be the most misled, because most of the very few billionaires who have spoken out about social security – like Buffett and Soros – have supported a generous social security system in television interviews and newspaper op-eds.'
'Or consider the estate tax. Our study ferreted out quiet activity by 12 of the wealthiest billionaires – including the Kochs and (perhaps unsurprisingly) several wealthy inheritors of the Walton and Mars fortunes – aimed specifically at cutting or abolishing the estate tax. They gave money to policy-oriented organizations seeking to abolish the tax, or founded such organizations, and served on their boards. Not a single billionaire took such activity to support the estate tax.'
'Yet here, too, citizens could be badly misled by what a handful of famous billionaires said in public. Among those who spoke out, more than half actually supported the estate tax. These include our usual suspects – Gates, Buffett, and Bloomberg – who are very atypical of US billionaires as a whole.'
'Our findings help illuminate how the political network assembled by the Koch brothers could have become so powerful. The Kochs have had a fertile field of less-well-known conservative billionaires to cultivate for hundreds of millions of dollars in in secret, unreported contributions. The Kochs’ entrepreneurship and organizational skills, together with stealthy contributions by these little-known billionaires, have produced a political juggernaut.'
'Both as individuals and as contributors to Koch-type consortia, most US billionaires have given large amounts money – and many have engaged in intense activity – to advance unpopular, inequality-exacerbating, highly conservative economic policies. But they have done so very quietly, saying little or nothing in public about what they are doing or why. They have avoided political accountability. We believe that this sort of stealth politics is harmful to democracy.' (guardian) See link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/30/billionaire-stealth-politics-america-100-richest-what-they-want
As Franco's Nazi-backed forces attacked the loyalists who were attempting to preserve democracy in Spain in 1938, they boasted that in addition to their four columns of troops marching on Madrid, there was a 'fifth column" of sympathizers within the city aiding them. (Something like the 40% of Americans who still support our defeated former president's attempt at autocracy here.)
It comes from the Spanish Civil War. The Nationalists attacked Madrid with "four columns" - divisions of troops. After they took the city, the commander said they were able to take the city with the four columns because they were aided by a "fifth column" of supporters inside the city.
during the Spanish Civil war, there was an attack on a city- I think Madrid, but am not sure. The attacking general said he had four columns arriving from the north south east and west, and a fifth column of "patriots" would arise from within the city to defeat the government.
unfortunately, it is easy for putin to evoke in russians the notion that they are fighting fascism. only russia sent military (not in uniform) to fight against franco and the fascists. and of course, russia went to war with germany after hitler invaded russia in june of 1941. most of the americans and others in the famous lincoln brigade that fought in spain were communists as well. communists were the only ones willing to fight in what was called the dress rehearsal for ww2. the only country besides russia to assist the loyalist side was mexico, but not with troops. putin, like trump, wants to make his country great again by turning the clock back.
Thank you for asking, MLMinET.
I have started a new "war effort" on my FB page. When I post about Koch or any of that ilk, I call it the Putrid Putin Party (thanks to someone here who coined that name) and I remind my followers that these are people who call themselves "Republicans." And I advise them to stay away from them. As far as I am concerned, it's no longer "certain members of the GOP" but ALL of them. Anyone who aligns himself or herself with a party that takes its orders from a criminal murderous warlord in Moscow is complicit, I don't care what they say. One penny of their money going into the coffers of that party is enough of a label for me. And I'm calling them all out.
It is possible to tax this stench out of existence by fully supporting Democrats this November.
VOTE INTELLIGENTLY!
DO IT!
Yes! But this wont solve our problem. Our govt system still needs two functioning political parties.
WHY?
Two - minimum. Four or five would represent genuine choice.
Interesting. Our two-party system would work better if people paid attention to primary elections. More than two leads to the need for coalitions. Coalitions sound good and, I guess, can be. But they also can lead to legal bribery (“I’ll give your group special tax breaks if your party joins my party”).
Nobody is perfect, Eh!?
90% of elected Democratic Congress members have consistently voted to improve/help American citizens well-being, freedoms, voting rights and security.
Now check ALL of the Democratic member voting records over the last 40 years and compare such record against ALL republicans over the same time frame.
Of what value is the constant/consistent republican obstructionist participation in America's form of governance?
The solution is really very simple:
VOTE INTELLIGENTLY ...
DO YOUR HOMEWORK THROUGHOUT EACH YEAR ...
KNOW THE ISSUES ...
KNOW THE CADIDATES ...
REVIEW THE VOTING RECORD OF EVERY INCUMBANT ...
DO NOT LISTEN OR VIEW ANY POLITICAL ADVERTISING, IT IS ALWAYS A LIE, ALWAYS!
VOTE INTELLIGENTLY ..................... DO IT
PLEASE.
War profiteering is an old story, but no less horrifying for that fact. Check out this Wikipedia article about Edwin Black's "IBM and the Holocaust." IBM with its Hollerith punchcard technology enabled Nazi Germany to keep the trains delivering munitions to where needed, and prisoners to the death camps.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust
John, In fact, it was from Edwin Black’s book that I learned this about GM’s and IBM’s roles in WWII. If I remember correctly, there were 7 large American companies which assisted the Nazi’s, some even accepting reparations funding after the War. If corporations are considered by SCOTUS to be individuals in the context freedom of speech, shouldn’t they (or their bds of directors) also be be subject to laws of treason? And shouldn’t Charles Koch and Tucker Carlson be now? We need to pierce the corporate shield.
Yes, Thomas Watson, you will recall, walked around with a letter of commendation from Hitler for his service to the Reich. Harry Truman was hell on wheels going after war profiteers.
Capitalism has always required an element to exploit. It is not ethically committed to anything but its own existence and continuation.
Local capitalism which supports key local businesses is one of the few options left for us to build healthy communities and cities.
The billionaire class is not going to save us. It is only going to eat our children.
I was in college when Milton Friedman was all the rage. My view was and remains that the ultimate extreme of capitalism is murdering of one’s competitors. IN OTHER WORDS, capitalism, in its extreme is the same as authoritarianism where might makes right.
Inequality is an inevitable result of capitalism. In equality can be limited by building up local economies to produce as much locally as it makes sense to do, keeping capital within the community, not sending it out of the community to distant corporate entities.
Check out "The Economics of Hope" by Russ and Dave Beaton. (disclosure: I am friends with the authors) But they have done a very good job of making the case for strong local economies.
https://www.amazon.com/Economics-Hope-Creating-Sustainable-Globalized/dp/1643881582
Sounds like a call for vigilantism in Russia.
The “fifth column” defines the primary means by which the Fascist Loving billionaires and theocrats in the U.S. realized was the most expedient way to achieve their vision.
We as followers of HCR’s remarkable work owe an incredible amount of thanks to an array of women historians and journalists like Jane Mayer, Nancy MacClean, Caroline Anderson and Naomi Klein. Their excellent in-depth work castes light on the dark world of the far right billionaires, from the Koch Bros. to the DeVoss family, the Mercers, Adelson and other oligarchs numbering perhaps under 100 in number who collectively control wealth and power that is literally beyond our ability to grasp.
It is hard for us to imagine what drives the motivations of these people. The brilliant (another women) Psychiatrist Bandi X. Lee has informed us as to Trump’s psychological makeup, that as in step with the other women above as both insightful and frankly deeply disturbing.
One thing I feel about the methods the Billionaire Fascists employ in a 5th Column, is in fact that they know (thanks Nancy MacLean) that their ideas and vision can not withstand the critique of open debate. In straightforward terms, what they want is an anathema to most Americans. That is why they have always sought the use of stealth, lies and propaganda to give their sick beliefs a veneer of intellectual respectability.
Over 50 years they have used the money they grift from exploiting the public coffers, the commons, with rent seeking and outright fraud to cynically build pseudo think tanks, buy and install insane politicians, and normalize their self proclaimed divine right “entrepreneur” status to engage in rampant unfettered capitalism.
Now they are throwing open the gates to let the maniacs storm the Capital of our nation and tear Democracy to shreds.
We can’t say nobody warned us in time.
TCinLA,
Absolutely sterling informational post.
Thank you. I am sending your words to everyone that I know (even though they are tired of hearing all this history stuff).
Koch brothers history is simply fascinating. I had no idea.
I do note, however, that the Koch brothers have found a (quite) happy home in these United States of America where, it does seem, if you have money you can also avoid all of the laws and rules that, say, I have to abide by here.
And, it is also perfectly legal for those brothers to purchase, say, Brett Kavanaugh at his auction right here in these free United States.
So, as we all rail against the "evil regime" of the "evil" Putin (which he is, no doubt) I am reminded of Jesus interesting and thoughtful statement: "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."
"purchase Brett Kavanaugh at his auction"... PRICELESS gem there, Mike. Bought and paid for their very own SCROTUS judge.
Oh, well said, Mike! Well said...
Mike, “if you have money you can also avoid all of the laws and rules” has been a sad, but true policy for a lot of human history, but humans conveniently manage to forget that fact time after time.
Oh, hear here!!!
Amen!
And Koch likes it when Putin subsidizes his contributions to radical right PACs. That’s the $ root of the collusion. Partners, 50/50 investing in the GOP to end democracy.
Charles Koch is an extreme libertarian, who basically thinks he should be able to do whatever he wants because he has lots of money, an attitude he evidently learned from his father, Fred. He is a robber baron just like those of the Gilded Age. Forget the term “oligarch”. Just use robber baron; that term would be understood by more people. The Koch ads on TV showing ordinary employees make the country seem benign. It is absolutely not!
I am now checking out my paper products to be sure they aren’t produced by Georgia Pacific, a small thing I realize.
Please list any you find. I missed the vanity fair previously but will no longer buy their napkins at Costco.
I don't know how current this is, but this link lists their subsidiaries by state. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/containers/fix066/923338/000119312505225697/dex995.htm
Thank you. I posted the Texas list on my FB page.
Thank you I will share this with many friends who will want to know too.
It takes a bit of checking but it's an important discipline.., thanks for mentioning it.
Environmental groups offer the info from time to time!
I am glad to see that my "brands" are not there. Now, for the fibers... sad to say, those are harder to give up. I use a Koch product fiber as a swim shirt in lieu of sunscreen to avoid damage to coral. I guess I gotta find a substitute.
Stupid question: “is extreme libertarian” a redundant statement? 🤣
A counterdiction in terms
🤣🤣🤣
Thank you So helpful to read back story. And when I think of the John Birch society. Allegedly rabidly anti communist yet am guessing Koch funded it. Makes you really see the past in different way
Fred said he learned to be an anti-communist building Stalin's oil refineries.
I think playwrights and screenwriters have dropped the ball. The level of hypocrisy. Years of it !!! And no broad popularly packaged exposee. A book just doesnt reach enough people. No Shakespeare. Arther Miller Lorraine Hansbury to clarify and distill. Make so deeply human the particular affect of the social phenom, the economics and its effect on “ the people”. Dopesick does just what I mean with its portrayal of the Sackler criminal greed and the effect it had on the country. The same could be said for the koch bros and the pain they have brought thru their govmt coopting Buying the senators representatives and judged they wany
When a monopoly owns that much, they buy sway in media and other outlets, even the arts by donations to trusts and such. The New Yorker and The Atlantic writers have exposed a lot of how the Koch’s navigate/manipulate Public opinion in NYC to their benefit.
And its easier to manipulate opinions when you have your own branding companies as the New York Times & Washington Post. I posted this several days ago but here it is again. I never realized this. Check out the companies involved!
"For newspapers like The New York Times and Washington Post their reputation precedes them. They have a global reach of tens of millions and influence most heads of state would envy. They revel in their power, even boast about it at times and to capture a job at these companies is the premier choice for most young journalists. Hiding under the façade of fact based reporting these companies hide a dirty secret. This secret is so insipid they hide it in plain sight, literally, as they offer up a website specifically touting the benefits. Most people with ethics would prefer to guard this, hide it away from prying eyes and questioning minds. I don’t think many even know of its existence. I’m talking about the private branding companies these two well known newspapers have; the New York Times calls is TBrand and the Washington Post calls it Creative Group."
https://www.realitycheckswithstacilee.com/post/buying-the-media-when-facts-are-traded-to-the-highest-bidder
Dark Money
And
Democracy in Chains
Saturday Night Live has continued every week to expose the underbelly of the fascists in their skits.
I wish they would expose our own fascists. We have way too many in office. The ones who frighten me most are the countless fascists taking over school boards and city councils.
I'm working on it!!!
Remember the hilarity over Hillary’s “vast right-wing conspiracy”?
oligarch training
The worm turned??
HCR's citation of Judd Legum's crew bears repeating: Koch Industries "continues to operate in Russia. Meanwhile, a network of pundits and groups is arguing against economic sanctions against Russia. Unmentioned: Their financial backing from Charles Koch."
https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/1504075175045783552?s=20&t=qwu9Okl2OS3j9EDvUfdo4w
And, Koch industries operates quite happily right here in the good ole USA.
Unhindered by any laws that might limit the Koch group from selling fascism to the 45% of Americans who breathlessly believe anything anyone tells them.
Unhindered by any laws that might prevent them from contributing to, say, Matt Gaetz re-election campaign or even, for example, buying Matt Gaetz a house or a trip to whatever teenage girl wonder island he wants to go to next.
Ha! Ha! The list of Koch $$$ recipients is legion, and has a lot in common with the biblical Legion and his herd of swine.
Koch Industries to stay in Russia, says exiting does ‘more harm than good’
Koch Industries, the American manufacturing giant that employs 122,000 people across the world, said Wednesday it would not exit its operations in Russia because doing so would put its “employees there at greater risk and do more harm than good.”
Dozens of corporations are still in Russia. It’s getting harder for them to leave.
However, according to a list compiled by Yale management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and his research team, Koch Industries is one of about 30 companies described as “digging in” and “defying demands” for an exit or reduction of activities in Russia. Others on the list include Reebok, Cargill, Halliburton, LG Electronics and food brands such as Cinnabon and Subway.
In an address to Congress on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Peace is more important than income.”
“All American companies must leave Russia … leave their market immediately, because it is flooded with our blood.” He urged American lawmakers to “take the lead” and “make sure that the Russians do not receive a single penny that they use to destroy our people in Ukraine.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/03/17/koch-industries-remain-russia-ukraine-war/
Koch brothers have been enemies of America forever, thank you TC. The story of the John Birchers is a Koch story I gather, always eager to call everyone communist, even Ike. Also the co-worker who rejoiced over the JFK killing, calling him a “commie.” Seems the “commies” are now in Congress, where, oh where is McCarthy now?
I was going to post the same question. And who was McCarthy’s Attorney Jeri ? Roy Cohn. Donnie The Destroyer’s mentor and Atty. and friend. Well up until Cohn told him he had AIDS and was dying. Donnie walked out and never saw him again alive. Cohn’s family asked Donnie not to come to Cohn’s funeral. Donnie did anyway cuz ya know” the important who’s who were all going to be there “. McCarthy ruined Ppl’s livelihoods and lives not proving anything but even just by being called out. Now they’re in the spotlight and it’s “oh well “?
joe mccarthy was a one-man cancel culture.
... reincarnated as "The Leader" ...?
well, there's kevin mccarthy.
Thanks, TC. Am I surprised? This morning I'm looking out at the grey Wiesbaden sky, tinged rose from the annual Sahara sand. It looks like blood to me.
Oh! Now I get why the sky is blanketed in weird grey here in Brussels when the forecast (and preceding week's clear, dry conditions) suggested sunshine.
Rosalind and Carla and others - I love seeing comments from people living in other countries, whether they're Americans by birth or native to those lands. So important for Americans to be constantly reminded that we are not the only voices on this planet!!
Yes, Eileen!
Hi Eileen, I grew up north of Seattle, and have lived in Belgium for a few decades. Today the sky is, as my late mother-in-law would say, "blue as a gendarme's britches," (which I understood as completely intense blue, but may originally refer to a patch of blue peeking through clouds). As souvenir of Sahara sand the cars here now sport a light veil of dust.
My father, age 18 (1926), took a Cook's Tour in North Africa, including a foray across the Atlas Mts to the Sahara. I have a box of Sahara sand he brought back -it's very very "silty" so no surprise that it's easily lifted and blown north.
The photos in this article are amazing. https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/dust-from-sahara-desert-sweeps-over-europe-turning-the-sky-a-rusty-brown/ar-AAV9tH6
Yesterday evening we watched a sunset sky so intensely shades of red, grey and blue - it was breathtaking.
Here too. Reminded me of artwork by Magritte or dry-pastel images.
Tried to download a photo from our window - can't seem to get it to open...
A friend and colleague of mine in Switzerland put up pictures of the odd-looking sky in Bern, caused by Sahara dust. Very strange...
Thank you for the history; it makes one wonder if Koch has become compromised by the threatened loss of his company’s assets in Russia.
Koch industries were compromised from their industrial birth - no sense of honor, except among the thieves with which they play.
They have elected to stay in Russia, i think.
Would those be the Nazi Romanian Oil Fields in WWII? My Uncle Bob was a B-24 Pilot & got shot down there and did time in a Nazi POW camp in Romania in Sep 1944. Makes me think that war profiteers like Koch should be serving time somewhere, but I suppose big money buys personal undeserved freedom, while others suffer & die in war.
It’s always all about the oil, isn’t it.
It will be until the country uses primarily renewable energy.
I am not a religious fanatic, but have laughed to myself (a lot!) about the Christian Right’s fixation on the Book of Revelations “touch not the oil” advice from the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The irony!
“Show me where a man gets his cornpone, and I’ll tell you what his ‘pinions is. “
Twain
I've also heard it said as,
"Where you sit determines where you' stand."
Don’t forget the Mercers. Their first pick before TFG was Ted Cruz ?
Time to sanction Koch Industries.
Hell yes
Here’s what I think about this particular Koch Russian warship in this country….
Fifth Column…..Go f*ck yourself. Truth reveals your intent and you are dispensable. Freedom is not. Shove all your products up the bahootie.
Slavi Ukraini and We the People! 🇺🇦🇺🇸
👍 I said F U also to Putin and any Rethuglican Trolls on the Forum today. I sat here thinking how they said F U, Screamed that out loud to our President and did anything bad happen to them ? No ! Let them go over to Russia and try that, see what happens ? Putin is putting Ppl in Prison @ hard labor for 15 yrs if the say the word “War “. Do those fascist among us want to live like that really ? Putin isn’t going to ever stop what he’s doing( done ) if he’s not stopped. 💙💛
I think I love you.
Nice Christine! Hell yeah!
The Kochs became rich beyond imagining as a result of federal contracts they received during World War II. In other words, they got rich thanks to taxpayers funding the war effort. In return, they helped start the John Birch Society and have fought federal government ever since.
Gosh, imagine that, Billionaire Oligarchs being ungrateful and hypocritical as they build a monopoly.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is opening an investigation into war crimes by Russia. What struck me in his interview on CNN (and I paraphrase) is that while there is a process which will be followed (but there is overwhelming evidence) hand wringing, talking, and doing nothing will only open the door for more such war crimes. I would say (and have said repeatedly) the exact same thing regarding the January 6th investigation. We simply cannot let trump and his minions off the hook . . . there is way too much evidence that proves they are more than worthy of indictments, etc. Merrick Garland where the heck are you and the DOJ?!!
Every single republican in Congress, who voted "not guilty" in each of trump's 2 impeachment trials, knowingly supported 1) a violent coup attempt to topple our government, 2) a “dictator wanna be” in trump, and 3) a weakening of Ukraine (by trump's attempt to withhold military aid). These are the most unethical, horrible group of people this country has seen in our lifetime and their presence and clapping for Zelensky on March 16th made me sick. They are hypocrites (that is the most polite term that can be used) of the highest order.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/war-crimes-court-prosecutor-opens-ukraine-investigation-statement-2022-03-02/
Recent arrest and detainment of Enrique Tarrio and court documents describing documentary film crew taping Jan 5 meetings of the planning for Jan 6. That’s where Merrick Garland and the DOJ have been keeping themselves busy. I would think the Boeberts and Greens and Hawleys and their ilk are getting nervous. They are next. Letting Stone bring his film crew along. What a bunch of dangerous egoists.
Love this, nobody is more proud of his evil works than Roger. He was disappointed that he was too young and unimportant to go to jail for Nixon; may he rot there for chump
Let's hope they get him back behind bars, the sooner the better. He's responsible for so much mayhem in his crooked life. The "Brooks Brother's riot" comes to mind.
“Little Donald Segretti”, from All The President’s Men. Holbrook delivered that line with such a sneer;” RatF$&ing”
Criminals
I hope people have read "Red Notice" by Bill Browder. It's very chilling.
Great read. Remember Sergei Malinsky.
Ted, I think you mean Magnitsky.
Bill Browder, born in Princeton, was the grand son of Earl Browder, head of the American Communist Party until 1945, when he broke with Moscow. Bill established a profitable finance operation in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. When it became ‘too profitable,’ either Yeltsin or Putin sought to seize it. Bill Browder was able to flee. His second in command was arrested and killed.
Bill was an ‘American oligarch’ in Russia who was treated similarly to many Russian oligarchs who were crushed or imprisoned by the Russian autocracy. Business is bloody in Russia under Putrid Putin.
Hi Keith, My curiosity was aroused by investigative reporter Robert Parry's critical look at the matter. Parry's work brought the Iran Contra scandal and other important stories to the public. Director Andrei Nekrasov, known for his films strongly criticizing Putin and the Russian government, had embraced Browder's story and worked with him on a docudrama until Browder's story fell apart! The narrative proved false and self serving. So while the film that became an investigative documentary - The Magnitsky Act: Behind the Scenes - was being suppressed by stiff legal challenges from Browder aimed at distributors and theaters, I found a copy online. (As a photojournalist during the civil rights struggles I saw my own newspaper let the community down by its coverage and have been interested in questions of censorship ever since.) The movie is 2 hours long. Dramatic, even lurid scenes that Browder inspires are early, then the director sets out to be sure what actually happened. Don't take my word for it. Watch the film for $5 via https://www.reelhouse.org/pirayafilm/the-magnitsky-act-behind-the-scenes or for free at the Swiss Policy Research website and you'll make your own decision. Oh... the film includes a few minutes from a deposition where Browder was confronted with questions about his accusation of companies he said were part of a theft against him. He'd say, "I don't remember." I had a long afternoon chore that didn't require full attention and I ran the full deposition posted on Youtube. Very interesting watching Browder squirm, and dodge and dodge. The only public showing in the U.S. I know of, except for a media ethics series I schedule in Chapel Hill, was at the Newseum just outside DC, after they rejected the threats from Browder's legal team. Journalist Seymour Hersh who exposed the My Lai massacre led the post viewing discussion.
I just add evil in front of hypocrites. They passed hypocrite with Rove and Luntz
Amen, Janet.
If there was ever any doubt that Charles Koch has worked against the U.S. for decades, look no further.
"Koch Industries, the second-largest privately owned business in America, is staying put. Political groups affiliated with right-wing billionaire CEO Charles Koch oppose broad sanctions and have suggested the U.S. should remain neutral in the crisis."
Need to ad Amway to this list staying in Russia. The Devos family fortune is heavily invested in Russia. Everyone needs to boycot Amway worldwide.
Women?? There are plenty of men who use Amway too! Amway sells an array of products not just detergents. We all really need to boycott Koch Industry products such as Quilted Northern and Dixie Cups. Koch is heavily invested in plastics which, of course, are made from oil. Ironic how both the Koch brothers and TFG’s dads were both named “Fred”.
Yes, ironic: in Swedish 'fred' means 'peace'!
My Swedish immigrant maternal grandfather’s name was Enfred, but here he went by Fred, thanks for the translation, I never knew/heard that!
And incidentally my Norwegian immigrant fraternal great uncle’s name was Fred. Never knew my grandfather because he died when Mom was 18, but love, love, loved Uncle Fred!
The more common Swedish name is actually 'Fredrik' (the name of my son) which means 'rich in peace'
Considered calling first born son Fredrik, as husband half Swedish (I am only 1/4), however, Benjamin won out, do not remember why, that was 42 years ago 😵💫
Perfect in the Alternative Reality where everything is upside down...
Oh!
OY VEY!!
Shoot! I m sorry. I didn’t know Amway sold mens!!! I Quess I’m already boycotting them :) edited to “everyone”
It’s okay, Ted. I just had to give you a hard time. :)
Don’t blame the good Fred’s, I have known some
How can we find out what is a Koch Industry product?
Never mind. Here's a link that lists many products: https://www.nationofchange.org/2016/10/24/pledge-boycott-koch-products/
I just saw TC's list...much more comprehensive than mine.
It's.more than Koch...
https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/400-companies-have-withdrawn-russia-some-remain
Thank you Daria. Good to have in any store I’m in.
Thanks for this list, Daria....and good morning to you.
Very good morning to you, Pam!
No doubt, morning, Daria!
Morning, Lynell!
Here is another list. https://insteading.com/blog/koch-brothers-products/
Here is a list for boycotting Amway https://rightsequalrights.com/boycott-amway/who-to-boycott/
Thanks for the link regarding the Koch Brothers... the speech by Bernie Sanders is a must-see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5tAT6ciJ4s&t=1047s
Jeff, thank you for sharing the link to this speech given by Bernie Sanders. What an eye opener for me. I admit to being a political novice, awakened by the candidacy of DJT. I fear that the VAST majority of voting age Americans continue to be in the dark about the “behind the scenes” shenanigans that go on with regards to elections, and so we end up where we are today- on the brink of losing what our Founding Fathers fought so hard for. We end up with a vast number of voting age Americans who are willfully believing lies, even when the truth is right in front of them. These people have absolutely no idea that they are willing to vote against their own best interests, because the big money machine behind the election propaganda is so efficient. In my opinion, Citizens United will be the single most determining factor in the demise of American democracy.
Daria posted yesterday afternoon.
Lord, did that 40 years ago
Boycotting scams that prey on people
I live just outside of the “international headquarters” of Amway (Ada, MI) and drive by there on occasion. Large complex spanning several blocks with large loading docks & office buildings. 1970’s styling with a half circle of several international flags showing that they are a grand international company. And yet, I never see their product. Rarely meet anyone who works there, and when I do they have vague descriptions of what they do. Never see product being loaded on trucks, never see it on store shelves (the grocery store across the street does not carry any Amway product). Never meet a pyramid marketer “friend” trying to sell me product. Does anyone else see their product? How does Amway make money?
It's an MLM company. Dispursed distribution and home-based marketing based on recruitment of new people to sell product, which they pay for ahead of time out of pocket. SOP for outfits like that. They make money, while recruiter are rewarded, and the people at the bottom get shafted and often stuck with unsold product.
The rest of this article is informative as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amway#Religion
Here's and up-to-date list from yesterday of companies withdrawn/suspending operations/staying put in Russia. Amway has "suspended" operations, while Koch is "staying put". (Now I see Daria posted this below...like minds!)
https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-400-companies-have-withdrawn-russia-some-remain
According to the Detroit News, Amway has pulled out. https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/2022/03/14/amway-joins-michigan-companies-pulling-out-russia/7042274001/
According to the Yale list Daria and I posted above, Amway has "suspended" operations and hasn't been put on the list yet of companies pulling out.
No doubt whatsoever
I feel infuriated that people like Charles and David Koch and other ultra wealthy people think they have the right to make money at the expense of everyone else.
We have gone down the capitalistic hole without regulations or enforcement for so many decades, IMO it is essentially beyond repair. There is so much money (power) in the hands of a relatively few oligarchs and mega-wealthy that we have lost control of our elections, government, companies, the arts, i.e. just about everything.
20 years ago, I got elected at the local town level (uber-wealth was not the issue but control, power, and non transparent dealings were) to shine the light on what was going on and found myself on the receiving end of vitriol, nastiness, and threats (I even received one "note" with the letters cut out of a magazine!!!) As I put in my letter of resignation as chairperson, bullying and attacking competent people (who are volunteers no less and are working for the residents) is a very effective method to neutralize transparency and retain "control" by a few.
And, I remember thinking, Jimminy Cricket if this goes on at the small town level (where the stakes are actually very low) imagine at the state and federal levels where some real money changes hands. Well, now we know!
So did President Theodore Roosevelt.
Tales of Henry Ford
The Koch Industries supporting Russian imperialism reminds me of the SAME REPUBLICAN OLIGARCHS here in America striking out against voting rights to ensure that our vote is NOT our voice for students, the aged, low income, the disabled and fighting against affirmative action (a stated goal of Donor's Trust on their website).
So when the John Birch Society/Donor's Trust gang (DeVos, Kochs and/or their ilk) funded the attack on Voting Rights (funding Shelby County v Holder to end pre-clearance of any voting laws in states where Blacks were systematically denied their right to vote and Citizens United to ensure that CORPORATIONS as "people" can attack the right to vote and fund through PACs using unlimited funds to continue to support candidates with shared Republican values and attacking with $$$$ those who stood for the rights of citizens to vote, and then take over at least 19 state legislatures who in turn pass repressive voting laws, control the Republicans in the Senate of the USA (and perhaps Sinema and Manchin?) by supporting the filibuster to stop the correction of the Supreme Court decisions and the Republican-state controlled suppressive voting laws and continue by now passing laws to allow these same Republicans to control the validity of the election itself.
We are having our own internal takeover of democracy. WAKE UP AMERICA. FIGHT FOR YOUR DEMOCRACY. URGE YOUR SENATORS TO STAND UP FOR DEMOCRACY AND VOTE FOR THE FREEDOM TO VOTE /JOHN LEWIS VOTING RIGHTS ACT and defeat the fascists here in America picking off voting rights (and other civil rights) via their buying legislatures. STAND up for every American citizen having unfettered access to the ballot box. Don't let your zip code determine your right to vote. Pass federal election laws. STOP THESE KOCH Brother OLIGARCHS .
We need to look in the mirror. Putin is playing the long game, expecting a chump resurgence and then it’s all she wrote for us and NATO
My fears exactly.
What will it take to make the Foxites aware of theses fascists? How many innocents have to die? If Putin’s war crimes aren’t enough to expose our national denial and the traitors among us parroting Putin talk what will? How many Ukrainians have to die? How much of Ukraine has to be destroyed by the arch war criminal in his video linked bunker? We need more profiles in courage in the corrupted GOP like Liz Cheney. Mitt Romney where are you?
We have no heroes in the GOP, not even Cheney or Romney. It is a party made up entirely of sociopaths. Just a few years ago, Cheney was considered hard right with a dangerous agenda. It's fascinating how nobody seems to remember that now. She has NOT changed. She is not our friend.
Romney was Massachusetts governor for 8 years. He was reasonable and moderate. He voted to impeach. I expect more leadership. He has nothing to lose
Ppl I know in Mass feel shafted by Romney. "Reasonable and moderate" while in Mass because that's what Mass expects. He reverted when he went back to Utah. He's not an evil man, but you have to understand Mormon culture to grasp the influence of the church on its members. He does have something to lose: his standing in the Mormon culture which is very important to believers. So he is not likely to step far away from expectations and actually lead.
Thanks. He’s a sheep in the flock. A shape shifter. But he did vote to impeach but he’s not his father in terms of moral courage
True to a point. I agree he' a shape shifter, but that could be said of a lot of Mormons who learn to "fit in" when it is expedient. It was easier for George because back then the church had not yet had the exposure it has now - nor social media to expose the underbelly of its hierarchical organization. And Mitt has made some political mistakes that diminish his political reputation. I've Romneys in my family tree, so we're probably cousins in some convoluted way. My family has been out for several generations now, but I'm only 3rd gen out in my line (2 gens after me, though) so got exposed to the culture in my early years. That actually turned out to be beneficial, because some of the elders who were not officially out but were decidedly not practicing (and probably got excommunicated) had a lot of great first hand stories to tell about the church in early days that are definitely not in the official history. .
I think Zelinskiy may end up being the most admired man of our time. Every time he speaks he has something valuable to say. How he does it, I don't know, with the stress he is under and lack of sleep. I just hope he will continue to have strength, and that the tide will turn for him and for Ukraine.
One individual should not have the right to upset the world.
“Moral courage is the rarest of all human qualities”- Robert Kennedy
That is for sure and it is depressing as hell!
But it's present on a grand scale in Putin's Russian opponents.
See Navalny's messages from prison in the new Popular Politics site via YouTube.
See the extraordinary courtroom speech by Ioulia Galyamina -- excuse my spelling, I read this in French...
These people may be a persecuted minority, but their resistance is as fearless as that of John Lewis and America's bravest champions of civil rights in the 1960s.
Heart.
So right you are. Thanks.
🙏👌🙏
Wish his deluded son knew that
One narcissistic, power hungry, evil man at a time is always the cause of chaos throughout the world. And, for some reason they get people to do their dirty, horrific deeds.
People are terrified. Watch Frontline on Putin today and in the first 5 min (!) you will see the extent of FEAR in every one of the men and women close to and working for Putin. He is Putler as someone wrote earlier
No question that fear of retribution and death is the overwhelming method of forcing people to be compliant. Benefitting financially is another huge factor.
However, there is no excuse for republicans in congress to have violated their oaths of office and sold this country out to the lowest bidder; i.e. trump.
❤️
I didn't know about this Frontline piece but looked it up on my local PBS schedule, found that it will repeat three times at 10 pm, tonight and twice in April. I'll try to stay awake to watch it (no DVR).
MEN create wars, not women. Not in the 20th nor the 21st century.
One single male diseased in body and mind could destroy the world.
It's women who enable peoples to survive war and all the horrors they bring in their wake.
Yet, the trouble lies far deeper than gender. It lies in the grossly unbalanced psyche, both individual and collective. It lies in the extreme, even caricatural, dominance of the masculine mind in our societies. It spills over from the males and poisons women's minds too.
The image for this sick society of ours: a bird with one wing.
Picture an eagle with one wing bound and tattered...
I posted this on another site:
We are a male dominated violent and ruthless species. Women do not start wars nor do they kill children. There are wars and genocides all over the world, every continent, and throughout history-all egregious and horrifying. In the U.S. we supply, support, and protect the ownership of military style weaponry in the hands of civilians to slaughter our own people. Chemical and biological weapons are a part of "modern" warfare and of course if all else fails to intimidate, control, and destroy, nine nations have the ultimate tool of destruction: nuclear weapons.
The word "species" is surely overdoing it... Our species is very varied, thank goodness. There are many cultures, but some of the supposedly very advanced ones are dangerously sick. Sick enough to threaten the survival of most other species even without indulging in obscene forms of warfare with the help of criminal politicians and criminal manufacturers.
You rightly mention the firearms now made available to American civilians thanks to a criminally irresponsible misinterpretation by your Supreme Court of provisions adopted over two centuries ago; "small" arms more vicious and powerful than those carried by soldiers in two world wars...
But now, after years of quite gratuitous King-of-the-Castle games played by Exceptional Americans, so much "more equal than others", at the expense of those supposedly less equal, we have a worldwide proliferation of would-be Titans, and one very real but very paranoid titan, maddened by years of provocations and cold shouldering, unleashing hell on his neighbors... on his own people... on himself.
This is a very special case and the only general inference we can and must draw from it is how extraordinarily dangerous our current craze for ultra-individualism and would-be supermen is.
That "some reason" is called patriarchy. When our culture shifts from a patriarchal, dominator society to a matrix based on cooperation, collaboration, and community we will evolve into a truly democratic culture. It's lunacy that millions of people give up their agency to the whims of one man. The situation with Putin reveals how utterly dysfunctional patriarchy is.
As do the republican nationalists against democracy.
I was thinking yesterday of how it would be if Zelinski had cracked down on your fifth column trump republicans, where he had been supposed to be involved. He did something much more important, and worthy of a great leader: he supported the unity of the US where Russia has sowed split.
Don’t forget Rupert, people.
Zelinskiy is genius. Every day I am impressed and awed by his comments, his integrity, his astute assessment, and his ability to motivate. A truly admirable man.
Zelenskyy is a phenomenal leader.
Many hearts.
" ... to keep justice in history"
Pres. Volodomyr Zelensky
On CSpan:
Today a representative from Bellingcat testified before Congress. Among other things, he mentioned that Russian encryption has failed and so there is access to phone conversations in the field showing that commanders and troops know they are targeting civilians. They are assembling evidence for any future tribunal. Although it is important to remove fake posts, it is important for the companies to preserve and archive them so that sources and custody chains can be maintained for evidence.
Another expert testified that Putin is very isolated and taking advice from just a few people. Not everyone in the Kremlin agrees with the invasion, no one will go up against Putin, but some would testify at a war crimes tribunal.
Putin is using Wagner Group mercenaries, their version of BlackWater, giving butchers free reign and keeping government deniability.
Elsewhere, I also heard the author of The World's Butler - investigative reporting on how Britain become the servant of oligarchs. And how seizing assets is one things, but keeping them is entirely different. How not only international banking but what he called 'colanders masquerading as laws' let the oligarchs and other crooks slip through. Interesting, that the art and real estate industries have no rules for reporting cash payments. Not even to the standard of small businesses.
If we want "to keep justice in history" we will need to document and prosecute war crimes, but we will also need to reform regulation of many industries whose business as usual encourages and overlooks abuses.
Love "colanders masquerading as laws"
Yes! Prosecute war crimes. Let the Russian officers in the field know,
“We know your location, unit, armaments. We are watching what crimes you have committed against unarmed civilian non-combatants, and u will be held to account at the Hague’…unless this switchblade drone takes u out in 3,2,1 boom.
"Butler to the World"
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58725007-butler-to-the-world?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=Lh3ovau9e0&rank=1
Here’s an important interview with (among others) Oliver Bullough, the author of “Butler to the World” where he says,
“(money laundering in America)… incentivizes more theft than would happen otherwise. So, you know, places like Ukraine have been looted by their rulers over the years. Somewhere like Russia, where half of all the nation's wealth is held outside of Russia. You know, astonishingly unequal. Just 500 people essentially own everything in the country. I mean, more unequal than it was before the Bolshevik Revolution. It's astonishing to think about. Yeah, that has been facilitated, that theft, epic theft, probably the greatest single campaign of theft that has ever been, that has been facilitated by us in the West.”
https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2022/03/16/economy-russia-global-financial-system-enables-oligarchy
This is a fascinating interview. It appears that the oligarchs (and autocrats, and others too big to fail) are so interwoven into the global financial system through the lack of regulation and other loopholes, that to reform the system is about as difficult as political campaign finance reform. The powers-that-be in global finance are in control; the beneficiaries would have to stop the benefits. Of course, a good deal of this money is supporting Republican politicians in America.
The Age of Oligarchy is upon us.
❤️
❤️
Stalin was a micro-manager who set out to "control" everything. He did not need to "own" what he commanded.
Putin, with cronies, is the first Russian ruler since Ivan the Terrible to own Russia and all that therein is...
‘The Treasury Department also began today to offer bounties of up to $5 million for information leading to “seizure, restraint, or forfeiture of assets linked to foreign government corruption.”
“We have all the capital we need coming in from Russia”- DJT jr
Sounds like easy money to me. Just unlock tfg’s tax returns, licensing deals, condo and property sales by dark LLC’s. You’ll find plenty of Russian oligarch ties and get rich for it! But if that doesnt work just crack the safe at the GOP headquarters, there’s a black book with all the Russian donors to conservatives PAC’s.
Yeah, the sanctions are a form of forced campaign finance reform!
👍🏼
The Koch brothers father made his fortune in the 30s selling wheat to Joseph Stalin. They are the prototype of Oligarchs.
"Between 1929 and 1932 Winkler-Koch supported the Kremlin and trained Bolshevik engineers to help Stalin's regime set up fifteen modern oil refineries in the Soviet Union during its first Five Year Plan...The company also built installations in countries throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia...In 1934, Koch had partnered with William Rhodes Davis to build the Hamburg Oil Refinery, the third-largest oil refinery serving the Third Reich, a project which was personally approved by Adolf Hitler."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_C._Koch
And they were far from being alone in profiteering from dictatorship. Ford building vehicle plants for Hitler for example. Such people still insist that money is odourless!
Don’t forget IBM
👍🏼
What became of Armand Hammer ?
Hello, Allen! Hope you and Tanya are recovering your health and strength.
A brief history of Armand Hammer
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armand_Hammer
Well after reading that it is evident to me that I knew very little about the man, that is quite a story, I remember his museum having visited it when I lived in LA. Thanks, that filled in a lot of gaps.
I take it his companies are no longer involved in Russia
Not sure, I will dig around.
Allen, I looked for you hours ago but got caught up with joining the team here exposing Koch Industries still operating in Russia, earliest among climate change denial, control of red state legislatures...Unsurprisingly TC started the chain -- talk about 'oligarchy' in the USA.
Back to you and Tanya. How are you and Tanya? - PLEASE answer that question. Speak your mind Allen. I am paying attention to news of Ukraine. Eager to hear from you.
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Covid symptoms almost gone. Feeling much better. Sleeping lots.
Allen, Great news! I'm not sweating. My heart is smiling along with my mouth! 💓💓💓 Where in Canada will you be? I'm looking foreword to hearing Hingston and friends Canada band. Please give Tanya a hug for me whenever you can. Take good care of yourself. Blessings on you, on Ukraine and and on all the good people. F.
We'll be in Regina Saskatchewan I expect. Until it is safe to go home
It looks good to me. Forests, rivers and lakes...! I'm already jealous.
I think he passed a long time ago, if my memory is right, he was initially known for selling pencils ✏️ to the Russians, he ended up with Occidental Petroleum. They have a museum in LA with some impressive Rembrandts, (all Rembrandts are impressive), I think he was a contemporary of J Paul Getty who was also known for his oil and his art collection, I guess the two kind of go together.
Glad to see you escaped the carnage.
His companies are no longer involved with Russia which is good. No dynasty like Kochs
Hi Allen - I hope that you and Tanya have been able to get to Canada, where you can get some peaceful rest, and feel nurtured by family and old friends.
Warsaw still. Covid delayed us a week. Symptoms mostly gone. Resting lots. Need negative test to fly 23rd
That’s unfortunate, Allen. Thank goodness you are in a safe place and that your and/or Tanya’s symptoms are mostly gone. The upside is that you will have ample antibodies to keep you safe from COVID for awhile, at least. Here’s hoping that you continue to recover and that you’ll be able to board your flight on the 23rd. You and your family are in my thoughts every day.
Good to see you here, Allen.
Allen!!! Trust you all are safely in Calgary?
Warsaw. Covid held us up a week. Better n[w but need negative test to fly on 23rd
Not wheat. He built oil refineries for Stalin. Read my post above.
I believe Russia stole Ukraine's wheat, and manufactured a famine during the 1930s.
Yes! Stalin sold Ukraine’s wheat to Germany to pay for industrializing Russia, at the expense of starving to death more than 4 million Ukrainians, and sending more than a million to gulags who spoke out. No one knows the exact number of protesters who were executed for doing so.
One of Anne Applebaum's Ukraine history books may have the best data. Ali Belshi's iinterview of Anne tonite on MSNBC in Rachels time slot has Anne`s succinct summary of where things are at now: "Help Ukraine Win."
And Fukuyama on The Last Word was excellent last nite. Whether the worlds trend towards autocracy continues depends on the fall of Putin, which Fukuyama sees as happening.....perhaps by someone in Russian military or elite Russians. If Putin is defeated there is no reason to keep him around. And he must know that.
I'm finding Ali Velshi Lawrence O'Donnell to be rich sources of information to help understand much of what is going on. Right now I'm watching DW News, another objective source, with a European perspective. Today, there was a good 10 minutes on Zelenskyy's address to Germany's Bundestag, much sharper language than used yesterday at U.S. Congress.
Yes, Ali Belshi has really stepped us his game at the right monent & completes his Homework diligently. .We all have benefited greatly By Larewnce's prior job as Chief Staff member on the Senate Judiciary Committee. O'Donnell knows inside baseball & has many contacts, Will check out DW. I have. been relying on 'The Guardian UK in the am when the Euro day is half over. Thanks'
It was never necessary to have opened one's mouth or actually said or done anything.
The NKVD were meeting targets -- or doubling them to show zeal. Anyone could end up at Magadan or in a mass grave in some northern forest, but while Hitler's mass murders targeted segments of society, Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, Communists, the mentally handicapped, etc., the NKVD tended to go for anyone who stood out.
Beheading society.
Krustchev, the butcher of Ukraine!
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Nothing beside those "merely" died from starvation
Not just Ukraine's. Ukraine was the greatest victim, but from Krasnodar to the southern Urals and Kazakhstan, vast numbers died in the famine caused by collectivization and commandeering all the cereals people needed for their own food.
I understand that Churchill asked Stalin about this and Stalin himself spoke of about 10 million dead, presenting this as the price of his forced march to industrialization.
The price of his hatred for peasants and their mentality...
"Bloodlands" by Snyder
Yes. I know. We used to send flour, sugar and food to family members left behind living under soviet rule.
But it wasn't just his hatred of peasants. His goal was to eliminate anyone who might have influence over others. He sought out the educated and sent them gulags, Siberia or executed them, as happened to everyone in my family except a great aunt. She was forced to move from Riga and relegated to live in a small city.
Yes, not "like", but aknowledgement, respect, and care for those who faced such monstrous injustice.
"Like" is not the word, but the heart is the right sign.
Tim Snyder on how and why Stalin starved millions of Ukrainians to death. https://youtu.be/wVkM44gym1c
Thanks. It's on my list to watch. In other republics, Stalin shipped in cattle cars to Siberia anyone he thought might be averse to Soviets, took over their homes and moved Russians into them. The goal was to dilute and eliminate the resistance. They knew Russia was unwanted.
Others were executed or sent to Gulags. Millions of people died under Stalin's rule.
Did Stalin kill or starve to death more of his own people than Hilter killed?
Yes. He did. This is a little known fact.
Yes.
On couple of days ago, Anne Applebaum had a piece in The Atlantic titled, American Needs A Better Plan to Fight Autocracy. She suggested that there were three parts to the strategy we should be embracing. One, we should be making laws that end transnational kleptocracy, so that have good laws to defeat money laundering and we jail people who break these laws everywhere in the world. Two, we need to be taking charge of the information war so that instead of just counting on democracy to speak for itself, we do what the autocrats do and send the message out all over the world on why democracy is a good thing tailoring it to each culture. She says that the living example of this being well done is the Ukrainians who are using the technology to get their message out. We should be doing that all the time every day everywhere. Russia is of course also sending out a message, which they are sharing in areas they control, and so we need to be countering that message, here, there and everywhere. Three, she says we should be making democracy the center of our foreign policy. This belief in democracy is something we share which is why we are united in our support of Ukraine and to boycott Russian oil even if it leads to higher prices. We identify with fighting for freedom because this is how we define ourselves.
I think she is really right. I see these letters by HCR, with their discussions, as a fight for democracy. I hope that the Democratic Party sees that they can do more to help their cause by messaging all the time about democracy. Not necessarily about individual candidacies, but the democratic principals that we should all be standing up for. Then, at election times it would be easier for candidates to point to how they are going to be supporting democratic principals that have been messaged about all the time. Currently, we need to support Ukraine since their democratic nation is under attack, at the same time we all need to be working to support democracy here at home by getting the word out on democracy. If Putin can get his people to buy into his message we can get them to buy into our message as well. I think NATO nations are starting to send that message, but they all have a lot of undemocratic individual actions to overcome. Colonization, and racial imperialism is not easily erased. Now is the time to forge a new image of unity and helpfulness.
My wife and I viewed Zelensky’s address to Congress. His manner, words and video had us in tears. :’-(
Considering the seismic battles there - and here… Words are failing but I have, we have chosen the side of equality and justice and good governance - we’re siding with love. The other side has lost the ability to love - fear and rage inform their choices.
Same here, Jean-Pierre. I was very emotional when Zelensky spoke of the children killed. He is a pretty remarkable person and one I so deeply admire.
He is a prophet for our time.
Let’s hope that the federal government can take action to stop or deter Koch Industries from operating in Russia. And I expect we will soon see a list of its products, which we can boycott.
If you have been following news about the Koch brothers, you might be curious as to which products they manufacture.
It turns out, the Koch Brothers, with a net worth of over $40 billion each, own stakes in a ton of industries like paper and wood products, chemicals, textiles, plastics, etc.
Here are a list of companies and industries in which the Koch brothers own a stake:
Paper Products: Angelsoft, Brawny, Dixie, Mardi Gras, Quilted Northern, Soft n Gentle, Sparkle, Vanity Fair
Wood: Georgia-Pacific (largest plywood manufacturer in US – also owns most of the paper companies above).
Textiles & Plastics: Polarguard, Stainmaster, Dacron, Lycra, CoolMax/SolarMax, Thermolite, and more.
Chemicals, Coal, & Oil: Crude oil processing, Flint Hills Resources, lots of other commodities handled.
Nitrogen: One more reason to make your own fertilizer – Koch Industries produces many synthetic fertilizers.
Those are just the best known brands – there’s many more on the list below.
Angel Soft, Brawnie, Dixie Cups, Quilted Northern, Soft'n Gentle, Sparkle. Georgia-Pacific owns all of the brands above, and also distributes paper towels, napkins and soap dispensing systems used in commerical settings. Some GP commercial toilet paper brands: Envision, Coronet®, SCA, Tork and Fort James. GP also produces Pacific Garden liquid soaps.
Georgia-Pacific produces ink and office paper under the labels: Advantage, GP (including GP Harmon recycled papers), ImagePlus and the Spectrum® family of office paper products.
These are under the Koch Brothers brand Invista Products: Stainmaster, Dacron, Lycra, CoolMax, SolarMax, Polarguard, Thermolite, Antron, Comforel fiberfill, DBE® dibasic esters, Tactel, Tactesse Carpet Fibers, Terathane, ADI-Pure®, Polyshield®, Polyclear®, Oxyclear™, Performa®, Cordura fabric, Supplex® Fabric, Somerelle® Bedding.
“American oligarchs have more in common with Russian Oligarchs than with regular Americans” -Tim Snyder
Are we beginning to see the bigger picture? Are we beginning to see the light? Tfg is a symptom. The disease is inequality, an obscene wealth gap, and the false assumption that capitalism is a cure all and insurance of eternal democracy.
Democracy must guide and regulate capitalism, not the other way around. Capitalism is neither good nor bad - it is our country's economic engine. Democracy Capitalism cannot function when capitalists are allowed to buy the Supreme Court, The Senate, The Congress, The Vote...
Morning, MaryPat. My heart button is malfunctioning...consider your comment "hearted" by me!
Morning Lynell. Happens to me often when wanting to like something said by one of us.
I think the heart is just busy, seems to catch up, hopefully
Morning, Stuart! Seems to be a "thing" here on substack.
Thanks Lynell! 💙💛
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Thanks for hammering that hard truth in. But as MaryPat Sercu reminds us, the perverse form of capitalism these people hawk is a disease. They are free radicals spreading cancer through the body politic.
Well said.
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BOYCOTT: EXCELLENT;
Have you all watched the Brave New Films documentary on Georgia Pacific and Koch Brothers killing of hundreds of people living nearby where they contaminated the waterways by pouring toxic waste. https://www.bravenewfilms.org/koch_brothers
300 or more filed a class action in the court and the State Supreme Court, bought and funded by Koch Brothers ruled against the class action on the basis that each of the victims had different claims of cancer and thus not a valid class. Look what was done in Ohio when one man fought against Dupont (Dark Waters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvAOuhyunhY ) helping 68k WestVirginians and ultimately the world >
The Koch Brothers own the courts in Arkansas and no doubt elsewhere and continue their evil acts. Ethics or Civil Rights means nothing to these Oligarchs.
Based in Wichita, KS … they own Mike Pompeo too.
Money makes the rules
Do read Dark Money ... Donor's Trust's mantra is to ensure that affirmative action won't happen. Slimy.
Thanks for the link, Alice. Has anyone used or attended Brave New Films events at local gatherings? Looks like schools are their primary audience.
ACLU Northern CA is where I first met them; they have excellent materials on police, environment, etc
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Watch the Koch Brothers documentary online:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.48b0bf07-03fe-42ec-6757-3b74ab8926b9?ref=imdb_web&autoplay=1&ref_=imdbref_tt_wbr_fdv&tag=imdbtag_tt_wbr_fdv-20
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Thank you for the listing of Koch related products. It’s extensive. Reminds me of the lists of big brand corporations controlling multiple products of different name brands: “10 Companies control almost everything we eat” - includes an extensive illustrated Oxfam chart:
https://www.businessinsider.com/companies-control-everything-we-buy-2017-8
We need to know where our food and other products come from, how they’re grown and produced. What Fair Trade means and why it’s more expensive. I am privileged enough to afford to buy organic and Fair Trade but these foods are often too pricey for many families. I buy for nutritional value, but also because I’m hoping the farm workers aren’t exposed to dangerous chemicals used in mass production. Chemical industry and Lobbyists Monsanto and DuPont sell chemicals worldwide. In Mexico it’s common to see graffiti slamming Monsanto. Food there too is often unaffordable because of the control of the chemical industry.
Can’t ❤️ this but I try and buy organic and Fair Trade products also. You're right though, they are expensive.
I despise lobbyists. I especially despise Monsanto and Dow Chemical. They are both responsible for Agent Orange used in Vietnam. Monsanto is responsible for causing cancers if you use their weed killer.
Yes, Monsanto, Dow, DuPont, and then there’s Nestle. And more. They leave their mark worldwide. And that’s NOT a good thing. I was in Vietnam in ‘07 and saw the country trying to rebuild. So much was destroyed and so much was being replanted. That was the land which was bombed to nothing. And chemicals destroyed the lives of many Vietnamese and American soldiers. Still so many years later people were warned in some areas to watch out for land mines, especially in jungles and on the beach. Years later. And many people were walking around crippled and worse. The truth there and in every country, WAR NEVER ENDS. And chemicals are one more weapon. Corporations get rich in every war.
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Break up the Koch’s monopoly. Enough is enough.
The republicans are bought already
Proud to say that with the exception of a few of the fabrics (purchased years past), I purchase NO Koch products. Same for Amway
I have a friend who only buys second hand, thrift stores, etc. so any products listed and still in circulation will get used before ending up in the landfills and she doesn’t add to them first hand. There’s a lot to say for being a conscientious consumer. It’s not easy.
THE KOCH FAMILY IS THE SECOND WEALTHIST FAMILY IN THE USA
In support of TC's info about Koch Industries:
'Koch Industries, Inc. is an American privately-held multinational conglomerate corporation based in Wichita, Kansas.
Headquarters: Wichita, KS
CEO: Charles Koch (1967–)
Revenue: 115 billion USD (2020)
Founder: Fred C. Koch
Founded: February 8, 1940
Number of employees: 100,000 (2019)' (Wikipedia)
The Koch family's combined net worth is $100 billion, which is up from $98.7 billion at the end of 2018 and is good enough to make them the second wealthiest family in America. The family is also extremely influential in politics, especially in far right-wing issues Jan 5, 2021 (Wikipedia)
To see how Koch Industries presents itself see the link below:
https://www.kochind.com/
Thank you for the list, TC. Do you know if the Kirkland brand, especially their paper products that Costco sells, are Koch products? I've tried for years to find this out, unsuccessfully.
So far as anyone knows, no. Certainly not nowadays.
Doesn't answer your question, exactly, but Kirkland is a store brand for products they source from third parties. This is a fun article, just the tip of the iceberg, of course. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/big-brands-actually-costcos-kirkland-000800481.html
Very interesting! That's more info than I've been able to find out before. The fact that the maker of their paper goods is undiscoverable makes me wonder if it is Koch Bros. Thanks!
https://www.nationofchange.org/2016/10/24/pledge-boycott-koch-products/
Angel Soft
Angel Soft Ultra
Brawny paper towels
Dixie products
Insulair cups
Mardis Gras napkins
Perfect Touch cups, paper products
Quilted Northern
Sparkle paper towels
Vanity Fair napkins & paper towels
Zee Napkins
Georgia-Pacific Office products
Spectrum paper
Georgia-Pacific’s enMotion paper towel dispenser
Georgia-Pacific’s engineered lumber INVISTA Brands
INVISTA’s PET polymer is used in oxygen-sensitive packaging for food and beverages.
ADI-PURE® Adipic Acid
ANTRON® Carpet Fiber
C12™ Intermediates
COMFOREL® Fiber
COOLMAX® Fabric
CORDURA® Fabric
DACRON® Fiberfill
DYTEK® Idea Intermediates
FLEXISOLV® Solvent Solutions
LYCRA® Fiber
LYCRA HyFit® Fiber
OXYCLEAR® Barrier Resin
POLYCLEAR® PET
POLYSHIELD® Resin
SENZAA™ Additive
STAINMASTER® Carpet
SUPPLEX® Fabric
SUPRIVA™ Fiber
TACTEL® Fiber
TECGEN® Garments
TERATE® Polyols
TERATHANE® Polyether Glycol
TERRIN™ Polyols
THERMOLITE® Fabric
TORZEN® PA66 Resin
Ukraine, by its fight for democracy, has further awakened the sleeping giant of people no longer complacent about the future of a democratic republic in the US. President Zelensky has shown great fortitude as well as empathy. I and my friends will never again take our democracy and political norms for granted. I hope that we haven’t awakened too late to save our country from autocracy.
Charles Koch, along with others (including TFG and family) shows the corruption that results from the love of money and power.
Putin's original motivation when he was carrying Mayor Sobchak's briefcase was simply to become phenomenally wealthy.
Mission accomplished!
File under Lenin Was Right ("Some decades, nothing happens, then sometimes decades happen in days."): Today, Senator John Cornyn compared President Biden with FDR. Favorably.
How many of you thought three weeks ago those words would come out of the mouth of John Cornyn of Texas?
UPDATE: I was misinformed (so was Michael Beschloss, apparently - my source). John Cornyn is still John Cornyn, Texas-sized asshole, and the sun will continue to rise in the east.
From The Hill:
But Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) appears to have a dissenting opinion of the 32nd president. On Saturday morning, Cornyn attempted to smear President Joe Biden by comparing him to FDR.
“’The era of big government is over,’ POTUS Bill Clinton famously declared in his 1996 State of the Union address. versus: Biden has consciously cloaked himself in the legacy of FDR, to hark back to an earlier age of liberalism when government pulled the country out of despair,” Cornyn tweeted.
Born in Texas in 1952 during the post-war economic boom, Cornyn knows better. Thus, the responses he received from the Twitterverse were absolutely – and appropriately – brutal.
Users all but stopped short of castrating the Texas Republican for what they interpreted as an unconditionally stupid take.
“That’s a bad thing?” one poster replied.
When he says he will now vote for the Freedom to Vote/John R Lewis Voting Rights Act and Build Back America, I will begin to believe Senator John Cornyn.
See the additional information update in my post.
I wouldn’t hold my breath.
John Cornyn is only surpassed in his idiocy by Ted Cruz. What a sad competition for Texas
Oh, that guy, John Cornyn, the air force brat who supported Gov George Wallace -- https://www.texasobserver.org/750-afterword-cornyn-george-wallace-and-me/
What happens to seized Russian assets? Can frozen cash be used to feed and house the refugees? Can yachts and jets be auctioned off and that cash be utilized to rebuild Ukraine? Give the people some hope of reclaiming their land and their lives after the war is over, as well as demoralize the oligarchs.
In all likelihood, the Koch industries Russian subsidiaries are operated independently from US divisions. It ought to be possible to block their products and the transfer of money from their operations just as easily as other Russian goods and services. I wouldn't give US companies staying in Russia any more consideration than Russian companies attempting to do business across the Russian border.
We have made it clear that the US won't take direct action to secure Ukrainian airspace. Stinger missiles aren't enough to stop bombing of Ukrainian cities. The West is going to have to offer Ukraine some higher tech, higher power military hardware to allow Ukraine to protect themselves from air assaults. The other way Ukraine can win will be to inflict heavy enough human casualties on the Russian military to make continuation of the war untenable to Russia. That means getting up close and personal with their front lines. Ground assaults deserve close air support or the equivalent if there is such a thing, perhaps drone technology. I hate to say it, but there's nothing like a real war to test every manner of new mini offensive drone technology in attacking the artillery and supply lines that support the Russian front lines. It can't take all that long to train Ukrainians to use them, given the incredible asset of years of electronic gaming expertise in young adult warriors. There are multiple countries with more skin in the game and more guts than the US who can act as fronts for our best technology to reach the front lines, and don't doubt that there are any number of CIA and other clandestine Western assets already on the ground in Ukraine providing consulting, intelligence, etc. The stuff we don't hear about probably outweighs what we DO hear about by several fold...
Switchblade drones. Operated by smart phones can deliver an explosive punch to light armor vehicles and destroy artillery/rocket launcher vehicles used by the Russians. This allows infantry to advance with stingers and javelins to hit the tanks and BTR’s.
I expect there's a lot we (U.S., NATO, EU) are doing that we don't hear about. Just read this in a WaPo article: "...the extent and speed of intelligence sharing is jaw-dropping. “In Washington and Germany,” the Times reports, “intelligence officials race to merge satellite photographs with electronic intercepts of Russian military units, strip them of hints of how they were gathered, and beam them to Ukrainian military units within an hour or two.” https://wapo.st/3KT4TFR (free article)
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"It can't take all that long to train Ukrainians to use them, given the incredible asset of years of electronic gaming expertise in young adult warriors. "
Amazing thought!!!!
Yours is a excellent summary of a packed, emotional news day. I am so grateful for our President.