MEGA THREAD:
It didn’t feel right to do this the day David Koch died...but thanks to @seanhannity’s hypocrisy, I’ll make time today.
LET’S ENJOY SOME KOCH BROTHERS FUN FACTS, SHALL WE???
Buckle up...and try to stay with the group. There’s a lot to unpack.
The Koch brothers inherited their money from their father, Fred Koch, who made his money...
WORKING FOR JOSEPH FUCKING STALIN!
Yeah. That’s, uh... not great.
They’re behind Citizens United, which allows corporations to funnel dark money into elections without identification...also known as BUYING POLITICIANS!
Citizens United allowed them to spend 884 MILLION dollars on the 2016 election and over 400 MILLION on the 2018 midterms.
The Kochs have donated millions of dollars to colleges and universities… on the condition that they hire Koch friendly professors that teach their radical brand of libertarianism/economics.
Ahhh, poisoning the minds of Americans youth. You can’t put a price on it, amirite???
Koch industries in mid 24 metric TONS of greenhouse emissions each year, making them the nations 13th largest polluter. 👍
From 2005 - 2008 the Kochs spent $25M fighting clean energy/climate science… not including $37M they spent on oil and gas lobbying from 2006 - 2009.
Neat!
Charles and David Koch are America’s single largest source of private money for attacks against environmental protections. They have spent over $643 million to block or rollback legal protections for clean air, clean energy, clean water, and other environmental issues.
Cool!
Their tactics include sketchy scientific research, lobbying lawmakers, contributing to electoral candidates’ campaigns, media manipulation, etc.
Also, they bought and paid for Brett Kavanaugh’s seat on the Supreme Court! theintercept.com/2018/10/04/bre…
In 2014, the city of North Pole, Alaska sued the Koch’s because they: “...caused or allowed numerous and/or continuous releases of hazardous substances into the groundwater and failed to contain or remediate the hazardous substances”
Sounds bad, huh?
THERE’S MORE!
”Ultimately, these hazardous substances have contaminated the groundwater... within the city, including wells owned by the city and supplying drinking water to the city’s inhabitants.”
What’s a little poison? Those babies!
But it gets worse!
In 2001 Koch Industries paid $25M to settle a lawsuit that found the company had stolen oil from federal and Indian land.
Oof.
A jury found they had stolen oil from American Indians and lied about it more than 24,000 times!!!
*But it was only to the government. No biggie.
In 2000 a federal grand jury in Corpus Christi, Texas returned a 97-count indictment against Koch Industries Inc. for violating federal clean air and hazardous waste laws, due to the release of at least 91 METRIC TONS of the carcinogenic benzene.
WHOOPSIE DAISY!
In 2000, Koch petroleum, which operates a refinery in Rosemount, Minn., was sentenced to pay a $6 million criminal fine and pay an additional $2 million in remediation costs. This is the largest federal environmental fine ever paid in Minnesota.
Yeah, but... it’s Minnesota. So?
Koch admitted that it negligently discharged 200,000 – 600,000 gallons of aviation fuel into a wetland and local waterways.
As a result, they destroyed a portion of the surrounding ecosystem and wildlife habitat.
But who needs animals?!?! They don’t make money...
In a separate offense, Koch dumped a million gallons of ammonia on the ground between November 1996 - March 1997.
Ok, ok. That sounds bad. Until you learned that they also INCREASED the flow of wastewater into the Mississippi on weekends when no one was monitoring!!! EFFICIENT!
In 1996, two Texas teens died when a decrepit butane pipe owned and operated by the Koch brothers’ leaked, incinerating the 17-year-olds instantly. The Koch brothers paid the then-largest wrongful death judgment in U.S. history.
Sorry I killed your kids...buy yourself something.
The Koch mission is to kill the minimum wage, medicare, welfare, social security and raise the age of retirement.
They’ve funded voter suppression legislation in 38 states and made it their mission to roll back ALL environmental protections.
Is that ALL?
NO! The Koch’s want to change THE CONSTITUTION...and have coerced 29 of the 34 states necessary to pass a resolution requesting a constitutional revolution. (You read that right.)
Basically, they want to limit federal spending to an army, the police and the church.
THE CHURCH!
They want to limit the power of the Department of justice and Congress and do away with the general election of Senators.
They prefer state Governors appoint Senators, since they are easier to manipulate with donations at the local level.
Convenient.
So... what’s my point????
The idea of Sean Hannity, who promoted lies like birtherism, Uranium One and the Seth Rich conspiracy, being OFFENDED by Bill Maher’s joke...offends ME!
David Koch was about as close to a comic book villain as a human gets. And the world is a better place with him gone.
Thx.
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